New Year in Lamu

I’ve written such a lot recently that it feels like I should give you a break but I have to say a few words about spending New Year in Lamu.

It used to be a hippy hotspot back in the day, like Goa in India. Now it’s hailed by all the guidebooks as a must see part of Kenya’s coast. “Lamu” the holiday destination is actually 3 islands Lamu, Manda and Pate. Most people only get as far as Lamu, the nearest to the mainland and perhaps most people are a little disappointed to find, instead of the promised paradise island, something like a smaller, dirtier version of Venice. There are amazingly empty beaches but you have to get a dhow out to the more distant islands to see them.

If you had to pinpoint the exact spot where Africa meets Asia I’d say this was it, the culture being genuine Swahili (the rest of Kenya just speak Swahili) is obviously infused with Arabic culture and the fact that it’s a Muslim island enhances its Middle Eastern look. The sandy hills on the beach at Manda made me feel like I could be in Dubai.

To reach the ferry we took a five hour bumpy bus ride north, mostly on dirt roads with some stops to let villagers push their wares through the windows at us. Rachel was very amused at my slight altercation with a woman who seemed insistent on selling me a live chicken and tried to persuade me to buy it by pushing its bottom in my face. Beware if you go the Mangoes sprinkled with Masala. The heat and thirst might persuade you they’re worth a try but unless you like hot peppery fruit don’t buy one. Mine had to go out of the window, why spoil a perfectly good fruit?! (In my opinion)

After a few days in Lamu though, I began to understand its subtler charms. On the surface it’s a little grey and there’s a lot of donkey dung. The streets are too small for cars so donkeys are used everywhere for haulage (there are so many that some people from Cornwall started a donkey sanctuary there to look after them. The British still get everywhere…) It was strange to see a donkey with a traditional pannier across its back filled with Coca Cola bottles (they get everywhere too). This in part illustrates the appeal of the place: it’s a total mix of tourist eateries and touts eager for your business and locals carrying out their daily business by donkey between their old Swahili houses. There are virtually no vehicles but several internet cafes and yet somehow these things sit side by side comfortably without looking crass. Despite the number of western tourists, after a few days you really feel like you’ve left the rest of the planet behind. Add to that the compact size of the place, at least the area where the hotels are based and it doesn’t take long for people to recognise you in the street - those that want your business and those that have already had it and are just happy to stop and chat – and you feel even more sucked in to this alternative world. Rachel certainly made friends fast with her ability to converse a little in Swahili and we got used to people shouting her name as we walked along.

We were only there for a few days so didn’t try to fit too much in. I was still exhausted from Christmas and still not eating much. On the second day of our trip I went the entire day without feeling hungry and I knew something must be wrong (although it did save me some money!) It turned out to be a stomach problem which began to right itself while we were away. The low point of my Lamu holiday has to be some best forgotten toilet experiences. Rachel couldn’t believe my bad luck, I always seemed to come across them first. I’ve learnt that the most expensive café does not automatically equal the cleanest toilet.

The day before New Years Eve we booked our dhow trip across to Manda with Captain Ali and his second in command, Sunflower. (Don’t be fooled by the girly name, Sunflower was no pansy). The trip confirmed what I’ve suspected for a while – I get seasick. It’s ironic with all the sailing I’ve done in my life but then most of that has been inland, and when I look back at each of the few times I’ve been in a boat on the ocean I’ve felt unwell. I’m rubbish at being ill and generally feel very sorry for myself but the others we’d gone with were very polite and didn’t complain when they were fishing over one side of the boat while I was being sick over the other. Captain Ali was also kind (his dad taught him to sail as a child and he was frequently sick). He let me lie down in the boat on his kikoy. I was nearly asleep when Rachel shouted me awake, I had just enough strength to sit up and see the dolphins that were swimming next to us.

