With one thing planned in writing today, I was busier than normal but could still allow for a late start.
We left the house at around 12, Malin was going to go clothes shopping around the market so T-Man and I were going to have a wander around the food market. I had to put on my blind-eye glasses, switch on my deaf ear and rub myself into a good mood because when myself and Torbjorn hit the market we create a tidal wave of laughter, staring and random shouts that either I don't understand or that don't make any sense. I let T-man walk in front of me and i observed the locals and counted how many times he got called "Jesus." Previously he's counted 18 times in 20minutes as he walked down the street. Today we had all sorts of reactions and unfortunately some were borderline rudeness, coming up to you in a way that a drunk person would, not knowing what they were saying and sometimes knocking you with no respect whatsoever.
It makes it a lot easier being with someone, you can bounce off each other with your moaning and laugh about it. It's the best way to deal with it. A lot of the Kenyans don't have any idea how racist their remarks are and a lot are severely naive but this all boils down to lack of education. A lot of the Kenyans are great fun as well and the more switched on ones can really lighten your day.
As much as I want to defend them, today I couldn't. Today I think we had all the uneducated ones and they worked very hard at scratching away at my patience and good mood.
After about 15 minutes I was ready for a beer. We chose a restaurant that overlooked a T-Junction, absolutely perfect for people watching and calming down with a cold one or two. We waited for Malin before we had food and with one look at the menu, I knew we weren't exactly in for a Michelin star experience.
The restaurant had no beef so we were forced to order chicken. Team Norway ordered regular fried chicken and if there's one thing I will never forget from my experiences in Africa, its never order regular fried chicken. As I suspected, their fried chicken came out drier than the Nubian desert and tougher than the Daily Telegraph crossword. My "wet" fried chicken wasn't much better but at least it came with some sauce.
Myself and T-Man had our chicken with a chapati that turned to dust when you picked it up and Malin had rice.
Chicken - 200 KSH
Chapati - 40 KSH
Rice - 40 KSH
The food cost nothing but when we got the bill it read 400 KSH each.
I have mentioned a few times before how bad the service is in Africa and I have no problems with telling them this to their face. This is something that Team Norway said they wish they could do but they are just too nice and Torbjørn especially is not really a fan of confrontation. Here, they were just trying to take money from us and so this situation would prove to be perfect for Team Norway's first lesson in sticking up for themselves. My job would be to sit back and if I sensed they were backing down due to African excuses I would step in and relight the fire.
As suspected, the 2 waitresses, 1 waiter and "manager" were full of excuses, contradictions and uneducated arguments that made no sense, there was no way we were going to back down. The build-up of the morning's experiences may have been a factor in our reason for arguing over such a tiny amount of money but Team Norway held strong, we paid 240KSH each and left, (never to return/be allowed in again)
Despite being annoyed at the restaurant for their ridiculous arguments we walked away with beaming smiles on our faces. I felt like a proud father that had just witnessed his children sticking up for their beliefs and not get conned or bullied into giving money away for no reason other than because they are white and "tourists."
We had planned to go and check out the football training for TWOMOC. When we got there the regular coach wasn't there and the lads were just playing a practice match. Because of this, there wasn't really much point in us being there however Aggray, the junior coach was there, and he told me he had spread the word about my workshop to all the coaches of Nakuru. This was promising news and he seemed to think there would be quite a few that would turn up on Sunday. Knowing Kenyan people and their reliability with meetings I wasn't going to hold my breath but I would be happy with more than 5!
We left the football as it got dark and returned home for a BBQ. The darkness wasn't an issue as we filled the garden table with candles and I cooked by torch light. The food was quality as always and the main event of the meal would be a chicken and bacon kebab with beef and mushroom. Malin had made one each and they were marinated and prepared with pure love and devotion. We were still hungry after the first lot of regular kebabs so I made sure I cooked the three special ones with intense concentration as to not ruin them in anyway.
Malin and Torbjoern's love for bacon and my love for food in general meant that these kebabs were much anticipated, like the finale of a fireworks display. After a good 10 minutes of careful rotating over the amber coals as the BBQ was cooling down, they were ready. I left my station for 1 minute as Torbjoern called me over to see a photo that he had taken of the fire and the night sky (he was experimenting with effects) Malin returned to the BBQ from the house and shouted something in Norwegian at Torbjoern. I didn't understand what she said but I could tell by her tone that it wasn't good. My stomach felt sick immediately, it was the kebabs, what had happened? I ran to the BBQ to find nothing, they were gone....the dogs had'em.
I turned to see their two ill-mannered African dogs munching away at my meat sensation on a stick and within seconds the mood of the garden plummeted into silence and devastation. Malin was clearly gutted and I was angry at myself and have never wanted to kick a dog so much in my life. I didn't kick them... but I really wanted to.
Unfortunately this event tarnished our night and with no more food and the BBQ dying anyway, there was nothing left to do other than to go to bed disappointed and hungry. I will forever wonder what those kebabs would taste like but I can't let it affect my ride. I've had disappointments in the past and managed to carry on regardless but today may go down as one of the biggest disappointments of my ride to date.
I said yesterday that eventful days come every other, today I proved myself right unfortunately. From now on, if the dogs come within a metre of the BBQ then I'm helping them with going all the way onto the BBQ!
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