What do you mean, 'no parade'??!
on Colm in Kenya (Kenya), 19/Mar/2009 16:56, 34 days ago
I arrived in my new home village of Mnarani just a bridge length from Kilifi Town on Saturday afternoon dripping in sweat, tired, hungry but happy to be at my home to be.To describe my new home village to you, think a huge sea of corragated iron, bare-bricked houses seperated by narrow laneways and a worn out dirt roads. The sea of light blue, dull grey and rust brown is interupted my lush Boabab and Banana trees exploding skywards like blooms of green smoke.Every morning it is serviced by countless cocks annoucing dawn (every fucking fifteen seconds) and the soundtrack of busy village chatter and clatter which plays around me at home after work.The same locals sneek a long stare at their new white visitor as he hopelessly fails to mingle amongst them in their busy village, all trying to solve the mystery that will reveal my presence here. I think they’ve quickly worked out I’m not a tourist as while there are some excellent reasons to visit the area - ancient ruins and eden-esque creek marking the entrance to the indian ocean – there are few reasons why tourism would trouble the village itself.It’s quite a nice village and somewhere I am quite confident will be some where I could feel at home. It has comfortable lived in feel to it and a warm charm that’s familiar to many large family villages. However, I have no doubt a marching band, a local GAA team and a float on the 17th of March of next year would be a significant addition.From there, my walk to work is about 20 minutes, 20 minutes in which I sweat more than an Irish Banker being called into meet HR. Yet it’s a pleasant walk over the bridge with its stunning views over the Kilifi creek, the many dhows below carrying fisherman on there way out to the Ocean to complete another days work.On Wednesday I was out in the rural areas surrounding Kilifi and the many sparsely populated villages suffering under the relentless heat and struggling to maintain a living off the scorched, bone dry soil when funnily enough, I saw on the door of one ramshackle mudhouse– Sunday: Chelsea Vs Man City Live KO: 3:30 (Spurs Vs Aston Villa – Fuck Off! We’re not desperate enough to show that shite) – ok that last part is made up!My boss, Josho has an impressive history serving the community in which he was born and bred. His intensity is clearly shown by his large saucer like brown eyes, black beard and deliberate speaking style. But more about my work and colleagues next week. I bet you cant wait!Hope all is well at home.