Archive for September, 2005

Take the lid off it

Wednesday, September 28th, 2005

“This is the local hotpot!”, said Elizabeth as she lifted the lid of her serving dish, “Can you see?”
I sat up and leaned over to get a better view inside…

… but I could not see.
I was expecting to be greated by sight and smell of some wonderful Kamba variety of beef stew or, at […]

Put A Lid On It!

Tuesday, September 27th, 2005

Yesterday, after my 2pm - 4pm class finished (at 4.30, because certain of those students can be a bit slow ) I went to get ready for dance class.

I went to the house and changed clothes, quickly drank some clean water and headed out for the dining hall carrying my big […]

Kenyan Commons

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005

The Myth Of Overgrazing
From Kenya: Promised Land. An Oxfam Country Profile, by Geoff Sayer, Oxfam 1998.
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Best day so far

Tuesday, September 20th, 2005

This is actually about yesterday; I was so busy having a good time, I didn’t get to write the blog until evening, when the Cybercafe was closed.

Today was the best day of my placement so far. I’m quite sure of it. Here are some of the ingredients and method that make up the recipe […]

Divine retribution

Friday, September 16th, 2005

Yesterday, as I wandered up to the dukas by the road to buy a litre of fresh cow’s milk in a thin polythene bag, I met a small boy on a large bike….

“Hellow breetish”, said the small boy.
“Hello Mkenya”, I replied neutrally. I was in a wry mood, which might go some way to explain […]

Laissez-faire

Wednesday, September 14th, 2005

This was written on the blackboard in the classroom where my Unix class was this morning. I asked the students what it meant and they told me it meant giving the workers a task and letting them get on with it as they pleased. I said I thought it was about what happened to me […]

Hands Up!

Friday, September 9th, 2005

I’ve got to tell you about my Unix class yesterday. I’ve had so many bad experiences in the classroom here and I need to give you this one to make up the balance.

Last week I was asking questions of my students who sat in silence as usual. When I pushed them they came up with […]

A. Doorstop

Thursday, September 1st, 2005

Q. What do you get if you erase the contents of the flash memory on a CIsco router?

I plugged one of the routers in during my class yesterday and started the terminal program that lets me connect to the router’s console administration port. I switched on the router and, after it booted up, was asked […]