ABOUT MY NEW PLACE

So my new place.

I know it seems like I go ON and ON about my new place, but it really is hard to explain how good it actually feels. It’s weird and liberating all at the same time. I just look around and I smile. I’m smiling on the inside and on the outside. I am now definitely, officially living in Kenya. All my talk for the last 12 months has come down to this move and to this point in time.

I AM LIVING IN AFRICA

So what is my place like?

I have told you all about finding it and furnishing it but what is it like?

I am in a suburb of Nairobi called Ruaka. I am a 15-20 minute drive from the city centre and it seems there are different opinions from the few people I have spoken to about the safety-ness of the area. I am in a building of 24 apartments over 6 floors that are situated directly off one of the artery roads that feed onto the super highway 10 minutes away. There are 2 shopping centres 15 minutes’ drive away and the UN Headquarters and the American Embassy amongst others are also in the same suburb as the shopping centres. My building is enclosed by a 5m wall around the whole property with razor wire on the top and they are currently installing a 1.5m electric fence on top of that as well. I am on a lower ground floor, actually 2 floors down in a corner apartment that has a small courtyard that faces the back of the property wall. I had an initial worry that I was on the ground floor, in regards to people breaking in, but GG reckons it is one of the better places to be due to the electric fence and that I do back onto the wall. So no view from where I am, but I did have a choice of a view on the ground floor (we’re on a hill), overlooking the banana plantations, or no view and I get the courtyard and the corner unit-no brainer for me. I must admit I am in a ‘local’ area. The shops outside the wall are all local shops. Small sheds and shipping containers that have been converted into small businesses from a women selling vegetables, the small corner shop, shops where you can buy credit for your phone and some local eating establishments. The kind that have long wooden benches out the front and an open fire cooking corn cobs and I am not sure what else. There are some furniture places and then there are the nurseries that house hundreds of plants in the open. No green houses, no buildings, there are literally plants lining the road in plastic bag pots being cared for by ladies and waiting for the sale. I would love to buy some for the courtyard, but I am not sure where you get pots from-I’ll need to ask GG. So the area I live in there are no ‘white people’-it is a local area. Apparently there are some UN workers that have moved in last week and I know of the Irish guy on one of the upper floors-but I am yet to see any of them yet. I feel safe enough. We have a 24 hour security guard on the front gate, that is always closed, and you have to toot, if you have a car to be allowed onto the grounds.

I am living in a new apartment. It has never been lived in and I don’t think I have ever lived in a brand new place-the first resident-ever. I should probably clarify ‘new’. It is new, the buildings and apartments are still getting the final touches to them and out of the 24 there are only 2 that have not been rented yet. Like anything new there are going to be things that need fixing, amending or cleaned. We were told that the place would be cleaned before I moved in on Thursday and I am not sure who they go to clean the joint (maybe someone who was blind) but it was not really super clean when I moved in. There was dust on everything, the floors were dirty and there was mud marks on the bottom of all the doors etc…. It wasn’t a big deal as it is all superficial-I just needed to get some elbow grease in there and get it all spick and span. Keeping in mind this is Africa and I am sure that their building regulations and customer expectations probably aren’t as high as what we would expect in the ‘western world’. All the door handles have paint on them and also plaster drops, which again I will be able to clean myself. All the cupboard doors have pencil writings on them still, which again I can fix but let’s just say that their eye to detail and the finishing touches are not what you get back home for a new place. I am not complaining. It is home and I love it. My front and back doors are made 100% of metal and to lock them there are 2 bolts that slip across. The big bolt at the top can be reached through what is the mail compartment and the lower bolt can’t be reach at all. To lock my front door we bought a padlock in the shopping yesterday and this goes on the big bolt, through the latch when I go out. The windows are an African version of French but made of welded metal, the same as the front door, so it is the double edged sword of keeping people out, but if there was a fire and the door was blocked then there will be no other way out.

I am in a 2 bedroom apartment. You come through the front door and you are immediately in the lounge room which is approximately 4.5m x 6m in size. Once through toilet is straight in front of you and then the shower is in a separate room next to it. The shower is a wet room, there is no place for a cupboard or bathmat, the small room 2m x 3m is just all tiled and shower only. There is a small basin outside where you can brush your teeth and wash your hands etc…… The kitchen is just about as large as the lounge room and if you retrace your steps back past the shower and toilet you get to the 2 bedrooms one on the left and one on the right that is next to the lounge room. They are medium in size, maybe fringing on the small. One is 3.6m x 4m in size and the smaller one, which I have chosen for my room is 3.2 x 4m. I chose the smaller room as the natural light is far better than the other room and there wasn’t much in it anyway. There are plenty of windows through the whole place and I am getting a friend of GG’s to make the curtains for all of them, it is pretty open without the curtains, I feel a little exposed, but hopefully I will get them this week.

As mentioned before being a new apartment there are a few things that need to be ‘fixed’. Charles has been so good about it and told me anytime I need anything that I can just call him, otherwise he is always around and to come and talk to him. I wonder if he will regret telling me that. I am a pretty easy going person and once everything is fixed I know I won’t be too much of a bother. So I have kept a little list and as Charles sends in the appropriate people to fix them I can cross it off and he has been pretty good to date. The first night I didn’t have water-so I called Charles at 9pm and he came down at 9.15pm and said to give him 10 minutes, as he hadn’t turned on my unit. I waited till 10pm and just left it till the following morning and bailed him up again. He looked surprised as he had turned it on, and there was an air bubble in the pipes, which he cleared and wallah, I had water. Other small things that needed attention included: the cupboards and drawers needed realigning in the kitchen and the bedrooms, a leaking toilet-toilet seat, leaking sink tap, some window latches wouldn’t close, I needed to get the washing machine to get connected, drainage getting fixed in the back patio and the painting of the patio walls. I didn’t think that list looks unreasonable.

So now I want to make my place, my home. All my souvenirs are packed in bags and boxes in Brisbane, so it will seem a little crazy to race out and buy more African knick knacks when I have 3 boxes of worldwide pieces that I am going to get shipped. So I have made a deal with myself and I won’t go crazy buying things, I will buy one or 2 nice, bigger pieces and then just wait till I get my stuff is shipped. The walls look a little bare, but again I have over 5 pictures that I can remember, also in Brisbane, so again I won’t buy any news ones and just be patient for once and wait. It will kill me, but I will wait. I reckon they will be the most well-travelled African knick knacks ever by the time they get back to their motherland-hilarious really. I bought them here, paid money to ship them to Australia and now I’m paying money to send them back again. Frustrating really as patience is not one of my better virtues and in Swahili, pole pole-which means slowly-slowly, GG reminds me that it will all come together over time, and he is right. BUT I am going to go to a Masai Market they have every Friday at the shopping centre, just too look, and see what they have. I am sure it will be western prices anyway, but it won’t hurt to look will it? I would also like to stop at some of the roadside stalls that we pass when we travel to the centre. I have seen some mirrors that have caught my eye and I think I may purchase one for the lounge room. That would be okay wouldn’t it?

So that is an introduction to MY PLACE.

It is home-its feeling more and more like home each day and I am happy to be here.

Now all I need are some new friends, maybe a job eventually-but I am now home.