About Beds, Cabs & Hakuna Matata

Before arriving at our house, Alex (picture) and Jannik, (the other volunteer) were dutifully cleaning the whole house and organized some basic stuff for us such as beds, sheets etc.. Now, as we are in Kenya, you cannot just stop by at IKEA to get your all girls favorite LEIRVIK. Beds are made to order which takes at least a week.. or more, depending on the working ethusiasm of the craftsmen. Believe me when I say that Hakuna Mata is not only a catchy saying from a movie, it DOES exist! The words time pressure and worries are non-existing in a Kenyan's dictionary. Refering to another little anecdote we encountered yesterday, if you get a SIM card in Germany, it takes about 5 minutes to go through the whole procedure, in Kenya around 30 minutes. When talking to Alex about the issue, he ensured us that it normally takes 5 minutes, so I am not sure if the lady let us wait on purpose or Alex does not have any sense of time. Anyway, coming back to the picture, you see that cabs here are not only bringing people from point A to B, but also beds (I do not think that this would be allowed in Germany, but in Kenya it would not surprise me to see people laying in the beds on top of the cab while driving). So at our arrival each of us had a bed but due to financial difficulties, the boys were not able to get us proper blankets. I imagine you thinking that we are in Africa so why should we even need a blanket in the winter season here, must still be around 30°. Mombassa, yes.. Nyeri, hell no! Let me tell you guys that even for the German standard, it is freezing, especially if you do not have a single heater in the house. To conclude, althought wearing 4 jumpers, 3 pants and 3 pair of socks, I was still freezing (Julia was smart enough to take a blanket from home), but in the end, we both survived.