Thursday, January 04, 2007

Word Picture Gallery

Heard casually at mid-morning of a rainy 4th of January 2007 in the cluttered lift lobby of the 10th floor of Loita House, Nairobi. One blue-collar (but really cheerful -- and hairless) worker to his three less talkative mates, while contemplating the grey cityscape (but more the ongoing heavy short rains):

"Imenyesha mpaka wadudu wanakufa!"

[Trans: "It has rained till the insects are dying!"].

Oh-my-God! The insects!

The 10th floor, if you didn't know, is where the head office of Dyer & Blair Investment Bank is located; though, when the full gang of those workers is through with the re-partitioning, we'll be talking of both the 9th and 10th floor. Jimnah Mbaru's empire is growing. Now Kenya, tomorrow Eastern and Central Africa -- and then to the Cape.

That talkative worker said a little more ... but that's for another day. Didn't hear anything about shares, though.

And then they were gone -- scattered to their various urgent tasks of re-doing (fanyaring, tengezating) Mbaru's empire.

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