18th March 1986 : Out of Africa at the Drive-In

Woke to a gloomy morning that threatened a repetition of yesterday’s downpour. So rugged up for trip to Amex, post office to check parcel prices, and another meet up at the Thorn Tree.

Jim and I headed off to check car hire prices - for the drive in - but unexpected insurance scuppered that plan. We passed a craft shop selling all manner of carvings, paintings and jewellery. Felane hats like ours bought for $2 were priced at US$40! Gorgeous t-shirts and some spectacular photographs from jewellery book Jim had seen. Lunched with Tassie and Chris, off the Guerba truck, and then continued wandering around town with Jim. 

Back at camp we finally agreed to Gary’s suggestion that we try to find taxis to take us to the drive in. Jim, Geoff and I srarted back into town but our journey ended in the hotel driveway where we managed to book a cab hung with red tinsel for 150 shillings. We climbed into a clapped-out Peugeot with no interior door panels - said doors opened only from the outside. We drove through seedier sections of town, a journey complicated by a series of one-way streets. I was glad we hadn't hired a car and tried to find our own way. The drive took us quite a way out of town and through areas with far fewer houses with farmed land between them. It still amazes me how city fringes run into rural areas and how close farming is to the city centre. A flat tyre brought us to a stop on a roundabout but Geoff and Jim helped the driver replace it with the spare - bald to the canvas! - and we were on our way again in about 5 minutes.

So we finally reached the drive in, where we met up with Bill, Julie, Gary and Linda. Wrapped up against the wind, we sat on stools between two speakers hung on the doors of our two hired taxis, eating popcorn and peanuts and drinking beer. We missed the first lines of dialogue when some helicopters flew noisily overhead with a shudder of blades, so we all moved closer to the speakers.

The film could not have been more appropriate: the recently released Out of Africa, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep: the quiet, sad story of Danish baroness Karen von Blixen's love for a country and a man and her loss of both; the story of a friendship between Karen and her husband of convenience, her struggles against syphilis and its effect on that marriage, in a country of hills, wildlife and black Africans. We recognised some of the places that were the backdrop to this strong and courageous but gentle women's life.

The crazy drive back to camp after the movie showed us a nightmare nighttime Nairobi, with men dressed in overalls and crash helmets and armed with long truncheons patrolling the streets.