Moving countries, it seems to me, is always a combination of good weeks and not so good weeks. The fact that the Pox affected our family tilted our initial experience a bit more towards ‘not so good’ as we started off by visiting the hospitals in a new country – nothing wrong with the hospitals but generally not a great experience anywhere in the world. To be honest, Robin dealt with it like a grown up boy – with moans and groans that I ignored, and little Tarana was very calm, composed and matter of fact about where the calamine needed to be applied as she could feel the spot hurt in an ‘ooooohooo’ way.
I had a window of a couple of days after Robin had recovered and before Tarana got infected where I got out a little for dinners and to generally get to know a few people in the new city. At one of these dinners I was venting my frustration with our UK moving company for constantly pushing the due date for our shipment. In fact, between their London office and the local representative they can’t agree on the latest due date as one says it will be in Nairobi on 29th July while the other says it will only reach the port by the 29th!
Someone at the dinner couldn’t understand why we had even bothered with an established mover (the one we are using moves for most expatriates coming to Nairobi) – “You should have used the Somalis. They bring anything you want through Eldoret” he told us. Eldoret is a small town in western Kenya that has an international airport (that a former president built so that he can visit his village). It sounds like Eldoret falls in the blind spot of the Kenyan revenue authorities and goods sneak in and out of the airport duty free. The Somalis are known for their strict code of conduct – they deliver as they promise as long as they are paid their dues. Therefore, if one wants to import something to Kenya without having to deal with shipping companies that don’t stick to schedules and customs hassles in Nairobi, the Eldoret Somali route is the dodgy alternative. Am I ready to try it? Not desperate enough yet, but who knows what dealing with officious and unreliable movers can do to me?
0 comments:
Post a Comment