Killing Time in Luhyaland

Even though my job keeps me busy, I make sure that after 7 or so I make my time free.  Oddly enough, this is the hardest time for me to fill when I am out in the sugarcane field that is Western or in the desert up North.  I end up with plenty of free time in Rongai too, provided I haven’t tried to get anywhere that day and ended up in two hours of traffic.  I have devised some hobbies to relax my mind and keep me chilled out when it gets dark and I’m sitting in my room, a bottle of DOOM mosquito spray poised ever-ready on the bed. 

First, I have gotten back into drawing, which I did a lot during college.  I do the same abstract pen drawings as before, which have always had some Moroccan stylings and lots of detail, but they are becoming much more informed by the fabrics and textiles I see around me every day.  After my trip to Lamu, they are also much more Swahili-influenced.  For a few years I avoided color and drew in mostly black and white, but these days I have combined my styles, using intricate colored patterns that are set off with a solid black background. 

Reading is still a huge hobby, and I have read a lot of books since I arrived, most memorably the Kwani? Anthologies of stories written by Kenyan and other African writers on topics including the Kennedy airlifts of East African students to Universities in the US, the diaspora, dating, visiting your mom in the village, killing chickens, and hacking computers.  I have also enjoyed some true crime novels, weepy stories about heroic elephants (sorry mom), and am currently reading Obama’s Dreams from my Father.  I try to read Kenyan authors when I can, but they are not featured prominently in bookstores here.  Actually, the easiest things to find are Christian novels and self-help books.  At a premium, too.  Books are about 30 dollars at the cheapest here.

Podcasts have become a tidy little obsession that I can lose myself in while I go to sleep.  I love how I can download a bunch, listen to them a few times, and then my iPad deletes them for me.  No fuss, no muss.  Serial was a big part of my life in Joburg.  Also into crime podcasts.  I’m not a weirdo, I just find them soothing or something.   They are so clinical and straightforward, surprisingly.

I also like to just get out and walk around town.  There is not a lot to see in Mumias, but the markets are still fun to walk through.  Lots of wheelbarrows full of mangoes, hawkers selling pirated dvds and schoolbooks, fabric shops, and second hand clothing.  It can be frustrating because people never leave me alone when I am out walking, but putting up headphones that aren’t attached to anything usually does the trick.  Sometimes I want to talk to people and I do, but often I just want to be left alone to wander. 

The strike was called off and I return to work on Monday, but I’m not sure what the environment at the school will be like.  I’m guessing that the teachers will be pretty stressed and busy, so I don’t want to get in the way.  I hope my time in Western isn’t wasted.