Law Students

We arrived in Nairobi two months ago. The trip was staggering in its length and I was so far apart form anything I'd known, that shock is far too simple of a concept to encompass the disconnection I felt.

After arriving at the airport and making our way through the Visa queue, we took the van ride, everything was a blur - some things vaguely familiar but misplaced - arriving in the Jacaranda Hotel. We were greeted with Passion Fruit juice and we settled in for a little rest. The room was small, but a bed was such a novel concept to my body, that I cared not. The next day, after a wonderful buffet breakfast, we took taxis the further 2 blocks to BID Apartments - hour home for the next almost 5 months.

After 3 days, the Law students started arriving. Over the next week, about 40 students arrived to have a 2-month study and adventure in Nairobi. At first, I thought it would be cool to have other Americans nearby. After only a week or two, my opinion changed. These students were like other Law students I had encountered - they were not interested in learning about the culture they were in nor in speaking with anyone outside their chosen field unless necessary to get something they wanted. They were inconsiderate that families lived in the apartments around them, talking loudly and having parties until after midnight. Tuscaloosa is a college town, but we live away from campus. I have not lived in the college style for many years.

Two months have passed and the Law students had their end-of-class party. Mostly they were ok, and responded when I finally asked them to tone it down after 10p and the kids (whose window faced the party) were in the bed. They had a safari and then began to vacate. Now they are gone, the wireless network is no longer flooded by their laptops, even the weather seems to have noticed and responded by giving us two of the prettiest days in a month.

My feelings are mixed. I thought it would be nice to have Americans along with us, but it was not. I thought it would make it easier to shift into Nairobi life, again I was wrong. I thought I would miss them, I don't - in fact I am glad they are gone.

The students are gone, taking with them their American collegiate culture. We have 80 days left and finally we can live like Kenyans (perhaps high middle class Kenyans).

Rumble, Rumble

It has been a week since the Volcano erupted at Ol Doinyo Lengai. We have, in Nairobi, had a few (3-4) very light tremors over the past week. So light that you could only feel them if you were seated, while standing the vibration was undetectable.

The trembling of the earth ended with the mountain's release of tension - until last night.

MAP
Magnitude: 5.0
Event: 2007/07/26 21:54:36
Depth (km): 10.0
Location: TANZANIA (110 miles SW of Nairobi, Kenya)

It started off with a light shaking - I was in the kitchen doing the dished and did not notice the light vibration. After a minute of this, however, the apartment shook. The dining table, that has just a bit of wobble in it anyway, rattled and bounced, and River erupted from his bed to seek us out.

 

We are all fine, but we are really getting tired of all this unsettled earth shaking. We have come to the decision that once back in the States, Californie is NOT the place we ought to be.

Tremors End as Volcano Erupts

Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania (The Mountain of God)

17 July 2007:
We were in our apartment (2nd Floor above ground) in the Westlands area of Nairobi, Kenya at 17:10 when the apartment starting shaking. The furniture vibrated and the apartment shook. The Dining table rattled and the pictures on the wall rattled and swung. I looked outside to see people emerging from their apartments to stand on the grass and stare around in confusion. We have had several small tremors within the last week, but this was by far the worst. I estimate that the tremor was about 4 on the Richter scale, here 90 miles from the epicenter, where the quake was measured at a magnitude of 6.0.

19 July 2007:
The tremors that have plagued the area for over 150 miles around Ol Doinyo Lengai over the past week came to an end with the eruption of this volcano. From reports, lava poured down one side of the mountain and over 5000 people were evacuated from surrounding villages. "Ol Doinyo Lengai is a live, volcanic mountain. It erupts almost annually but we are surprised that this time it has been accompanied by an earthquake and this is worrying us," Mr Kasunga, a local district commissioner, said.

Since the eruption, there have only been a couple of very light tremors felt in Nairobi and no more earthquakes are expected, now that the pressure has been released.

