Africa Expat Wives Club

• Rains in Kenya
  
  
  Last night I lay awake listening to the pouring rain. There were flashes of lightening, rolling thunder.
  
  
  I always fear that the big tree in our garden will come crashing down onto our house during these storms and tell myself that I will definitely get around to doing something about it in the morning - ie get a tree specialist in to cut it - but never do. At around 4am I went around the house closing the...
  
  
• Luis Moreno Ocampo - Kenya's big hope.
  
  
  In the soap drama that is Kenyan politics - don't you think it's funny that Luis Moreno Ocampo - the Argentinian ICC lawyer who is driving the investigation into post election violence here in Kenya - is rather a dish?
  The local newspapers love to put his photo on the front page every day and well they might. He's the great hope of Kenyans, the only person who can ensure their ever seeing justice done (some displaced Kenyans...
  
  
• The trials and tribulations of dressing up
  My eldest daughter has been in an utter tizz about a dressing-up day at school this Friday. It's World Book Day and they all get to dress as their favourite character in a book. They must carry with them the book itself and a poem in their pocket which they may be asked to read out during the day. What fun! I hear you say. Not so much....
  
  When discussing possible costume ideas (trying to steer my daughter toward clothes she already has IE. 'why not go as My Story 'My Tudor Queen' in that...
  
  
• Our 1930s Nairobi house
  
  
  
  

  It's one of those things that is totally fascinating for me, but probably pretty uninteresting to anyone else. A bit like waxing lyrical on the developmental stages your child has reached. Anyway - I will try not to bore you to much -BUT last week I had a very exciting visitor.

  
  

  It all started when a tour...
  
  
• Dead fish at Lake Naivasha
  
  
  I bet you are all on the edge of your seats vis a vis the latest episode in Kenya's political soap drama. What seems to have happened is...not all that much. Raila got back from his overseas trip and failed to meet with Kibaki to discuss their differences. Yesterday they both attended the formal opening of the 4th session of Parliament. Kibaki made a speech etc etc etc. No MPs have been suspended so far. I will keep...
  
  
• If visiting East Africa, get vaccinated!
  A friend of mine in Nairobi has Hepatitis A. It's been a bit of a cautionary tale as far as vaccinations are concerned.
  
  She is not the first person I have heard of to have it. In fact a little girl in my youngest daughter's class had it (she recovered quite quickly) and the husband of a friend (he rather shockingly walked around with a stick for ages afterwards). The problem is that the older you are the longer it can take to get over. While a lucky few might have mild or slight symptoms, others can take up...
  
  
• Sneaky beach trip
  I must admit, we snuck off for a few days. It was a crazy drive to the coast and back, two days driving three days there, but anyway it was worth it to see the palm trees, the white sand and the sea. We swam, snorkled, watched turtles being released, stayed in a hotel and stayed with lovely friends, ate far, far too much, got spoiled.
  
  I loved going on our friends' boat for sundowners on the Mtwapa Creek and getting a guided tour of who all the houses belonged to over a glass of wine - while the...
  
  
• Kenyan politics is addictive
  Kenyan politics is really addictive - at the moment it's even better than the Bold and the Beautiful!
  
  On Valentines day Prime Minister Raila Odinga stepped in front of the press and suspended two MPs from Parliament for three month, pending investigations into corruption scandals falling within their remit. Gasp - action against corruption was taken - watch while we fall into a dead faint. After making his statement, Raila then jetted off to Japan (those State visits can be timed so perfectly!) News filtered out. The MPs protested bitterly saying Raila Odinga had no right to suspend them....
  
  
• The party's over
  Well, it all went well. We did it.. and no one got ill (except for the odd hangover, for example one friend swore blind that when he asked for gin and tonic he got tonic with gin and complained of a serious case of room spin later).
  
  To go back to the the beginning. There was, I admit, a certain degree of stress when I decided, on a whim, to take all three girls for a haircut on the morning of the party, which took two hours, and by lunchtime the house still looked a mess. However, this was...
  
  
• Angst
  The party arrangements are gathering pace. Wheels are in motion. We've started moving rubbish from rubbish filled rooms around the the house into emptier rooms in preparation.
  
  A couple of things are worrying me:
  
  1. The shopping centre lighting guy came over, an old Asian chap wearing baseball cap and sneaker's with a young guy who could have been his grandson. They were quite sweet but worried me when they started talking power supplies and started poking around in the kitchen fuse box. They also mooted the idea of red fairy lights for valentines. I'm ashamed to say,...
  
