The Third Place

Really, check Lilian’s blog post and you’ll see what I mean…

Friday Night

Friday night the team decided to treat ourselves with a (very) good dinner, so we went to Norfolk, which is probably the best restaurant in Nairobi. In the end and after a little bit more than a couple of bottles of wine, the night called for a disco, so off we went to Casablanca. Verdict: nice disco, but too much of a meat market to me.

Saturday Night

Saturday night was more calm. Isabel, a portuguese girl we met at a dinner in the ambassador’s residence, had her birthday, and we found out that fact in the middle of the dinner with her. After that, another bar/disco, it had “blue” somewhere in the name. Less people than the one on Friday, but more of the same.

Common to both was the music: old/african/the same stuff you heard 5 years ago in any other disco in Europe. If I sound too critic, it’s because I don’t like discos, not even in Europe. Why do I keep going there? I have to have something to blog about!

• you’re paid by the hour
• you do everything the client wants as long as he/she pays
• you live in hotel rooms or apartments paid by the client
• you also work at night and on weekends
• you find it difficult to explain to your friends what you do for a living

Forget Engadget, in Africa nothing beats AfriGadget!

Well, it’s been almost two weeks in Nairobi, Kenya, since I got here. Only five more to go… If the time table actually depended on our deployment team.

It’s quite amazing for me to, in the last six months, have already travelled about as much as all my life before, maybe not in kilometres, but for sure in staying length. For the record: more than a month in Poland, a week in Ireland, a week in Mexico and now, again, more than a month in Kenya.

So first, the job.
I’m part of a team of four, deploying the RAID software in Safaricom. And do follow the link, it’s not that kind of RAID.

About that, that’s it.

About the country.
It’s definitely a third world country (should I expect anything else?), and things here move at their own speed. One of the things that most annoy me here is that everyone says “yes” to everything, but it actually doesn’t mean anything: you have to make sure that that “yes” actually is a “yes”, so don’t trust (almost) anyone. I’m thinking this may be common in Africa.

Tourism.
The usual stuff: safaris, souvenirs, very good landscapes… You can follow the photo stream here. I guess the photos look better than actually being there, as the safari was kind of boring (no man eating animals were actually eating).

More later… as in “later weeks”…

Next week I’ll be in Mexico and the week after in Kenya. This way, when I’m having lunch in the latter, it’ll be like having dinner in the former. Sleep? That’s for sissy’s.

I hadn’t noticed, but it looks like DOPPLR is now open to public registration. Since in my current line of work I’m required to travel, this might come in handy.

For those interested, here’s the “about DOPPLR” text:

Dopplr is an online service for frequent business travellers.

Dopplr lets you share your travel plans privately with a group of friends and colleagues whom you have chosen. It then tells you when people you know will be in the same cities. It also reminds you of people who live in the places you’re planning to visit.

Dopplr works on your personal computer and mobile phone. It links with online calendars and social networks.

The service has attracted a following among business travellers around the globe. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia recently named Dopplr his “favorite non-wiki website” in The New York Times Sunday Magazine: “You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is. I love it.”

If you want to add me, here’s the link.

I’ve uploaded a photo of the hack bag on the post.

Inspired by Pete Savage’s post, here’s the content of my usual “hack bag” (and I do carry it everywhere):

• Swiss Army Knife
• iRiver H320 (it can do everything: play music, radio, video, minesweeper, record sound, double as a portable HD. I’m sure that if I ask it nicely, it’ll also make coffee)
• Sure headphones
• USB cable, with nine (9) adapters
• Gparted Live CD (actually a mini-cd)
• 1GB USB pen (with some PortableApps)
• Moleskine notebook
• Pens (the writing kind)
• 80GB portable HD (it’s a very recent addition, I’m still considering if it’s worth it’s weight)
• Sony Ericsson P990i (it does everything a mobile should do and more, like… tea!) (No, not really…)
• Lomo LC-A and flash (but I seldom use it…)
• Lens cleaning cloth
• Chewing gum
• Toilet seat covers (funny story this one: I “stole” it from a soviet era hotel room in Łódz, Poland, which says a lot about the hotel if the room itself had them. Yeah, you never know when you might need it.)
• Alcohol based hand washer liquid (you know, those Rituals things)
• Chapstick
• Matches and a lighter

I’ll put up a photo… eventually…

(Update) And here’s the photo:

If you click on it, you’ll be taken to it’s Flickr page, where you can see the description of each object. Yes, I know that there are things I mentioned on the list missing from the photo.

Yes, me.

I’m now a proud owner of a black Vespa LX 50, four strokes. Funny part: minutes after buying it, a guy (looked like one of the bike shop customers) turns to me and says “That’s a great machine, congratulations!”. Well, I have no idea if it is, and it sure looks good to me, but I can’t stop feeling I’ve entered a very exclusive club, or better, two exclusive clubs: motorbike owners and Vespa owners. And I just want it to commute, avoiding (most of) the traffic and not pay parking.

Next step: learn how to drive it.