The 12 days of Christmas - part 1

We are spending most of the 12 days of Christmas at home in Nairobi, enjoying our second tropical Christmas. Its been a good mix of family time, hanging out with friends, relaxing and eating and drinking.

Christmas Eve, saw Santa on a camel and us singing carols and enjoying mulled wine and mince pies in the sun. I somehow (through the power of a mojito a few weeks ago) found myself playing handbells at the carols along with three friends - fortunately there isn't audio evidence (or photographic I hope) but we weren't anything like the Kmart Christmas boxer ad that is doing the rounds

Christmas day was at home. It started early with all the kids up before 6 to open stockings. Matthew's tea making was a small compensation (even if it was intended as an incentive to get us out of bed).


Matthew loved his remote controlled car to bits (literally).





Katie was just so excited and loved her robot dog


and Jamie (with a couple of sous chefs) treated us to a seafood extravaganza for lunch.

I wasn't sure anyone would have room for turkey later. A valid concern until Tim's brother flew his brand new remote control helicopter out of range and into a hill that we didn't know how to access. A rescue adventure ensued, with Tim and Andy racing round the neighbourhood trying different back roads to get to the site. I took the kids off for a swim to create some space at home if tragedy ensued. And then I couldn't start the car. Much pushing and efforts with jump leads followed and we made it home just in time (and with plenty of space) for beautifully cooked turkey and all the trimmings thanks to my lovely sister in law Cathy. The helicopter also returned in one piece (mostly) and was swiftly put back in its box to avoid further Kenyan adventures.

Boxing Day was with picnicking with friends eating leftovers, drinking Pimms, swimming and playing Victorian parlour games.

On the fourth day of Christmas we went for a safari and campfire breakfast in Nairobi National park with friends. We saw loads - giraffe, rhino, a huge Eland, antelope, zebra and monkeys. Tim and the kids saw lions and eagles too. We then met up at a picnic site to cook breakfast. 10 adults, 10 kids, 5 packets of bacon, 5 tins of beans, pancakes, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, cereal, fruit, bread, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, marshmallows to toast. No matches. No smokers. Oops. Luckily a car cigarette lighter, rolled up newspaper, dried grass, crumbled fire lighters and a cardboard box did the trick. Breakfast was delicious and well worth the wait.

The 5th day was a forest walk (me and kids) and run (tim and friends) followed by lunch and a swim. We built twig rafts and tested them in a waterfall, climbed along logs and generally got muddy. The runners wondered what had happened to us (from the comfort of their pool side table).

On the 6th day of Christmas we mainly stayed home. Katie and I tried to build a gingerbread house - she has wanted to do it all Christmas and we had lots of fun making dough, cutting templates, going shopping for sweets and then trying to stick it all together. Sadly the roof was too heavy and caved in, bringing down the walls with it. She was pretty pragmatic about its eventual collapse, seeing it as an early opportunity to eat biscuit and icing. We had a brief outing in the afternoon to let the gingerbread house dry and to squeeze in a swim and some football with friends and then Cathy and Andy got back from a few days in the Mara with lots of animal sightings to share with us.

It has been busy and lots of fun.


Anne

Messing about on the water

We have family visiting for a few weeks so we set off to the beach for a few days holiday together. They are great sailors so we made the most of warm seas and a great boatyard to give the kids their first proper sailing experiences. They loved it and were out on trapezes zooming along the creek, with both boys going solo by the end of the week. It was a far cry from my own experiences of learning to sail on the Norfolk Broads where capsize drill was the low point rather than done for fun and "because the boat makes a great slide mum".

As well as all the sailing, between us all we jumped lots of waves, swum, kyacked, snorkled, went diving, swum with dolphins, had sundowners on a dhow in the creek, did some great rock pooling and generally had fun messing about on the water. All from a beautiful, very relaxed house with a tunnel down through the cliff to reach the beach, a lovely pool and a great chef. We came back via miles of unpaved road, some of it washed away, and Tsavo East national park, where the crocs and elephants were similarly having fun messing about on the water. A full African adventure. Ready and relaxed for family Christmas now.

