Gillman's point, Stella's point,....Uhuru!

This basically sums up my 2010. The three points on my trek to the roof of Africa, and what they represent through my struggle last year. I had the chance to make the climb up Kilimanjaro in December last year, choosing the easiest of the 6 roots aptly named Coca cola or Fanta route because of it's relative ease as contrasted by the Cognac or whiskey route that is supposed to be the toughest. Armed with the knowledge that I was physically unprepared for the excursion, I trusted my psychology to see me through. Having done several hikes before, I know that it is usually 75% psychology and 25% physical. The night before we left for Moshi, is when I was busy putting my stuff together...jacket-check, boots-..oooh crap ziko South-C, Sleeping bag - double crap..they're in Spring valley...what else did that list say?...oooh bother! Anyway I was busy running around Nairobi putting my ish together. I did not sleep, not until 2am. This basically explains my approach to life so far, random, unplanned and relying on the "government to plan that far ahead"....I really need some order in my life I think.

On to 17th when we were to depart for my 2010 crowning excursion. We were meant to meet at the rendezvous point at 7.30am...at least the one thing I pride myself is having a clock in my brain. If I hadn't had a detour and attempted to wait for someone, I would have been in at exactly 7.30am, but I barely made it at 7.45am as other travelers on our shuttle gave us the proverbial dagger eyes. We attempted to stall the bus driver for my pal Brayo who operates on GMT timing, but it was not to be..he would later find his way and us in Moshi that day.

Skipping the on-the-road happenings, which were whole new stories in themselves, we arrived at the "Gentleman's palace" in Marangu, near the gate to the Park, where we were to rest before setting off the following day on what brought us to the land of Mwalimu Nyerere.

Now Kilimanjaro is an interesting mountain. The Coca-cola route can be done by basically anyone...what i mean is that it is not a technical climb requiring ropes and those spiked boots we see rock-climbers using in the pictures. Good thing is some of the stuff can be hired at the gate. So there I was hiring them hiking sticks, and goggles (I forgot my shades, which are useful for the UV and reflection on the snow up there). We had 13 porters in our troupe of eight, including three guides.

We trudged along the trail up the mountain after some pep talk and paper work at the gate to get our permit........As the guides put it, "hamna haraka....tunaenda POLE,POLE!" Now that's what my lazy ass is talkin about. The pace was comfortably slow....that I could live with, not until one of the guides, Novatus (honest... that was his name) took us on a sprint up the hill when it started raining that day. The cabins at Mandara, Horombo and Kibo made for some fun camping-like atmosphere despite the below zero temperatures. Being out of shape, and ill-prepared for the climb brought its challenges....When summiting after day 3, I suffered what everyone is warned about and what I dreaded...altitude sickness. I was dizzy, nauseous and having a headache at the same time, and the thin air made breathing a task in itself. Like I said earlier, my take is that it is 75% mental and 25% physical, and this was one of the times I had to call on all my will to put my next foot forward, something I have learnt to do in life whenever faced with serious obstacles, expectations and mountains to climb. Granted I was the last one of our lot to make it to both Gilmann's and Uhuru, but I can say I made it to the roof of Africa. You get a certificate depending on which point you reached...Gilmann's point - 5685m, Stella's point, 5745m and Uhuru 5895m. Those 300m between Gilmann's and Uhuru are perhaps the most difficult things you will ever have to do....But you should try it!

Coming down was another issue in itself, what took others two and a half hours took me twice that time coz of my dizziness...I was snowed on on my way down and had no time to rest at camp as I found guys packed and ready to depart for the next cabins (Horombo, some 12km away). I got my scars from the mountain though (frostbites and fatigue that took me the Christmas period to shake off) and all I can say is it was worth it.

Next on my to do list.....deep sea diving! Let's see what that will be like.

For all those who made it to Uhuru, congrats, and for everyone else, that was fun!

Neighbourhood watch

It's been long since I went for those neighbourhood committee meetings that characterise most estates. I live in a pretty large one for normal standards, and in such numbers you find a healthy variety of characters, from the combatant and possessive guys who "own" certain parking slots, to the nonchalant "yes" men, even the odd graphic "tell it as it is" daktari.

Anyway just before the fist fights and the odd drunk guy who wanted to comment on everything, the agenda was set by the chairman (I swear it was the first time I was seeing the bloke!). Security, Committee fees (It can not dare miss!), the Audited accounts, and A.O.B (where all the drama unfolds)

Moving on swiftly to A.O.B, we had already discussed at length the security concerns, and how this being the countdown to the holidays the thugs are also ramping up their activity to have enough to celebrate with their loved ones, a concept pregnant with irony. People gave random ideas however impractical, after all it is an open and democratic forum....Hire more watchies (baton in a gunfight....hmmm! that will really help), have the watchie stopping ALL vehicles getting into the main gate (there was a learned friend who proposed stickers on resident vehicles who was shouted down coz of costs. Anywayin the end, no consensus, but a lot of arguments.

