Rift Valley Camping

Last Friday (20th) was Kenyatta Day - another day in October where everything closes down and we are blessed with a long weekend. I was invited to go camping with my housemate Daniela and some of her friends who live out here. I was more than happy to accept. I've been looking forward to getting out of Nairobi and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. I was able to borrow my uncle's Nissan Sunny for the weekend which made a great difference to the cost of the weekend as car hire is really expensive here but it did however mean that I had to drive and this isn't always the most straightforward of experiences in Kenya - but it was to be an adventure, and adventure is what I was after.
The group was 11 in all, including 3 children, and was made up of a real mixture of people, Kenyans and Europeans. We met at a shopping centre to buy supplies and once we'd loaded the cars down with beer and a few sausages we headed off. Roughly 3 minutes into the journey the hire car broke down and we spent the next 2 and a half hours sitting on the side of the road waiting for a replacement car. This might not have taken quite so long had the guy who ran the car hire shop been able to drive! Once he'd found a friend who could drive, a new car was despatched and we were on our way. The drive took us south out of Nairobi, past the Ngong Hills and deep into the rift valley towards to the Tanzanian boarder - masai land. The views were spectacular but I couldn't really appreciate them as my eyes were glued to the road trying to swerve around gaping potholes and stray donkeys on a suicide mission. It was a hot and dusty drive. We had the windows down but the 'breeze' coming in was more like an army of hairdryers intent on melting us. As sweat and dust mmingled we all turned the same chalky colour and gave up trying to stay clean. After about 2 hours of bumpy, but quite brilliant driving, we arrived at our campsite. It was a fabulous place in the middle of nowhere. There was a huddle of masai women awaiting our arrival hoping to sell a mound of beaded bracelets, necklaces and key rings, and a man selling firewood - which we quickly brought as the nights are pitch black out in the bush and there's no electricity. We didn't need our tents as the camp site had some spare 'bandas' - round stone rooms with straw roofs - and these were much cooler than tents and only cost 200 shillings for the night (about one pound sixty). We settled in, had a picnic lunch and a few beers before heading off to Lake Bagadi which was a further hour south. It's a soda lake so home to many flamingos and has an extraordinary pink colour which was further enhanced by the setting sun. The road eventually disappeared and I found myself hurtling at great speed through the dried up like which was crusted with piles of dried salt. I seiously felt like I was in a movie - such fun! Our destination was some hot springs that have 'healing powers'. Quite why we wanted to find hot water on one of the hottest days of my life was quite beyond me but when we eventually found them, threw our clothes off and jumped into the almost boiling water I knew it had been worth it. The sky rapidly turned black and the stars came out as we lay back, soaking in the hot salty water. It was quite magical. We stayed for hours just talking, drinking beer and relaxing in the hot night air. Everyone was quite shattered by the time we got back and the night drive certainly took it out of me. The next day we relaxed, cooked sausages on a homemade fire, chatted and slept. On our way back to Nairobi we stopped off at an isolated restaurant with a pool that had a backdrop of the rift valley and an amazing menu. I simply couldn't resist the apple pie and ice cream - such a treat even if it lacked the Kenyan flavour that the rest of the weekend had in abundance.

Chicken and spaghetti

Teaching continues to bring it's ups and downs. I've been incresingly frustrated when trying to teach my class of 50+ children English. I have to stick to the set text that I've been given but there are only 15 books to share between the class and as a result it's impossible for everyone to follow what I'm trying to teach. I can't blame the children for breaking into fights over who has the books - at least they're fighting over wanting to learn - but it does make me furious that the children are being held back because the government aren't giving the school sufficient financial support and resources. I was also really furious when an English exam paper was given to my class. The children asked me for help with it and I simply couldn't believe what I saw. It was an official printed exam paper with various tests on adjectives, abstract nouns, plurals etc etc. The first section was a comprehension with words taken out and the children had to fill in the correct missing words. Simple enough, but the comprehension went something like this...

"Mbela kicked the footballl onto the roof. It gotten stuck and he had to climned onto it to get it back. As he was climning up. He fell. His leg was badly injured and as he was climning up he fell. His twi friends came running to help." (sic)

See attached photo. How can they possible hand something out like this? I've tried hard to accept teaching practices that I don't like and to keep quiet when my instinct has been to complain or speak up but it seems unforgiveable that the children should be expected to complete an exam like this when the board of examiners and the teachers either haven't bothered to read it through or can't speak English themselves. I took the paper to the Headmistress who was pretty shocked but said there was nothing she could do. Argh - it drives me mad.

