A DAY TRIP TO NAIROBI

A Purchaser’s Trip to Nairobi

 

Many of you have asked what the driving conditions are like here in Nairobi so I thought I would take you along with me on one of my trips to town.

Here are a few shots of the vehicle I drive. It is a Toyota van with a 5 speed transmission,

In order to accommodate all of the products I will be collecting, I have requested that seats be removed to provide more space. I have my two crates and a cooler that go with me. The crates are to keep things from rolling around in case of sudden stops (which there are many) the cooler is for perishable items brought home from the grocery store.

 

 

Our first sight is the gate to get off campus and access Kijabe road which will take me to the A-104 highway that takes me into Nairobi.  My first stop is to pick up a passenger.

 

This is John Karanga. He is my co-worker and shares many trips into town with me. John is from Kijabe. He works in the school arcade, goes into town to work to work on immigration issues for the staff and students and pastors a local church plant in the IDP (internally displaced people) camp formed after the violence of the previous elections; He is married and has two children. I drop John off downtown so that he gets a quicker start on his day. If not he would need to take several matatus (taxi’s) and his journey would be twice as long.

 

 

Here is a look at Kijabe road. The first obstacle is the tunnel. As you can see, there is barely enough room for my van to pass through. You can see the car trying to enter from the other side and sometimes these situations result in a Mexican standoff with neither party willing to back out of the tunnel. This time, the driver realized I had entered into the tunnel area and had no room to reverse out (I will explain that later) so he “graciously” allowed me passage through the tunnel first. Now we are heading up the hill towards the highway. Potholes are not uncommon, in fact they are more the norm on this road and learning to drive through this minefield is a challenge and the terrain changes daily. Also we need to deal with the other modes of transportation used locally to get there goods to the dukas (stores).

 

Now we are on the highway! The first half of the trip in is fairly uneventful with traffic moving at a fair pace. We do pass two police checks on our trip (sorry no pics of that) but Because we are in a school van they allow us to pass without stopping.

As we approach the first roundabout, traffic comes to a halt while drivers navigate there way through the roundabout with an “every man for himself” attitude. There are police present to assist traffic from backing up, but more times than not, they only cause more confusion.

 

Now we are in downtown Nairobi. I have some pictures for you to see and you will notice the donkey carts and “man” carts are as effective as automobiles as they have the same rights to the road. I won’t bore you with the details of my stops this day, but I wanted to show you  the sights.

Sometimes I underestimate the amount of things I am collecting and am forced to improvise.

Finally I am on the way home, back up the highway! I needed to make one last stop before going home to pick up some groceries and to use the ATM

to get some cash. I snuck this picture of the guard at the ATM and yes, that is an AK-47! Does that make you feel safe?






Further up the highway after leaving downtown Nairobi, you can see the roadside vendors are now open for business!

 

 

Finally it is back down Kijabe road across the one lane bridge, through the pothole minefield and through the tunnel, almost home! I wanted you to see why I mentioned I could not reverse out of the tunnel. Here is the view as you come through the tunnel on the way back. The mudslides last year devastated this area. The white rocks are meant to be a warning and you can see why they are there!

I am safely back on campus and just need to unload my van and return it to the vehicle shop. I hope you enjoyed this look at a trip to town. I had fun doing it. And for you statistics people…. The total mileage was 146 km and the total trip time was 6.5 hours!

Blessings,

Steve

Update December 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

 
We are finishing up this year’s annual Eastern Africa Regional Conference. It has been really an amazing time. 2 Corinthians - God's Grace is Sufficient - Paul mourns over the corruption going on in Corinth and writes of how he rebukes them for Christ. Paul wants us to remember, in our daily strife we need to continue to yield fully to the Gospel - keeping our focus on the investment Jesus made for us by giving His all for me at the cross. Felt like a slap in the face - how we choose to let our weariness take over our life. Also there were workshops - one on 'being a disciple' - another slap - just loving others isn't enough we need to disciple them to be disciples. We need to be more available to share God's truth.
 

Well we are comforted by this time of refreshment and teaching - meeting people from all over Kenya and Tanzania - learning how the 'real missionaries' face struggles and have victories for the gospel all at once. How when we are weakened enough we are more accepting of God's Grace. It is a great encouragement to see this reality in life. Not just assuming we are the only ones feeling discouraged and weary.