December in Nairobi is normally marked by the arrival of the hot dry season; thankfully it has rained instead, because the rains that were supposed to arrive in September of October arrived very late (and in some places, not at all), and so the "short rains" (compared to the "long rains" with the longer rainy season around April-June) have dragged on into December. When it rains in Nairobi it is not normally a major problem since most of the rain is overnight when it cools down, or early morning; though if there are heavy rains it can affect traffic and does start to open up potholes in roads. The ground dries up incredibly quickly, which is nice (for people like me, maybe not for farmers).
It seems now that the rains have begun to peter out, and once the public holiday in the middle of December has passed, Nairobi also begins to empty out as most people make their way back to their villages for the holiday season, or to the Coast where the tourism and transport industry must make a third of their revenues in just a few weeks with crazy prizes. Public schools only get 2 weeks off this year as the calendar is adjusting after COVID closed schools in 2020 so from today onwards Nairobi really will be a ghost town during the daytime, but somehow in the evening people reappear to keep bars busy!
Every year christmas becomes slightly more visible and commercial. Not that it is not important, which it definitely is, as the majority of the country are practicing christians, but more and more shopping malls get built and ply on the Christmas lights and Christmas music, and more and more Christmas markets appear at weekends for middle and upper classes. But it still quite tame compared to more developed countries. There aren't any public Christmas lights on streets, almost no homes have Christmas lights or decorations and Kenyans are not really into any particular Christmas food that I am aware of. There doesn't seem to be a tradition of Christmas cards.
The Christmas markets that often take place at Schools, Public places, Shopping Malls or Hotels are quite good fun, since it is normally warm so one can drink, eat and shop in shorts and t-shirt and enjoy a nice day out. Even in just 5 years here, the number of such markets has ballooned from just a few to dozens although many of the same vendors can be found. At one of the biggest ones I was amazed to see just how many local artisans are making clothes, bags and home items. There are some very high quality goods, many of which are exported with African colors and designs. I finally got some shoes which are really nice (Kitu Kali) and made in one of the slums but to a pretty high quality and very comfortable. They look smart enough for typical work meetings too.
In the past we would go to the German School Christmas Fair, but of course this year we were at the Braeburn Christmas Fair which has a dozen or so stands from eternal vendors and a dozen or so from kids who were selling these they had made (mostly baked goods) along with a band and Carol singers. Braeburn also had a pantomime which was really well done (mostly adults, but a few of the older kids).
Work is usually very busy from October to December trying to get everything done before the holidays and we have had a few big activities in the last few weeks, all of which went very well, and things will be slower next week. After that I should be going to the UK for a week (Andrea and the girls will meet me there from Germany where they went last week), though right now, what will be open, what will I do, and who will I be allowed to see?
No comments:
Post a Comment