When I was
promoted to drive Lima Lima, I had not thought about the fact that it was
supposed to operate from a different site. The company I worked for had 3 sites
or bases as we used to refer to them. The main one – which I had been working
from until then – was at a place called Westlands. It was referred to as Base
1. The next one was on Ngong road and this was Base 2. This was around the time
when there was a war going on in Bosnia and so the third base which was located
at the Village Market shopping mall was christened Bosnia. By extension, Base 2
came to be known as Kosovo – in honor of that country which was also at war and
was always on the news.
The morning after I had come back from Lake Nakuru, I confidently came and parked at Base 1 just like I had been used to before. The manager found me there and sent me packing to Kosovo since that was Lima Lima’s base. I was not comfortable to move although I had no option but to comply. I was worried about having to get new clients and learn new routes. However, I need not have worried. The clients in Kosovo were different from those I had known at Base 1. They were fewer but they often travelled further – meaning they paid more. We mainly served the affluent suburbs of Karen, Kilimani, and Lavington. Despite carrying the name of a war zone, Kosovo did not portend any difficulties for us – apart from the occasional difficult Kibera assignment. Please note, the difficulty was not in the client but in the areas we had to drive through as they were not particularly safe.
When I was in college, we had a lecturer who studied in Japan and was fluent in the language. One time he brought a visitor from Japan to our class. She was a young lady and she was very excited to visit – and she only spoke Japanese. She wanted to learn so many things especially about the national language – Kiswahili. Our teacher was kind enough to translate. She learnt so many words especially considering that she was there for only one morning. When time came for her to leave she really wept. Apparently she had fallen in love with all of us. One of the noisier guys said that she should also teach us some words in Japanese so that we could also have something to remember her by. She taught us how to say good morning – “Ohayo Goizamasu”, complete with a bow.
When I became a taxi driver, I met people of many races and nationalities, including Japanese. However, for a long time, I never met a Japanese person in the morning. I therefore never got the chance to use the two Japanese words I knew – that is until I moved to Kosovo. The moment I went to pick that client and saw that he was Japanese, I was elated. I couldn’t wait for him to get in the car so that I could speak Japanese for the first time. He got into the back seat and smiled warmly. I smiled back and, with all the “Japaneseness” I could muster, I bowed and greeted him, “Ohayo Goizamasu”. I believe I must have said it rather well because he was a bit taken aback. He answered back in the same words and further added (in Swahili), much to my surprise, “Unajua Kijapani?” which means, “You mean you know Japanese?” It was at that point I wished I had taken time to learn a few more words in Japanese. That would have been an interesting conversation, me speaking Japanese and my new best friend speaking Swahili. That however was not going to happen. This was Kosovo.
The morning after I had come back from Lake Nakuru, I confidently came and parked at Base 1 just like I had been used to before. The manager found me there and sent me packing to Kosovo since that was Lima Lima’s base. I was not comfortable to move although I had no option but to comply. I was worried about having to get new clients and learn new routes. However, I need not have worried. The clients in Kosovo were different from those I had known at Base 1. They were fewer but they often travelled further – meaning they paid more. We mainly served the affluent suburbs of Karen, Kilimani, and Lavington. Despite carrying the name of a war zone, Kosovo did not portend any difficulties for us – apart from the occasional difficult Kibera assignment. Please note, the difficulty was not in the client but in the areas we had to drive through as they were not particularly safe.
When I was in college, we had a lecturer who studied in Japan and was fluent in the language. One time he brought a visitor from Japan to our class. She was a young lady and she was very excited to visit – and she only spoke Japanese. She wanted to learn so many things especially about the national language – Kiswahili. Our teacher was kind enough to translate. She learnt so many words especially considering that she was there for only one morning. When time came for her to leave she really wept. Apparently she had fallen in love with all of us. One of the noisier guys said that she should also teach us some words in Japanese so that we could also have something to remember her by. She taught us how to say good morning – “Ohayo Goizamasu”, complete with a bow.
When I became a taxi driver, I met people of many races and nationalities, including Japanese. However, for a long time, I never met a Japanese person in the morning. I therefore never got the chance to use the two Japanese words I knew – that is until I moved to Kosovo. The moment I went to pick that client and saw that he was Japanese, I was elated. I couldn’t wait for him to get in the car so that I could speak Japanese for the first time. He got into the back seat and smiled warmly. I smiled back and, with all the “Japaneseness” I could muster, I bowed and greeted him, “Ohayo Goizamasu”. I believe I must have said it rather well because he was a bit taken aback. He answered back in the same words and further added (in Swahili), much to my surprise, “Unajua Kijapani?” which means, “You mean you know Japanese?” It was at that point I wished I had taken time to learn a few more words in Japanese. That would have been an interesting conversation, me speaking Japanese and my new best friend speaking Swahili. That however was not going to happen. This was Kosovo.
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