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.

Jambo from Kenya!

We finally arrived at Mombasa airport on Friday morning. Aside from the excruciatingly long 14-hour Sydney to Johannesburg flight, everything went quite smoothly. We spent a few hours at a hotel in Johannesburg so we could have a quick swim in the pool (cold water, brr!) a shower and a couple hours of sleep in a real bed. The next flight was a few hours on Kenyan Airlines to Nairobi, then we flew on a new two-week old 737 to Mombasa from Nairobi. Our checked luggage arrived safely with us and the folks from the conference which Susan is attending this week arranged a shuttle for us from Mombasa to our resort hotel in Kilifi.

Mombasa is a fairly large city in Kenya and is the major sea port city. As we drove down the main road from the airport, we noticed that they've renamed the road Barack Obama Road. In Nairobi airport, the book shop (which was closed at 7:30 am) had its display shelves filled with books by and about Barack Obama and I saw several people wearing Barack Obama T-shirts.

From Mombasa airport, rode in the shuttle bus for about an hour and a half past many buildings painted with advertisements. Rather than advertising on billboards, they simply paint houses or other building with corporate logos, most of which seem to be mobile phone companies. Often the buildings are painted very vivid colors such as fuscia or kelly green, with logos appearing in several places on each wall.

As we drove up the highway north to Kilifi, we passed a HUGE sisel plantation (sisel is the stuff they often use to make rope or twine and looks quite similar to pineapple plants) which seemed to go on and on endlessly. Finally, we entered the Kilifi region and we passed a sign that had the Wild Living Resources logo on it (the organization I am planning to work with) and soon we turned into the driveway of the Mnarani Club which will be our temporary home for the next two weeks.



The Mnarani Club is a resort with a huge swimming pool that appears to blend into Kilifi Creek/Indian Ocean, which the pool and many of the rooms face. Our room is quite comfortable, a second-level room with a balcony that overlooks the Mnarani marina on Kilifi Creek. Although they call it Kilifi Creek, it's much more like a river (the Yarra River in Melbourne, for example, is much narrower!) and we are really situated just at the mouth of the creek and can see the ocean from our room as well. Often there is a good sea breeze that keeps things cool, but in the evenings, our housekeeper comes in to turn down the sheets, set up the mosquito net, close the screened windows and turns on the air conditioning unit.

The place is very well staffed and they really cater to all your needs, so we aren't suffering too terribly! The resort also has a few boats for hire and Susan and I went with one of her colleagues for a sail on a little catamaran yesterday afternoon. They also have other various activities: mountain bikes, snorkeling, scuba lessons, Swahili lessons, bush walks, road trips to Mombasa and other nearby towns, etc. There are some resident monkeys that also hang around the pool area and it's quite entertaining to watch them as well.



Yesterday, we met Susan's new American colleague, Laura, who picked us up and drove us around Kilifi so that we would know where the shops and markets are and to see some of the houses where we might be able to live. We did go to see the house we thought we might live in, but it's still being built and nowhere near finished, so we're not sure that place will still be a viable option. In the meantime, we'll be staying at Mnarani Resort for two weeks and may have to stay in Laura's spare room or elsewhere until we get something a bit more permanent.

The Times, They Are A Changin'

Egads. It's been a really, really long time since I've posted a blog here.

Well, in the interest of putting a conclusion to my very cobwebbed last post, no we did not meet the King of Tonga. However, we were greeted at the airport by his personal assistant and a couple of other attendants who gave us a tour of the island before we flew to Va'vau for our week-long sail about that group of islands. It was nice, but I would've liked to have spent more time actually on the islands rather than a boat. The snorkeling was very cool.

But, that's ancient history -- MONTHS ago!

Today, was a monumental day. It was the day that Barack Obama was elected to be the next US President! I am very happy about this news! I think he gave an amazing speech and I was quite impressed with John McCain's concession speech as well. He was extremely gracious and well spoken and I think he handled his rabid crowd of "supporters" well. Now, let's hope those rabid supporters don't do anything drastic in the next four years...

I'm even more excited about moving to Kenya now. (Oh yeah, did I mention that we're moving to Kenya in January?!?!). I mean, the thought of moving there has always been a bit scary and exciting. But now, I feel like I can go there and be proud that my country has elected a half-Kenyan president. I only wish that we were going to arrive in Kenya a bit sooner. Alas, the itinerary has been made and we'll be arriving 3 days after Obama's Presidential inauguration. I've been thinking that it would be cool to be in Kenya on that important day.

