Trouble at the Gate

Some people have been asking where is this place, and where is that place, so I have gone all nerdy and set up some Google maps...

Kenyan Orientation
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msid=113290586371567899914.00046007c2bd918115de3&ll=-0.900842,39.287109&spn=9.742897,14.0625&z=6

Mombasa Orientation
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msid=113290586371567899914.00046007e80a8d8a163d0&z=13


So I arrived back to Bombolulu to find armed police at the gate and a large crowd gathered. There is an ongoing dispute about ownership of the land and there was a scuffle at the gate. A few lads were arrested after the argie-bargie but no one was badly injured thank God. It seems all to have quietened down now.

There was some talk of the scuffle at work on Monday, so I got some of the history, but really things continued on as normal. Please note that I feel completely safe and can happily go about my daily routine.

After many New Year handshakes and a few shared stories it was back to work. Catching up on all that had happened over Christmas and a few planning sessions. I bought a Safaricom modem and Nato (IT support guy) at work organised to get me a webcam at a decent price. All thanks to generous Christmas gifts from the family.

Also took a walk down to the klin with Alex. The new shelves arrived and the thermostat, fans and water sprinkers are all in place. The klin is ready for action. It looks great. Hopefully it will be filled with woodcarvings soon and helping to generate many more orders.


There is an awful lot going on at work so I won't bore you with details but on Saturday we 'Spring Cleaned' (see below) the stores. The new shelves had arrived so we beavered away all day and the store is starting to look 'clean and lean'. This morning I went back down to Stores to help do valuations on the Red tag stock(stuff we want to get outta stores) . I must admit it was great to do some hands on physical labour.




















Sunday we met up to celebrate Abdu's 40 birthday at Diana's house. It was a sugar infused tea party and Abdu got a homemade archeologists kit for his birthday. He was chuffed I think.





















Looking at flights home for June and budget trips to Masai Mara for Easter to help quell the New Year's blues. The modem is great 'cause now I have Skype 'mikedugganjnr' and got to talk to, and see, the family, and little Callum, during the week. They are all the fineist.

Will blog again before the end of the week.

M.

Cultural Learning
- Kenyans don't make New Year resolutions. The concept doesn't fit in the Third world.
- Also, 'Spring Cleaning' is not a term they are familiar with, understandably. This is the tropics after all.