Comings and Goings

Mwamba is a place where people come and go. That’s what happens here day in and day out people are always arriving for the first time or maybe leaving for the last. I’m beginning to understand how hard it must be for the Kigens, who live here all the time to watch the rest of the world scurrying about. They’re about to go back to their home town in the west of the country for Christmas, it will be the first time in a year they’ve visited and the first time Ivy has seen her wider family. In a country as big as Kenya where a lot of people don’t have their own transport sometimes coming and going is difficult. It’s even more difficult if your work is your life.

My big news this week is that my brother is coming to visit! He managed to ring me at the beginning of last week, while I was within mobile reception and told me he was coming on the 15th of December and will stay until after Christmas. Just the two weeks notice for me. Lucky for him we have a bed free. All year Mwamba has wanted more guests and now finally during December the place is booked out. So this week I’ve been going around in a bit of a daze making mental notes of what to tell him to bring and wondering what he might want to do. It’s going to be an interesting Christmas with the two of us, Aaron (who’ll have just said goodbye to his family), Bernard and Lispa our cook and about 12 guests, mostly Kenyans. One or two staff members will pop in to do essential jobs but basically Aaron, Bernard and I will be running the guest house - and now I’ll be entertaining as well :)

On Wednesday last week I went snorkelling for the first time with some of the Earthwatch group. They’d all been before and confidently disappeared into the water while I splashed about with the mask on my face but no desire to go beneath the surface. Going underwater without taking in air and holding it is like teaching yourself to drown and I just couldn’t get my head down. Then one of the boat men who’d taken us out to the reef approached me with a life ring. This was embarrassing to start with until he explained he wanted me to hang on to it and gradually put my face in the water while he pulled me along. Eventually I managed to regulate my breathing and started to enjoy it. The smaller fish swim so close to you, you can reach out and touch them if you’re quick enough and it’s amazing passing right through a shoal of them. Some of the group saw a Stingray and by then I was feeling brave enough to go and look for it myself. I didn’t see it but there were plenty of Zebra fish and some Red Snapper and so many others of which I don’t know the names. Unfortunately the coral itself is in a bad state. I don’t really know what coral is meant to look like but I’d heard it was very damaged here and it did look like a lunar landscape with bubbles which I'm sure its not meant to. I’m not sure if our snorkelling is the kind of activity that contributes to its destruction..?

The following day we said goodbye to the Earthwatch group as they’d completed their monkey studies and then Aaron arrived back with his parents and fiancée from a week’s safari. It was Kate’s birthday and I made an attempt at banoffee pie. Claire, I’m not sure you’d have recognised it but none of them knew any better and seemed to enjoy it. The Kenyans said it was too sweet though – and how much sugar do they put in their chai?!

Then on Friday it was Kate and Jordan’s turn to leave. This was a sad moment as they’ve really entertained me for the last few weeks :) it’s certainly a lot quieter around here without them. It transpires that Jo will not be returning after her trip to Nairobi either. This is a complicated story but she was never very happy at Mwamba and has probably done the right thing in going home – if that’s where she is. H&B are still following up this issue so I won’t say anymore about it now. I’ve had a room to myself for the last couple of weeks but Rachel is due to arrive any minute. She’s from Australia but has been working in Africa with our director Colin doing some bird ringing and now she’s coming to Mwamba to enter her data.

There are some constants here: the ginger cat that’s been hanging around finally looks like its beginning to fend for itself. Unlike a genuine stray it stayed outside the bedrooms all the time begging for food and woke us up at night with its howling. At home there are obvious solutions as to what to do with stray animals but things are different here. Colin doesn’t allow cats as Mwamba is supposed to be a bird sanctuary and we knew feeding it wouldn’t make it go away. After a while though it was getting so scrawny I couldn’t ignore it any more. I told Henry I would be very distressed if it died on my doorstep and he supposed we’d better give it something. It perked up and last night we saw it with something in its mouth (hopefully one of the mice whose been chewing through the computer cables).

It’s been hotter this week, Henry keeps warning it will get even hotter in January. If anyone fancies some winter sun on one of the world’s best and quietest beaches you’re more than welcome to visit. Last night as the sun went down I went for a quick swim and then realised I was the only person on the beach…

Kate and Jordan say goodbye

For Those Who Pray
Thank God that my brother is coming and will support me with work over Christmas. Pray he can get here safely and I can make sure he has a great holiday.

Pray that Aaron, Lispa and I can manage things well while the Kigens are away and still manage to take a break at Christmas time.

Pray the Kigens will have a good break and come back in January inspired for the new year.

The last few days I've spent quite a bit of time on my own which has been fine but its feels a little like I'm losing the plot sometimes. I have no one to really be accountable to here and if I wanted to go crazy I don't think anyone would stop me. Pray I don't go crazy. Thank you.