  
• Julie and Julia - a blogger's luck
  Who has seen the film Julie and Julia? My mum watched it on the plane and told me it was the best film she'd seen in ages. Eventually I got it from the pirate video rental place and have to agree - it was great and very funny in places. I watched it with my husband (he's a sucker for girly films fortunately).
  
  For those that haven't seen it, it's about a blogger who hates her job but loves cooking, decided to work her way through Julia Child's huge cookbook, recipe by x524 recipes in 365 days and blog...
  
  
• Nerves
  My 4 yr old daughter complains of anxiety when we approach the school gates.
  'What's the matter?' I ask.
  'It feels like I've swallowed a leaf.' she says.
  

  
  

  
  
  
• Entertaining...
  Have decided to blow caution to the wind and hold a party. To be honest we have reached the point where owe almost everybody we know. The problem is that living here in Africa, there is something rather distasteful about spending money or rather 'conspicuous consumption' when the huge majority struggle so hard to get food onto the table and do so with such a heroic, sunny, smiling outlook on life, taking each day as it comes. It's like at Christmas. I don't put the presents under the tree until Christmas eve when we are alone as a family for...
  
  
• Eviction
  I saw a gym friend yesterday. I asked her how she was.
  
  ‘Fine,’ she said, ‘but didn’t you hear? We were evicted.’
  
  Evicted, as it turned out, Kenyan style.
  
  This particular sporty friend is pretty unflappable and she relayed her story with a sort of resigned acceptance. In her shoes, I would have been traumatised, hysterical, enraged, baying for blood, threatening to sue, or at the very least....on the first flight out of Kenya....for good. (don't all cheer at once).
  
  My friend rents/rented a house from a Kenyan owner and has lived there for a quite...
  
  
• Feeling rather smug
  Very often when I publish a very opinionated piece on this blog - it's followed by pangs of guilt. Did I go too far? Should I have left the topic alone? How many people have I offended?
  
  If I'm honest, I did feel this exactly this way about my lambasting of Dfid. However, it's not often that a week later a British national broadsheet 'The Times' picks up on a similar tack and runs with it!! (though I do admit that I probably can't claim direct credit for this!)
  
  ‘The Knives are out for the Department for International...
  
  
• Car Trouble
  In the past few weeks, I've been having a bit of car trouble. First my turbo blew up rather spectacularly (but fortunately only 300 yards down the road from our house), then my timing belt snapped on the school run causing all sorts of damage under the bonnet. This was the day after it had come out of a service. None of this has been very well timed, it being January and all that - and we are supposed to be saving up for my husband's 40th (at this rate it will be 5 friends, a can of beer to...
  
  
• Hog Charge
  
  
  Some time at around the end of last term, my daughter came home from school saying that she had formed a team with three friends to enter the Hog Charge. This is a mini Rhino Charge for kids that they do on bikes. It comprises a three hour off road bicycling competition, with lots of manned check-points and rough/muddy bits in between. The aim is to raise money for the Rhino Ark Trust, conservation of the Aberdare Rain Forest...
  
  
• January
  I got collared by the flower seller who hangs outside the shop at the bottom of our road. We exchanged greetings, decided we hadn't seen one another for some time.
  
  I said, 'it's good news about the rain isn't it?'
  
  He said, 'before, we started the year with fighting - war, then with drought, this year we start with blessings; peace and rain.'
  
  Raila Odinga and whoever will go with him (he hoped the whole Cabinet and all foreign ambassadors/partners would attend), is heading up to the Mau Forest tomorrow to oversee the planting...
  
  
• British Taxpayer's money in Africa - time to blow the whistle?
  I read over Christmas that the UK Government will have to find another £76 billion of public spending cuts over the next 8 years if it is to reduce its record £178 billion borrowing – (according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies) which equates to £2,400 for every family in Britain. (Sunday Times – Money – 13.12.09. Kathryn Cooper)
  
  I also read that UK public workers may be facing pay freeze. Many teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants, local government workers face pay caps, higher pension costs and increases in National Insurance payments. (thanks very much to my mother-in-law for...
  
  
• Rain is coming down
  The rain is hammering down. It sounds like a riot of handclapping and stamping, its coming down so hard around our little house. A roll of thunder. There’s a drip, drip, drip sound on the ceiling board overhead. I’m lying in bed thinking about the askaris outside, wondering if they are managing to stay dry somewhere. Wondering about the slums, whether makeshift, corrugated iron homes are being washed away down muddy slopes. I wonder if a branch might fall from the big tree outside and land crashing onto our roof, or if the blue...