Here we go again...

The skinny: Magnitude 5.0 2007/07/17 21:27:51 Local Time.
115 miles SSW of Nairobi.

This shock was quick and people streamed out of their doors onto the landing and the lawns, obviously taken by surprise. It came and went so fast that we barely had time to get up and move before it was over.

We're thinking about getting surf boards so to better enjoy the next wave.

 

Again, we're ok, although rattled.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Today, at 17:10 we had a moderate tremor. 90 miles away, a Magnitude 6.0 Earthquake was occurring just over the border in Tanzania. The shaking in Nairobi has been estimated between Magnitude 4 and 5 and lasted 60 seconds.

We were scared, but no damage nor injuries were suffered, except to our calm.

The map below is a live link to the USGS, so you can refer to it for an approximate location.

Harry Potter breaks its own records

JULY 15, 2007 - Source: Yahoo! News

This shouldn't be a surprise to fans but with only five days of release behind it Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has garnered over $330 million from worldwide sales.

Domestically the movie has grossed $140 million since opening last Wednesday, making it the number one movie this weekend in the U.S. where it made $77.4 million. Overseas the movie reaped more than $190 million.

By comparison, in its first five days the movie is $30 million ahead of Goblet of Fire and over $40 million ahead of the last summer Potter release, which was Prisoner of Azkaban. Still, the fifth movie in the franchise didn't make as much in total as the previous movies for weekend tallies.

Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. said:

We're in the middle of summer, and we just said why not, because kids are out of school. It certainly turned out to be the right decision.

Order of the Phoenix did more business in five days than each of the first three Harry Potter movies did in their first full week, and it nearly matched the $146 million first week total of the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

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We were among the first to experience the movie - We were in the audience when Order of the Phoenix made its premier in Westlands Nairobi at the Fox Cineplex Sarit Center on Friday the 13th.

The book was very large, so some things got left out, but overall it was a great movie.

GO SEE IT!

I feel the earth move under my feet...

Update on the recent earth tremors in Nairobi:

We had a tremor just after midnight this morning and another one about 0918 Kenyan time (0618 UTC). The tremors, though not unheard of, have the locals fearful.  The epicenters of the recent quakes are about 185 km (115 miles) SSW of Nairobi, Kenya

Nairobi is located on the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley. It seems that it is this location in relation to this natural fault that is enabling us to feel the tremors originating from these quakes and their aftershocks.

Though the local news has reported that the Geological Office of Kenya is reporting that there is no danger, they are somewhat concerned with the number and frequency of these tremors.

 

Updated information from the US Geological Survey:

 

MAG	Event UTC	LAT	LON	DEPTH	Region
4.7	2007/07/16 14:23:34	-2.563	35.947	10 km	Tanzania
4.7	2007/07/15 21:10:05	-2.734	35.711	10 km	Tanzania
5.4	2007/07/15 20:42:12	-2.767	36.034	10 km	Tanzania
5.4	2007/07/15 11:24:22	-2.788	36.154	10 km	Tanzania
4.5	2007/07/14 12:23:27	-2.683	36.172	10 km	Tanzania
4.4	2007/07/12 15:31:41	-2.389	35.928	10 km	Tanzania

 

Again, we are all fine, albeit the experience has gone from being interesting to unnerving, and even a bit frightening. (We are 2 floors above the ground. That's the 3rd floor for those in the States, and 2nd floor for others)

Tremors in Nairobi

For two days, we have felt tremors ripple through our flat in Nairobi. The shaking is enough to cause ripples in the swimming pool and in glasses of water, and cause the furniture to shake side-to-side. The latest of these shocks was around midnight, Monday morning (about 90 minutes ago).

per the US Geologic Survey, Earthquake Center:

1. A magnitude 4.5 earthquake occurred near Arusha, Tanzania at 15:23:27 Local Time on 14 Jul 2007. The epicenter was located 95 miles (153 km) NW of Arusha, Tanzania; 172 miles (277 km) SSW of NAIROBI, Kenya at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Location: -2.683, 36.172

2. A magnitude 5.4 earthquake occurred near Arusha, Tanzania at 14:24:22 Local Time on 15 Jul 2007. The epicenter was located 87 miles (140 km) NW of Arusha, Tanzania; 184 miles (296 km) SSW of NAIROBI, Kenya at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Location: -2.788, 36.154

These two quakes occurred roughly in the same place, only a few miles/km apart and at the same depth.

