Weekend 16, 17, 18 September

In these notes 1000/- Kenyan shillings is about 14 dollars or about 8 pounds
Friday Night
On Friday night I was invited out to a club with the Haru family, with Guyo, Gal Galo and Asha, to a club with live music, ligala style from the Congo, (similar to Reme Ongala) and in a separate area Ethiopian style music and singing where Asha sings Ethiopian songs, very good.
Gal Galo is from Marsabit in the north of Kenya, like many family here the family is split because of work, he is married to a junior school teacher and she teaches in Marsabit while he works in the Macmillan library in Nairobi. It takes about 22 hours and costs him 2000/- to travel home in a lorry. If he is lucky he sits up front, otherwise in the back with the load. On the return journey to Nairobi this is with 18 cattle. He gets 10,000/- per month and has to spent 5000/- on lodging, often he has no money at the end of the month as food might cost 100/- per day and transport might cost 50/- per day. Often they make do with some small snacks instead of proper meals. He tries to save to send money home when he can and if he goes home he needs to take at least 2000/- with him for his 2 children.
When he got married he had to pay a dowry, in his case 3 cattle, 10 pieces of cloth and 20,000/- because his bride is considered to be educated. One cow is worth about 100 dollars. So even an educated wife is considered to be equivalent to about 600 dollars.
When a child is born there is much shouting if it is a boy but if it is a girl then there is not much celebration. When a man who owns land dies his land goes to the first born son, if no son then to the brother or nearest male relative. The daughters are never considered because it is assumed that a man will take them.
Saturday & Sunday
This weekend I spent some time in a district of Nairobi called Langata. Like many other districts there are estates with houses, the houses have small servant quarters and many people live in these as it is cheaper accommodation for the vast army of lodgers who live in Nairobi because of the job and who are sending money home to their families in the villages. There is a vast infrastructure to support these people, whole streets are lined with stalls made from wood or corrugated steel sheet or concrete blocks or in some cases metal shipping containers. The stalls sell everything you might need, all food, including packaged food and fresh food such as meat fruit and vegetables, also drink, cooking fuel charcoal and gas, clothes, hair care, phone cards and internet access. The internet access is quite good except in the evening when the network seem to get overloaded, cheap as well at 1/- per minute. The clothes are the ones you and I have taken to the charity shop back home and which are now on sale in Nairobi streets for 300/- for a Rugby World Cup t-shirt or a pullover. By the way there is a Mzungu factor in pricing which means if my African friends ask for a pullover it is 300/- but if I ask for it then the price is 600/-.
All educated people use mobile phones all the time. It has been a major revolution in the past 5 years, now you cannot do business here without one, all people in town with smart clothes have a mobile they are essential for setting up meetings with key people especially government officials.
One example of the use of mobiles is the use to warn friends of your arrival outside their house. Security is a big problem here with many robberies all the time mostly just petty theft of a mobile or a wallet. But occasionally there are more frightening experiences like the lady here that I talked to about a robbery where 2 guys cut through a hedge at 4.30am broke down the door and stole the TV. She was clearly very frightened by the experience.
So all the house are like fortresses with large steel gates which are kept locked, high garden walls, bars on all windows, hinged grills on doors. For security many people use the mobile to call those inside to let them know they are outside and this provides a means to let in only those you know.