I felt better later and when Sunflower and Ali cooked the fish we’d caught on the beach it was like the best meal I’d ever had. Then we lay in the shade on the quiet and thankfully still undeveloped beach at Manda. Later when we docked back in Lamu we found ourselves invited into Ali’s parents’ house which was right on the sea front for a cup of chai.

New Years Eve started at 3pm when we sat on the roof of our guest house and toasted in the Australian New Year for Rachel. She’d insisted on getting us a bottle of Amarula (like an African version of Baileys) despite the fact that it meant a slightly covert search on this Muslim island where no alcohol is sold in the normal shops. We were told there was “someone” who could get it for you and Rachel asked if this was against my “morals”. I wasn’t too uncomfortable until it transpired the only place to buy it was at the ‘Police Canteen’. There’s not enough space now and I’m not sure I understand enough after 2 months to explain quite how the police stand in Kenyan society. Suffice to say that despite coming across what seemed like a perfectly legitimate shop I wasn’t sure we’d done the right thing. In the end Rachel wouldn’t be separated from her Amarula and offered to pay for most of it. We also came across Captain Ali’s dad in the shop who demanded 50 shillings from us as a ‘Christmas present’ to buy a bottle of gin.

We danced the Kenyan New Year in at an open air party on Shella beach. It’s a half hours walk along the coast from Lamu town where a lot of the more expensive hotels are based. We ordered soft drinks at one of these hotels then walked further along the beach to where the music was coming from and the mixture of locals and wazungus was a little more balanced. The DJ didn’t seem too bothered about when midnight actually struck but a group of American students alerted us with their cheering. Then they let fireworks off in Lamu and we walked to the top of the sand dunes to watch them. After a random and fruitless trip across the bay in another dhow (they sail at night there!) and a drink at Petleys with some friends we’d made along the way I found I was still awake at 3am and Rachel and I celebrated the British New Year by listing our resolutions for 2009. Definitely a New Years Eve to remember…

The other interesting thing about being in Lamu was getting to know Rachel better and I’d like to say so much more here but it feels wrong without her consent. I hope the last few entries have given you a feel for the kind of person she is. I also hope she’ll turn up again at some point. She did say she’d try to come back to Mwamba. We went our separate ways on New Years Day, me back to Watamu on the bumpy bus (this one was so full I had a girl sleeping against my legs most of the way). Rachel stayed in Lamu to watch the annual dhow races and left the next day. I think she’s somewhere in Tanzania now and maybe I’ll join her in a couple of weeks.

The photos show:
Rachel sailing
Toasting Australian New Year
Ali & Sunflower

Kenyan Christmas

If I had to sum up Christmas this year I’d say it was exhausting but fun, an absolute mixture of stress, tension and memorably beautiful moments. Maybe that’s how Christmas feels for a lot of people, or so I’ve heard, but I come from a small family – it’s normally quiet

I’ve also been in the 30 degree heat and without the ridiculous annual build up to the season you’ve all been enjoying or enduring in the UK over the last few weeks. Kenyans celebrate but without all the added faff it seems. Instead of a Christmas dinner it’s just “special foods”. I guess those who can afford it slaughter a goat but there’s plenty who can’t afford to. Some people put up decorations but it’s not compulsory. Like the many other bank holidays they have here not everybody bothers to take the day off, certainly the Matatus were running in order to make the most of the tourist season.

My brother Matthew had a great time sightseeing, fixing computers, helping in the kitchen, and getting sunburnt and generally squeezing the most out of his 12 days here. He was my brother at his holiday best and I’m so glad he came to stay I don’t think I could have got through the time without him. (Unfortunately the reason for his spontaneous visit was due to his being made redundant, the 2nd person I know in the UK to have lost their job in the last month. I look forward less and less to having to go home and find a job…) I was still coming across some underlying problems at Mwamba of bad management and miscommunication which were getting me down. I wondered if I should just take off with Rachel in the New Year. I haven’t signed a contract with Arocha, there’s very little accountability and supervision here so the temptation to abandon them was huge. I seemed to have the same song going round my head for 2 weeks non stop and even lost my appetite somewhat, very unusual for me, it seemed like there was never a moment to relax.

