Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

Somehow, between my more bookish northwestern readers, a small yellow bird, a master paddler and a wimsical science enthusiast, this blog has made some money. So, for June thanks are due to Suzanne, KD, Carmine, Wim and Herb.

As a special treat, I present to you, a scene from my last trip back from Nairobi, on the Mombasa-Nairobi highway, arguably on of the most important roads in East africa as it leads from the coast to the capital of Kenya. It dissolves into unbelievable, apocalyptic scenes like this as a matter of course.

Imagine my surprise when I caught a glimpse of The Original Black Ninja. As you are no doubt aware, ninjas are normally quite stealthy and unintrusive. This one wasn’t.

Technorati : donor report, kenya, roads

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I snap photographs occasionally of things I see on Kenya’s highways. I had a discussion elsewhere on the web a while back about how obscure and elusive the idea of “visual poetry” is. Sucker that I am I even looked it up. “Vispo” for short, of you’re interested.

Some of the slogans on vehicle in Kenya might classify…If you can tell me what the slogan on the matatu (taxi) below means I would be grateful. Is the owner a farmer perhaps? Or maybe he / she has some sort of deeper metaphorical intentions that led to the pasting of poetry on this vehicle? In case you can’t read it, just below the number plate is says “make it rain”.

And in other breaking news, the UN regional headquarters in East africa has come under severe criticism for their carbon-consumption excesses. There have even been requests from certain militant sections of Kenyan society for the UN to place its carbon-reduction reccomendations for africans in its collective dark, personal and uncomfortable places.

So, if you’re an african in need of rescuing from your own excessive carbon consumption, use a wind-up alarm clock, not a digital one. Probably best to buy several of them. The only ones I have found at Nakumatt are made in China and will, beyond a shadow of a doubt break shortly after purchase (if they work at all).

Technorati : kenya, matatus

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I’m in Nairobi at the moment, dealing with admin for the project. Sometime I hope to find a bit of time to write more about this chaotic, dirty, polluted, sprawling african capital. Suffice it to say its a tough place to move around in and do business. I spent 6 hours driving within a relatively small part of Nairobi today, trying to get errands done. The style of driving of many of the people I meet on the road here can best be summarised as “offensive with extreme prejiduce”. One has to be very assertive, and pretty much rude by western standards, to get anywhere. Last night a 30-seater bus came up from behind me and cut across the corner of my vehicle while I was waiting to enter a traffic circle. The driver clipped the front of my bush-bars and no doubt left a nasty gouge on the side of his bus. he obviously had other important busness to attend to, and carried on driving. I went on my way.

I found a tiny deposit of fresh lime-green paint on one of the bolts on my bush bars, but that was about all the evidence that I could show anyone that I had been hit by a bus.

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Here are a few snapshots of my trip back from Nairobi.

Filling up with diesel… and takeaway coffee. From a well-known kenyan coffee shop chain that is NOT putting money into conservation in Kenya (I hope the coffee moguls from JH out there are listening).

This is the main national highway of Kenya, the one from Mombasa to Nairobi. It carries much of the traffic for east africa. It is currently a vehicle-destroying, dusty, chaotic and dangerous track. Apparently the kenyan government is fixing it. They have been doing this for the last few months, and take great delight in sending traffic from the national highway into the bush without warning. The powers also find interesting and different ways of describing these forced misadventures. I posted a pic of a sign that indicated a “deviation” a while ago. On this last trip I found a “diversion”. Still not sure that either of them are appropriate to describe the infomal off-ramps.

I really liked this one. I can kind of imagine some additional writing that might read, “if you are so close that you can actually read this sign then you have lost the national highway completely”. Road workers, its seems, are not only linguistically skilled, but have a sense of humour.

And every now and then someone misjudges the edge of the road. This poor driver will be there for a while. LK if you’re reading, perhaps you would be so kind as to tell your friends at the Kenya Roads Board that we are very much looking forward to them finishing the highway soon.

If you have ever wondered how to transport a matress, but don’t have space inside your matatu (minibus taxi), why not tie it to the rear windscreen wiper using string?

Now… this is the slogan on the side of a bus. Its could be in honour of a children’s home in Arusha, but its more likely a tribute to a South African pop icon named Brenda Fassie, who sang a very popular song by the same name, if my memory serves me correctly. I think it was about beer, and sung partly in Xhosa.

Thats all for the moment… more to come after I’ve done some fieldwork.

Technorati : accidents, kenya, nairobi, roads, south african pop

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