MOVE DAY. THE START OF MY DREAM AND REALITY BEGINS.

It’s scary coming to a country where you are a minority and quite an obvious one at that.  But it is what you take on when you pick an Africa country as your country of choice and it isn’t like you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into.  But sometimes it just takes a little time with a whole lot of courage to tackle the small everyday things-like walking down the streets with confidence, finding out where things are and like any city that you don’t know, just simply finding your feet. 

It’s my last night in the hotel tonight and I am excited.  GG and I have a big day tomorrow.  We have white goods and big ticket items to buy, then some household shopping like a few lamps, shelves and then the part that most people would hate-food shopping.  But even that sounds exciting and it has been a very long time indeed that I have had to walk around a supermarket with a trolley buying food.  Pretty exciting times… really. 

Well I got a reply from the fancy health club here, about my question joining as a member and you do indeed have to have a member sign you up to be able ti use their facilities and he sent me the requirements which also involve showing identification, how long the member has known you, work history and scholarship credentials.  Anyone would think I want to sign up for the Police force or something.  I really like the idea of this club as they have 8 courts, the biggest one in the city, and with the membership fee of nearly 4000AUD, it may be worth paying it to get into the club and mixing with the right people to find that UN job that I have my eyes set on.  So I have replied back that I have only been here a week, is there no social membership that I could sign up for as it is extremely difficult to know someone from the club in a week.  Needless to say I haven’t had a reply.  Of well you can only ask.  BUT after posting on the NES (Nairobi Expat Social) asking people about squash courts I got 2 recommendations of courts where you can turn up and play and they aren’t too far from where my new place is.  Maybe a 15 minute drive, so once I get settled I’ll make the effort to go over and check them both out.  It’s a start and feels like I have a purpose, something to look forward to and at the end of the day, if there are no people to play, at least I am getting some exercise which this body needs desperately so it will still be a win in some shape or other.  It was nice to get 2 replies from my ‘Facebook’ group.  It really is a great idea. 

I had a few things I wanted to get done today with it being my last day in town.  I noticed when I was at MY PLACE that I didn’t have good mobile reception in the apartment, except for the kitchen area on the far side of the apartment.  Well that was going to be an issue as I am not getting a landline, it was going to be my source of communication.  GG was on Safari.com and he had full service through the whole place, so I went this morning to get a Safari.com sim card.  If you go to an agent, they can sign you up and register your number for you so you can basically walk out of the shop all ready to go.  I had a young guy signing me up and I have to say I am going to have to get used to this, but their customer service is different to ours.  If people come in for credit, he serves them and then continues on, there was some photocopying that had to be done for another guy, another guy needed to return a card and all the while he was still doing my stuff.  Some of them didn’t even say thank-you, but just seems to be a society norm here and I really have to break 38 years of being drilled with manners to accept that is the way they talk to each other.  I will always keep my manners, it is just the ‘done’ thing and I may just earn brownie points if I do say thanks as people may just appreciate it.  Kenya has this system using their phones where you can send money, pay for bills, top up your airtime, make shop payments and they have introduced this is a safe and reliable way for people to make payments.  Not only the reduction of people carrying cash, but with the corruption and money going missing etc… this is a good way to combat all that.  Anything you pay for here you have to be issued a receipt and I think I can even pay my rent via this option.  You get money onto your account by transferring money from your Kenyan bank account to your phone account, and if you are like me and don’t have a Kenyan account, you can go to an authorised dealer and give them the cash and they top up the account for you.  You can even transfer money from one person to another using your mobile phone.  Pretty nifty.  So I got my new friend to set that up for me on my phone and I also got him to set up my internet connection which is free to use Facebook with my account.  This will get me through till I get my internet connected at the apartment.  So I may be changing my number, but I will see how I go when I get settled in.  It’s always good to have a backup sim card anyway.     

