NAIROBI — 1.2921° S, 36.8219° E
Nairobi, Kilimani
— Kenya
Two weeks in a flat in Kilimani. Rain, traffic, and the record shop on River Road.
Day 1 — 22:30. Landed. The air at night smells of rain and charcoal even when it has not rained.
Day 3 — 07:10. Watched the flats across the road wake up. Curtains, radios, someone doing press-ups on a balcony with a lot of commitment.
Day 6 — 16:00. Rain, right on time. Twenty minutes of everything. Then the road steams and the boda bodas come back like nothing happened.
Day 9 — 12:40. River Road. A record shop up a flight of stairs that you would never find unless someone took you. Benga, rumba, old Kenyan pressings in sleeves soft as cloth. Bought three, could have bought thirty.
Day 14 — 05:30. Taxi to the airport in the dark. The driver had the radio on a station playing house music, and for a minute it felt like the 140.
Worth remembering
- The record shop up the stairs on River Road. Ask for the back room.
- Rain at 4pm, every day. Plan around it.
- Mandazi from the kiosk outside the flat, before 9.