on purity and water tanks

Our water tank is very pure. It's always good to know.

when pimples are cool

hey! it's a pub AND a club!! 

it's not just a condom

it's romantic love rubber (don't ask me why the picture is upside down).

101 uses for a kikoi

as a follow up to my previous post on how much i love kikois, here are a few reasons why. you can see it's not quite 101 yet (still working on it!), so feel free to add to the list! big big thanks to two friends (m & j), who's idea the concept is, and whose ideas i've stolen (with permission of course) below.

1. picnic blanket
2. skirt/sarong
3. dress
4. towel
5. massage cloth
6. laptop carrier
7. scarf
8. baby carrier
9. shopping tote
10. smoke diffuser (when the smoke detector at home drives you crazy and you’re desperate to stop it beeping, you wave the kikoy in  front of it to diffuse the smoke! genius!)
11. camera wrap
12. headscarf (bit bulky but works)
13. cleaning cloth for specs, hands, face, cars, car windows, etc.
14. sun shelter/parasol
15. blanket
16. shawl
17. pillow
18. pillow cover
19. rain cape (not amazingly effective in torrential tropical downpour though)
20. table cloth
21. superman/batman cape
22. dust protector
23. throw (for beds, shelves, sofas, etc.)
24. “garden glove” to pick up spikey leaves
25. steering wheel cover (if it’s too hot to touch)
26. modesty screen/lap sheet (e.g. when wearing  short skirt and having dinner at a Korean resto, i.e. sitting on the floor)/cleavage cover
27. wall décor
28. curtains
29. oven/stove glove (otherwise known as a potholder - very useful especially in Sudan because we can't seem to get off our asses to buy potholders!)
30. ring polisher
31. giant hanky (eeew)
32. giant serviette (also kinda 'ick' but beggars can't be choosers!!)
33. liner for a holey backpack (to stop small things falling out)
34. bedsheet/duvet cover
35. fire blanket/extinguisher (for small fires only!!!)
36. neck protector (for when you're in a car with unadjustable seat belt heights, and the seatbelt rubs your neck raw)
37. ironing board cushioning
38. closet lining (for when you're too lazy to clean the closet because you're not staying long, but you don't want your clothes to get dusty)
39. hijab

i love kikois

if there is one lesson i've learned that i will carry with me always, it is this: you should never leave the house without a kikoi. never.

:)

:)

i just saw giraffes and zebras crossing the street in nairobi on my way to the airport on sunday. they were babies - well, let's say teenagers. they looked like they were on their way home from a night out.

very sweet. made my travel to somalia, always hard, somehow easier.
--
posted on 09.05.09

are you sure this is the right address?

at one point, my work address was:

next to the nigerian high commission which is next to the italian restaurant next to casablanca (a club).

i got so used to these kinds of specific instructions in kenya that when i went to visit the states and was given just an address, i was a little bit confused and wondered whether i was in the right place even though the street, the house/building number, and the apartment number matched. when my friend finally arrived, i asked her why she didn't just tell me that her apartment was above a cuban restaurant because she could have saved me the trouble of being laughed at when i asked the taxi driver, more than once, whether he was sure it was the right place (at which point she promptly laughed at me too).

say what??

once, a collegue of mine asked me whether i could dance. he asked because he said i don't look like i could dance due to my being so serious all the time.

i was totally insulted!!

me, serious????? me, not dance????? (okay, so i'm no usher but i can kinda shake it if i need to!!) 

on the lighter side

when i was working at UNEP (this was in 2005) in nairobi, the kenyan interns told me that i sound like 'a polite black american'.

i told a good friend that and she said, 'yes, that describes you perfectly, doesn't it? because you're polite, black AND american!' i'd have to agree with her. :)