Christmas lights: The Villager gets lost in the city
New City Dweller faces first major test in getting home alone from the Nairobi CBD
In November of 2001, The Villager left the gates of Nyeri High School - a day after his last paper of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations. He was now ready to conquer the world as a young adult having just turned 18 years old that May.
After a restful week, he went back to the school to get an official copy of his mock results with the goal of immediately seeking some college education in January as he awaits his final exams results. The mock results would be used to seek a place at Strathmore College in Nairobi.
Having spent all his childhood in the rural town of Nyeri where all mornings were cold but the sight of Mt Kenya gave one a warm smile, The Villager had been to Nairobi thrice - twice to visit relatives and once to visit the Kenya Museums among other tourist sites.
On the day of the journey to Nairobi, in the second last week of November, The Villager didn't need an alarm to wake him up as this was an exciting chapter in his life. He packed his tiny blue bag that had a logo of an English football club - Leeds United - and was escorted to the bus station by his mother who would travel with him to Nairobi. He settled in his seat in the 14-seater 2NK van (not sure why Kenyans refer to them as Nissans yet most of them are Toyotas). But I digress.
The three-hour journey appeared long but The Villager had to stay alert as he and his mother had to alight on Thika Rd at the gate of Mathari Mental Hospital. He knew that he would make this journey alone in the future and it was therefore important that he registered some of the major landmarks in his head. His aunt, the elder sister to his father, would be playing host to him. She works at the hospital and lives in the staff houses within the compound. She lived with her husband who worked for an insurance company with their three children - two sons and a daughter.
It was around lunchtime when The Villager and his mother got to Nairobi. And after a short while of discussing The Villager’s future, they escorted his mother to the bus stop where she boarded a matatu to the CBD to go board another one to take her back to Nyeri.
The Villager was now set to become a city dweller. But not before the city taught him a few lessons.
The entrance exam at Strathmore was about two weeks away and so The Villager spent most of the time with his cousins as they introduced him to city life. It was during this introduction to the city life that the elder of the cousins, who is three years younger, took him to Florida Night Club on Sundays for the afternoon jam session. They would leave the house at around lunchtime and head to the club for their afternoon shenanigans. At around 7 or 8pm, they would leave the club and head to Tom Mboya street and look for the loudest matatu to take them home. This happened on two Sundays before the college entrance exam which was on a Tuesday.
That morning, The Villager's uncle, who unfortunately now is on the other side of life, dropped him at Strathmore College (now University). He gave him some money and told him he would easily find his way back home by just taking the matatus. The Villager had already spent two weeks in the city and felt at home though he had only been in the matatus on the two Sundays that his cousin had taken him to the 'disco'.
At Strathmore, The Villager like all the other prospective students (including some of his former schoolmates), took his entrance exam which he found to have been very easy. He was enrolling for a diploma in Management Information Systems offered by the college on behalf of the UK based Institute of Management Information Systems.
After the exam, The Villager joined his former schoolmates for lunch and some beers at the Nairobi West shopping centre. As luck would have it one of the former schoolmates was a city dweller - born and raised - and so he acted as the ‘tour guide’.
After a lot of Nyama Choma, Tuskers and laughter, it was time to head back to the CBD from where everyone was to head to their respective homes. On arrival at the CBD, The Villager realised that he did not know how to go back to his aunt's place. Mobile phones were still a new thing and so he was yet to own one and therefore seeking help from his relatives was not an option
The Villager had only been to Tom Mboya Street at night and the only things his mind could register was that matatus were loud at that time but they seemed to be very quiet this afternoon. To make matters worse, the Nairobi West matatus had dropped him and the rest in unknown territory in downtown Nairobi. He couldn't allow his friends to learn that he did not know where he was going and so he just bid them goodbye and said he hoped to see them in January in college.
In the village, there were mythical stories of how it was impossible to ask city dwellers for directions as they were known to kidnap people who did so. The Villager would later realise that those were mostly just stories by people who had never been to Nairobi or had watched too many movies.
With that fear, The Villager came up with an idea. The familiarity with the city was the noisy matatus at night. He knew how they walked from Florida to the matatus - but his head would only register this at night. From the entrance, they would walk up Moi Avenue, cross the road at Kencom to the Kenya National Archives areas and walk into Tom Mboya from where they would board the matatus.
For hours, The Villager walked aimlessly, but confidently, around the CBD waiting for darkness to approach. He knew of one clue to enable him to get the right matatu - Christmas lights on one of the buildings on Tom Mboya Street. It was the building that hosted Tuskys Supermarket (Daima).
With sore feet and an urge to relieve himself (we all know what beer does to one's biology), The Villager prayed that darkness comes faster than it seemed to be doing. But he also used this time to learn more about the CBD with the aim of becoming an expert city dweller.
Eventually, he got a matatu and got home as people were serving dinner. They were worried about his whereabouts but The Villager's ego could not allow him to tell them that he had gotten lost in the city. Instead, he focused on the entrance exam and how he had decided to spend time with his potential college mates.
That night, The Villager resolved to learn the city better as he was sure his entrance exam results would get him a slot at the prestigious college, which happened just before Christmas when his mother called and told him an admission letter had reached the village.
But from then on, The Villager has a conflicted relationship with Christmas lights. On one hand, they saved him and on the other, they took too long to light up and he almost peed on himself.