Day one in Nairobi
Barrie is a good mate of mine and is a first rate mass spec engineer. He was instrumental in setting up our charity – Foundation for Analytical Science and Technology in Africa. His company donated a fantastic instrument which we shipped out to Kenya to install in the lab of another good mate, Professor Anthony Gachanja.
Barrie and I followed the mass spectrometer out to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi where we had a really busy week setting it up in Anthony’s lab. We worked really hard, often arriving at the lab at 9 am and not leaving until 6 or 7 in the evening. We were staying in the Nairobi Hilton, which is a very nice hotel in the middle of Nairobi, just next to the pile of rubble that was the American Embassy before it was bombed by Al Qaeda.
Kenya is a wonderful country and I always enjoy my visits there. After the first day in the lab, we arrived back at the Hilton and had a couple of beers and something to eat before retiring to our (separate) rooms completely knackered. I had a shower and was walking across to my bed when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small animal run across the floor. Obviously, this being Africa I was a bit worried and after very quickly getting dressed and tucking my trousers into my socks I spent 20 minutes looking for this creature, but to no avail. By now it was about midnight and I was frankly (I don’t mind admitting it) too scared to go to sleep in my room. What did I do? I rang Barrie and got him out of bed. He arrived at my room none too pleased at been disturbed and between us we spent another 20 minutes searching but still found nothing. Barrie then suggested that we phone the manager, which we did. The manager appeared and suggested that we go down to the bar for another drink whilst his staff turned out my room. An hour later, he came down to the bar and assured me that whatever it was it was not there now. He said he thought it could have been a scorpion. I asked him if they were dangerous and he replied ‘Oh yes sir, one bite from a scorpion and you could wake up dead in the morning’. After that I made sure that I checked in the bed and under it before going to sleep.
L-R Anthony, Barrie, me.
Day 4 in Nairobi
This particular day, we had worked really hard and managed (after 4 days of toil) to install the instrument and get it working well. Again, we returned to the hotel at around 8 pm. Anthony was due to join us for a beer and something to eat so I suggested to Barrie that I would go to my room for a shower and would meet him in the bar in 20 minutes. When I got down to the bar I saw that the place was almost empty and Barrie was sitting on a bar stool with a beer. I sat myself down next to him and ordered one for myself. After about 5 minutes a rather attractive young lady sat down next me and struck up a conversation. I remember thinking at the time that this was somewhat unusual and that this kind of thing did not often happen to me. Anyway, the conversation continued and Barrie ordered some more beers. After she showed no sign of getting tired of my conversation I casually asked her what she did for a living. It was only when I heard Barrie choking on his beer that the penny dropped. Soon after that Anthony arrived and the young lady realised that she was wasting her time and went off and sat next to a rather large and wealthy looking gentlemen.
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