our old town

Nakuru has several new buildings including 2 or 3 tourist-class hotels that had seemed to be in perpetual "construction" when we lived here before, as well as Tidy's restaurant and a new office building. The many cyber cafes are all 1 or 2 shillings per minute. And there's more traffic including bodabodas and taptaps as well as cars. Despite all this urbanization, Wambo, with her slim jeans and big hair, really does stand out and I am rather shocked when I meet her by accident on Kenyatta Avenue and struggle even to know how I know this head-turning young woman who seems to know me. When I do recognize her, I'm very happy. Maureen is with her and I take him to lunch at the Ethiopian restaurnt. (It has been rebuilt since 2002 and is very busy.) In the later afternoon, I go to NCCK where I meet Daniel Kamau, Kireme, Korega, and Samuel Murithi, all of them happy to see me and hear news of Joan. Murithi shows me the invitation letter he received and explains the reason he couldn't get his passport (offical corruption) in time to go on the trip to America. He also says, when I tell him that next year Joan might come by herself, that it's better for people to travel together so they can really enjoy themselves. And I really hear him and feel lonely for Joan. Everywhere I go in Nakuru, it reminds me of her. In the evening, I pass by our old flats and see Kadogo, Junior, Faitma and their mother and then Princess Yvonne and her family.