Electricity House
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2004
1
20
24
Trip End
Dec 27, 2004
Nairobi, Kenya
Friday, December 17, 2004
Now, my plan for today was no plan at all. I really would have been happy lounging around watching TV and playing with the dogs. Lawrence, however, was under the impression that we were hot to get out of here, so right after dropping Auntie off in Nairobi, he came right back for us! He was a bit stressed, and my point was dude, we have to talk. I mean, if we had known Auntie was going to town early, maybe we would have gotten up and came with. And what every made Lawi think we were waiting for him? It's like we all have our own little plans and assume everyone else agrees. So we did agree to verbally make plans the night before so these silly things wouldn't happen. And now that Lawi was here and willing to take us to down, he did so. It turns out that Lawi needed to pay the electric bill for the family. Sara volunteered us to do it for him, since he had so much to do. The Kamaus live on quite a bit of land, about two acres, and own a main house, and an apartment building. There are four apartments, Lawi lives in one of them. This electric bill was for all five residences for a month... $47. Incredible. Where does one go to pay the electric bill in Nairobi? The Electricity House of course. We thought it would be a quick in and out, but no. the large lobby was filled with people. I found out later that this was the last day to pay the bill before the electric company turns off the power. In typical Kenyan style, 90% of the customers saved the bill for the last minute. And, it is not common to pay by check through the mail. This is because the check could get lost in the unreliable mail system, or the electric company may cash your check and then not credit you for it. Isn't that ridiculous? Rumor had it that we could pay at a nearby bank, but the bank turned out to be not so nearby. While looking for it, we stopped at a chemist to get a new battery for Mami's cell phone, and some more Claritin for me. I also found an ATM and got some cash. Then we went back to the Electricity House to wait. To add insult to whatever, while standing in this long, long, long line, the guards would allow themselves to be bribed and escort people to the front of the line! And it wasn't even much money, not even by Kenyan standards. What if everyone decided to bribe? Who would go first? Anyway to be honest I didn't even notice this was going on. Sara and I had stood in separate lines to see which would go faster, and I was wrapped up in my little travel book about Kenya.
Sara saw someone with a KIRO 7 T-shirt on from Seattle! But he left so fast we didn't have a chance to talk to him. Anyhoo, my line moved faster, Sara paid the bill, and we were out of there after about an hour. Sara was spitting mad about the bribing, and she told me about it as soon as we paid the bill. In fact, she buttonholed an unfortunate guard who was in the middle of accepting a bribe from a lady. Personally I didn't even notice this was going on either. Am I clueless or what? So she laid it out for this guy and he actually apologized and said that she is right, they should not do that. The lady trying to give the bribe just stood there smirking. I just stood there looking stern, not understanding a word anybody was saying.
So after that, Sara felt a lot better. We decided to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant I had located in the book. It was near the infamous Florida 2000 nightclub. This is the wildest club in Kenya and believe it or not, we never made it there. Next time. Apparently they have Vegas-style shows nightly, great music, showgirls and guys dancing around in their underwear, and all that. Dangit.
Anyway, we went to the Water Margin Chinese Restaurant. It is open all night on Fridays and Saturdays, in case you were wondering. There was a Christmas tree, and the food was really very good. The service was amazing, they were all over us all the time, and brought steamed towels at the beginning and end of the meal. I went to the restroom which was located outside of the restaurant proper, and it was awful. This restroom was shared with F2, and nobody apparently wants to take responsibility for cleaning it. It smelled worse than summer in France. And don't even think about luxuries like paper towels. Anyway, this restaurant was excellent other than the restroom, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
After that, we boxed up some leftovers, planning to give it to the first person who asked, and went to a cyber. It was a nice little place, even if it was on the tippy-top floor. By the way, very few buildings have elevators. I asked where I could use my thumb drive. Since most computers are old and don't have USB ports, the attendant can usually find at least one machine with a port and then share it out. These guys did not know what to do; I had to do it for them. And they were rude, and turned the music up too loud on top of that. I asked them to turn it down and they did, but they were really put out about it. That was the last time we went there.
So after some time, we called Lawi and arranged for him to pick us up at the corner. He showed up surprisingly fast with a girl named Trish. She's a cutie who speaks French, so I tried using my limited repertoire of French phrases on her. Well, I said something rather forward just as a joke, and Trish said that I should be saying that to my wife, which caused both Lawrence and Sara to be mad at me for the rest of the evening. C'est la vie.
On the way home, we stopped at Uchumi for cash and snacks. For you see, the plan tomorrow is to journey to Nakuru for a wedding.
Dinner was goat meat stew, chapattis, and a green pepper. It was delicious. The uncle of the groom was there for dinner as well. Talking to him, I found out that they are Maasai. And this brought to light the fact that even Sara is part Maasai - 1/8th I think. Intermarriage is common among the Kikuyu and Maasai. He mentioned that he wants to bring a Maasai outfit to the house after the wedding, and I can try it on. I didn't know how he would take it if I explained to him that white people trying to look African look ridiculous. So, I just agreed that would be wonderful because I was pretty sure he wasn't going to go out of his way just to bring me a Maasai outfit.
After dinner, we packed up for Nakuru - we have to be up at 5:30 AM tomorrow - and then went to bed. We are traveling by matatu tomorrow, my first real matatu ride, so I packed very light in case I am robbed. In Nakuru, we will be meeting up with a friend of Mami's from the Post Office. The friend is planning to show us around town and some of the local sights after the wedding.
