Rain, clouds, drizzle, humid, hot – a selection of words I will need to describe the weather at the moment. Although we might not know if there is a God, the heavens definitely influence our lives big time, is it not our activity levels than it is our body odours -yuck.
Anyway, considering I will be based in Kenya for three month I thought it would be nice to move to a more homely home instead of spending my days in a hotel.
Not only because it will be cheaper, also I will make sure I don’t pay the owners of the hotel any more monies. The owner self was actually quit a nice guy, his son was more the problem.
His son is one of those chaps who spent just a little too much time in the gym, wearing shirts with the brands just a little too obvious (as in; capitals, font size 700 on the back and in the front), treating other people just a little too bad, and are unfortunately not capable to talk about anything else as popular music and girls. For short; just the average - “topping THAT ass, if you know what I mean” wink wink notch notch – kind of guy. Bloody annoying. Anyway he is doing a law degree in Nairobi and wants to become a lawyer, as he told me over a couple of beers he ordered for himself (and his mate) but for which I had to pay as I found out, on top of the taxi ride back. Although I doubt his mental capacities I am sure life will sort itself out for him, as his fathers capital will open doors and gives him a massive head start.
Organized as they are, already before I left the UK I was in contact with a lady/girl/woman who had a room for rent. On inspection the location turned out to be a little out of the centre but nevertheless it is a nice little house, it is situated on a compound with only two other houses, making it very quiet environment. To complete the scenery there are some orange trees, some shrubberies some palm trees and some flowerbeds. Just what I need. Therefore for this time round, I choose not to life the obvious expat life, as it was maybe easier to move into the comfortable bed and breakfast next to the sea, with a swimming pool, nice view and fellow expats to party with. It is not that I have to give up comfort, as the house is just a house as back home, a sleeping room, a cooking room, a bathing room and a living room (sic). It is just a little more within the community instead in white man country across the bridge (as the white people life mostly on the south side of Kilifi bay).
Although I was a little nervous at first as I was a little worried about safety but having experienced it for some days, I do not regret it all. Waking up with the animals, commuting on the back of a motorbike or in a tuktuk, the imam trying to gives his best shot in the morning prayers and sharing the house with a Kenyan who tells me the ins and outs about her country. I all adds some African beats to my soundtrack.
Talking for a week longer with the Kenyans I have to update my ideas regarding the situation. Despite that almost every lunch conversation is about corruption and politics, I am positive about this nation. Firstly, they are proud about their country, secondly, there is a Kenyan middle class, thirdly people seems to be aware of the bad deeds of the politicians and talk about it, fourthly there is a perspective. For example: the girl I am living with, her grand fathers were a carpenter and a taylor, their children (her parents) were a civil servant and a captain on a ship, their children, my flatmate, is university educated micro biologist with international working experience, her brother is a molecular biologist and her sister an accountant. They all life in Kenya and think it is much better to life in Kenya compared to in the “rich” west. That is what I call progress. This progress is also visible in Kilifi town, recently it opened the doors of its own university, it has a modern supermarket where you can buy the same products as in the local Tesco, as Pantene shampoo, Nutella, Indian spices but also Dell laptops, LG sound systems etc. There is quite a lot of building work going on and our house is connected to a sewage system and the national electricity grid (almost 24h there is Kenyan power – geothermal and hydroelectric – so nice and green). And with internet people know as much as your regarding the international politics and YouTube hits.
So far not much else has been happening. After (almost) finishing a UK related project last week I can focus now more on my diarrhoea project (something I am involved with a little too physical at the moment ). We hoped to meet with the people from the ministry of health this Friday or Monday, to shake hands and get the project started. But as they all are helping with the polio vaccination campaign, it has been postponed to an unknown date. A little setback but I do not worry, as there is enough to do without their help.
Today is a day of laziness, but tomorrow I hope to do some sightseeing (digestion willingly) with some other international visitors, and for next weekend I signed up for a sailing course therefore I do not know when I will update this again.
KWA HERI!
zaterdag 28 mei 2011
zondag 22 mei 2011
Greetings from Kilifi
Wednesday the 18th, around 16 hours I board the Piccadilly line in the direction of terminal 4 & 1,2,3. When the doors closed and I sat down I fully realized; I was on the road again, the road to Kenya.
As this is not a Jane Austen novel, I will spare you the emotional mumbo jumbo I went thru realizing what I forgot, left behind and the excitement of heading towards the unknown. But man, I love this Picadilly ride, it slowly peels of normal life and transforming you into travel mode. By the time we hit Acton town I knew it is real, that I am leaving and I could not wait to sit in THAT plane.
