House Hunting in Kilifi

We've been in Kilifi for just over a week now. I've grown accustomed to the smell of smoke which often permeates the air, as it is the primary means of disposing of garbage here. It is often hot and humid, but luckily our resort is right on the waterfront, so we usually get a good ocean breeze to keep us comfortable and cool. There haven't been too many mosquitoes around, but the breeze probably helps keep them away and it is still the dry season. Once the rains come, the mozzies may come out in full force. Generally, the rainy season is from about March or April until June or July, so we've got a couple months before that hits.

We've been in search of a more permanent place to live. There isn't really a local paper with classified ads, so we're pretty reliant on word of mouth. Before we got here, we had been told about a house that was being built that would be available, but the place is not yet finished and probably won't be for two or three months. Saturday was Susan's first full day off since we got here, as she had to attend a conference and then started work immediately thereafter. We took the day to go into town so that we could get a bit more familiar with the shops and markets and then we decided to take a walk up Bofa Road, which is the road that parallels the waterfront on the Kilifi town side. We wanted to see if we could find the new apartment building which sits on the waterfront like a large white beacon. We've heard mixed reviews about the place, but it is brand new and our options have been somewhat limited. Susan had been to the Kilifi Members Club, which is basically a bar which also overlooks the water and is next door to the apartment building. So we set off on foot and saw a sign across the street that had a for rent sign on it. We called the number on the sign and were met by a Kenyan guy named Anderson who showed us around the place. It was a big 4-bedroom house with two bathrooms and a big vegetable garden in the back. It is fully staffed with security, a cook, housekeeper and gardener. The place looks quite new and is furnished and the kitchen is stocked with dishes, however, we were a bit put off by the decor, which was a bit garish with animal print upolstery on the furniture, pink walls and floor tiles and big hand-painted murals of animals on the walls. Also, the water pressure was rather pathetic in the shower. We learned that the place is only available until the beginning of April, so although the place is quite large for two of us and not totally ideal, we figured it may be a good option for living temporarily until we find something more suitable and permanent.

After we viewed the house, we continued walking up Bofa Road in the hot sun, not realizing that earlier we had already been standing at the entrance road to the Members Club where Susan thought we could stop to have a drink and a bite to eat. We kept walking, then looked out over the embankment to the water to realize we had walked all the way to the ocean side -- much too far! So, we stopped in a shady spot and Susan had to call the tuk-tuk (a 3-wheeled vehicle, a little bigger than a golf cart) driver whose name and number she had collected a couple days ago to pick us up "somewhere" on Bofa Road to take us back to the Members Club. As we were waiting, I got a call from a woman named Kristen, who was the owner of the house we just looked at and she said she had another house to look at and that we could meet her back at the first house to see the new one. Just then the tuk-tuk arrived and I said we would call back. As we were in the tuk-tuk, we passed a woman on the road who had two small children. The driver stopped for her and we thought she wanted a ride, but it turns out that she asked the driver to ask us to give her money to get a prescription for malaria medication. Because she had two little children and did have a piece of paper in her hand that appeared to be a prescription, we decided to give her a small donation. Then the driver took us to the Members Club, at which point we were made aware that we had already been on the entrance road and had walked way past where we needed to be. As we went on the side road, I got another call from Kristen who said we had just passed them by and I said we were thirsty and would call them back in about a half hour after we sat and had a drink. As we sat down at the Members Club, we got a call from Laura, who then joined us at the bar. Susan had ordered a chapati (a sort of flat bread, a tastier version of a flour tortilla) and Laura warned us would take a long time to get at this particular establishment, so we decided to leave and visit the apartments next door then come back for the chapati.

The apartment building had a big concrete wall with a big metal entrance door typical of many of the more upscale buildings in Kilifi. We shouted at the gate for a guard to let us in, but did not get a response. We wandered around the side of the building and discovered that it was fairly easy to get to the other side of the building from the waterfront area. Although there are no doors on that side, the first floor windows seemed rather accessible. We then wandered around to the front again and saw a face appear at the gate -- it was the Massai guard, who had the typical tall, thin body and the stretched out earlobes, but was wearing nothing but a pair of nylon shorts. We asked if we could see the owner of the building (whom Laura asked for by name) and then the Massai let us in. We asked again if we could see the owner and he said that the owner wasn't there, so then we asked if we could look around and he said yes. The apartments were in varying degrees of completion and the floorplans were a bit labarynth-like. The whole structure was concrete with tile floors and the windows had one glass pane and one open window with a shutter. The shutters had mosquito netting on them, but if you open them, the window was completely open with no netting, so you couldn't really get air and mosquito-proof the place at the same time. The two bedrooms did have ceiling fans, which would undoubtedly be very welcome. The bathroom was very tiny, such that if you open the door, it slammed into the sink and you had to squeeze yourself into it before being able to close the door again. Anyway, the building had a somewhat palatial air about it, but the apartments were very angular and had what I would call very bad feng shui. Overall, I had a generally negative vibe about the place, as it didn't seem very secure nor very inviting.

Afterwards, we went back to the Members Club and shared the chapati with Susan. I called Kristen back and we met her across from the first house. She came in a car and she was a very cheerful and friendly woman. We were by then in Laura's car, so we simply followed Kristen's car to the other house, which was smack in the middle of the residential area of Kilifi town. It was a two-bedroom duplex, with the typical concrete floors and walls with thatched roofing. It is a brand-new house and was a decent house, but was very close to many local (and potentially noisy) neighbors with no security, a bit dark and no chance of getting a coastal breeze. We decided we would rather have something more open and spacious, as that place seemed a bit claustrophobia-inducing.

Later, Laura tried to take us to another place, but we were not able to get a hold of the contacts for it, so we went back to her place and met her neighbor to join us for a swim in Kilifi Creek (which currently is rather full of seaweed) to cool off.