I had to deposit my rent money into an account today at a bank.  I can’t remember the last time I went into a bank to do any business, I am an internet banker through and through.  But firstly I had to get cash out of the ATM to cover 2 month’s rent and a few deposits for the electricity, the water and the application fee.  In total it came to 56,000 which is a crap load of Kenyan money and  had to use 2 cards to get the cash as there is an ATM limit of 40,000KSH per withdrawal.  The first ATM wasn’t working and after trying my second card, a security guy came over to tell me it wasn’t working and to try the one down near the supermarket.  I started to use that but the maximum it would give you was 20,000 and I needed more than that for the rent.  So I remembered GG and I drove past a Barclays Bank yesterday and I had a small idea on where it was and made my way there.  Today was the first time that I have been accousted by people multiple times.  I got asked about going to the masai market, no thanks, no thanks-when do you leave-tomorrow.  I can show you an original artist-no thanks, no thanks-when do you leave tomorrow and the last guy wanted to take me somewhere to eat-no thanks, no thanks……ahhhhhhhhhhh NO THANKS.  My memory of the Barclays Bank was spot on and I was able to get out what I needed and I now needed to find the Co-Operative bank to get rid of this money quick smart.  Walking the Narobi streets with 650AUD was not really ideal.  I asked the Barclay security guy where the bank was and he had no idea, so I decided to walk to the next hotel and I would ask to which I was rewarded with great directions and with a spring in my step off I went.  I had people staring at me as I made my way, but with my head held high, I oozed confidence I was slowly starting to find, more each day and I felt ‘normal’.  Walking the streets of my new city, to do something normal like depositing money in a bank.  I found the bank no worries and walked in to find a sea of black faces looking at me.  I jusy walked around till I found a deposit form and like any bank over the world, there was a line, which I joined and waited my turn.  And like any bank in the world it was easy as pie and I felt a whole lot better when  left that I had got rid of all that money. 

The last thing I needed to do was I wanted to buy a small stereo that I had seen in Nakumatt the other day.  I didn’t see it at the Village market shop yesterday, so I figured I may as well buy it here as it was small and compact and just perfect for my new place.  It is a bit weird that I am now buying things that I have just given away to people in Brisbane before I left, but I wasn’t going to pay 15,000AUD to ship all that stuff here.  So the system here is you pick your large ticket item, you get given a form from the sales assistant with the code and cost and then you pay for it at a register (not the sales person) and then you get your receipt that the packing guy takes from the register and then you have to follow him to security at the front of the store, where you item will be waiting or on its way, and then it is checked-the box is opened and contents checked.  My box was given the all clear and then the packing guy wrapped blue twine around the box to keep it closed and then also made handles out of said twine for me to be able to carry it.  It’s quite a system to just buy one little stereo and the amount of hands it goes through to get to you.  Again it is all security based and I wonder how it will all be done tomorrow with big ticket stuff and more than one item.  I am just so glad that they will deliver and with GG and Charles on the case I will have a working fridge, a working TV and I am going to do a load of washing tomorrow as well.  Besides needing to just because I CAN!!!!!!!!  My couch will also be delivered tomorrow and I will have a posture-pedic mattress to sleep on tomorrow night with the bed base to come next week.  Yes, tomorrow can’t come soon enough.  I have asked Michelle to let my bank know that I will be making a large purchase tomorrow on my card in Kenya, so the ‘Falcon’ doesn’t swoop in and stop my account thinking it is a dodgy transaction.  I hope she remembers. 

The Kenyan elections are coming up on the 4^th March and the candidates are in full election mode.  I noticed a lot more security on the streets today as buses of party supporters drive through the city with loud music, whistle blowing and people hanging out the windows dressed in election shirts and hats.  This is the first time that there are 6 candiates running for the presidential seat.  It isn’t compulsory to vote in Kenya, and you have to pre-register to be able to have your say.  This gives the officials to check that people haven’t registered twice and rid the fake names off the rolls.  GG isn’t expecting any trouble, but I guess until you know what party wins the election, you just don’t know how the public will react. 

Finally I have to pack and finally for the VERY LAST TIME.  I think monster and I need some time apart and the great thing with my new bed is that it isn’t an ensemble, so I will be able to stash the monster under my bed and we both can just have a break.  The BEST thing about this pack is it doesn’t have to be bus ready or airline ready as GG is picking me up in the morning so I can have as much crap as I want as it will be going straight into his car.  That is the best packing ever.  I can’t say I will be sad to not be living out of a backpack, it will make a nice change and I even have coat hangers on my list to buy tomorrow which is also pretty exciting.  I will also think about getting a few boxes from Australia sent to just check that they make it.  GG seems to think there may be some form of duty that I may have to pay, which I have no idea on, so I think I will tell Shelly which boxes to send and get maybe 3 sent and see how it goes.  Some of the things I have packed are readily available here but when I initially packed the boxes in my defence I was heading to Ethiopia where the items were not so easy to get a hold of.  Oh well I may as well get them sent anyway.  I can always give the stuff away here if I double up on something that I may need now and can’t wait.

So tomorrow will be a big and exciting day. 

Tomorrow I move into MY PLACE…..

A place to call home and I can’t wait.