well, here i am in kenya.

The French cultural centre in downtown Nairobi turns out to be a great place! Promoting French culture, yes, but also Kenyan culture. Friday night I went there for the first time and heard a Kenyan “fusion” band. And while I have at times perhaps implied that the less “fusion” music in the world the better, this was actually a great band which really did fuse sounds together to come u with really good music!

woo s. the letter between o and q has stoed working on my lato. this has haened before, and it eventually came back.

it came back! super!

So, the band was Ijiali, or something like that, and featured lots of interesting Kenyan instruments as well as an accordion played by a white chick named Gisele. We think she was french maybe, but she sang along in Luo, Kiswahili, and English, and she even danced a Luo dance at one point. The band sounded really great and put on a great show as well.

The French centre has an outdoor courtyard with a stage and plenty of room for sitting or dancing. There were West Africans, Kenyans, French ex-pats, and somewhat obnoxious peppy young UN types. All in all, a good time, and it was fun to be downtown at night. I intend to return - free movies (with french subtitles) every monday!