Coming to the contributions, committee fees, et al...The financials were read so fast and sketchily and a disclaimer of the accounts having been audited and are transparent thrown in for good measure ("Receipts = KShs X, We spent KShs Y, and we have 6,000 bob remaining...and we had this audited....").

Moving to the AOB, we had complaints of 15 year olds having closed school and should be monitored...(Damn it, are we the parents?....if the brat has hormonal imbalance, it will sort itself out), Someone threw garbage at his neighbour's doorstep..heh heh heh Now that was funny. Me being in the penthouse, there is only one culprit in such a case, so am safe. The victim at least saw the house-help responsible, picked up the garbage bag and dumped it right back at the front door of the aggressor (I would have emptied the contents as well!) There were those agitating for an estate bash, the teetotalers canvassing fro a tea party and the alcoholics wanting the option of coming with their own bottles/kegs/drums. No sooner had we started discussing this, some conservatives started invoking NEMA and how we should not go ahead with the bash, but instead get a permit from them for those of us intending to celebrate (That is when I knew you are only allowed to have a bash upto 11pm or else get a permit if you want to extend). Well somebody made an interesting observation..."Maybe he does not want to pay anything..amesota! Wacha wale wetu waliobarikiwa na pesa tujivinjari (which loosely translates to how broke the dude must be, he's just looking to hide behind excuses..Let those of us blessed with moolah to spend it however we please!)

As the entertainment progresses, mother nature intervened and dumped the cloud contents on us as we scampered for shelter. Another day maybe we'll get to finish what was started. An I Lied...there were no fist fights..yet!

Holidays

It's long since I had this switching-off mode and the laziness/laissez faire attitude that is attached to the days close to Christmas. Well, since 1999 when I finished skool, I have basically had exams in Dec up until last year when I did my last "work-study" exam in my ngumbaru years. So i have basically been stressed and running around like a headless chicken for the better part of this past decade.

Normally I dash out of the house in a huff at about 7am to join the Nairobi jam on Langata road on my way to the ofisi. Well normally I would give myself some 45-50 minutes to follow the traffic snarl-up as I listen to the retards on the morning shows on radio. Today almost everything was going wrong...I chucked late from the house (7.15am is late, in my books), the car decided to die (Bless you my unnamed neighbour hero for the jumpers ...you are a true godsend..al try look for you and buy you a cold one!). At least I got to meet my other fly neighbour and give her a lift (there is usually too much testosterone in my mobile...something for a change!). Anyway now to spoil my morning.... I knew it would take me at least one hour to get to the office. I had milked the "where I can drop you to find the quickest mat into town" vibe and "expertly" advised on the Kenya National Library stage in Community. Well I expected the queues to start along Langata road as we came down, but noooo...barabara alikuwa nyweeeee! Not even a 10 minute stop by the cops at the roundabout?...well onto Mbagathi we went, and same result. I was at the KNH roundabout in record time..15 minutes from home where I would have taken 50 minutes! Well as I dropped her and sped off in my mum's twin turbo charged monster, It did not hit me until I was in the office that SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED!

The roads will be clear for another one month as guys go on leave, no school buses on the road, people will start the urban rural migration and Bara-Coasto migration to go squander some cash in the name of Christmas. For now I will enjoy some lazy days as we go into the festive season, and since only the government plans that far ahead, wait and see how things will go from here.

Silence therapy

For some time now I have been operating like a zombie, taking each day as it comes oblivious of my sorroundings' going ons. I lacked direction, motivation or sense of purpose, basically a robot if I may call my state of being in this time. Plenty of things were happening around me, and my indifference was worrying some people close to me. I had a thousand and one "why" queries, no one to ask, or rather I kept them to myself. I know I am an introvert, so I let time deal with my problems.

Anyway if I appeared grumpy to you, annoyingly distant or just plain snobbish, just know I was trying to sit down and come to terms with my mental turmoil. Well it is that time of the year when everything is hurried so that guys meet their holiday deadlines and have a stress free Xmas. That's beside the point.

I have been struggling with some information similar in kind, but in two separate instances, that I stumbled upon. In each case, I have two people on either side of the issue. I am then placed between a rock and a hard place as the conflicting parties are what I consider people close to myself and each require me to side with them. If i keep quiet about it, I will get a shellacking, if I open my mouth on either side it does not bode well with either side. For once there is no fence to sit on, so you can imagine the mental drain as I try the thousand and one permutations in dealing with this. I know the therapy for this is usually speaking to someone about it, whether they give you any solutions or they don't...so long as it is out there, there is usually some relief from the mental burden.

This situation got me thinking either way, sometimes being diplomatic/ politically correct can leave you in a position that is pretty difficult. I value friends, and I usually don't have a particular ranking for them, but when there is a fallout and am thrust to the fore to side with one of them,...my natural instinct is to run away from both, and if I bump into either of them...smile and wave..... Coward?...maybe, but alive as they say we live longer.

