Run-ins with the Nairobi cops

So I figure one of the elements of life here in Nairobi that makes it substantially different than India is the cops. India is known for its corruption and I had a few run-ins with cops there. My bike would get towed to the police station and when I tried to pay the ticket, no one (meaning the cops) knew how to do that. I had to just pay the guy looking after them (who appeared out of nowhere as soon as I tried to start up the bike). After a few times I learned I could negotiate this fee. The other incident was when I got pulled over for not running the red light. Everyone else was so I almost didn't notice it was red and I stopped in a pedestrian crossing. Others kept driving through on the red light but the policeman waved me over and said I was blocking traffic :) Other than standing there answering "no" every time he asked me my father or husband's name and finally feeling success after a half an hour (and a rather large crowd, who kept explaining to me that he wanted to know my husband's name) when he asked MY name, I don't remember how that fine got paid...I feel like maybe he let me off with a warning...

But it's very different here. I've been pulled over at least 15 times. Most of the time it's in two places where they often set up check points. One is near my office and the other is on a large road that leads to my house from the other direction. They typically set up as it turns dark. I get pulled over because of having a Rav4, and when they can see me the fact that I'm a white girl ups the odds. The only purpose I can see of these stops is to make a little money on the side. I can't find a legitamite value to them otherwise. I've never been asked outright for a bribe, they usually just state some trumped up violation and fine. I've managed to escape so far without paying any of them.

1. The first major incident was when they claimed I hadn't pulled over quick enough. I find it quite hard to figure out when I'm supposed to pull over and when they are waving the flashlight to mean keep going. They insisted this was a federal crime that required a night in jail. Essentially they were waiting for me to offer to pay something so I wouldn't have to go to the station. I had two out of town visitors in the car so felt boosted up by them. I kept insisting that they should write a citation and eventually they got frustrated and gave up.
2. At the other location, it's far more enjoyable because usually Gabriel pulls me over and what he wants is to marry an american girl. When I say I think my husband would object he asks if I have a sister. I know he asks others for a little something something but generally he's pleasant.
   
3. A group of us got pulled over on the way to Nakuru, my friend Brandon was driving. We were in an SUV with 5 mzungus (white people) and lots of luggage. Clearly, we were a good target for getting money. They pulled Brandon out of the car and insisted that he was violating laws by driving with sandals. Clearly this is not a law. He ended up paying them about $20 although they started asking for like $500! This incident prodded me into getting copies of the driving laws that I now carry around.
4. The last incident was near my office again and this time they insisted my liscence had expired. Since I just got it, I knew it couldn't be right but lo and behold the authorities had forgotten to write the expiration date (they had written when it was issued and they are all good for one year). I pulled out all the paperwork I could find on driving laws (they actually don't mention driving with an expired license as a offense), I think I was annoying the officer so much with paperwork (which was my strategy) that at one point he threatened me with a federal charge if it didn't say what I claimed it did. He was threatening to take me to the police station for the expired license anyways. Then he insisted he take the license and I follow him to the station (since I wouldn't let him in the car). I agreed to follow him to the station. But I refused to give him the license, because I knew once he had that (he had it at the beginning but had given it back and I could tell why he wanted it this time) he would demand money to get it back. So I gave him a photocopy insisting that he only needed to be able to track me down in case I didn't actually follow him and the photocopy would be sufficient. Apparently I wore him down and after about 20-30 minutes he said, "let's stop wasting time, you can go".

So now I take bizarre measures to avoid these parts of the road. I go to the road from work and if I see them I turn the opposite direction and take side roads to loop around them. Or if I'm sure they will be there I sometimes take a much longer way home. This combined with the high rates of car jackings and similar crimes is obnoxious because they could be dealing with those problems. AND I'm sure that taking these back roads at night isn't increasing my safety but at least I'm not guarenteed to be stopped by men with big guns.

Pemba, Mozambique

So my friend Amy (pictured below at spa) was in Maputo again for work last week and when I had last been the plane made a short stop in Pemba, which is along the north coast, near Tanzania. Pemba looked so beautiful as we landed that I insisted we should go back. This seemed like a great chance. There aren't many flights direct from Nairobi (two a week) so I flew in on Saturday evening and left Tuesday noon. A short trip but just lovely.

Somehow in my head I thought it was going to be a lively beach town (something that seems rare on this coast, with most places catering to resorts and rented houses- so not many beach cafes and the like). But I was wrong. We stayed at the Pemba Beach Resort, which was stunning but basically the only thing in "town". To be fair we didn't look very hard but after reading in the books that it had not much else, we didn't bother. The resort wasn't very full and was very tastefully done with a great spa, those lovely infinity pools overlooking the ocean, a great gym etc. We basically just lounged around and read. I read two books (haven't finished the second yet) on Kenya that were fascinating; White Mischief about the 1930s expats in Kenya based on an unsolved murder of a white guy in Nairobi in 1941. The second is It's Our Turn to Eat about a Kenyan whistle blower of corruption in the government (the first Kibaki one, about 6 years ago). Both books are supposedly banned in Kenya (I can confirm I can't find them here but I'm not down with the 'book crowd' so maybe it's not true). Either way, they are both fascinating looks into the Kenya, which I realize I barely know.

On Monday I went diving in the morning - for the first time in my short diving life, there was no one else but me and the dive instructor. Nice guy John from South Africa. It was a bizarre dive actually. For some reason I could descend (John later said it's very salinated which might have had something to do with it) - I eventually had to literally dive down. And when I got down, my flipper unclipped and while I was trying to re-clip it I bumped into the coral reef, which tore apart my hand. It was quite pretty though, I'm not usually amazed by coral but when there's not so many huge fish and turtles and eels and lobster and the like, you pay attention to the smaller stuff. So we were investigating the fish and coral and then John indicated that I should listen, there were whales calling. And then we rounded a corner and saw this amazing Ocean Sun Fish - picture off of wikipedia is on the left. I've never seen anything like it - even in movies or books. I think it was about 6ft long but John thought it was a lot bigger (and I'm horrible at those estimations, so I'll believe him). It's one of the strangest things I've ever seen (he had never seen one before either) -doesn't seem like it's the correct shape for anything!

I highly recommend the resort, as a lovely do-nothing kind of vacation. There's water sports and spa treatments, etc but we certainly didn't surround ourselves with mozambiquen culture. Although it was fun trying to remember my Spanish! (they don't speak spanish but I figured it was better than english!)