I gobbled up Hilton’s appetiser soup and bread thinking it was main meal

Phelix Odiwour (Jalang'o)

By Cate Mukei

Interview by Cate Muke

My first visit to Nairobi was in 1998. I had come for the Drama Festivals. We came with the school bus and got to Nairobi at night. I was sleeping throughout the journey but I was woken up by the streetlight when we got to Westlands. I was very excited. I opened my bus window and elongated my neck like a giraffe to see what was happening outside. I was very excited.

We spent the night at Nairobi Primary School where I discovered that we were the dirtiest compared to all other schools that had attended the festivals. Back home, Nyangoma High School was known to have the cleanest students. We had pulled our socks up to the knees, applied Vaseline on our shoes so as to shine the most but still we looked like chokoras among the rest of the students, mostly from Nairobi.

The next day my friend and I decided to visit my uncle who worked at Hilton Hotel. He had told me to visit him whenever I was in Nairobi. Unfortunately, he was not working on this particular day. He however made a phone call for us to be served whatever we wanted. Unfortunately for us, we had never eaten in a five-star hotel before and when the appetiser (soup and bread) was brought, we ate like that was the end of the world. We even asked for a refill. We were shocked to see that there was more food to be served. To cut the long story short; they had to pack the main meal for us as take away.

On our way out we saw the traffic lights. I had read about these amazing lights in the geography books but now I wanted to touch them and also meet the person that controls them.

I remember sitting down at a roundabout just to stare at them and watch how they controlled human and vehicle movement.

It was the same day that I learnt that Zebra crossing is not meant for the Zebras. All along I thought that Zebras were intelligent enough to know that they were supposed to cross from there.

I was also intrigued by Nairobi women. I was particularly impressed by their dress code. This was the pedal pushers season.

Every woman I came across rocked a pair of those tiny pants and boy! I almost broke my neck!

-Interview by Cate Mukei