Yes­ter­day we arrived at Nairo­bi, cap­i­tal city of Kenya. Although we trav­elled via Cairo, we only wit­nessed the events there through Al Jazeera.

It seems like we have returned to Eng­land, we can use the same elec­tri­cal plugs and bank card. The big dif­fer­ence is the weath­er, which resem­bles a nice summer’s day in the Nether­lands. The peo­ple here are com­plain­ing that it is cold, though, because this time of the year is the cool­er peri­od. The rel­a­tive­ly cool cli­mate of Nairo­bi has attract­ed white set­tlers in the past. Before 1899, the place that is now Nairo­bi was a water­ing hole for Masai cat­tle, the name mean­ing ‘sweet / cold water’. In that year, the British chose it as a rail­way camp for the rail­way they were build­ing between the coast (Mom­basa) and Lake Vic­to­ria. One thing led to anoth­er, and here we are in a bustling town with a pop­u­la­tion of three million.

We are stay­ing on the com­pound of the Agri­cul­ture Research Insti­tute. Besides offices, there are a lot of exper­i­men­tal fields. This includes a maize exper­i­ment run­ning since 1976 and plots with drip irri­ga­tion. Mouth­wa­ter­ing for agri­cul­ture grad­u­ates! The qui­et of the coun­try­side is quick­ly lost when we step out­side the com­pound. Busi­ness peo­ple and street ven­dors, home­less peo­ple and gov­ern­ment offi­cials, rich and poor togeth­er on the road. Food for thought.