Currently not enjoying...


As usual the traffic. Calm and composed I should be, but most of the time I drive around yelling at other drivers, (with the windows shut I hastened to add) and honking my horn.

Waking up in the night to gun shots and car crashes. There have been quite a few car crashes outside our house recently, often in the night and sometimes combined with gunshots. The new bollards outside the house have been destroyed for the second time since they were put in a few weeks ago. At least they stop people crashing through our wall!!

The potential of a rat invasion. There are rats on the compound, big ones with bodies around 15cm long, or maybe rats are just that big. Our neighbour had them in her kitchen running around and eating things. So far we have escaped that and I have only seen one in the garden that the dog killed. We were warned that there can be rats in the house so I will be on the look out!!

The security situation which remains. Most people generally avoid crowded areas, and the big shopping centres. However Bethany managed to lose her gum shield this week, so I had no choice but to go to one of the so called banned shopping centres to get one. "If you don't mummy, I won't be allowed to play hockey and will have to spend the lesson running round the field"! Yes sure Bethany I am happy to risk a potential terrorist attack to buy you a gum shield".

Currently enjoying...

The weather which is fantastic. Sunny, 27-29 degrees C everyday.


Currently watching...

Downton Abbey.

Strangely feel like I understand a lot more about life in this period having someone who works in my house for me. I also find myself looking at the type of candlesticks they use as we are often use candles when the power is out. Wine bottles seem to work the best.

Currently reading... Well I have just finished the White Masai, very interesting, particularly to anyone who has ever live in Africa. It's quite old now, but about a Swiss girl who marries a Masai and lives with him and his family in Kenya.

Currently working on projects...

Planning Caleb's Star Wars party. Just the challenge I love, especially when there are no star wars party things to be had in Kenya. Still, having been made to watch all the Star Wars films 1-6, (actually I think I managed to escape 5)I have a much better idea of what I am supposed to be doing. All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet. Whatever did people do without it.

Currently wishing for...

Star Wars party stuff, that my cooker will be fixed today so I can cook dinner and on a more serious note, peace in Kenya.

Guest Blog #8 Phil (Pop)

In the middle of our 'chilling out' in this warm urban haven, we had an opportunity to join Daniel and Libby and family at a Missionary Conference at Brackenhurst near here. Gate crashers we are. (Yoda speak - verb at the end - sorry, we get a lot of Star Wars here). A lovely time with some lovely people, some having travelled for 2 days to get here.
It was actually cold at times (high) which seems an anomaly at the equator! But a lovely spot. You might recognise a few faces here.


We went on a walk through a tea plantation - lush, green.

Back at the MAF 'ranch' we chilled in the sun, visited the various magnificent shopping centres replete with goodies, coffee shops (with cake), and security guards using oversized dentists mirrors to check for bombs under the car. Did some sights, too many to mention here. Had a run in with a local bank whose cash machine gobbled up my purchased 20,000 kenyan shillings before I could get them in my bag. I am still short of the £160 and waiting for payback which they assured me on three visits will arrive! Local expatriates (Simkins ones) are very chilled out about it. They are confident it will come.



We did another gate-crash onto a MAF flight heading for Dadaab with some aid workers who seemed to be visiting to better engineer the latrines. The refugee camps look very tidy from the air, we were not able to get any closer. It felt a bit voyeuristic, but hopefully we will be able to subsidise a future flight.



Lots of wild life. No need to go to the safari parks for these:-












and..


Also managed an engineering project with Joshua - construction of this chopper:-


Which reminds me how I was green with envy at all the motor bike riders in this balmy weather (except for traffic).

Anyway, must sign off now as up early for onward trip to Ethiopia.

Guest Blog #7 Viv (Grandma)

Pop and I have been house guests here since Boxing Day (or the day after Christmas for non-Brits)and a thoroughly interesting time we are having, too. This is my first visit to Kenya, Pop's second if you include the hair-raising journey he had last year driving the car from Tanzania.
The house occupied by the Nairobi Simkins reminds me partly of my childhood home, a bungalow in a large garden plus black dog, and partly of our Reading house on Wokingham Rd, for the quantity of noisy traffic that passes. The setting seems pretty idyllic and I have never enjoyed hanging washing out so much, watching the birds in the soaring tree above! On the other hand, the rolls of barbed wire atop the wall, the two sets of gates before the road, the guard at the entrance, the doors locked, chained and barred, all remind you this is not quite paradise. This weekend we have been warned it is not a good idea to visit tourist places or crowded shopping malls as there is a terrorist threat.
But we have had some outings. Even being brave enough to drive the small car ourselves into the maelstrom that is Nairobi traffic, but not as brave as Daniel when it comes to negotiating unbelievably potholed dirt roads. One outing was on Saturday (before the warning) when we went into the centre of Nairobi (not Libby's favourite place so only the three of us went). We treated ourselves to a drink at Nairobi's equivalent of the Savoy and one of few remaining old buildings, the Norfolk Hotel. Ordering coffee would have been OK but I had the temerity to ask for a chocolate croissant and six arrived. The bill was such that although we only ate two, we asked for a doggy bag for the remainder and had the gall to ask for the four little pots of jam to be added too. The waiter was momentarily nonplussed, but had the grace to jokingly decline including the plate!
My private mission (bee in the bonnet, says Daniel) has been to find a library for Libby the bookworm. Surely there must be one somewhere near.. We did find a mausoleum of a vintage one in the centre of the city with coloured paper jackets on the books, fifties-style, plus layers of dust. But not quite the ticket.
The weather for us Brits is wonderful. Most days have been warm, but when there are shady trees, and we aren't stuck in traffic, that's not a problem. We have spent time outside as much as possible, and can't quite understand when little people prefer to watch a DVD inside. But then it isn't such a treat for them as it is for us, and to do them justice, they spend a lot of time on the trampoline using up that wonderful little people energy. Tomorrow they are back to school with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Also on Saturday we went to the MAF BBQ a few paces away, and met others on the team, a very pleasant bunch.It's nice to know the family have these folks around them.