Matthew and I have very different temperaments I’ve learnt that he doesn’t fit as much into a day as I do. So for the first two days I thought I’d just let him adjust to the heat while I tried to finish off some work but doing anything on the computer by this time was impossible. If there weren’t guests to book in or out there were children to supervise or endless clearing up to do. At one stage Christmas looked like being quiet and a bit dull this year, now as well as the guests who’d pre-booked, ‘Walk-ins’ were turning up, Mercy had come to house-sit for the Kigens, Rachel had decided to stay a bit longer and Suzanne hadn’t gone home. As Matthew grew more relaxed and into his holiday I felt myself getting tenser by the day with this whirlwind of people and noisy children around me.

Matthew was enthusiastic enough to get up at 5am one morning and the 2 of us went bird watching with Rachel. There were disappointingly few birds that day but I enjoyed, more than I thought I would creeping around the forest on the trail of the few we heard trying to spot them. The next day Rachel achieved an amazing feat of organisation and persuaded the entire centre, guests and staff to come out on a boat and go snorkelling including those who didn’t know how to swim and never went near the water. There must have been 20 of us and the boatmen’s promises about life jackets and equipment for everyone were woefully unfulfilled. As a teenager on Scripture Union holidays I had water safety drummed into me but on this day I had to put aside my horror at seeing Keziah in a life jacket that blatantly didn’t fit her and Chiko without one at all and relying on someone to keep a firm hold of her so she didn’t jump head first into the water in order not to be left out. It was glorious chaos but Rachel’s generosity extended to making sure everyone got a turn in the water including the non-swimmers and we all made it back alive in the end. A few weeks ago we found an old instamatic camera in Henry’s office with a supposedly waterproof case so I used up the film taking pictures of everyone, I’ve yet to find out if they’ll develop but I hope so.

On Christmas Eve we went out snorkelling again with Rachel. It was the calmest most over cast morning I’ve seen in Kenya and with the tide out the sea was absolutely still. We must have been in the water for about 2 hours before I decided to swim back to shore. It was only when I got out that I realised how tired I was but it was well worth it. As well as a Blowfish we saw a black Lionfish which we didn’t even know existed – I could hear Rachel’s screams of delight even with my head in the water. Not what my normal Christmas Eve.

Later that day we found some Christmas decorations in the outhouse and selected a plant from the garden to dress as a tree. Keziah was effective in making paper chains and getting the adults who were milling around to help. Everybody joined in and Aaron even set up his ipod and speakers with some festive music. It even began to feel a bit Christmasy.

In the evening Rachel, who was still in dynamic organising mode suggested the volunteers go across the road to a local midnight mass service. I’ve been to a couple of churches before now in Kenya, mostly organised along similar lines to western ones but this was entirely outside, mostly children and somewhat disorganised with plenty of singing that didn’t seem to have an end point. It was clear they didn’t often have Wazungu visitors and even offered to conduct the service in English for our sake. Of course being westerners we felt suitably embarrassed at this and refused, saying it was important that the children could understand what was being said. To be honest I didn’t get much out of it after this, not being able to follow the preaching but it felt good to be in church at Christmas, not something I thought I’d get to do this year. We stayed until a power cut plunged the whole church into darkness and then left discretely.

On Christmas day Matthew volunteered to stuff the chickens that Lispa had bought on the condition that we would prepare them. He found a recipe on the internet and adapted it so that it could be made with the maize meal flour that Kenyan’s use to make Ugali – their staple dish. It was a total experiment but a success and went down very well with our guests who were mostly Kenyan. After cooking we went to the beach en masse, even Lispa was persuaded to leave the kitchen for a while and I got some more great memories to treasure on my camera. Coming back we found yet more walk-ins who’d just arrived wondering if there was room – on Christmas day?! I was very tired by this time and about to tell them where to get off when Aaron diplomatically suggested there was room to camp. By lunch I’d given up trying to work out who everybody was (I counted yesterday actually and I think there were 30 of us in total including 2 lots of campers and Robin and her friend staying on the roof. There were 5 children aged 4 or under and 6 different nationalities represented) but we had enough food to go round. In the evening Matthew moved one of the computers from the office into the dining room and some of us watched a DVD.