The commissioner of Mines and Geology, Mr Lojomon Biwott, said more information would be released today after a report is received from the Seismological Centre at the University of Nairobi’s Chiromo campus.

However, Mr Biwott said the tremor was weak, noting that such low magnitude vibrations had been recorded in the past.

“They allow for gradual release of energy and stress leading to minimal damage,” said the commissioner of Mines and Geology.

Apart from Nairobi and Nyeri, other parts where the tremor was felt include Kiambu, Murang’a South, and Kirinyaga districts.

In Nairobi, the tremor shook several buildings, including the Nation Centre, which houses the Nation Media Group.

At Nation Centre, the tremor was felt shortly after 2pm.

Prof Isaac Nyambok, a Geology lecturer at the University of the Nairobi, said Kenya was more prone to tremors than earthquakes as the tectonic plates in the region were pulling apart rather than moving over each other.

The shaking of our flat was very unnerving.
Perhaps California is not a place we need to consider relocating to.

Everyone is fine.

26 Things in Kenya (June)

I managed to find a few of the things:

Truck:

Sparkle:

Sticky:

Round:

Panoramic:

Nose:

Multicolored:

Large:

Simon has been found!

Simon was the driver and later friend Toni made the last time she was in Nairobi, in 2004. It was with his assistance that her work was finished in the 5 weeks she was here, that she was safe, and that her spirits were kept up.

In the intervening 3 years, Toni had lost contact with Simon - eMail addresses change, phone numbers change, and the postal service is slow. In preparation for this trip, Toni has been trying to contact Simon through his cousin, via postal mail, without success since February 2007. Once we had arrived in Nairobi, on one of our first excursions, we mailed another letter to Simon's cousin - again without effect.

Yesterday, Toni felt something disturbing and decided to not go to work as normal. She was concerned about making more contacts and making the day worthwhile.

Toni reconnected with Humphrey - the person who put her in contact with Simon on her first trip. He gave out Simon's mobile phone number - a number Toni already had, so she continued, for 2 weeks, to try it at various times and days in the hopes of catching Simon when the phone was on.

Yesterday, she contacted Humphrey, and told him that the mobile phone number was not working for her and asked for an alternate contact method.

At this point, we learned later, that though Humphrey was giving out one mobile number, he also had a newer one, because he phoned Simon on it and told him that Toni was looking for him. He told Humphrey, "Give her my number!"

Humphrey gave Toni a newer number and she tried again. Toni phoned, Simon answered and the effect on her mood was dramatic ... in a word - GLEE!

Simon came and visited with us for an hour in the afternoon, but had to return to work. After work, he picked us up and took us to his apartment. We met Simon's wife, Veronica, his beautiful one year old daughter, Linet, Veronica's mother, and their house girl, Francesca. We took tea and biscuits (and ugali and avocado) with Simon and his family, while Linet roamed around the room chattering, dancing, and playing with us and the boys.

After spending a couple of hours visiting, Simon and Veronica drove us back to our apartment about 2330 (11:30 pm). River was exhausted and fell asleep in the van on the way back.

Simon, who drives for BOKO Safaris, is working the rest of the week, but we made plans to meet with him again on Sunday afternoon. We found out that he is in the area of Sarit Center a lot - over the weekend, he was there in an exhibition with some orphans & only yesterday he was visiting a colleague at Kabete Gardens (the complex immediately next door to our apartments - we can see it from our balcony). He and Toni were so near, but just kept missing each other.

