Boda Boda
on Kenya VSO (Kenya), 16/Nov/2009 11:15, 34 days ago
I am back home now after a week in a hotel while the house was repaired. Apart from the computer most of my stuff is ok, the water tower is now stronger than before but still next to my bedroom. I have new flooring and the house has been repainted in the same tasteful shades of mustard yellow and pink as before.My diet is also returning to normal, while in the hotel I was getting breakfast, so for a week that was my main meal of the day and therefore as large as possible. Many times I do not bother with cooking since it is easy to get bananas, pineapple, mango, peppers or tomatoes at the market and buy a hot meal at work. A woman comes round to the compound and most often has some combination of beans and rice occasionally, with chapattis, about one day in eight or so there can be meat in the mix and then the price goes up a bit.Eating out in Nairobi it is possible to get just about any sort of cuisine you might desire but for Indian food Mombassa and the coast is better. Kenyan dishes are ugali and githeri, a major component of both is maize, a staple crop here. In case anyone reading this blog is thinking of coming to Nairobi I can recommend Hongs Bakery near the Yaya Centre. The surroundings are pleasant, food good and prices cheaper than those over the road inside YayaIn my time I have both been a volunteer and managed volunteers, volunteers moan about management and management get exasperated with the volunteers. VSO Jitolee (VSO Kenya) have their faults but one aspect that they do take seriously is the physical security of volunteers. A recent development in Kenya has been a number of kidnapping incidents, a criminal activity intended to make money, in response to this VSO Jitolee sent round some advice on precautions to take. This advice came on the same day that I shared my breakfast table at the hotel with a woman community worker who invited me out to visit her in Thika and I accepted, this was not perhaps following the advice of VSO Jitolee but not really living dangerously either since she did not seem to be obvious kidnap bait.Kidnapping was not a problem, the trip was good and it was great to stay with a Kenyan family of modest means and to get out of Nairobi to a small town with a less hectic pace of life. Getting out of Nairobi was not easy as there was a lot of football fans on their way to watch Kenya (who lost) play Nigeria in a world cup qualifier. I have written before about cycling in Nairobi, which is not for the faint hearted. Thika was more relaxed and we took a boda boda each. I have not seen these two up bicycle taxis in Nairobi and I can understand why. Boda Boda can also mean a motorcycle taxi and I would think twice about risking one of those.