Of 'art exhibitions' at an office

The reception area.

There was a time in my life I was obsessed with Oxfam and would apply for all the vacancies they had and I learnt about, even those that I met one requirement only (female candidates are encouraged to apply) and because I mostly do not half-ass things I subscribed to everything Oxfam and still get their e-mails and notifications when they upload a video. The thing I love about some of their group e-mails is; in as much as they are sent to a million other people they have done something so that each email is personalized and they are addressed to each individual receiver on the mailing list, so mine start with 'Dear Rahma' and usually have me smiling at the screen thinking 'these people remember my name' (ha ha ha ha).

To say I have read stuff on their website would be an understatement, I am basically one of them signing up for their online campaigns and all :-).

Why obsessed with the agency you ask? at some point quite a number of the people I worked with left agency X that we all worked for at the time and joined Oxfam to work in a cross border project and so all of us were in Wajir with them supporting the Somalia program, through phone-calls, skype meetings and monitoring visits basically having an easy time and getting paid for it I think (although people who support projects from a distance do not think/agree that they are having an easy time).The biggest thing to me then was not ' supporting' but was that they worked and were accommodated at Wajir guest house,which at the time was the fanciest hotel in Wajir and I would visit them and think what I wouldn't do to work for OGB Somalia and live this life :-D :-D.

In my experience everything you really really want happens at some point, not exactly how you want it to but definetly in some way, I haven't gotten to work with Oxfam yet (ha ha ha) but I spent this last week in their Somalia offices in Nairobi and I loved loved, did I say loved their office.

What I loved the most and why you should never miss a meeting/event hosted there are;

The art exhibition on the walls.

There is this 'exhibition' going on, on the corridors, that had me coming early each morning to just look at the pictures and be amazed.The pictures I really liked................

The power of radios; no people love their radio more than the Somali villager.

:-)

This poser, who has perfected the chest-out pose :-)

Water is life

A boy and his love :-) :-)

Happy faces.

If pictures had sound,the one for this one would be burambur.

Notice boards.

So normal offices,at-least the ones I have seen have white boards where people update stuff and then erase them when they are out-dated, but not these guys they have actual notice boards (more than one)and have updates ranging from weekly trivias that have awards and motivational messages.

The food

I didn't take a picture of the food, because I tried finding a good opportunity to do so without looking like a complete weirdo in-front of my colleagues but I failed, all I am saying though is that I loved the snacks-kaimatis and cakes that I believe were made with me in mind. I know they got an outside caterer for the meeting but still such a  good choice :-) :-).

The prayer room

:-) :-) :-)

They have a prayer room with 4 mats and kangas, how cool is this. All they need now is those wooden Quran holders to turn it to a small mosque.

The Wash-rooms

If you are Muslim, you know the difficult task of taking Wudhu in public wash-rooms because you don't want to spill water on the floor.The wash-rooms at the Atrium, atleast on the third floor where Oxfam is housed had this sink( it looked like a sink) on the floor where you could take Wudhu. I am not too sure about it's exact purpose but it made taking Wudhu easier and much more comfortable.

I know, I know, you have read this and thought she is weird,but oh well let me be :-).