Sunday 29 December 2013

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

Tuesday 24 December 2013

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.

kilifi dec13
You are invited to view anne's album. This album has 21 files.



Anne

Sunday 22 December 2013

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

Saturday 7 December 2013

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