Matthew had to fly home the next day from Mombassa. We’d planned to walk around Fort Jesus during the day but were so tired when we got there we changed our minds. Instead we holed up in an Indian restaurant for a couple of hours, enjoying the lassies and air conditioning and looking at our photos from the last few days. It didn’t feel like Boxing Day. I was worried that I’d feel lonely after I left Matthew at the airport but I think I was too tired to feel anything. Despite the bumpy road and lack of oxygen I fell asleep in the Matatu on the way back. When I got “home” some of the guests had left and new ones had arrived in their place. I considered introducing myself but decided instead to get an early night. It was nice to have my room to myself again. It felt like we'd successfully done Christmas.

The photos you Matthew carving the chickens he stuffed, the 2 of us on the beach and cooking with Keziah.

The people I have known

It’s always difficult to pick up writing again after time away from it. Simply too much has happened in the last 3 weeks for me to give anything more than a flavour of it here; but I do seem to have met some interesting people:

In December, when Albert and I were at Mombassa airport waiting for my brother’s delayed flight to arrive, my voice was overheard and an Englishman came and introduced himself. He turned out to be Richard Trillo, the writer of the Rough Guide to Kenya. He was also waiting for his family to arrive having been travelling for several weeks already putting together the next edition. Of course we gave Arocha and Mwamba a big plug. Although we were already in the listings for accommodation some of the info was out of date so Richard, who was staying at Turtle Bay, said he’d pop by in a few days and get the latest details from us. He turned up a week or so later at the end of a very busy day but Aaron and I managed to make ourselves look professional, I think. My only regret was that he wasn’t the writer for the Lonely Planet (although of course I didn’t tell him that) – they haven’t listed us yet and their website isn’t very helpful. Anyone know how to get listed in the Lonely Planet?

Around the same time as my brother arrived, Robin, another guest came to stay. She amused me by marching in 2 days earlier than she was booked, nearly walking right by us and then double backing with "Where do I pay?" I responded, maybe not very politely with "Who are you?" but I can't have offended her much because she’s still here! A single woman from New Hampshire, USA (it’s difficult to guess her age but I’d say 40’s) she’s loved this place from the moment she got here. She’s been working with Medicine Sans Frontiers the other side of Kenya on the shores of Lake Victoria but although she’s been next to the water no one can swim there as the water is full of…something(?) which makes it unsafe – so living next to the ocean is just what she’s needed. In an effort to save money she moved onto the roof top after a few days where she’s been camping out ever since. She’s one of the most content and grateful people I’ve ever met, she complains about nothing, always loves the food no matter what’s on the menu and is happy just wandering up and down the beach and whiling away the days reading books from our little library. Despite our protests that she’s a guest she’s started to help out around the place and even cleaned the windows yesterday. A testament to how familiar she’s become was Aaron’s declaration when I got back from Lamu on Thursday, “We don’t have any guests at the moment, none at all”. Robin was on the roof at the time and amused to hear this.

My knowledge of Medicine Sans Frontiers was patchy but they always seem to me to be working in the worst disaster zones around the world – I suppose that’s where people need doctors – so I’ve always held them somewhat in awe. Robin is not a medic she’s actually an accountant and worked in the logistics department; and although they do work in difficult places (Robin’s considering another assignment this time in Darfur) they work in peaceful places like Lake Victoria too. Her job was with an AIDS programme which treats in total about 13,000 patients, 9,000 of which they’ve got onto antiretroviral drugs. Not everything Robin said about MSF was positive but these are impressive figures - as she said - more than any other NGO is doing in that area.

