Things really aren’t always as they seem
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 07/Mar/2010 17:57, 34 days ago
Outside of our apartment in Nairobi, the entire street is lined with temporary structures (corrugated metal shacks), which were built illegally on public land. They contain various types of businesses including convenience shops, hair salons, seamstresses, welders, carpenters, and fast food joints to name a few. The City Council of Nairobi has been cracking down on these illegal businesses and about 75% of them in our neighbourhood have been torn down in the past year.Every day on my way to and from work, I pass an old man who runs one of these shops and I always look forward to seeing his somewhat toothless smile and exchanging greetings with him in my very limited Swahili ("Jambo Mzee! Habari yako?"(Hello old man, how are you?), "Nzuri sana!" (Very fine!) ... it's the same every day, but I enjoy it nonetheless.).Today, I went to buy phone credit from him, only to find his shop torn to the ground. The City Council of Nairobi had given all shops 48 hours notice to tear down their shops or they would be demolished by the Council. Naturally I was curious and concerned, as I thought he was a single old man with no other place to go. After making a few inquiries, I quickly learned that he had a wife and family back in his village, he owns a tea farm, as well as two very nice cars which he hires out with driver employees. I was both shocked and relieved that he would be okay, and once again learned that things are often so different from how they may seem to the naked eye!(Unfortunately this isn’t the case for the majority of the shop owners – many of them will be in pretty serious financial difficulties now...)