{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Entertainment News - Kenya : : The Nairobian - Sip of Chang’aa exploded in my chest in Kogelo — President Barack Obama

http://www.sde.co.ke/thenairobian/article/2000169446/sip-of-chang-aa-exploded-in-my-chest-in-kogelo-president-barack-obama

Entertainment News - Kenya : : The Nairobian

Waiters had no time for thin 'pointie' Obama says

The hullabaloo surrounding the visit to Kenya by US President Barack Obama was non-existent when he first came here in 1988 as a jobless 28-year-old waiting to join Harvard Law School.

Again, in 2006, local politicians did not even have the courtesy of giving the then Illinois Senator air time. But now that he is coming as the President of America, his visit will surely disrupt life in Kenya, a country he fondly writes about in his sentimental bio, Dreams from My Father, which he authored while still a law student. 

A whole chapter is devoted to Kenya. We detail his experience during that first visit to Kenya.

We have no record of you here

In his first few days in Kenya, Obama endured a torturous moment after his luggage was misplaced after his arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in 1988. Having flown in a Johannesburg-bound British Airways flight, his bag was mistakenly sent to South Africa. Although a "strikingly beautiful woman" from the airline called Miss Omoro assured him that the bag would be shipped to him the following day, the future US president had to endure rude and callous staff in his ensuing visits to the airport.

"At the British Airways desk, we found two young women discussing a nightclub that had just opened. I interrupted their conversation to ask about the bag, and one of them thumbed listlessly through a stack of papers," Obama writes in Dreams from My Father.  "We have no record of you here. Go downtown if you want to talk to someone else," he writes on.

After a heated exchange, a friend of his father, introduced to him by his half-sister Auma, rescued the situation since they were friends with Maduri, the manager.

Waiters had no time for thin 'pointie'
Obama and Auma decided to have lunch at The New Stanley Hotel after a tour of the city, but to his shock, Obama writes, the waiters had no time for this thin young "pointie" and his black "girlfriend."

"For some time, they managed to avoid my glance, but eventually an older man with sleepy eyes relented and brought us two menus," Obama recalls. "His manner was resentful though..." recalls Obama.

Sip of chang'aa exploded in my chest

In Kogelo Obama, would go to the market with granny Sarah, carrying a gunia, an image that is eternally etched in time through a memorable photo. But during one of his nocturnal village runs accompanied by half-brother Roy, he was taken to a chang'aa den where a toast was made in his honour.

He recalls the experience: "They led us to a wooden table set with an unlabeled bottle of clear liquid and three glasses. The white-haired man (BillY) held up the bottle, then carefully poured what looked like a couple of shots into each glass." Obama added that, "'This is better than whisky, Barry," Billy said as he lifted his glass. "It makes a man very potent. He threw the drink down his throat, and Roy and I followed suit. I felt my chest explode, raining down shrapnels into my stomach."

Dinner in Kariakor and a trip to Mathare

 One of the landing stations for the Obama family then was a house in Kariakor estate owned by "a short stocky woman with cheerful brown face." It is in this house that Obama was introduced to Auma's mother Kezia and Auntie Zeituni.

"Everyone greeted me with cheerful curiosity, but very little awkwardness, as if meeting a relative for the first time was an everyday occurrence," Obama recalls in his memoir.

"Jane pushed me towards a small table set with bowls of goat curry, fried fish, collards (sukuma wiki) and rice," recounts Obama.

Later on, Aunt Zeituni took Obama to see Aunt Sarah, Obama senior's sister, in Mathare and the American's description of the sprawling slum is typically touristic.

"I looked out the window to see the shantytown below, miles and miles of corrugated rooftops shimmering under the sun like wet lily pads, buckling and dipping in unbroken sequence across the valley," he writes.

Shopping at the smelly City Market

Obama took Auma shopping at the City Market, where they sat and drunk sodas. Obama was amazed by the haggles and bargains, where at one moment his ethnicity was even challenged.

"Across from us, another woman wove coloured straw into baskets; beside her, a man cut hide into long strips to be used for some purse straps," he notes in Dreams from My Father.

Entertainment News - Kenya : : The Nairobian - Sip of Chang'aa exploded in my chest in Kogelo — President Barack Obama

http://www.sde.co.ke/thenairobian/article/2000169446/sip-of-chang-aa-exploded-in-my-chest-in-kogelo-president-barack-obama

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