Already it feels like the negative stigma that has shrouded our country for the past 8 years is suddenly lifted. Obama is a man who is preaching words like "hope" and "change" and is inspiring a country that has become apathetic and despondent. People who have felt powerless and at the mercy of those who have abused their political offices. Obama's grassroots approach is giving power and inspiration back to the people. And, in his speech, he reminded people that they have to continue to help themselves -- that they cannot depend on him, a single leader, to carry them. This is an important distinction and, I believe, something that will be difficult for many Americans to take on. But how wonderful if the people of America take on this challenge and embrace stewardship of their country's fate and its global impact!

It will be interesting to see what transpires under this new administration. I know that Obama will restore the US foreign diplomacy which GW has so unwittingly tarnished. It's also clear that Obama is inspiring people in a way that is being compared to JFK and MLK -- BIG stuff! It was powerful to see the video footage of the likes of Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey in tears as Obama gave his speech. Lots of people showing emotion -- when was the last time people reacted to a presidential election in this way? This is not only an American thing. The entire WORLD has been hoping that Obama would be the next US President. It is a global concern.

This has been a marathon campaign and I think everyone is glad that it's finally over. However, once he takes that office and the day-to-day events and decisions and negotiations start to take hold, will Obama still have the ability to inspire change?

Trip to Tonga: Part 1

A few weeks ago, Susan and I went on a family vacation with her family to the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga. Before this trip was planned, I never even knew there was such a place as Tonga! Hey, I like to blame it on my American upbringing, but the funny thing is that we Americans hear about Fiji all the time and Tonga is practically next door to Fiji. What's up with that? It's a curious phenomenon for which I have no explanation...

Susan's parents decided that they wanted to rent a sailing yacht for a week to sail around Tonga and bring the family along. So, with much planning and intra-family-communication (which I blissfully delegated to Susan) a vacation plan was devised and off we went! In all, there were eight of us, me, Susan, Susan's parents, her brother Joff, his partner Min, sister Michelle and her friend, Leah. Susan and I flew into Auckland the night before to stay the night at her parent's house before taking off with the rest of the family on an early morning flight to Nuku'alofa.

Susan's father, Gavin, picked us up at the airport and on the drive to their house, he proceeded to tell us about how the King of Tonga had actually gone to his primary school in Auckland and that Susan's friend's father had gone to school with the King of Tonga and that they still keep in touch. When this friend of Susan's family learned of our planned trip to Tonga, he told Gavin that he would contact the King of Tonga (King George Tupou V) and tell his Royal Highness of our arrival. So, reportedly, this information had been conveyed to King George V (KGV) and there was talk that perhaps we might be invited to dine with the King. Gavin then explained that the King resides on the island of Nuku'alofa, but our plan was to go to the Vava'u group of islands and we would only be taking connecting flights from Nuku'alofa to Vava'u. However, the rest of the family was staying in Tonga longer than Susan and I and we actually had planned to fly back to Nuku'alofa and stay our last night there before a morning flight back to Australia (via Auckland). So, Gavin suggested that perhaps Susan and I could be the representatives of the family to have dinner with KGV. Gavin is a couple years older than the King, so although he went to the same school, was not in the same class. However, he did have photos that he took as a child when the young prince came to Auckland to see the school prior to his attendance, which Gavin later showed us that evening. We were all quite amused by the idea of having dinner with the King of Tonga and wondered if anything would come of it.

We had a nice dinner with Susan's family and a couple of her school friends that she invited for dinner and then went to bed. We had to get up at about 4 am to get to the airport by 5 for our 7 am flight (ugh). Leah and Michelle are quite into gourmet cooking and Michelle pooled her connections to obtain export-quality meats to transport from New Zealand to Tonga. Not only did they bring meat, but a whole host of other goods (cereal, crackers, jam, honey, butter, etc) to feed eight people for a week. Luckily, Susan and I only brought one check-in bag between us, as we needed to check in another whole bag full of food (as did several of the others). After checking in our bags (and the airport customs hermetically sealed the meat box in plastic wrap), we then stocked up on duty-free alcohol to keep us in good spirits on our sailing trip as well. While we were wandering around the airport before our flight, Susan and I realized that we had forgotten to stop our mail delivery at home, so Susan thought of sending a post card to our downstairs neighbor to ask him if he would get our mail out of our pathetically small mailbox. I was skeptical, thinking he wouldn't get the post card from Auckland until after we arrived back in Brisbane, but she sent it (and, miraculously, it made it to Brisbane before us and he did retrieve our mail for us!).