Unfortunately travelling to Africa is not the adventure what it used to be; comfortable planes fly on the dot, visas are issued within 20 minutes and although airport pick-ups are an hour late, this is not due to exotic problems, but just because they forgot to forward the correct details to the cabs drivers blackberry. Anno 2011 it is only efficiency what you encounter.
My personal quest to learn more about the world, and about infectious diseases and vaccination in particular will get a new chapter over the next three months. This time the chapter will be about rotavirus. Rotavirus causes diarrhoea, and diarrhoea is not the nicest thing to have when you are malnourished, don’t have access to clean drinking water and/or decent health care. Fortunately there are two vaccines available; my project will be about if it is worth to introduce one of them, and if we should prefer one over the other. It won’t be rocket-science, but very interesting for sure. For this project I will be working at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) which is based in a small coastal town called Kilifi, but will also be in close contact with the ministry of health in the capital Nairobi.
Kenya so far has been similar compared to my experiences in the Gambia – but also India and Bangladesh. Life on the street looks, smells and feels identical. Yes, land is more cultivated compared to the Gambia (but still not much signs of machines) and the population is less dense compared to Bangladesh, but for most it is similar.
But it is always surprising to see the level of penetration of western culture. Non-stop you hear western music, see European football and see advertisements you all know form home. Maybe I am more aware of it compared to the other developing countries I have visited, this because I am staying in a hostel with a news paper and 24 hr television, but Kenya seems to be a more open country, slowly developing into a true democracy / western culture. Politics and corruption are openly discussed in papers and on television and there is quite a focus on development and entrepreneurship. Maybe it is the increased level of education what starts to show in businesses and public life. But so far it has been positive.
There is a Dutch phrase saying “to fall with your nose into the butter”, which means that you were lucky, caused more by circumstances than by own effort. This is how I felt when two students from Oxford asked me if I would join them on an organized day trip to some touristic spots in the neighbourhood. Yesterday we went from 9am to almost 8pm, by car, around the main archaeological artefacts, snorkelling the coral reefs and visiting the mangrove forest, all this in only two days after my arrival. It truly gave my stay here a head start. But there might be much more to come, as there seems to be an awful lot to do, and not hard to organize.
So I am well, have some sunburn and should start doing some work.
Cheerio
As this is not a Jane Austen novel, I will spare you the emotional mumbo jumbo I went thru realizing what I forgot, left behind and the excitement of heading towards the unknown. But man, I love this Picadilly ride, it slowly peels of normal life and transforming you into travel mode. By the time we hit Acton town I knew it is real, that I am leaving and I could not wait to sit in THAT plane.
Unfortunately travelling to Africa is not the adventure what it used to be; comfortable planes fly on the dot, visas are issued within 20 minutes and although airport pick-ups are an hour late, this is not due to exotic problems, but just because they forgot to forward the correct details to the cabs drivers blackberry. Anno 2011 it is only efficiency what you encounter.
My personal quest to learn more about the world, and about infectious diseases and vaccination in particular will get a new chapter over the next three months. This time the chapter will be about rotavirus. Rotavirus causes diarrhoea, and diarrhoea is not the nicest thing to have when you are malnourished, don’t have access to clean drinking water and/or decent health care. Fortunately there are two vaccines available; my project will be about if it is worth to introduce one of them, and if we should prefer one over the other. It won’t be rocket-science, but very interesting for sure. For this project I will be working at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) which is based in a small coastal town called Kilifi, but will also be in close contact with the ministry of health in the capital Nairobi.
Kenya so far has been similar compared to my experiences in the Gambia – but also India and Bangladesh. Life on the street looks, smells and feels identical. Yes, land is more cultivated compared to the Gambia (but still not much signs of machines) and the population is less dense compared to Bangladesh, but for most it is similar.
But it is always surprising to see the level of penetration of western culture. Non-stop you hear western music, see European football and see advertisements you all know form home. Maybe I am more aware of it compared to the other developing countries I have visited, this because I am staying in a hostel with a news paper and 24 hr television, but Kenya seems to be a more open country, slowly developing into a true democracy / western culture. Politics and corruption are openly discussed in papers and on television and there is quite a focus on development and entrepreneurship. Maybe it is the increased level of education what starts to show in businesses and public life. But so far it has been positive.
There is a Dutch phrase saying “to fall with your nose into the butter”, which means that you were lucky, caused more by circumstances than by own effort. This is how I felt when two students from Oxford asked me if I would join them on an organized day trip to some touristic spots in the neighbourhood. Yesterday we went from 9am to almost 8pm, by car, around the main archaeological artefacts, snorkelling the coral reefs and visiting the mangrove forest, all this in only two days after my arrival. It truly gave my stay here a head start. But there might be much more to come, as there seems to be an awful lot to do, and not hard to organize.
So I am well, have some sunburn and should start doing some work.
Cheerio
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