Gentrification

Friday, January 18, 2019

Soon after breakfast, before the day became hot, John and I took a walk back along Kundayo Road, which is perpendicular to the highway running nearby.  This had always been what we considered “our neighborhood,” as we seldom walked past the shops along the larger paved road. Now that there is a paved pedestrian trail along the highway, it is easy for me to walk there and to visit the shops and tradespeople. This morning, however, I wanted to explore our back road and check on any changes which had taken place since last year. This has always been a very rough dirt road, which made it difficult for me to walk very far on it.

Was I ever in for a huge surprise! Since last year, the owner of a private luxury guesthouse back among the banana groves, Zawadi House, has paved most of the road and funded new landscaping. Some of the small shops and the JJ Bar have had facelifts as well.  Nothing looks the same anymore.  There is even a homemade type of streetlight installed along the way. This new paving made walking much easier for me to walk, but I missed the organic chaos of the old road and eclectic nature of the old shops. John remarked that I want to keep Africa as a museum, and maybe that is partly true. However, a new homogenized western style just doesn’t feel all that authentic to me and is definitely not as interesting as the older layout was.

In the past, I have posted photos of the Kundayo neighborhood, and I will not repost them here. This time I will only post photos of what now exists, and if you have been here or want to review my past postings, you will recognize an enormous change. It’s all far too sterile and tidy for me.

A glimpse of the old road and a shop remains.

Renovated shop fronts.

A new McMansion built since we were here last year.

A long view of the new paved road.

There are even some streetlights now.