We moved to a new office around 2 months ago, which is exactly the opposite direction from the previous one, and a slightly longer walk. However the walk itself is very different to the previous one.
Since Leah is now at kindergarten, and it is kind of on my way to work, the walk starts with Leah alongside me. Usually, to save time, I take her in the buggy, but sometimes she wants to walk. If so then she walks on the very narrow pavement and carefully avoids holes and stones whilst talking about them. First we walk past a local kindergarten and a boutique hotel, then we turn left and the road makes a short dip as the road crosses a river. Here we often see a dog; possibly stray, or possibly belonging to one of the workers on the construction site by the river. In this part of town, typically all the houses were single storey bungalows with large gardens and car parks. Now, thankfully, developers have begun building apartment blocks, including the one we live in (which is 8 floors high) and the new one alongside the river.
As we walk back up the short hill, a proper pavement appears, as does speed bumps in the road. In fact Kenya makes very good use of speed bumps all over the place--in residential areas, on main roads, and even on highways, where there are sometimes pedestrian crossings and speed bumps are used to slow traffic down beforehand, even in 4 lane highways. It can make it very slow going on many of the main roads, particularly as often the speed bumps are ginormous and even occasionally scrape the bottom of cars.
Then we pass a serviced apartment complex and at the junction with a main road do a quick right and left to cross over it. On the corner is a man with a small cart selling eggs under an umbrella; next to him is a bus (also known as a matatu) stop. Matatus stop very frequently and often drive badly, but in town at least they tend to use the bus stops which enables them to pull in from the road and let traffic past. On the other corner we often see a Boda Boda (i.e. motorbike taxi) driver, wearing their luminous (and sponsored with advertising) yellow top. We then continue past the trendy hotel, which used to be a Best Western and is now a brand of Sheraton. As with all hotels there are a couple of security guards at the gate which check cars before they can go in (there is also an airport style x-ray machine at the hotel entrance). The security guards often greet Leah, and she often greets them back. I like to think it brightens up their day a tiny bit!
Next we go over a couple more speed bumps which Leah often decides to run over, a part of the road with many broken bricks which Leah likes to slowly walk over one-by-one, past a lady cooking and selling corn-on-the-cobs on a stove under her umbrella, past another construction site (this one for a large office building i think) and to another junction.
Here we turn left, past another many with a cart selling eggs and sausages, past the local police station and then arrive at the gate to Leah's kindergarten - manned by a security guard who Leah rarely greets, possibly because it is at this point that it is time to enter "distraction mode" to prevent Leah crying as she says "no school". The distractions usually include looking at the playground or the rabbits, or the toys, or the teacher, or something else. After leaving Leah at the kindergarten (10 minutes after leaving home if Leah is in the buggy, or 20 minutes if she is walking) it is time for part 2...
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