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Anne

Happy Birthday

Last week felt like a big week of history here. First Mandela's death and then Kenya celebrated 50 years of independence. The retrospectives of Mandela's life tell a really powerful and uplifting story and I spent a lot of the Friday after he died with 1000s of others, listening to the radio and reminding myself of his incredible impact. It is a real shame that the memorial service has been a less positive tale. The heavy rain is meant to be a very good sign - rainfall matters here and in Mandela's Xhosa culture it means the ancestors are welcoming the departed. But the lack of music, the excess of speeches, the family disputes, the unusual signing interpreter and the high profile selfie have all taken over the headlines. In some ways it is reassuring that however great a man, its never easy to get everything right.

Reflections on Kenya at 50 have been a bit more mixed than those on Mandela's life. Getting a lift to work on the Tuesday before celebrations started with Bernard our Kenyan driver we went past State House, the President's Nairobi residence. There were about 10 people repainting miles of railings so they looked spic and span for the main event. Bernard, whose grandfather was injured fighting for Independence, was extremely cynical wondering what Kenya was celebrating when so many still live in poverty, where corruption is rife and where crime and insecurity are real issues for many. There was a similar feeling amongst many of my Kenyan colleagues at work, a sense of unfulfilled promises and potential and a very clear recognition that there are still plenty of Challenges at 50

But the upbeat side of life here carried on too, with a 4 day long weekend to mark the birthday, a big party at a Nairobi sports stadium with lots of music and dancing. We marked Independence Day by hanging out at home as a family, making mince pies, playing chess in the late and heavier than usual "short rains" and then joining friends for Christmas carols by candle light, some mulled wine and a relaxed evening. Not very Kenyan but very enjoyable which is what birthdays should be after all.


Anne

Modern day slavery?

Jamie has been learning about the history of African Americans at school this term, bringing home lots of questions on racial inequality, slavery and the Klu Klux Klan. And so as the Home Secretary talks about the increase in "modern day slavery" and Londoners reflect on the strange unfolding story of 3 women who appear to have been enslaved for over 30 years, we have been talking lots here about work and employment and equality of opportunity.

One repeated theme that has touched the lives of a few people we know here is the movement of cheap African labour to jobs in the Gulf and Afghanistan. Closest to home is a woman who works part time for us. A few weeks ago she asked for an advance to help with her rent. A bit of digging revealed that her husband was planning to travel to Bahrain for work and had used all his money to pay for the paperwork, visa and no doubt some "facilitation payments". His contract is for 2 years, with no provision to travel home at any point in between. She's got 2 young kids - one of whom has a different dad and so she has sole responsibility for paying all the child's costs - there is absolutely no expectation here that the father or step father will do that. Tim and I are both pretty certain that she will not do well out of her man's decision (which she would never challenge or be part of the decision making - its just not the way things are done here). But it is also clear that there is very little we can do about it - they feel it's their only choice, an opportunity to change their lives for the better rather than stumbling along towards the bottom of the pile.

Whilst we wont change the decision they have (or he has) made, we have been trying to help make sure they are less vulnerable to it going wrong. We will help her personally with more work, and with practical things like regular food supplies and making sure her kids get a larger chunk of the share of clothes and toys and odds and ends that we pass on to others every month. We've also talked with her at length about life in the Gulf and the very real possibility that the money he's expecting to earn will be harder to come by than he thinks and also harder to get to her. She's listened but is very confident that its all genuine - she has to be I guess. She brought the (very flimsy) contract round to prove it. Tim gave her some advice on strengthening it, particularly on pay and return passage and helped her look into the details on line - the hotel chain her husband is apparently going to work for exists but isn't yet open in Bahrain (or advertising that it will be). Another guy we know who went to Saudi a few months ago found himself in this position and earned nothing at all for the first 3 months of "mandatory training". Her husband is now going to phone ahead before he travels to at least know whether this will happen to him and to be sure there is work. But it is clear that he has too much at stake and such limited alternatives that he can't now change his mind. He's also desperate to go on a plane and the short term excitement of flying and the distant promise of wealth is overriding the very real challenges from the bit in between.

And of course its not just this woman. A couple of weeks ago Ethiopia repatriated 50,000 workers from Saudi - all had been there without proper immigration status and there had been a 7 month grace period for people to get their papers in order. That 50,000 hadn't been able to do that gives you a sense of the scale of this migration. Tim and I are fairly regular visitors to Addis for work and have seen the crowds of Ethiopians, mainly young women, milling around Bole airport waiting for their flights. And we have also seen plenty of stories on line about the terrible conditions that many find themselves in when they arrive.

