A goal in the gaol

How many African children slot the ball between the posts below, score that winning goal and go to sleep dreaming of going to Brazil this month for the world cup ?

By entering the gate on the left, free trips to eastern destinations were available to anyone interested ( or not ).

This is Fort Jesus in Mombassa which witnessed the full horrors of the slave trade from the 16th century onward ( Interestingly this fact is missing from the Wikipedia page.).  A hub for the east African slave and ivory trade, this place was the collection and distribution point for humans.  On some accounts, the east African trade was much larger than the Atlantic trade we all know about.

Marching through the gate below, it was straight into the dungeons to await for collection.  The slaves were then moved through a system of tunnels and caves ( to keep things private ) on to waiting ships

A lovely monument, but a really sad history that is hard to shake.

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Back again

Too long since my last blog... The final report got the better of me..

Well our trip is coming to an end, last Friday were the final presentations to the clients and IBM.  The next generation application team's "blog" can be found here:

http://csckenya8.blogspot.ie/p/sub-team-1-bluemix.html

A wonderful pictorial of what we achieved during the last four weeks at Strathmore university.

Down time since Friday, went to the Masai Mara at the weekend and were we lucky to see the "Great Migration" ( 3 weeks earlier than normal ).  More to follow on that.

 Sadness all around now that the team has finally split up ( 9 of us went to the Masai Mara together ).  It's amazing how teams can bond so quickly and friendships form so fast.

Now in Mombassa to relax for a few days before beginning the trip home.

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Who says blogs need words..?

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Nairobi - a city under construction.

One of the things you cannot fail to notice is the amount of ongoing construction  in Nairobi.  There are building sites all over the city surrounded by scaffolding of various sophistication.  Wooden scaffolding in the extreme:

 We know the Romans built the Pantheon using wooden scaffolding and concrete. According to Wikipedia:

   still stands as the largest unreinforced concrete structure in the world after more than two thousand years.

And one of my favourite Roman bridges at Vaison la-Romanie,  was probably built with huge amounts of wooden scaffolding.

So why not ?

And to leave you with this:

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Tanzanite

Learned something new today: Tanzanite is only found in one place in the world, the Mererani Hills in Tanzania. 1000 times rarer than diamond, it changes colour under different lighting conditions.  Cool

Mrs O'Toole, it's  a pity your birthday isn't in December...

Image taken from here

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The perfect granny flat

Oh Mother... Look what I'm going to build for you in the back garden when I get back...


Grandmother's Hut : 

Click to get a closer look.

Eco-friendly, natural materials, airy.  What more could you want ?

Now where do I put my mother in-law ?

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Suit you even more Sir....

Jacky Tam is the man...  

Just arrived in Nairobi and unpacked my suits.  They survived pretty intact, I was expecting something similar to this:

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