About coconuts, being a teacher, and AI
Boom! Something fell on my roof and woke me up. The wind rustled through the trees all night, more than usual for this time of the year. It could have been a coconut or another kind of large nut whose name I haven’t learned yet. But I did learn that it’s not the nuts that are dangerous on a coconut palm, but the branches with the palm fronds. They crash to the ground much more often than nuts when they are dried out, especially since the nuts are harvested from time to time. The gardener collects the branches and temporarily stores them outside the gate until they are picked up. They are processed further for traditional Makuti thatch roofing, which in Malindi is now only used by tourist resorts. I don’t mind, because my Makuti roof softens the impact a bit when something falls on it. A metal roof would make a lot more noise.
Christmas cookies at the equator are a challenge. First of all, the weather is not right: In Malindi, on the Indian Ocean, December is one of the hottest months. There is no Christmas feeling with cold weather and dark nights. But baking itself also has its pitfalls.
El Niño is announced this year. This means that instead of the short rainy season before the hot Christmas holidays, the rains are longer and, above all, heavier. The road in front of the gate to my compound has its problems with this.
Malindi is - or was until the Covid lockdown - a tourist destination. The cultural scene is geared towards this: There are several clubs and a cinema that is currently being revived by a young local art scene.
At first glance, my office seems a little strange. Recently I have learned that it was not built as an office.
I often take a tuktuk to get home from the office. Whenever I sit in one, I start to grin.
Barely three months in my new home place, I have already broken my first broomstick. That would be the fifth in my time in Kenya.