Another interesting personality this Christmas was Peter Johnson, a Kenyan who likes to use the English names his parents gave him because he can keep his tribal identity a secret from other Kenyans. At least that’s what he told me. What can I say about Peter? He reminds me of so many other people I’ve met but no one person in particular. He’s a people person, someone who gets things done, he laughs a lot, he’s great with children, he likes to talk about himself but the more he says the less clear you are about who he really is. He has two houses in Nairobi and runs a charity working with boys from the wrong side of the tracks, he’s also on the board of another charity and has fingers in a number of other pies I’m sure – and he makes films. He’s given me his contact details and hopefully when I’m in Nairobi I’ll visit his charity and, he’s promised me, some parts of the city I wouldn’t normally see as a tourist. I’m keeping an open mind.

Then there's Swiss Philip who's working in Nairobi for 6 months and came to Mwamba for the weekend back in November just after I arrived. He liked the place so this time he's come back with his girlfriend. He's an environmental engineer and knowledgeable about all sorts (he was the one who told me the reef here was so damaged). He's involved with a project where they've discovered that you can purify water if you leave it in a plastic bottle in the sun for long enough. Seriously! We didn't believe him either but if you go to www.sodis.ch you can find out more.

The people who’ll I’ll miss the most from the last few weeks though have to be the children – so many of them! There have been times of absolute chaos especially when little Martin and Chiko (earlier referred to as Nalius) were together. Both were only about 4 years old and too young to speak any English (or even Swahili in Chiko’s case) and both were on holiday without their real parents and at times in desperate need of someone to look after them. We took turns taking them to the beach, supervising Chai time (jam and bread all over the place) and laughing with them. Chiko was definitely the toughest, no amount of falling over could reduce her to tears and despite not being able to swim she often went into the water up to her head. The only time she got upset was watching people leave in cars and Tuk Tuks without her. This was not because she missed them but because she was obsessed with cars and wanted to go too!

There have been plenty of others too but no time to mention them now, I haven’t even begun to talk about Rachel, she’ll have to keep for next time. Here’s a few pictures…

Chiko and Martin

Peter and Chiko

Keziah, Chiko and Rachel making a cake on Christmas day...

Seasons Greetings from Africa

Weathering the Storm

It’s Sunday morning and in the past here I’ve either gone to church or relaxed somewhere doing nothing in particular. This morning I’m pushed for time between welcoming a new group of guests, and emailing a list of future visitors to find out what time they’ll be getting here over the next 3 weeks or so. The Christmas rush has begun.

It’s been a mixed week here with some discouragements and a bit of loneliness but my brother is due to arrive tonight and I’m looking forward to focusing on him for the next 2 weeks, being his personal tour guide will be an excuse for plenty of fun trips out.

On Monday Rachel arrived and she’s really been what’s kept me going this week. She’s a zoologist and nearly as crazy about birds as Aaron and Albert are, except her real passion is bats. I never thought I would say this but last night I helped put up a bat net. Then I joined Rachel sitting on a little stool to wait and see if we caught a bat which we could look at, take photos of and release. Apparently it’s a regular hobby for some people. Apart from the bat thing though she’s quite normal :) and it’s actually been OK to share my room again and a relief to have someone to talk to. She’s extremely practical and also very good with people and languages; she’s genuinely trying to learn Swahili, rather than picking up the odd useful phrase like Aaron and I. It’s obvious that Colin realised she would be a real asset to Mwamba and encouraged her to come. She was only meant to stay for a couple of weeks but so far the data she was meant to enter still hasn’t been delivered. It looks like she will stay right over Christmas and she’s found plenty of other ways to make herself useful from mending bird ringing nets to escorting our new group of guests around the snake farm later.

