London city break

With 8 weeks of school holidays the kids have been very keen to spend a bit of time in the UK with friends and family. So on Sunday night we headed to the airport, crossed the sea and arrived at our friends' house in SW London in time for breakfast, a bit of early morning screen and to walk their boys to school.

This is the same school our kids were at before we headed off to Kenya and its where the younger 2 will almost certainly return (council allocation processes allowing) when we get back. So as well as stretching our legs after the flight and helping out our host so she could get to work on time, the walk to school was a lovely way to start the process of catching up with friends. Matthew hung around the school gates, not wanting to be overwhelmed I think but the others were straight into the playground to hear all the news.

They have since all been into school and spent time with former classes watching movies and winding up for the end of term, giving me the treat of a couple of uninterrupted coffees with my mum friends getting the latest on school politics. It's been a bit odd for Jamie as his former class mates are all moving on to new schools, whilst he is still a year away from being one of the top dogs at his school in Kenya. He is the clearest of the three children that his school in Kenya is great and he has far more opportunities than he did at his London school. And yet he's realised on this trip more than before how much his friends matter and how tricky he finds it when they are dispersed. We've had a good chat comparing notes, bemoaning the inadequacy of Skype and planning some great trips for the future.

For now our plan is just to hang out with friends and cousins for the next 3 weeks and enjoy all London and Sussex has to offer in the summer. And we've made a pretty good start at that.

Ashes to ashes in Nairobi

Kenya has a bit of a mixed cricket scene. At times in the past the national side has played to a pretty high standard but rugby has taken over the and seems to get the press and donor attention. There are still a fair few clubs around Nairobi for folk interested in playing. All are slightly faded and there's a sense that clubs are formed around ethnic groupings rather than a true mix of local talent which, to be fair, is a bit like the cricket club scene in SW London. But Tim has hooked up with a few people in different clubs and gets the occasional game when diaries allow. We are looking forward to being part of a charity match against the Maasai cricket warriors some time in September. The kids' school raised money for this group last year and I'm being challenged by the boys to set up a juniors match at the same time. That really will make me a cricket mum!

Finding good youth cricket opportunities outside school hasn't been that easy. The best, a really friendly club run by former Kenyan International cricketers and very local to us, was a bit shambolic when we pitched up 18 months ago. But its grown since then and our kids have also got to know some cricket lovers locally so know far more people there and enjoy it more. They have also seen that you don't need all the gear to be able to whack a ball around effectively or to bowl at pace. So whilst they are keen for a bout of cricket in England's green fields this summer, they are equally happy playing with friends on a dusty football pitch with their own ball and shared bats. And with the school holidays underway there has been plenty of that.

Both boys have been doing cricket training to help keep them occupied and exercised and to get ready for next term's sporting endeavours. We have sorted through cricket kit bags that have been living under the stairs for a few months - my lingering doubts about the origins of some unpleasant smells from said kit bags were answered when it turned out the cat really did wee in them when she got locked in the house one weekend. Probably did everyone a favour putting all the trainers through the wash too though!

The boys take their sport seriously and play endless ball games in the garden, roping in our guard when they can particularly if a ladder is needed to fish balls off roofs and out of hedges.

But they are very clear that each sport has its season (even if seasons other than rainy and dry aren't really a feature of the Kenyan year). Last term was rugby and football so that dominated early evenings and weekends outside. And its only now, helped by the excitement of the ashes and an excuse to watch lots of telly with dad, that cricket has come to the fore again. Tim spent last weekend hanging up the netting we've got to save our windows, one of which still has a taped hole from a previous errant cricket ball. And Matthew, who shares, if in a less compliant manner, Stuart Broad's approach in waiting to be told he's out, is covered in bruises from Jamie's body line bowling. Katie is keen not to miss out and has decided that bowling is the safest option if she is going to play with her brothers. She was so pleased to get Matthew out in her first over the other day - even Matthew smiled, whilst of course explaining that her run up brought her too close.......


Anne

School's out

I read today that teachers in the UK are going to strike over pay and workload. Here we are also in the midst of a strike by Kenyan teachers over pay and conditions. State state schools have been closed for weeks and thoughts that there might be a deal last week have quietly disappeared from the news. Here, the strike and associated debate has highlighted the challenges of delivering on a Presidential acceptance speech pledge to give every school child a laptop. Having seen inside a few primary schools when I was election monitoring in March, I have always found the laptop pledge hard to grasp. Most schools I saw were struggling to keep light bulbs in the ceiling lights, had one plug socket (at most) in a classroom and no obvious sources of backup power. Nor were there any lockers to keep books, let alone laptops safe. And there was certainly no internet connection. Plus The schools I saw were all in urban Nairobi which makes me wonder even more about how this initiative could work for children in rural schools. So I'm inclined to think the teachers have a point asking the Government to focus on the basics first.

But enough politics particularly as I'm only following that debate from the sidelines as the international school our kids are at is not affected. And anyway no one is there just now as we are already a week into the school holidays. As I'm sure happens for every child and every school, we have had our moments but on the whole it has been a good year for each of our three kids and they have all finished on a high, excited about their next teachers and classmates and looking forward to being back in September almost as much as they are looking forward to not being there for 2 months.

On the last morning of the school year I skived off early from a work team building work session to get to the kids' speech day. Having been last year I knew I could safely turn up a while into the proceedings and still get to see the important bits but I did start to get a bit anxious when stuck in traffic for much longer than even I had anticipated. I shouldn't have worried. An hour after the start, when I'd been safely seated for a while the speeches were just coming to an end- I have no idea why they have to take soooo long and I'm not even a bored child. Nor had I missed the musical delights of a Maroon 5 song played by 12 year olds with trumpet and sax or the rendition of Dolly Parton's Jolene by a couple of 13 year olds with an acoustic guitar. But at least I got to clap as both Katie and Matthew walked on to stage for their prizes - proud mum!

Luckily Jamie was only pleased for his siblings as he is still basking in his goalkeeping prowess which saw his team win the local football tournament the week before in a gripping (and not very comfortable mum viewing) final which ended in penalties. How does Andy Murray's mum do it?

But the end of term also brought more farewells to friends. One of Jamie's great friends is heading back to Paris and another is moving to Burundi so shirts have been scrawled on and email addresses exchanged. Our family chats about these departures and about what we will do when it's our turn to leave show me that whilst our kids, like most of us, like the known in life they are confident that they will make and keep friends wherever we go. I'm sure they would have felt that without this African adventure but I can't help thinking it will have boosted them a little along the way.