Of course people have and always will travel in search of jobs and wealth and the chance to lift themselves and their families from poverty. And lots of economic growth is based on that necessity, entrepreneurial spirit and on migrant workers' efforts, with people making some pretty big sacrifices along the way. I've always understood that. But it has been really eye opening to live up close to people who have such a poverty of choice that the best future they can see involves leaving regular, relatively well paid jobs here, putting all their money into a very tenuous, uncheckable arrangement, leaving wives and children at home and getting on a plane with a one way ticket and no certainty of having the money to get back. And it underlines just how safe and protected our own African adventure has been.



Anne

Run for a reason

I'm not a natural runner. It hurts too much and I've never really understood how people can choose to set off running for an hour or so for fun. I much prefer swimming as a way of exercising (particularly when it can be done outside in the sun) and when we lived in London I used to cycle to and from work to build exercise into my daily routine. Cycling isn't really an option for me here - the road chaos requires something more sturdy than a bike to increase chances of survival. And whilst I swim a lot, that's as much about diving for sinkers with the kids as it is a way of tackling middle aged spread.

But running is a big thing in Kenya, particularly long distance where the Kalenjin tribe dominate the international marathon scene, in a fierce competition with neighbouring Ethiopia. The kids do plenty of cross country and track events at school, alongside some hugely impressive (and ever so slightly intimidating) junior athletes. And Tim runs a few times most weeks, including regular weekend runs with a friend of ours that tend to end over leisurely coffee and chatting about events of the week - healthy body, healthy mind stuff.



So when Tim entered the Nairobi half marathon this year, I slightly reluctantly agreed that I'd do the 4km family fun run with the kids. And I even went for a couple of gentle jogs to get prepared - that did tail off when I discovered "sweaty" yoga but that's a whole separate blog. Then last weekend, having inherited a fourth child so both her parents could do some serious running, we all warmed up first thing and headed into town early on Sunday morning to join in, raising money for preventable blindness as we did.


We weren't alone. Over 20,000 other runners of all ages were there. I discovered that the family run was actually 5km and that it was as much of a walk than a run for most - which suited katie and her friend even if i was, a little to my surprise, disappointed not to see how far I could last. Jamie was determined to run properly and was completely thrilled to romp home as the second fastest white boy (behind his best friend and 14 Kenyan lads).The course is a loop and when I was at about the 1.5km mark I spotted him coming in the other direction at a real pace. A very proud mum and dad (when we caught up with him later by a pool after his own impressive 21kms).



I'm not sure I'm yet inspired to try this more regularly but it was a good family morning out. And gave us all an excuse for a big lunch and an afternoon of massages and tv. I might be persuaded again next year......


Anne

And relax......

After a busy few weeks we were all very ready for a half term break last week. Granny is visiting and the kids have been keen to show her the delights of the Indian Ocean. And the thought of a week of sun, sea, swimming and snorkelling has been very appealing through the last month. So we packed our costumes, took plenty of sun cream, charged up kindles and the underwater camera and headed to the coast. It was bliss.

By popular demand we returned to the kids favourite hotel in Watamu. it isn't a place to go for silence and time alone. It is full of children, lots who we know already, and there is a never ending supply of fizzy drinks and daily pancakes at 4pm to keep folk going after a hard day of lounging around. Our three are busy and happy from breakfast through to bed time, only occasionally to be spotted (or heard) in the pool or round a table with friends and chocolate sauce covered plates at pancake time. And that means I get some me time, reading, swimming and the occasional dive. I am pretty sure granny is a convert too.

We all read loads, spent most of the day in some form of water - the pool, a very sea weedy (which didn't put any of us off body surfing) sea and even jumping off the top of a Dhow into a creek, did plenty of snorkelling and kayaking and just had fun. Tim went for early morning runs and mum went bird watching but the rest of us pretty much stayed on site for the week, only venturing off for sundowners on a Dhow in the creek. A tough life.

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And now we are back to work and school and missing our afternoon pancakes. It will be a busy couple of months in the run up to Christmas with school matches and pantomime, sales and parties with friends and lots of work with travel for both Tim and me. so it is good to have recharged our batteries. But the biggest question for us all is just how quickly can we get back to the beach.


Anne