After almost 6 weeks getting by without Simon, we have found Toni's and now our friend. Life here feels so much better today than before yesterday.

Simon has been found - and he didn't even know he was lost.

01July: Giraffe Center for our 14th Anniversary

Today is our (My and Toni's) 14th Anniversary.
Traditionally, the 14th anniversary gift is ivory, but the alternative suggestion to ivory is a Safari in Kenya. Our "safari" is small, but amazing just the same.

Today, we took a trip to the GIRAFFE CENTRE south of Nairobi.

Most of the herd stood way back.

Three giraffes came up to the platform - a circular building with a porch around the outside, where visitors can feed handfuls of pellets to the giraffes - The large female, Daisy, another female, Lara, and Lara's young son, Gordon, who is 2 and a half years old.


We all really liked feeding the giraffes. Here we took turns feeding Daisy.

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We have many more pictures of our time at Giraffe Center, including the warthogs and closeups of the giraffes showing their blueish-purple tongues as we fed them.

The trip was amazing, topped off by our donation to the center that will enable a boy named Joseph who attends the school for the Deaf to attend a Safari.

Interesting Giraffe Facts:

• Giraffes are the only mammal that is born with horns.
• The saliva of a giraffe is an antidote to many leaf poisons, allowing them to feed on a wide variety of leaves

The day is not over yet....

01July: Yaya Center and the Maasai Market

After leaving the Giraffe Center behind, we went to the Yaya Center. We had planned to go to the Maasai Market on Saturday, only to not go downtown because we thought we had the days wrong. It seems we were wrong about being wrong - the Maasai Market is downtown on Tuesday and Saturday. But on Sunday, the Maasai Market is at the Yaya Center, so off we go.

The Yaya Center is similar to Sarit Center - it is a shopping mall. What you cannot see on the picture is the motto below the word "yaya." It says "y go anywhere else?"

Though photography is prohibited, I manage to sneak this photograph as we walked around the market. All the sellers thought "ah, mzungu" when Toni or I were approached and their initial prices reflected that assumption. They usually came off the initial price by at least half when Toni would begin haggling with them in kiswahili. One such haggle resulted in a price 1/8th of the original price as quoted.

Haggling is EXPECTED and IMPORTANT to the buyer/seller relationship - and it's fun!

After all this looking and some haggling, we were feeling a mite peckish.

01July: Lunch and Back Home

After leaving the Maasai Market with our purchases, we decided that a bite to eat was in order.
Toni and I were talking the other day and I had mentioned that I'd like to go back to Adams Arcade to eat sometime - Today is that day.

We arrived about 1330 (01:30 pm).

The place to eat at Adams Arcade is the Nairobi Java House, so when in Nairobi...

We had eaten here once before and had mexican-style food. The portions were very large, so I had decided to get something different - Toni had decided the same thing...
River had a single cheeseburger & chips and a Chocolate-Banana milkshake.
Forest had a double cheeseburger & chips and a Vanilla milkshake.
Toni had a chicken breast sandwich & chips and a Chocolate-Banana milkshake.
I (Chris, for the folks playing along at home) had a Veggie cheeseburger & chips with a Chocolate-Banana milkshake. The Veggie burger was not like the ones at the grocery store in Alabama, but instead resembled a fried mashed potato pattie with chunks of vegetables in it - VERY TASTY!
By the way, "chips" are the British version of French Fries, not Potato Chips as in America.

If you ever find yourself in Nairobi, go to Adams Arcade and take lunch at the Nairobi Java House. We have before and we will again.



So you can understand better, an "arcade" in Nairobi would be similar to a shopping center or strip mall in the States. Here is a shot as we were leaving Adams Arcade. The Java House is in the corner at the far end, under the trees.


After our lunch, we headed back to the apartment.
A wonderful day.... I need a nap.