THE BIG FIVE

You are asking yourself big five what?
well this is what our game parks and national parks are famous for.
Having lived in Kenya all my life I must admit I have never to a national/game park officially.(by officially I mean I never paid to get into one).

Let me tell you a short story
I got into the Aberdares (and as a teen)which is about 10 km from my shags home. My friends and I just walked all the way into the forest as there were no electric fences by then. Several kms into the park we saw a very big herd of buffalos spread over a wide area grazing, being wise we just turned back though we had fun with the monkeys along the way.

I have actually seen all the big five but at the orphanage, am not just a little ashamed when I admit to my non Kenyan buddies that I have never to a game park and am sure am not alone. I hope to right this over April/Easter then hopefully climp Mt Kenya soon.

My point is so many Kenyans have never been to thier own parks yet they gleefully gloat about this wildlife they've never seen. There are many reasons for this including disinterest, poverty etc but I don't want to go into that now.
Lately there has been talk of increased domestic tourism and I happy to be part of that (at least I have been to the coast beaches, stayed in a cottage and spent a whole lot of money). So if you are in Kenya take time to see your wildlife if not, put it in your plans when you come visiting. Forget Nairobi nightlife for a while.

END MONTH IN NAIROBI.

Its end month. I have just called it a day at work and decieded to pass sometime in a cybercafe to avoid the usual rushhour.My mobile can't be still for 2 minutes continous, everybody is calling to find out wher I am or where am headed. In short which bar am heading to. People in Nairobi generally socialize in bars, now at end month you can be sure all bars are full to capacity specially the current favourites.
Guys blow a lot of their hard earned cash and nobody seems to mind or regret as next end month, things will be exactly the same.

Gotta go; I have to join this my friends, in a bar (to be a true Nairobian)

KENGEN CONT.....

I have jumped into the Kengen bandwagon, call it irrational exuberence or whatever.
I'm buying with an open mind though, if the price rises fast enough ,am gonna be a speculator I'll definately sell. (Its not easy to make honest money in Kenya nowadays) If the opposite happens I'll just keep the shares for keeps. In short I'll do whats best for me depending on the price movement.

MLM CRAZE
The new mlm in Nairobi? Goldbiz. Goes like, you buy a supposedly gold watch for KES 6,5oo(100 euro). Sell a watch and the idea to 2 people and hope they do the same and you get to earn 10 euros per watch sold by your downlines etc etc.

I'm rather sceptical about mlms, I believe they are good only if you join it at the top of the pyramid. I must confess I had joined Tianshi after much persuation but didn't get to sell anything or recruit anybody, its just not my kind of biz.I could get myself to use the products either.
There are numerous stories of people who've made a fortune from mlms but am yet to meet one first hand. All I get to meet are hopeful belivers that is until they quit after so much work and effort. If only one focused that energy to selling a 'normal' product.

KENGEN
The Kengen IPO opens in a few days, people are scrambling to open CDS accounts. This shares look very attractive on paper and everybody is on buy mode including me.
The big question is, Will the prices go down when trading commences? but then flashback to the KQ IPO ,the price did go down for a long while.Look at them now they are soaring. To me this share buying biz is good as a long time investment.

Fridays.
Today I'll be heading to the Copanies registry at Sheria house to conduct some biz.
While the place is full of anti corruption posters, bribes are solicited all the time. It goes like for name search:

"You can check after one week for the results, but since we can help each other why don't you buy lunch then maybe things can be faster,I'm only trying to help."

So the lunch is usually cash, varying amount depending with the level of help.

Sheria house
Its Friday morning in Nairobi, the mercenaries saga goes on and on.

Am waiting for the Companies registry at Sheria house to be opened. I had taken some business names for searching and I just hope I won,t have to bribe anybody to get the results. Actually I had to wait for over a week, but with tea (bribe) to the right person the process would have been over in one day.
While there is talk of corruption in big places(Govt), this culture of bribery actually exists in about every situation where one might need Govt services. Especially when we you want things to get done fast, sometimes when you want anything to be done at all.

At any time in Nairobi there is always something on eveybody's lips. The current one is the Armenian mercenaries saga. Can't wait to watch the evening news to see the latest developments.

HI everybody. As my desciption suggests anything under the sun or otherwise goes.
Am a Kenyan living in Nairobi (like 3 million or so others do). Nairobi (despite the crime,poverty, corruption etc) is a great place, I just love it.