Soon, we were on the plane to Nuku'alofa. Stay tuned for more...

For those of you who can't wait for the next installment (who know how long it could be, with my blogging record?), you can go straight to the photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/barckhoff/Tonga2008

Internet Broken... will blog after it's fixed

!@#()&^#$(@!@$^&@#$% Telecommunication "services" totally suck in Australia.

Went to Tonga, sailed around Tonga, saw a whale and lots of coconut trees, snorkeled and got fed yummy food. Came back, had internet for a day, then it broke. Going on three weeks now... Fourth repair guy scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Perhaps he will actually fix the problem this time. Fingers crossed...

Second semester of uni has started. Busy busy! Now I must do school work.

Stay tuned...

Bad news, good news?

Well, it seems that I may be a gecko murderer after all. Susan took it upon herself to move the plants we keep on the balcony (I think it was to dump out excess water sitting in the trays beneath the pots) and next to the ring of dirt that the one plant left behind, lay the mummified body of a little gecko. I think it's the same one as the toaster incident. So sad...

In other news, I have decided to give myself the title of "Technical Business Analyst" for my job. I think that's fitting, although I might switch it to "IT Business Analyst" -- I think that might even be better. Hmm...

I have plans to go to the Sunshine Coast twice in the next week. Tomorrow, we're spending the day and night at my bandmate's house at Coolum Beach. The band is gonna jam, maybe record, and the significant others (+ children) will bond over sand and daquiris or something... It should be fun! Perhaps we'll even settle on a band name. Now, THAT would be exciting. Later in the week I have a business meeting for work that will take me to the coast again. Not nearly exciting, but a bit of a road-trip anyway. Reckon I'll be bonding with my boss on the way there & back. Good news is that he's a huge fan of live music, so I'll get one fan to my band's gigs at least!!

Oh, and the cover band went over quite well at the hippie party. It was a fun party and apparently the hosts have them frequently, so I'm looking forward to doing that again! I expect we'll be doing some real gigs in a month or two... the drummer's already working on some bookings for us.

Susan survived her microbiology exam, but she felt like she didn't do very well and was rather unhappy about that. I have a feeling she did much better than she thinks she did. Poor girl's been studying too hard -- she needs a break!

At the moment, I'm taking a break from Visual Basic programming for my practical exam on Tuesday -- yikes. I don't like "speed programming"! Well, guess I should get back to it... wish me luck!

Work, school, music, dougnuts...

Well, I've landed myself a job. It's a small startup company that only came into being this January. I must say that I was a bit unsure about the company when I first went to the interview - the thought of working for a startup company seemed a bit risky, even for part-time. But as time goes on, I'm getting a better feeling about them. I think they might just make it and it might actually be quite good. Anyway, I'm not really sure what my job title is. So far, I've been tasked with implementing a process for invoicing and payroll, implementing plans for the rollout of a couple of the products and a bit of ASP web interface modification. Anyway, they're nice folks and the office is in an old "Queenslander" style house, which is quite charming.

I'm nearing the end of the semester -- this is the last week of classes, besides a couple of makeup classes next week due to holiday conflicts. Final exams are sprawled across June, which is a bit annoying -- I'll have plenty of time to forget what I've learned by the time I get to them all! So far, I've been doing pretty well, but I've got a project due next week that's kicking my butt (yes, I'm procrastinating a bit by writing this blog).

The cover band and the original band are both cruising along. Neither band has settled on a name yet. The guitarist/singer for the cover band is throwing a fancy dress (i.e. costume) hippie party on Saturday and we'll be playing at it, along with a few other musical acts. Unfortunately, the working title for the cover band is now "Thick Crust" but I hope it doesn't stick by default! Anyway, I'm excited not only to play a "gig" again, but also because this is my first-ever house party in Australia! I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, Susan won't be coming along because she's frantically studying for her microbiology exam which is on June 6. The original band is really coming together and we've been bantering about band name ideas, at least. We're hoping to record a few songs for a demo maybe in June, so once we get those and a name, I'll be throwing together a little MySpace page to broadcast to the world!!

Speaking of bands, Viva la Venus is back in swing and they gave me a nice little mention in their press release recently.

Oh, and if anyone's wondering how the Krispy Kreme is holding up in Brisbane, let's just say that every day that I walk by it (which is many afternoons), there is a long line of about 40 people out the door... So I'd say they're doing pretty well.