Plans are always changing here, almost by the minute sometimes. Suzanne, Aaron’s fiancée has decided she wants to stay on as a volunteer when his parents go home next weekend. It makes sense as she’s only just out of college and has no job to go back to in Canada at the moment, and Aaron is here until February. Also we lost Jo so we were a volunteer down. From a purely selfish point of view however I’m feeling slightly dubious about January – my brother will have left and Rachel will probably set off on her travels again in the New Year, Bernard is also finishing on 28th December. So the volunteer team will consist of me and a young engaged couple counting down the weeks until their wedding, I may run out of ways to make myself scarce before the end of the month, if you have any ideas please send them ;)

This week seems to have been dominated by children. I was meant to do administrative tasks such as completing the end of year newsletter but on Wednesday I spent the whole afternoon teaching an 8 year old how to play Monopoly. I wondered about the ethics of it afterwards, she picked it up very quickly and then became rather obsessed with those pink ‘500’ notes. Her family left on Thursday but not before she’d taught another little girl, Lispa’s cousin how to play. Apparently the game is not known in Kenya – what an opportunity! Lispa’s cousin, Keziah and her little niece Nalius are staying throughout Christmas and are a lot of fun. Apart from learning Monopoly Keziah also wants to learn how to swim and became a keen amateur photographer last night when she got hold of my camera. Yesterday Bernard, (who is their new best friend) Rachel and I took them to the beach. It was a beautiful afternoon and so easy to get great photos. Keziah has just come and interrupted me now because she wants to know if there are waves on the beach today.

All day yesterday we were waiting for our new guests to arrive. Unfortunately for them they had taken the train from Nairobi which is notorious for breaking down. After a late night phone call we thought they would be staying the night in Mombasa and went to bed unconcerned. At 3am Aaron was woken up by banging and car hooting. They’d arrived in the middle of the night and of course did not know which rooms they were staying in or even where the rooms were. Aaron, bless him got up and showed them where to go, all 10 of them which was interesting as there were only meant to be 7. This morning we had a few issues regarding not enough cereal and where to sleep the extra guests but I think we’ve weathered the storm.

It’s time for me to entertain the children again so I’ll sign off for now…


Just in case anyone was pondering visiting but is still not sure this was the beach on Saturday afternoon...



For Those Who Pray

Pray that my brother arrives safely and we have a good time together.

Pray we can manage the guests coming to and fro and make some money for Mwamba and Arocha over the holiday season and maintain good relations all round.

Pray that I can get my head around January and it won’t be as difficult as I’m anticipating.

Thank you!

rx

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.

Various Happenings

Killer Tree!

Last week started peacefully, on Sunday Kate, Jordan & I had a tour of Gede Ruins. It’s an ancient Swahili town (around 13th century) that disappeared after the Portuguese arrived. It’s mostly just old stones now but there are some amazing trees preserved there too including, the Baobab and a fig tree that survives by growing around another tree until it kills it and has to move on to another host.

On Monday morning I decided I was desperate for exercise. Despite the healthy food we eat here I’m beginning to feel like a bit of a balloon because it’s always too far or too hot to walk anywhere. There’s a small window just before sunset when it’s cool enough to jog along the beach but I haven’t been very disciplined about it and swimming is more like splashing about while you chat to people. So I was really pleased when Bernard leant me his bicycle (Bernard is another volunteer here from the Rift Valley Region in Kenya).
It’s a while since I’ve ridden a bike and the pot holes on the road make it interesting. Also the rules of the road here are such that if you hear hooting behind you you’re expected to get into the gutter quickly or get flattened by a Matatu. Still, it was great to have the freedom just to go to the end of the road and back. I must be very out of shape though because I was so tired I had to go and lie down during our Monday morning meeting!

