Skip to main content

Briana: 1. Car: 1.

I got my car to the mechanic this morning just after 8am, as he asked, even though the car parts shops didn't open until 9am. I hung around, watching him fix a few other cars, and after only about two hours, my car was fixed - to the grand tune of about $11. Hallelujah!

Briana: 1. Car: 0.

Then, I had to go get the car washed to get all the oil off the underside and engine, plus power washing all the fine, brown dust from Shompole away. That cost about $20 and took another two hours. At that point, I realized it was too late to leave for Ol Pejeta today and get there before dark, so Fire (my colleague working on the Ol Pejeta project with me) and I went off to run some errands.

As we were pulling into the Sarit Center, basically the local mall where I do nearly all of my errands, I started to smell an electrical burning smell coming from my dashboard. Immediately after that, I noticed small wisps of smoke rising from the place where my steering column and dashboard intersect. Fire took her seatbelt off and started to move towards the window, leading me to think she was ready to open the door and jump out of the car if the dashboard was to spontaneously combust or something. It turns out she was simply looking at the hood to see if there was smoke coming from there as well. (We've had a few laughs since at the idea that I thought she was about to jump out of the car!). Just after that, I noticed that the indicator lights (turn signals) weren't working. Hm. Perhaps the power wash somehow shorted out my indicators? Anyway, I no longer have functioning indicators. Which most people in Nairobi don't use anyway.

Briana: 1. Car: 1.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

But... where do you go to the bathroom out there?!?

[NOTE: PLEASE IGNORE THE RANDOM BLACK SPECK IN THE UPPER RIGHT QUADRAT OF ALL OF THESE PHOTOS. SOME IRRITATING PROBLEM WITH MY LENS, I THINK. GRRRR.] This is one of the most common questions I get, so I decided to let you know all about our bush bathroom! I go to the bathroom in a long drop "choo" (Swahili for toilet, rhymes with "yo", not "you"). When you enter in the "front door", You can see it's a big hole dug in the sand, with a toilet seat on it, surrounded by a wooden frame wrapped with muslin on all sides and open on the top. We make sure there's plenty of toilet paper, and insect spray - which you can see tucked away behind a post on the right - for the flies that invariably like to hang out there. To discourage the flies, we also scoop sand from these buckets and throw it down into the hole to cover the, uh, stuff. Unfortunately, whoever designed this toilet seat - with the ring part made of wood, but the rest made of metal - di...

D minus a week and a day

I'm leaving for my annual migration to Kenya soon, just like the wildebeest.... well, only there's a few million less of me than there are of them. Also, I'd like to think I run in a few less circles than they do, given that they spend their year basically making a big circle between Kenya and Tanzania in the Serengeti/Mara ecosystem (though that's debatable!). I'm going through my usual 'I'm leaving soon' routine: getting together with friends who want to spend a little time before I leave for a few months; making sure I can take care of all my (as my fab friend Fire calls it) "personal admin" online while I'm gone - banking, paying utilities, etc.; adding things to the duffel bag I keep stocked during the rest of the year with my 'going to Kenya' things. It's always hectic, and no matter how well I plan - and those of you who know me know I plan! - there's always a lot to do at the last minute. So it's D (departure) mi...

close encounters with the local (intestinal) flora

Well it didn't take long... I don't usually get sick in Kenya, but I have been having a little tummy trouble for the last day and a half or so. I must have eaten something iffy. Or maybe it was accidentally brushing my teeth with the tap water on my first day. Regardless, it knocked me out for Friday night and most of yesterday, but I'm beginning to feel better. All I ate yesterday was an avocado (they are so inexpensive and delicious here, along with the juicy mangoes!), some banana flavored yogurt, loads of soup and herbal tea, and one actual meal - the fish fillet from Dorman's Cafe in the Sarit Center for an early dinner. I finally did some foodshopping, figuring I'd prefer cooking in to eating out especially when I wasn't feeling well. I was impressed to see a slightly larger variety of food than last year, and even a few organic labels. I bought some bok choy, feeling adventurous, and having had a yummy bok choy and mushroom dish at a Chinese restaurant in...