El Klassiko part 2

In what was characterised more by the off-field tragedy than the on-field goings-on, Saturday's second meeting between the former Kenyan soccer heavyweights (K'ogalo and Ingwe..aka Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards), left some of us not "feeling" the atmosphere that the match is usually characterised by. Well for the umpteenth time, the queue management was bogus and the enraged fans brought down gate 2 as people were trampled in the ensuing stampede that left 7 dead. the ambulance, police and first aiders reaction was pathetic to be modest with my words. The needless loss of lives for a hundred bob is so annoying.

Well, as the fat cats in the football administrators' fraternity sat on their oversized backsides, and continue with their despicable wrangling for power (while siphoning funds if I may add), innocent people were trampled on.

Anyway away from my anger and onto more serious technology stuff....Mr. Blackberry really did us proud and we got revenge on the dotted cats from mulembe....The medicineman skinned the cat.

The one thing i take away from that game though, was the concern people had for me. My high skool pal (name withheld lest I spoil his plans) once told me, the one test he would use to see if a chick/gal/woman genuinely loved and valued him was to go on a hike, to say Longonot, and when they reach some difficult section, he would fall pretend to have strained his ankle and therefore be "incapable of trekking further". If she left him for dead, so would he. Well I got to know which people really know what I do and like and therefore show concern fro my well-being. you know yourselves, thanks for the genuine calls of concern, and I love you all too.

Deaf and really dumb!

September is almost up and I think I had not written anything the entire month. The therapy I get from just typing my thoughts helps me maintain sanity in my hectic schedule.

Well I was lucky to get onto that Airbus A380 from Dubai to Paris for another week in the city of romance (or so they say), and at least this time round I also got to walk around the unspoken of part of the city that you never see in those travel brochures or hear about. But I like reality and i enjoyed my visit to the other side of Paris. (Thanks to an old friend....)

So after a grueling week of torturous training from dawn (the sun rises at 8.30am or thereabouts..so 6am and 7am is dark!) to dusk (then the sun stays up until about 9.30am..honestly I could go mad in this day-night pattern!), I hooked up with my pal at Charles de Gaul something something station where the tours start. i was being educated on the Parisian transport system. You have the TGV - aka bullet train for long distance travel, the RER - medium distance (ok am exaggerating) travel to the suburbs of Paris and the Metro which runs around the Parisian city. My tour would entail multiple use of the Metro of which I had no ticket..that's a story for another day.

Anyway. I started off at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Basilique du Sacré-Cœur). We climbed up a steep street to the highest point on Paris (I think) and the view was the greatest!...On the way up however, we went past the hasslers of Paris with their pata potea games going on in earnest..and they played for 50 Euros (saw some dumb kid getting swindled and almost crying). On our way down, they even pulled the kanjo in a d area stunts hawkers pull in Nai where they kick there cardboard box tables and scatter as the cops arrive.

We also met up with some "deaf and dumb" kids. The buggers created those forms for sponsor that we used to be swung in Primo to collect cash for walks etc, and then the first two names would be for some anonymous fellas who had "donated" 10Euros or 20Euros (very cheeky) The forms had two headings in French explaining what the collections were for (some Deaf and Dumb society for kids in Paris). As the kid approached me, he gestured at his ears trying to indicate how deaf he was. I spoke to him in English telling him I could not read French, and he quickly pointed to the section printed in English....Ni vizuri nilienda skuli bana. Scammers are everywhere! On my way down from the Basilica, the colleagues approached me again, and the "deaf" kid who had approached me in the first place told them to back off because i did not speak any French (He actually spoke to them in the most fluent English I had heard in Paris that week...he should even have been better off teaching English to some French brats)...then he cheekily stuck out his tongue at me!

Maybe al reserve my other French tales for another day.

August woes and my new resolutionz

August as one of my friends would say is one disaster of a month. Nothing good ever comes of it. Looking back into past years, his theory may well hold some water....The August 8th debacle by Osama, the August 12th house (parliament), most people I lost somehow expired in August, and the Sudanese prezzo visited Kenya in August. I missed my promulgation holiday in August, just to name a few.

Anyway I have had a torrid end to that month, topped by some nasty flu bug that has been doing the rounds in the office this recent past. Now I pride my immune system for rubbishing some of these infections and going makmende whenever some cold threatens to cut me down to size. Well I think my immune system was getting too corky. Enter Super Flu X4BG79$#..something ..something virus! Needless to say I had been a cabbage...congested throat, fever, wobbly knees, stress at jobo, you name it!

Well as I crawled through the month, coughing and spitting my lungz out, I thought to myself...I was never this sickly when I was a sporty character and I used to run around religiously. When I went to the hospitali, and in the process of checking my weight, pressure and temperature, the dial on the weighing machine groaned as it swung to regions on the scale it last reached when it was undergoing quality tests. Then came one of my many resolutions for the month of September....al reduce my kilos, and keep a fitter regime. I have enrolled for the "roof of Africa" climb in December, to that effect.

So the fitter me will be seen in a place near you soon.