When it rains...

When it rains in Kenya, it pours. Literally and metaphorically.

November is traditionally the rainy season in Kenya. No surprise then that I got awoken at 2am on Friday with the sound of a torrential downpour, which on and off lasted the whole night.

However, this was not the only thing which kept me awake on Friday night.

The week has once again been a tough one, not least due to more car problems which have had me using matatus most of the week again. On Friday alone I took a total of eight matatus while on a building material hunt passing through various fascinating areas of Nairobi such as Industrial Area.

Having walked past places like this in Industrial area, there is an air of inevitability about the whole illness incident. Other side of the street from this, there is a fancy looking kitchen show-room...

The problem is though, as previously mentioned, trying to do more than one thing a day with matatus is difficult as you lose lots of time; waiting for matatus, during the stop-start journey itself, and walking between matatus and destinations. Not to mention that quite often matatus will just decide to finish their route prematurely, so you'll be dumped off in the middle of nowhere. And as you may have guessed the rides are not generally relaxing. Earlier in the week the record for number of people on a matatu was blown out the water; previously we'd touched 24 people in a 14 seat vehicle; one vehicle I took on Wednesday had 29 people (or at least that is the number of people I count from my cramped corner; it's possible there were a couple more out of my view). Admittedly about half of these were schoolkids, but still, 29 people in an already crammed 14 seater vehicle is some feat.

Add to that other problems with banks (it's easy to get used to all banking systems working 24/7 in Europe; not something which is always the case here and can lead to wasted trips to the bank and an inability to use internet banking) and some hiccups with the building works and it's fair to say that once again it had not been an easy week.

Shortly after the first downpour of rain on Friday night, there was a grumbling sound which did not come from the sky but rather from my stomach. Which signaled the beginning of the worst bout of gastroenteritis that I'd had for a very long time.

In retrospect though, it's not surprising. Having only been here for a month, my resistance to bugs is hardly high. Then what I'm likely to have come into contact with through overcrowded matatus and walking through some dirty areas of town, add to this the busy schedule I've been keeping and the fact that finding somewhere to wash hands properly has been difficult, there is an air of inevitability about the whole episode.

While Saturday was a far from pleasant day given I had no choice but to be at the construction site with a raging fever and the need for an hourly trip to the toilet (which currently is just a squat hole in the ground), it's also a timely reminder of the things we take for granted without realising; not just proper toilets but also easy access to medication in such circumstances (something I didn't have yesterday). What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

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Following on from the sickness episode, social systems are another of those things which are taken for granted in countries where they exist. In Kenya, where government social systems are near to non-existent, more often than not the family is the social system.

One of the outstanding memories from the days after my father passed away is how the family pulled together. Within just two days there was a funeral-organising committee, and donations from family members to cover the bulk of funeral costs. Family pulling together in such a way is quite normal here, and indeed a side plot of the past week has been the coming together of the family in a similar way to provide support and help with hospital bills when faced with the serious illness of a cousin's father-in-law.  Family - creating a social system where there is not one.