Hujambo!

A great song by one of Kenya’s better-known artists, Jua Cali. I’m not sure why I never heard it until now because it’s been out since late 2008. Anyways, it’s Jua Cali and Enika (apparently she’s from Tanzania). It’s a nice break from all the “I’m a thug” and “get money and bitches” music that is becoming so popular (even in Kenya). From what I can understand (and from what we see in the video), Jua Cali is reminiscing about when he was a young boy discovering his love for music.

If you want to download the MP3 you should head over to GetMziki because it was featured on their blog when the song was released.

Randi and I are back from our East Africa safari but, other than the few pictures we uploaded along the way, we have nothing to show for it! My fancy Nokia camera phone decided to eat all the pictures we took. There are lots of great stories to be told, though, like the day I swapped t-shirts with some dude on the streets of Dar Es Salaam.

It went down like this: Randi and I had decided Dar Es Salaam was way too hot and humid, and we hadn’t had a cup of coffee in a couple of days. We noticed a sign saying “Coffee Lounge” outside a fairly classy building in a nicer part of town (read: probably had air conditioning), so we went inside to investigate. It was there, climbing the stairs, that I saw a dude coming down the stairs with a shirt written “Niko Juu!!” (slang, literally “I’m up”… or ahead). He kinda paused when he saw me, and then I told him, “Wee, shirt yako iko poa. Tubadilishane?” (Dude, your shirt is cool, let’s trade). To my surprise he took his off immediately and we traded right then and there. So if you see some dude walking around Tanzania with a Ramones shirt it’s probably the same guy. Hopefully he enjoys telling the story as much as I do!

The rest of our trip went off without a hitch. We did eat a lot of mangoes and gelatto in Watamu and Malindi, just like we said we would! We ate so many mangoes in Watamu that as we were leaving one mama told us “Unalipa moja, na nikupe moja. Zawadi.” (You pay for one, and I give you one. Gift.). Randi’s back in the US now, and I start work on Monday, so I gotta get back into the routine of things around here. In other news, I’m finally moved into my new apartment, just down the road from the penthouse I was staying in before, but I’ll wait until it’s all furnished to post some pictures.

We’ve reached Watamu! I’m not sure if that’s what it means, but in Swahili tamu means sweet, and the plural form of people is “wa”, like mkenya (Kenyan) becomes wakenya (Kenyans). I’ve been here before with Sara and some other volunteers. It’s a great little touristy beach getaway with lots of Italians. You can tell there’s an Italian influence because the tuk-tuks say “Piaggio”, the kids shout, “Ciao!”, and there is a gelatto shop on every corner. I’ve been longing for gelatto ever since we left Nairobi so we plan on eating it at least twice a day. We’ve also been eating a lot of mangos; there is a great apple-mango hybrid that is really delicious and cheap. Randi swore left and right that she didn’t like fresh mango but I guess they don’t make ‘em like this in the US. Karibu Kenya (welcome to Kenya)!

Here are a few pictures from Fort Jesus in Mombasa and the beach in Watamu:

We’ve decided we’ll kick it here for a few days before heading back to Nairobi. Just about thirty minutes up the coast is the town of Malindi, where there are more mangos and gelatto to be eaten.

Tumefika salama lakini tumechoka, tumekuwa chafu, na hatujala all day! Dar Es Salaam ilikuwa poa kwasababu tulitembea kila mahali mpaka tulikuwa wenyeji wa huko. Leo ni mwaka mpya so tunajienjoy kwa chumba na maembe na maji safi ya kunywa.

We have arrived safely but we are tired, dirty, and we haven’t eaten all day! Dar Es Salaam was cool because we walked everywhere until we became locals of that place! Today is New Year’s Eve so we are enjoying ourselves in our hotel room with mangos and clean drinking water.

That’s my bit of prose in Swahili. It’s all most people speak in Tanzania, so I had a lot of practice. I guess now I speak Swahili at the level of like a two-year-old kid (I think my vocabulary needs to improve a bit). I’m glad to be back in Kenya, though, because now I can use English and just the fun parts of Swahili: sheng! We spent our last day in Dar Es Salaam walking around the docks investigating smelly fish and eating fresh mangos by the bay. We happened upon a really nice hotel and decided to go in for a cup of coffee and a slice of mud pie. Marble floors, air conditioning, and everything. Very relaxing!
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Randi has taken to the streets of Nairobi with vigor. From the moment she arrived she showed a prowess at navigating Nairobi’s busy streets, jumping out of moving matatus, and eating ugali (very thick corn flour porridge, staple food in Kenya) and vegetables with her hands. After we picked her up at the airport we stopped in town to get some pizzas. As we watched Randi weave in and out of traffic in front of us, one of my friends asked me if Randi had ever been to Africa before; she was surprised when I told her, “No!” In due time Randi will surely kuwa mjuaji (to be someone who knows… like to know the streets)!
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