First and Second Impressions of Nairobi

I'm having a great time in Nairobi, but it is a little crazy as well. It is always hot here! But it rains a little as well, but that's hot running water! So far I have only seen bits and pieces of the city. Last night Godano, who works for my uncle, took me to a bar in the slum where he lives. It was the best place I've been so far. Everybody was very friendly and the beer was very cheap. But most importantly I was the only Mizuno (white man) there. If you saw how some Europeans live here it would make you sick. A lot of them just seem to be here to enjoy themselves, well at least of the ones I've met so far. I guess everybody wants to enjoy themselves but I suppose what bothers me is that if you are white here you are seen as different. People presume you are rich and for most of the time they are right. But even a poor European like me is rich by African standards. Seeing the slum last night was a little crazy. It is full of life and music and it is peoples home. Most of the buildings are shacks made out of galvanise with little shops and bars dotted about the place but a lot of them don't even have running water. It looks cool but then you remember that you are a voyeur and that this is how people have to live and that they are struggling. But still the ones I met in the bar were genuinely friendly and lovely people. I felt more welcome there than in the bars where the Europeans and rich Africans go. But I still think that I wouldn't dare to go there on my own yet. Poverty leads to crime and like I say when people see a Mizuno they presume he is rich and even if I was on the dole in Ireland it still makes me rich by the standards of most Kenyans. Car jackings are very common here and often people are shot. The most desirable cars for the carjackers are the top of the line landcruisers most aid agencies use that cost e60,000 plus. A couple of friends of my uncle were carjacked and shot dead last week and a couple of hours later the police found the thieves and shot them dead.
There are huge shopping centres here were the wealthy people go and you can by all the same stuff you would find in Europe at similar prices. They are full of security guards carrying huge nightsticks and in Lavington, the neighbourhood where i am staying, most of the houses have security guards and there are mobile patrols all over the place. It reminds me again and again of all the Marxism that so many people are so quick to dismiss. It was the analysis of Marx and Engels and of Malcolm X and of the Black Panthers and I see it in evidence everywhere here. That the police are only needed when there is a such a gap between the rich and the poor that crime becomes inevitable. Here the gap is massive and the police and security presence and is huge and militaristic. Last night I met a friend of Godano's in the bar who is a policeman. For the boys from the slum it gives them a chance of security and respect. It means they can be the big man in their neighbourhood and inevitably there are huge problems with corruption in the police force here.
For Kenyans education is extremely important. Sean, who works for the paper, has been in Africa for as long as my Uncle and was a priest too, said a few years ago he was involved in a survey in the slums where they asked people what their priorities were. He said that above health, sanitation, roads and everything else. Everybody said that there main priority was free primary education. When the one party system ended about four years ago and the new government came to power their main (and some would say only) achievement was the introduction of free primary education. However it is still of quite a poor standard but at least it gives people a chance of literacy that they never had before.
At the moment there is some sort of a function taking place in the house next door. Apparently it is rented out for weddings and other such events and they are blasting out the music. Africans love music and I have heard some fantastic stuff since I have been here. I have heard some live music (including what is coming from next door now) and really want to get out and here as much as I can. I understand a bit more now what Ken Saro-Wiwa meant when he wrote 'Dance away your anger, dance away your sorrow, dance the guns to silence, Dance, Dance!'
I'm going to throw in one more quote and I can't remember who it is from, maybe one of you can help, 'It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most who can triumph.' It is something I thought of again and again during the blockades and pickets in Bellinaboy and it something that I sincerely hope is true.
You see I'm not sure what natural resources Kenya has and most of the economic activity I've seen is on a small scale and I am left to wonder again and again where is the real hope for this country and it seems to be in its people. There something inspiring about their spirit and their attitude. If they can ever shake off their corrupt rulers and their exploiters both native and foreign then they can have a real and viable future, but I guess you could say that it's the same the world over.