January 9 – Nairobi
At the Royal Apartments in Nairobi, you need 5 keys to manage: one for the security gate to enter the building, one for the security gate to enter the apartment, one for door to enter the apartment, one for the door to the apartment, and as I eventually figured out, one to lock the kitchen door. This means that getting in and out of the apartment is a troublesome and sometimes time consuming activity. All of the keys look more or less the same, they are big, brass and old-fashioned, and even the right key doesn’t actually work very well. For this reason, I always start out early, to give myself time to lock and unlock. This morning, tucked between the door and the security gate for the apartment, I found my dinner for the night before. I wonder what time they thought I was going to eat?
At Aga Khan University, we met in the boardroom of the Provost’s Office – it’s a great room for a workshop: well equipped, comfortable and just the right size. It is also beautifully furnished. It was great to see everyone again, there were a couple of new faces, but I have been working with everyone else for several years. After the greeting and catching up was over I opened my folder to get my notes and begin the workshop, and there was a row of red ants marching out of the pocket of my folder. Not sure if they were the biting kind, I dumped them on the floor as discreetly as possible and stepped on them. There are some red ants here that have a really nasty stinging bite, and I didn’t want to check if these were them. I don’t think anyone noticed me stomping the carpet, and if they did, I hope they just put it down to a strange Canadian ritual.
One of my colleague-friends from Pakistan, gave me a beautiful shawl, beautifully embroidered. He had remembered that I really like bright colours, and had chosen one with embroidery in several rich colours. Even though many people think of Pakistan as a hot country (and it is…it can be over 40 in the summer), it also gets quite cold, and this shawl is made of finely woven wool. It will be warm as well as making me smile when I think of good friends in faraway places.