Back to Nairobi cont...

So, we drove back to Nairobi. We listened to random stuff on my iPod with me trying to judge what Matt might want to listen to, occasionally chatting about various random things. We didn't stop for lunch so that we would get back in good time, and then when we were about 2hrs from Nairobi we hit rain. And I really mean RAIN. It was chucking it down for a few miles as we went over the higher ground. And the landrover isn't exactly waterproof. I got leaked on. Made it back in about 7 hours, and then hit traffic as we came into Nairobi so it was about 2.45 when I got dropped off at the guest house. Matt took the packed landrover home as he couldn't be bothered to unpack it then, especially I think as there were only the two of us by that point (he dropped Chris off down the road, where the cheeky bugger asked for money for lunch despite being paid more than the majority of kenyan's even dream of being paid while being away, I think he actually got more in one day than my entire allowance for the whole two weeks) and even with the help of Bernard (the askari) it would have been too much effort.
So, I got back in, sat down and had a brief relax. There was no-one around so I unpacked all my bags (very rare for me to do that straight away, but I figured because I'm going away again so soon I probably should) and put some washing on. I went to the Kasuku centre to buy some stuff for dinner, and mince was on offer at the butchery so I decided on spag bol for dinner. Umm, then I think I came back and read a bit while my washing was finishing then hung it out. When I came back in I heard noises from my room upstairs so I went up and found Hannah was back, so we caught up. Basically it was a slow evening. I met the new guy, Jacob (pronounced Ya-kob) who is dutch with a very lovely ducth accent. I think I've decided I like the dutch accent. Anyway, we were all (me, Han, James & Jacob) sat chatting downstairs, and at about 9pm I decided I needed my bed, so I went up to get an early night. Definitely worth it. Not sure why I was so tired, but I slept a good 10 hours.

Sunday - I woke up at about 7.30 this morning, but stayed in bed until about 8.30 when hannah's alarm went off. I was planning on sleeping more but as I hadn't fallen back asleep since I first woke up I decided I might as well get up and get things done. Not sure what happened about that. I had a leisurely breakfast and then awkwardly washed my hair over the bath as we have no hot water at the moment. They're fixing things apparently. Which obviously means that more goes wrong in the meantime and we have holes in walls and wires hanging out all over the place. I also put another load of washing on, and Hannah invited me out with her and James as they were going to meet up with Amber and Neil (a couple, both of whom stayed at the guest house indiviually last year). So at about 12 we all set off for town, we were meeting them by the National Archives at 1pm. We decided to walk, which was nice, and were only about 10 minutes late meeting them. Then they took us on another walk to an indian place for lunch where we had the most delicious chick-pea curry ever. It was so so tasty. Not too hot at all, just really tasty. So we were actually there for about 2 hours mainly chatting, and we had Masala chai. Then we left and Hannah, james and I were going to go into Eastleigh, and as I hadn't been I said I would go. But we popped into Amber & neil's place first to see where they live. It's a very cute little place. Two rooms, an itty bitty kitchen and smaller bathroom which they (I say they, I mean probably just Amber, she seems like the kind of person who just has exquisite taste) have decorated beautifully.

From there we caught a bus to Eastleigh, which is the more Somali area of Nairobi. It was very very dusty. And very muslim. It was thriving and bustly, even on a Sunday while the centre of Nairobi was dead, and the sights and smells kept making me think of Egypt. We didn't stay long, just had a quick look around, James was looking for shorts and I was looking for a skirt, but the others weren't really hanging around when I wanted to stop and look at things so I didn't have the chance to find anything. We stopped at a cafe, where we were ushered into a curtained room, which we figured later is probably for women to be hidden away in, and drank watermelon and avocado juice, which was really tasty, although we then all got a bit paranoid about if it had been watered down and we were going to be really ill from it. Well, the other two were, I wasn't really bothered. I've eaten so much local stuff in the last couple of months it probably wouldn't have much effect on me. Anyway, then we got another bus back into town, James bought some shorts from a woman while we were stopped in traffic, and we stopped in nakumat on our way through town to buy wine and beer, and I also offered to cook James dinner, although I can't quite remember why.
So we decided to walk back to the guest house, and along the way James said he was going to go and meet Reynolds in a pub around the corner from the Kasuku centre and asked if we wanted to join him. I said no because I really had to get back and carry on with this, and then the power was off, and you know the rest. And now it is 11.59pm, and I'm quite sleepy, and have to be up early for work tomorrow. Fun times.
I have just downloaded something called JAlbum though, which James promises will revolutionise my ability to post photos for everyone to see, so as well as reply to everyone who has emailed me I will also attemt to upload all my photos while I'm in Uganda. I envisage many lonely nights in on my own. Of course I will probably end up being busy the whole time, but here's hoping for an even balance.
Night folks
x