Observation Day 3
Every city has its own sights and sounds but they also have a unique smell . . . for instance Paris in the summer has the faint waft of the Seine and hot asphalt, while London in the winter has the essence of wet dog and Kigali has the constant smell of cooking fires and bus exhaust.
Nairobi is of no exception it embodies a heavy exhaust smell but it is profoundly overpowered by the smell of dust. Yes, dust - it is everywhere - including up your nose, in your clothes and every book you open from now until eternity (not a joke - have books from Kenya 1996 that open and red dust shakes out).
The smell of the red menice can only be compared to a light chili pepper, mixed with cardamom and dirt. It is everywhere, all the time! Even now at the end of the "rains", life is caked with dust!
At the end of the day when you shower the water runs red for a moment or three . . .
I am not complaining, just observing and feeling like I am finally back home in Kenya now that everything I own has a nice red layer of dust.
Nairobi is of no exception it embodies a heavy exhaust smell but it is profoundly overpowered by the smell of dust. Yes, dust - it is everywhere - including up your nose, in your clothes and every book you open from now until eternity (not a joke - have books from Kenya 1996 that open and red dust shakes out).
The smell of the red menice can only be compared to a light chili pepper, mixed with cardamom and dirt. It is everywhere, all the time! Even now at the end of the "rains", life is caked with dust!
At the end of the day when you shower the water runs red for a moment or three . . .
I am not complaining, just observing and feeling like I am finally back home in Kenya now that everything I own has a nice red layer of dust.
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