toe crack

(january 21, 2007)

i have been in nairobi for 3 months and i know we always say it, but it really feels like it has flown by. i keep wondering if i will stop being happy here. part of me just assumes that it won’t last. can’t last, by some rule of nature or gravity – what goes up must come down. but i remain content and continue to enjoy my life in kenya.

this past week i acquired a new item for my room which makes is even more my own. i am almost ashamed to admit that it is a sheep skin rug, which is not normally something i would choose to put in my room (and i recall making a big fuss out of someone else’s every time i inadvertently stepped on it…) but i stayed in my flatmate’s room before i moved into mine and every morning i stood on this thing and got addicted to the soft fluffy wool on my toes to start the day. well she moved out and left behind her sheep, so i hastily relocated the dead animal skin from her room to mine and now it sits beside my bed waiting for my feet in the morning. i call it crack for my toes. it feels that good.

and speaking of meat, this quasi-vegetarian went for my second, and much more enjoyable than the first, nyama choma experience. roasted meat. i do like the goat. and i had nice company and a Stoney soda to go with it.

it’s the world social forum this week and i wonder if there will be a noticeable change in the city. there were a lot more people here during the climate change conference (sorry about the job sitch, rona) and it was tougher to get a taxi. i went to a concert on saturday to kick off the wsf and it also kicked ass. live music, drummers, outdoors. slug on my foot. it was grand.

in other creepy crawly news, i sat in a nairobi fly hill this afternoon. these bastards ooze poison if you squish them on your skin and then you get an awful rash and then your skin peels off. apparently not painful but i’ve seen the after effects and i am not interested in any skin discolourations. i am also not interested in any more mosquito bites so i think i will have to suck it up and get a mosquito net even though i hate sleeping under them.