The Chinese In Kenya

Mar 30 – Apr 2, ’09 – Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya, with its capital city in Nairobi, is a country in East Africa. It has a population of about 38 mio. The main languages are Swahili and English. I think most of us may know Kenya for its wonderous wildlife reserves (safaris) with thousand and thousand types of animals.

But well, as usual, I was there for a business trip so no safari or anything like that. Just hours and endless hours of taxi rides to and fro conference centre and my hotel. Traffic is a nightmare. And pollution as well. But warmth and beauty of the people made me forget it all.

That’s when I realised how important is education, not only to elevate lives of people out of poverty but also for the sake of environment. Awareness is key.

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Oh, one sleepy morning, as I was resting my head against the window of the taxi, trying to take a nap knowing the long ride ahead, at a rather busy junction in the city centre, we came side by side with a school bus fully loaded with energetic primary school children. They were climbing over the seats, tugging at each others hair, chatting, singing and whole lot of activities going on. Suddenly a boy saw me. He got really excited and started tugging at his friends for attention but none who took noticed of him.

As we were turning the opposite direction, going out of sight, I heard a loud shrill cry, “CHINESE!”. I looked back, lo and behold, the entire bus was staring at me. I even thought people on the street paused for a second. Then all of us in the taxi started laughing.

Priceless.

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I learnt to love this song and to sing it too – Malaika, means “Angel” in Swahili.