walking in nairobi

in nairobi you have to watch out where you walk.

the pavement seems to be ripped up at random intervals, with holes right at places where you might like to step, or holes on the road that you might step into if you don't watch carefully.

yesterday i was walking behind luke when he suddenly swerved... i was mid-conversation and not looking down.

it wasn't a hole that got me, but a sign post, like for a street sign, but with no sign, and only about a meter tall. having more girth than previously my belly got the full force of walking into it.
Ouch!

Crossing the road is a good adventure.
Being hard of hearing would be dangerous  - it's like a face-off between different types of animals.. perhaps an elephant... large, a little cumbersome (a bus), but gentle to begin with. Then there are the cheetahs, not hungry but in search of something beyond where you are. And you are some kind of gazelle perhaps, not very big or fast but with some courage. So you find a space where the cars have stopped and gingerly step (with as big a herd as you can) between the elephants.
But the elephants may get impatient and start to snort - at each other, at you, at the rhinos (matatus) also around.
So you move top speed - once the elephant gets going it's not waiting for anyone!

And on a quieter street with no traffic build up you best listen carefully for the roar of the rhino (do they roar?) or cheetah as they zoom along the street, making space for themselves by instilling fear into any would-be pedestrian. They go as quick as they come, and long as you are out of their way they take no notice of you.

Such are some first impressions of Africa.

On day 3, having thus far avoided any mosquito bites with paranoid diligence.

:-)