Catching up

Wow, it has been a while. Life flies past at an incredible rate, and I find African time is on another level. Mid July already!!

So, the first year at school in Nairobi has finished. It has been brilliant. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. My class have been fantastic, such good fun, and through hard work there has been real progress. The school is amazing in its happiness and laid back approach. Sunny days definitely help, and there is real feeling of the children being children which is wonderful.

I moved house at the beginning of June. I feel so much happier. I now live more centrally, about a 30 minute commute to work (though it was 2 and a half hours for 3 days due to a Cow Show, only in Africa, or maybe rural Wales….). My cottage is sweet and quirky. It has been likened to a caravan as it is long and thin! Crazy big bedroom though with amazing storage, my shoes are now displayed as they always deserved to be! I feel very safe here and find the location very convenient. I have swapped the cockerel for yapping dogs. I stay sane and calm remembering that they are there to protect me, as opposed to just annoy as the cockerel did! My landlord is a dentist (and this week has transformed my black tooth, no more the daily question of, why do you have a black tooth Miss Gregor?!) and visitors to my house always ponder whether this house used to be a dental practice! There is a definite waiting area feel to the living room! But, it is mine, it is secure, private and I love it!

The last few days have been quite mixed. For the most part I love Africa, particularly Nairobi, but there are times when I desperately miss the safety, order and fairness of the UK. I had a bad experience yesterday at the garage whilst they were sorting something on my car. Being a female at the garage is intimidating enough anywhere in the world and their assumption that I am clueless when it comes to cars is perfectly correct. But being a white female here worsens things. Principles perhaps are difficult to develop when the leaders of a country don’t easily share them and corruption is all around. The droughts in the north of the country, the distrust of others that the majority of people share and propagate, the police force, the frightening stories, they are a daily challenge, and one that usually I can overcome without giving my notice and returning, most probably to London (still in my view, the most beautiful, fun and enchanting city in the world!). But there are many pulls here, and after nearly a year I feel settled and have made some fantastic friends to share the adventure and struggles with!

Yesterday I went hiking in the Ngong hills with some friends. The views were beautiful and it was a gorgeous day for walking. 

We had to take two armed guards with us-we asked why two and were told that they were there to also protect each other! Not so great when one of the guards was so unfit that they had to stop on the third out of 5 hills and wait for us to return! I was quite worried when the guard would rest his tummy on the gun point, and just hoped it wasn’t loaded at that point! How different to childhood walks with Dad as our guide, with not even a slingshot!

I am spending the long holidays (not the summer holidays as I keep saying, as it is of course winter here now, though I have tan lines from the hike yesterday, so define winter!) in Nairobi, working as a tutor and English language trainer. I have got some lovely students, and the first week has gone well. I’m hoping to do some weekend trips to see more of Kenya and stay quite flexible in my timetable. Looking forward to racing some camels at an international derby in August. Sure there’ll be lots of tales and mishaps! It’ll be an interesting month or two.

One of the great benefits to my new house is the lack of insects here. Not sure if it’s the change of weather the last few months, but I haven’t need mozzie spray or nets yet. I had a lovely friend staying with me last week, I now am for ever indebted to her! We had just come back from a lovely evening out, and were getting ready for bed when I spotted the biggest cockroach on the floor next to my bed. I tried to calmly call for her assistance. Practical as ever she came with a mug and a piece of paper, and through muffled screams and squeals we managed to get the cockroach outside with just a few slimy remains on my floor! I text her today, fondly calling her my brave cockroach fighter. Brave? she giggled, no, it was the G&T!! I am not sure what it is about Nairobi but everyone here loves G&T, except for me, but if it makes you brave, then I am a new convert! But, yes do not forget that Africa has changed and hardened me and I am less scared…..a spider walked across the kitchen cupboard today and I didn’t even bat an eyelid! You just have to remember where I came from-there has been definite and pronounced progress, it just may seem like none when compared to everyone else here!