This major irritation aside, I'm still thriving on the moments that make it all worthwhile. I really enjoy spending my breaks in the container where I teach as many children come and find me there and spend the break happily colouring in scraps of paper and singing songs. Some of them are becoming more and more tactile and love hugs and holding hands which I am more than happy to give out. They are still forever touching my hair which seems to hold an endless fascination for them as it's "soooo sooooft" - they make me feel like I should be in a Timote advertisment! One of the teachers came into the container today and was absolutely gobsmacked to see about 15 children crammed in all colouring away quietly while a few played with my hair. He couldn't believe they were being so well behaved when I wasn't waving a stick around threatingly to make them behave. He kindly translated some of the lovely things the children were saying to him about me, all of which made me swim with happiness as they don't really say those sort of things directly to me and it's naturally wonderful to hear they think I'm alright! When one of the little girls I teach came up to me, held my hand and coyly said 'I love you more than chicken and spaghetti' I knew that my day couldn't get any better.

The missing masai

After the planned trip to spend the weekend in a masai village fell through (the masai contact owed Daniela 3000 shillings - about 25 pounds - so failed to return her calls) I had a vacant weekend in Nairobi. So on Friday night Daniela and I went to the Institute Francais in the middle of Nairobi to watch a live concert of Kenya's top bands. The Institute is a real oasis in the middle of the city - so civilised and 'normal', they even sold fresh panini and croissants, it was like walking into the Riverside Studios - a real shock! The concert was excellent. We sat outside in the gardens and were entertained by a wonderful variety of Kenyan pop bands and soloists. The Kenyans really know how to enjoy themselves. It was heaving but everyone danced with absolute abandon and confidence - I don't think I've seen people dance like that in Britain unless they have taken something to 'enhance' their enjoyment! Warmed up by the dancing and french wine, Daniela and I popped into a local club to see some friends. It was a pretty standard club but being the only whites certainly made for a less than standard experience on the dancefloor. It's not often that you see people dancing to Kylie Minogue's 'I should be so lucky' without any sense of irony and it's certainly not often that I find myself the object of desire for every man on the dancefloor. I was under no illusion that I had suddenly developed a Kate Moss-esque bone structure or an Angelina Jolie body - no, it was simply the colour of my skin that made the men weak at the knees. It's a shame that being white comes with a lable of affluence and a ticket out of Kenya to a perfect life abroad. I'm doing my best to explain that life in the UK is not all gold-plated baths and huge houses but it's a myth that is hard to erase.
I had a wonderful night, the group of friends I was with are enormous fun and we're all going camping this weekend - to where I have no idea but they're organinsing it so I know it will be fun.
Saturday was a bit of a slow day after my marathon dancing session to 80's classics. Daniela and I decided to cool down at a local swimming club where you can sit outside, swim and relax in the palm-tree gardens. This would have been a much more relaxing experience had we not, again, been the only white people there. It's never the most comfortable experience getting into a swimming pool in a bikini with strangers around but when they are openly staring at you and you have an audience of about ten children gawping and pointing it really does make you feel pretty self conscious! As I was swimming up and down I had a sense of what it must be like to be a zoo animal - I could almost hear children pointing and saying 'look mummy, it's a lesser spotted white person'!
On Sunday Daniela and I decided to make the most of the day and set off to the Ngong hills armed with a lot of water (it's seriously hot now), a small picnic and sturdy footwear. The hills leap out of the flat landscape that surround Nairobi and are most famous for being the place where Robert Redford crashed his plane in 'Out of Africa'. We walked from one end of the hills to another - the steepness challenged Kilimanjaro at times and it was with a real sense of accomplishment that we completed the climb 5 hours later. We hitched a lift back to the nearest town and decided to have a coke before we caught a bus back to Nairobi. We ducked into a local 'bar' and interrupted a party of about 8 people who had clearly been in there all day drinking Tusker and Guiness. They thought it was hilarous that 2 white people had come into their bar and insisted on buying us drinks and dancing for us. It was a little strange to watch some very drunken men and women gyrating provacitively to 'When the Saints Go Marching In'! One of the men kept telling us to 'feel at home' (unlikely) and to feel safe as he was in the Kenyan army (again, unlikely!) He even showed me his army identification card which would have been convincing if it hadn't said: height 5' 8'' when his head was almost touching the ceiling!
A great weekend and I loved seeing the real Nairobi - it made such a difference to all the previous times I've been there when we've driven through with the doors locked and windows firmly closed. It gave me a real buzz to be walking along the streets and amongst the people, almost as one of them. It's by no means safe in Nairobi, muggings, attacks and worse happen daily but there are fabulous places and fabulous people if you are lucky enough to actually get out there and find them.