Jo, another volunteer had been feeling unwell the previous day and also had to leave the meeting. She’d asked Henry to take her to the clinic but unfortunately this Monday the UNDP auditor (who’d been with us all weekend) was giving his all important feedback. Eventually Henry dropped Jo at the clinic and arranged for a taxi to bring her back.
At lunch time the taxi driver turned up alone to say that Jo had fainted and might need some help getting home. Aaron and I rushed back to the clinic in the taxi wondering what awful disease she’d come down with. It turned out the doctor had diagnosed a stomach infection. Then he’d given her a shot of something to take away the nausea which was so strong she’d passed out. Aaron then had to carry her to the car. Meanwhile 9 guests from a group called Earthwatch had arrived, one of whom was supposed to share Jo’s room. We had to ask her to repack so I could move in with Jo instead and keep an eye on her.

The rest of the week was much less eventful. I wrote blogs on Earthwatch and the end of term schools quiz from the week before and finished the E-news letter we send out every 6 weeks or so. I also went back to Mida Creek and replaced some of the signs on the information boards there and tried to work out what to put in a badly needed information display we’re going to put out the front here.
I continued to feel really tired, having sudden moments of just needing to lie down regardless of what I was doing. Jo got a lot better and even managed to leave for Nairobi on Wednesday for Thanksgiving but I was convinced I’d got what she had. I had incredibly intense heartburn which lasted for over 24 hours but managed to fight it off with Peptobismol tablets (Americans are great for carrying every medicine under the sun!) We’ve each complained of strange stomachs as if something is going round that we’re all trying to fight off.

On Tuesday Aaron also left for Nairobi, his parents and fiancée are visiting and they’re off on safari for a week. Earthwatch, (2 Kenyans, 4 Brits and 3 Americans) stay until next Thursday as do K&J and then it’s going to be very quiet here. The staff are starting to go on leave now. I don’t know if it’s normal to take a month off in the summer here or whether the ARK staff are just over due their holidays (Peter?)
Having Earthwatch has been fun they’re here for some ‘voluntourism’ monitoring Sykes Monkeys in the forest. I’ve got to sit in on a couple of evening presentations about Monkeys and one about Kenya’s endangered Black Rhino.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here a month now it’s gone so fast. I’ve been thinking about what I do and don’t miss about home.

After a month I definitely miss:

Washing machines! – Not only does the centre not have one they’re apparently uncommon generally in this part of Kenya so at least 2 hours every weekend is taken up with hand washing my clothes. I never thought I was spoilt before now…

Being cool (but not cold!)
Cakes & biscuits (I am beginning to miss sweet things now)
Watching the news (seriously, please tell me what’s going on in the world!)
Walking to places
The bathroom at home (I’m jealous Barbara!)
Skimmed/semi skimmed milk – they only have full fat here
Broadband internet (a lot!!!)
My family and friends of course J

What I don’t miss:
The dark! – I find it so hard to imagine how dark it is in England these days when it’s so bright here all the time.
All the pre-Christmas faff – there’s none here despite the children having broken up for Christmas (summer) holidays already
TV – apart from the news (We watched a couple of films on Jordan’s laptop this week though which was fun)
The price of everything back home!
The commute to work
Being in a city away from the beach
Cooking for myself (strange because I thought I would)

Plans for this week might include…

Watching a Giriama dance (local tribe)
Going snorkelling with the Earthwatch group
Staring ARK’s annual newsletter
Making Banoffee pie for Katelin’s birthday
(Thanks Claire! I managed to get all the ingredients although in order to get the caramel sauce I had to ask the Italian ice cream shop if they would sell me half one of their bottles - which they import direct from Italy!)

If any of you have read all this way you deserve a medal!

Until next time…



For Those Who Pray

Thank you! I’ve felt close to getting sick more than once since I’ve been here but I haven’t so thank you so much for praying.

Thanks too if you prayed about creep crawlies - so far no nasty encounters in the night long may it last.

Keep praying for my relationship with H and B its still difficult sometimes but they are going on leave soon so I'm trying to make a special effort until then.

Pray for Jo who I now share a room with and who comes back from Nairoboi today/tomorrow (if she comes back) I think she may have some issues that go deeper than a stomach infection and has certainly found her time here more difficult than I have so far (more detail another time)

thanks again!

rx