Cars, traffic and quite a bit of houses...

On our way back now from Nairobi, still in Nairobi. Waiting for our flight to take us home or at least to Paris (yes, we’ll always have Paris). Actually we should have been home already, but that is a long story. Let’s just say the gods haven’t been with us, at least when it comes to flying…

We have spent four days in Nairobi, instead of the original three, and I can sum it up in one word – trafficjams (yes of courseI know it is really two words, but I’m taking some liberties here, sorry miss Margareta Ax). I have been warned of the traffic and I saw some last year, but man, you don’t wanna go driving during rush hours. First rule of the Fight Club: You don’t drive during rush hours. Second rule of Fught Club: You don’t drive during rush hours and so on.

If you end up doing it anyway, you should have a lot of patience, more patience, a big car, be bold and don’t really mind the traffic rules (what rules?).

The mission of our trip was to find a good school for our kids, and a place to live near by (again, because of the traffic). We have visited five schools, seen about 40 or so apartments and 10 something houses. Apart from that we have sat in a car, nicely provided to us by Kenya Airways (KQ), from 9 to 5 every day. What we have sat through, would have been done in one and a half day in Finland. But of course, we are not in Finland right now are we? Aah, back to the Gin and tonic, I mean story.

We had a great driver for three of the days, Charles, who seemed to know everything about everything, so we had some nice discussions during the long hours moving hardly nowhere. Charles is an excellent example of Kenyans, friendly, talkative, educated and proud. We did get quite a bit of  real life info, even some politics. Thanks dude, hope to see you again.

Day four, today, our driver was nice enough, but quite silent and kept listening to some sort of missionary/Christian radio. Now I know what Paul said in his letter to the Philippines (or somewhere). He was in prison anyway.

To house or not to house

Thework as a real-estate agent is apparently quite a lucrative job, at least based on the amount of them. Actually, I’m kidding, there are many wannabees/amateurs around. This is how it works:

You hook up with them and tell them what you are looking. Then they will start with showing you the worst places they have, because they are desperate to get rid of them. Slowly the standard will improve, once you have told them quite a few times what you really are looking for. “Oh, so what are you really looking for?” “Hang on, let me make a few calls”. Eventually you end up viewing apartments shown by four or something agents, because your agent didn’t have the key to that apartment, but the friend of his friend has. And so it goes on.

Also, fully furnished apartment in most cases means there are beds, a kitchen table, sofas and a tv. By no means new ones. If you’d be staying there for one month, sure, but not two years.

If you have time enough (and money), eventually you will get closer to what you are looking for. If you’re lucky, you may even find it.

We were supposed to be looking for furnished 3 bedroom apartments costing 1300e/month, we ended up looking at houses or condos, unfurnished, costing up to 2500 and 3000e. Also we were supposed to look in three areas, Kilimani, Kileleshwa and Lavington (because they are closer to the airport), we ended up looking in Karen (which is nice, but not in the town). Actually, the last agent was actually a rather nice (and honest, or at least straightforward) Englishman, not in New York but in Karen.

Did we find something? We’ll get to that.

The final round

The schools we visited were all basically nice. International schools seem a bit more demanding than the finnish ones (I don’t quite understand how we can top the Pisa-study in Finland…). A big challenge with the language for the kids, from 0 to 100 in two months (hopefully), but doable.

As far as the housing goes, we did find one or two apartment that was almost nice, except for the outdoors area, but none felt really right. We also saw a few houses that we could see ourselves living in, but they all were actually unnecessary big. Apparently you need to have a bathroom and shower in every bedroom, a formal and a family living room as well as dining room, not to forget the guestroom. Oh yes, and the servants quarters.

But suddenly, there it was, the house we were looking for! House number fourty-eleven (or 51 rather). Not too big, clean, modern, suitable yard, nice surrounding and affordable.

Now the real struggle begins, talking my new employer into approving it. Actually, none of the requirements by KQ are fulfilled, but let’s see if I can talk them into it. Now I’ll start with that letter, while flying off north (in a business class seat). Yeah baby.