Diamonds and Destruction

It was my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary last week so we had a huge party for them at their home. It was a wonderful occasion with over a hundred people from different stages of their lives. I was the only grandchild so had a lot of greeting, talking and listening to do which I loved - it really was a special affair with the British High Commissioner among others coming along to congratulate them. The only thing that took the edge off the event was discovering that they weren't eligible to receive a card from the Queen which apparently happens when you reach the 60th anniversary. Even though my Grandfather was in the British Army he is also a Kenyan citizen and therefore not eligible. I think my Grandfather felt a bit let down. Perhaps ER just didn't want to pay the extra postage costs?
Friday was a day off for most of the schools in Nairobi so that they could attend the Nairobi Show. This has happened every year since my aunt can remember and apparently my father and his sisters used to love going when they were at school here. Things must have changed somewhat since then as out of the tens of thousands of people there I only spotted 4 other white people the whole day...I think it's just too hot, dusty and crowded for many people to leave their air-conditioned homes but it was fun and interesting I'm I glad I went even though it took a long time to cool down and get the dust off. There were many different exhibitions which you can stroll around, food stalls, a fairground and various forms of entertainments and shows to keep you busy. I went with Christine who lives in a room at the back of my house. She took her 5 year old nephew John who was adorable and I managed to pick up a street boy at the gates who couldn't afford to get in. I thought that once I'd given him a ticket he'd disappear but he stayed with us all day and was absolutely delightful - he looked after John in the crowds and was fun to spend time with. I didn't really piece together his story but his mother had left him to go and live in South Africa so he spent a lot of time on his own but went to school when he could / wanted. I was sad to see him go at the end of the day but he's bright and resourceful so I'm sure he'll be fine.
The rest of the weekend I spent with family and friends. It is seriously hot now so the luxury of being able to escape to a swimming pool or a cool veranda is seriously appealing and going back to South B at the end of the weekend not always that easy. But I'm back and have just had a very hot and dusty day at school. Nothing particularly note worth happened today but this little scenario should give you an idea of just how different life is like here. The Headmistress came into the staffroom at 11 to make a few announcements and then left. She came back in 5 minutes later to inform us that apparently the staffroom, library and her office were all being pulled down and demolished later in the day so could we please all help move books, tables, years worth of files etc into the school hall. No one grumbled or seemed surprised. I really hope their laid back nature and ability to roll with the punches rubs off on me by the time I get back!

Doing so much lesson preparation over the weekend made teaching last week so much easier and more enjoyable for me and for the children. I bought a few handwriting & reading books which I photocopied and based the lessons. Having a bit of structure and guidance gave me a bit more confidence and I felt like I was getting somewhere finally. I'm feeling more comfortable at the school, especially in the staff room. I've made friends with a girl called Madeline who is training to be a teacher. She has a pretty grim background; last year she was on the streets when her money completely ran out and she had no family to support her. She was eventually picked up by a charitable organisation who have set her up with a home, an allowance and pay her university fees. She's amazing and somehow manages to support 5 different street children on her meagre savings. The other friend is a guy called Charles who's volunteering as part of his teacher training. He's great fun and thinks that I'm completely mad - I don't think he's used to a woman being so opinionated! He has invited me to stay with his family for a few days in December. They live in Kisumu, about 5 / 6 hours from Nairobi. His family are planning a big celebration and feast and he wants me to join him - I fear this means I'll be witnessing the slaughtering a few goats! I also have plans to spend a weekend with some Maasai who have invited my housemate Daniela as a guest. She doesn't want to go on her own so I'm going to go with her. I can't wait it'll be fascinating. Thus far my weekends have all been spent with my family or friends who live here. It has been great having the opportunity to slip away from life here and have a bath, some wine, watch telly etc but now that I'm a bit more settled I know I need to use this time to really experience something different...and spending the night with the maasai just might do the trick.
I don't know if you heard the story about a man who was killed out here by elephant on his honeymoon? I was staying with a friend over the weekend who runs safaris and he was one of her clients. She got a phone call over breakfast on the Sunday telling her what had happened and it was the most hideous day hearing more and more information about the accident as my friend had to organise for the body and his wife to be flown back to Nairobi, contact next of kin etc. So many people I know here were devestated by the accident as they all felt responsible in various ways (the owner of the camp, the manager, the people who'd organised the safari etc) although it was just a tragic accident. Africa has so much that draws people to it but this all seems to go hand in hand with danger. Perhaps this is what makes it all the more alluring?
This week we have Friday off school which is rather nice as I'm going to my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary on Thursday night so there'll be lots of celebrating.
I've got a few little projects keeping me busy alongside the teaching. I'm trying to organise a school poetry competition and the winning poem will be published in a christmas newsletter that I'm helping to compile. I'm working on the newsletter with a driver for the project who enjoys writing and has some great ideas. We'll give it to all the sponsors, donors etc updating them on what the project has been up to over the year, achievements, hopes for the following year etc. I'm also hoping to make a calendar to sell out here at Christmas. Each month will be a picture drawn by the children of what they hope to be when they grow up to highlight the importance of a good education in having a future. I hope to sell it out here and raise a bit of money and awareness for the project - so apologies in advance if your Christmas presents are all unsold calendars.