The Concrete Jungle (What Africa Looks Like)

I have a feeling that Hannah and I will have very different versions of Africa to share. For one thing, the most "wild" wildlife I've seen is the bird which lives in the tree outside my office window and repeatedly flies into to window throughout the day. And I have yet to see an Acacia tree. I did, however, watch the Lion King last night, so I feel like I'm getting in on the whole Africa savannah thing.

For those of you who don't know, I am currently in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. For the capital city with a population of over 3 million people, I expected a city, tall buildings and all that. Or, at the least paved roads. Not quite what I got.

A road in Nairobi. I'm told it floods when it rains.

There are some tall buildings, like my hotel, and some of the roads are paved. However, all the roads have potholes and a lot of them are not paved. Like this one. And driving is crazy. On my taxi ride from the airport to my hotel, I noticed that my driver was driving more to avoid potholes than to stay in any sort of lane. I thought Oh, it's late, no one is on the road, that's why. Nope. Traffic laws don't really apply here, at any time. The rule is the biggest, or most aggressive, wins. And you deal with the roads anyway you can.

Yesterday, on the way back from lunch, further down on the road pictured above, I passed a car stuck in a hole. Not just a pothole, but an actual 1-ft diameter super deep can't see the bottom hole, just the perfect size for a tire to fall into. This, I was informed, is a regular occurrence. Furthermore, this is all an improvement. Obonyo, my desk neighbor, told me that just from driving home from work every day, he would have to take his car to the mechanic at least once a week because the roads were so bad. Now, he says, it is better.

You can also imagine what all this dirt does to the cleanliness of your car. Which is why they make getting your car washed really convenient. For example, you can eat lunch while your car is washed.

The Garage, our daily lunch spot

At the Garage, where I went to lunch each day with people from the office, you eat really tradition Kenyan food, like ugali, mukimo and pan-fried tilapia caught in Lake Victoria, for really cheap, from 80 to 200 Kenyan shillings (Ksh), which is about $1-$2.

Meanwhile, you can watch people's cars being washed and services. Do you see those signs on the wall? They aren't menus. They are servicing tips for your car. And they don't just wash the outside of the car. They also wash inside the hood and then pull the car up on a platform-like-thing and was under the car.

So now you are thinking: "Going out to lunch? Walking around on dirt roads laughing at people stuck in potholes? Sounds like all play and no work to me. Don't you have an internship in Kenya?"

My Office Building

Yes, yes I do. And I have the office and business casual wardrobe to prove it.  This is my office building. The Seureca East Africa Ltd. office is pretty much the whole third floor. And we have a really cute acronym. SEAL. It makes me think of things like this:

Cute Baby Seal
(not actually something I will see in Africa)

In the office, I do all sorts of cool things. Check out the picture below. Note the SEAL logo up on the wall (unfortunately not a picture of a baby seal), my Seureca Mug (full of Kenyan black tea) and the HUGE PILE OF REPORTS. That is approximately a gagillion pages of reports on the project in Mombasa which I will be working on. It's just like the acacia trees for Hannah, except everywhere I look, there is another report for me to read.

Look at me at my desk, hard at work!

These reports cover everything from the efficiency of employees to different leak detection methods (acoustic techniques are traditional and cheap, but can only be used in quieter areas and aren't that accurate, tracer gas is awesome but expensive, thermal techniques are pretty awesome too).  My favorite report was the one on the condition of the offices provided, which included the following comments: "the chairs are in deplorable conditions," "the office is dilapidated. it is shaky," "lack furniture,"  "one Tuk Tuk is also requested" "office: pathetic state especially the carpet," and the slightly worrying "urgently need gas masks." This report was filed in February, so perhaps conditions have improved.

Tuk Tuk

And what I have gathered from thousands of pages (okay maybe hundreds) is that Seureca in Mombasa is working as a consulting company for Mombasa Water and Sewerage Company (MOWASCO) (who provided the "pathetic" offices) and Coast Water Services Board (CWSB) as Technical Support (TS) to help the client to create an Improvement Action Plan (IAP) which will help the Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) sector reduce unaccounted for water (UfW) as well as non-revenue water (NRW) to help the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MoWI), which launched a National Water Services Strategy (NWSS) to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

I have also gathered that anything which can have an acronym will. Which means there are tons of acronyms for me to learn. Fun times indeed.

More importantly, I have gained an appreciation for the importance of SEAL's work. Water supply and sanitation in Kenya is really poor. Only 57% of households use water from safe sources and 60% of Kenyan water production is unaccounted for water, which means that it is produced but never metered at the consumer's tap. Basically, it is lost water. Which is bad for an area with scarce water resources. A lot of this is lost to leaks in the system, as well as to illegal connections.

This was a super long post, partly because I have a lot to say and also because I am now headed off to Mombasa, where may not have the luxury of free unlimited internet which I have here. Also because I am still in the office, but have finally finished reading all my reports.

In other exciting news, I got a new phone. Her name is Elsie.