Something to celebrate!

The National Archives building is always my reference point when in Nairobi. That was where I was going to meet Christine today before going onwards to our place of discussion. Today I could see that there was a kind of photo exhibition going on outside the building called “Why We Do What We Do” by a youth organisation called Courage. Hordes of Nairobians and tourists were glued to the more than 200 pictures which tell the stories of Kenya’s past and present. It was a fascinating exhibition that did not shy away from the hard truths that are also part of the Kenya story. We made enquiries to speak with Boniface Mwangi (activist and photojournalist) who conceptualised the whole thing. Hopefully we can get hold of him before we return to The Netherlands.

Those who know me know I am a teetotaller. Well, almost. Which means I almost never consume alcohol. Today I was happy to make use of that word “almost”. You see today I met Christine who is the Africa Web TV correspondent/reporter/editor in Nairobi. The purpose was to discuss how to raise the profile of our organisation in Nairobi. The meeting and brainstorming session went so well that we had to properly celebrate with a glass of the best South African wine that was available at our meeting place. That wine probably tasted better because the results of our deliberations exceeded both our expectations.

Christine has to be the most talented, creative and hard-working 21 year old in Nairobi and Africa Web TV is blessed to have her in our corner. Now that I am in Nairobi, we have also been able to identify the technical bottlenecks that have been hampering the sending of her items since she joined Africa Web TV some months back. So while here we will do all we can to reduce these bottlenecks. Starting around the end of November you can expect to watch this creative Africa Web TV bird flying high in the Nairobi sky with all her reports and more.

I am now off to 1824 The Whisky Bar Lantanga road to join the inspection team I mentioned in my blog yesterday! Don’t stay awake or wait for me. If you hear that the whole of Nairobi has been painted red tonight, I would hold up my hand as one of the guilty parties!

Post script: 03:30 hours: 1824 The Whisky Bar Lantanga road was really cosy and nice. I joined Ines and Juliet there. Ines is a Belgian Africa Nighter who is here on vacation and she is being hosted by her friend Juliet. I enjoyed my second wine of the day there (this time it was white wine. I think I have had my full quota of alcohol for the rest of the year now!) The music was basically old school hip-hop from the 90s.

Then we decided to head back to the other side of Nairobi to the Mchana Pub N Grill in Ngong road. The music here was African and the VJ is Vinnie Banton who is also a local musician. The music was so good and reminiscent of Africa Night Tilburg music that I actually went on the makeshift dancefloor to basically dance on my own! Not only that, I must have danced for more than 30 minutes which will come as a another shock to those who know me! This is because I almost never dance and when I do it never lasts more than a couple of minutes. But hey, I had to really inspect the dance floor!

The highlight has to be the manager of the club, who more than often delighted the guests with his beautiful dance steps. It wasn’t so much the dance steps that were beautiful but his facial expressions while dancing. It was clear that this was a guy who enjoyed his work and his dance moves. I am definitely going back there with a proper camera before I return to base to take better shots of him instead of the smartphone shots I made tonight.

That is it readers. It is almost 4 am now. I got to catch some short sleep. On Saturday I should be attending my first ever rugby match in Nairobi. I hope I will enjoy it. Have a nice weekend.