Sunday, October 18, 2009

Of Rains and Planning (or lack thereof)

I have 3 days of dawas to go! I think on Thursday my local will have a welcome mat out for me, a T-shirt and perhaps even create a Digzer theme night! I do notice though that while I was away, the price of beer went up. Bummer. But as someone on radio said, there's little that can be done to keep the faithful drinker away from their drinkee of choice!

In other news, the rains are here and I swear I won't complain about getting drenched. I should have taken a 'before' picture of the Nairobi River for those of you who hadn't seen it recently, to get, well, a picture of how dire the situation has been. Birds, and I mean tiny ones and not stocks, were standing comfortably in the middle of the river sifting through the mud for grub. After the last few days' rain, there's water to speak of. You can actually hear the water flowing past. It's nowhere near it's former glory; a river rushing so wildly it was capable of drowning a full grown man, but with any hope it will get there.

I am saddened by the firm knowledge that our dear government (whose water ministry is presently embroiled in a scandal over stolen millions) will do absolutely nothing to try and capture, contain and conserve this water for future need. I mean, on yesterday's news they said that there were floods in Mandera (I kid you not) that were now leading to untold suffering for a community that was only last week suffering from the ravages of the drought.

God help Kenya.