Jan 18: Just a quick note. I am exhausted. All the flights were good. The only snag...Wendy never got my itinerary. It took almost four hours of waiting in the airport and a $20 extortion fee for calling internationally, to get it all figured out. It is 12:30am and I am in bed. Wendy seems wonderful and she has wireless.
Jan 18: Wow, I am in Kenya!
Jan 19: Today I took a mini bus into town. I still have no idea how one know which bus to get on. None of them are marked. I went with Phoebe into town and then roamed around for a couple of hours while she was in class. The mini bus is a rough ride, the streets are in horrible shape, and they drive as fast as they can, twelve people packed in like sardines, rap music at full volume, and if you are tall, it is difficult to see out the windows. It is only 10km from Wendy's to the city center, but it takes 30 mins with good traffic, 3-4hrs with bad traffic. Naturally one would think to get out and walk if the traffic is bad, but not a good idea. The slums between here and there are much worse than any I have seen in Latin America. Where Wendy lives, I would say, is a middle-lower class area. There are roosters cawing and dogs barking all night long. It is muffled enough by the walls that it is not painful to hear. For dinner tonight we had pizza (Tuesday norm...buy 1 get 1 free) and fresh mango juice...it is mango season!!! The city is interesting. Tons of people on the streets, you can wear anything you want in the city...cultural restrictions are out the door. tons of smog. I lost my wits a couple of times and almost go ran over...traffic flows are opposite bc of the brits. It is funny how conditioned I am I to look for traffic only in one direction. That is it for now. Bed time.
Jan 20: I was wide awake at 1am this morning and never got back to sleep...still adjusting to the time difference. Two men, separately, approached me today with the same scam, same exact lines and technique. It was creepy bc they approached me yesterday as well, remembered me today, and one of them proceeded to tell me everywhere I went yesterday...he followed me around. No worries though, I let him know that I was on to his scam and he had better stay away...he got the message. What was hard about today: Phobee and I got on Matutu to head back home and about 30mins into the trip (we really had not gone very far), we are stuck in traffic in a part of town that everyone says is very dangerous and not safe for tourists...a cop comes up to the window and orders everyone out and then two cops jump into the matutu and take off with the driver. Apparently the driver committed a traffic violation. Nevertheless, we all had to get out and walk all the way back to the original bus stop. It only took about 15mins but it was very obvious we were in a bad part of town. we made it though, with no problems. One other thing; while waiting for Phobee to get out of class, two taxi drivers went at it with their fist, at one point they both had bricks in their hands, threatening each other. Luckily they both gave up the bricks. This is a crazy city.
On another note, I will meet with several AGRA people on Friday. On Monday, someone from AGRA is taking me on a tour of KARI. I am also trying to meet with folks from the Rockefeller Foundation, they are in the same building as AGRA...surprise. This is in a nice part of town, which I am looking forward to seeing.
Jan 25: My timing here is perfect. Today I am heading to Nimuru, 50km outside of Nairobi. I have been invited to attend an anti-GMO workshop sponsored by Kenya Biodiversity Coalition. They are drafting an amendment to the BioSafety laws that were recently estabilished in Kenya. Wednesday is devoted to talking about AGRA...not sure how they are framing it, though. They are sending me details that I will pass on.
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