Valley Arcade

My apartment (the third I’ve had since arriving) is an unfurnished, 3 bedroom plus staff quarters (picture a very small room with separate bathroom) situated on the top floor (of course) of a brand new complex in the Valley Arcade neighborhood (which is about 15 minutes from downtown if there’s NO traffic and NO police check points). I like the area a lot. There is a shopping center within 10 minutes walk that houses cafes, a small family grocery store and a fresh fruit and vegetable store. Dry cleaning, pharmacy, and other stores are also open. Valley Arcade is green – loads of trees despite the construction boom that’s happening all over town and is quiet at night – lots of families living in the area so it feels very “small town”. People on the street are very friendly (as they are in most of Kenya) and you easily get to know the local vendors who have some kiosks on the road selling fruit, veg, sodas and other small items. People get to recognize you and are eager to say hello and to watch out for each other. The apartment itself looks like any apartment anywhere in America honestly. Wood floors, high ceilings, granite countertops in the kitchen, four bathrooms (if you count the SQ) and a large balcony looking out over the car park and a smaller balcony near the kitchen looking out over trees and some diplomat’s back yard where dogs like to bark at the monkeys. My apartment (where I have 2 roommates – Nairobi is NOT cheap!) is very comfortable and is furnished with a house full of furniture I bought super cheap from expats that were moving to Khartoum, Sudan. It’s not the sexiest, nicest stuff – but it works and it’s there… Some bits are borrowed (again from good friends down the road) like the stove, TV, and a futon. I have the master bedroom, which is enormous – probably 20x20 with 10 foot ceilings and a very large master bathroom with a “roman” tub and separate shower…not too shabby. My room is big enough that I can easily disappear into it and watch a movie and not feel like I’m “confined”.

And with beauty and comfort comes pain – anyone who has ever had a bikini wax can confirm this… So…not every outlet works…and not every closet door stays on all of the time. This is a brand new building and I’m convinced that the contractor and workers were largely blind and/or dyslexic when they built the place. Window handles break off, don’t work, or just fall three stories to the ground. It’s all good. Repairs are always a challenge as the landlady is a nutty Maasai who is constantly up country and her contractor is a nice guy who wants to flirt and not get much done… The first few months were hell as many things had to be repaired which meant I spent a lot of time waiting, and waiting, and watching repairs. (A year later and things have settled...although the landlady is still "up-country" and thus unreachable and I've managed to fire her contractor and find my own for repairs...)

Water is the major challenge along with electricity. Water and power rationing were in effect for months during the dry season and so every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we were without power from 8AM-6PM. The schedule was very precise (well pretty precise) and you learned to just handle it. The water schedule however, (when water is actually released through the city pipes to your neighborhood) is much less precise and so there have been times when I’ve had to contact a local water delivery truck to fill my upper and lower tanks… The trick you see is to get water delivered on a day with electricity so that the water dumped into the lower tank can be pumped into the upper tank until its full so that the lower tank can be filled again. With me? Yes – it’s as much fun as it sounds. We’re all pretty spastic about conserving water in the house so that’s good. Every day I have to ask the maintenance guys if we have water… If we do, they smile and say “YES Miss Rebecca we have water!” If there’s no water they apologize as if they were the guys turning it on and off. On days when we have water, laundry can be done… On days when water isn’t coming in, the washing machine becomes forbidden until either water is released by the city or we decide to break down and buy it. Water days make me want to develop a crack habit. Not having electricity three days a week has been torture for my little fridge. It has so far survived but I’m not sure another season will pass by before its fried. Being turned off and on is killing it. I can purchase an inverter which stores power and would keep the fridge running when power is off but those cost about $300.00US and that’s just more than I can afford. So for now we caress the fridge and talk softly to it hoping it keeps going. Electricity issues also mean that I’ve taken to showering at night. At night, the power is on and the water is flowing. I don’t trust mornings. Things in Kenya are far too unpredictable to count on the electricity running to 8AM when they shut it off. More than one roommate has been caught with a soapy head at 7:45AM…so I’ve decided to trust what is working at the moment and avoid a theoretical approach to life for most things. If the stores have my cheddar cheese, I buy two. If they have my Skippy peanut butter (which they haven’t for months) I buy three.

Grocery shopping, by the way, takes on a whole new dynamic because really you have to visit four or five stores to get the goods you want. The big chain supermarket Nakumatt cannot manage to supply the exact same goods at every location so that’s a nice challenge all by itself (picture a Wal-Mart without the spiffy Wal-martness). Chandarana Yaya doesn’t have the French mustard that Chandarana ABC has…and it goes on and on. I dread grocery shopping. I really dread shopping on any level in Kenya because it means traffic, matatus, police, a really warm store with no A/C, a crowd, and probably 2-3 trips before you find all of the bits you want. Africa is not about convenience – EVER. You have to love the challenge or you’ll go insane…or home. I shop on a limited basis (those who know me know that cooking is NOT a pleasure) and go without until I suck up the energy for the big battle… But shopping isn’t all bad…it’s also entertaining. About a year ago, I needed some small wire mesh to protect my new kitten from falling off the balcony… I went into the closest Nakumatt and found monkey wire…no not chicken wire (which they have) but Monkey wire. It’s very nice. Of course I didn’t buy enough and went back to another Nakumatt for some more – no joy. I then visited yet another Nakumatt while out in Karen – no joy. I finally sucked it up and went back to Nakumatt Prestige (they all have names) and bought more. Monkey wire…for the monkeys in the trees of course and for a 1 pound kitten named Toffee.

As an update...new boyfriend means I cook...a lot...and shopping has taken on a whole new level of insanity at times. More on that later...

Oh! And Toffee is now 1 and we have Bandit kitty as well - he's about 8 months old now. They're best friends...more on that as well a bit later.