Hi-de-hi

Tim and I have never been natural campers, both enjoying the comfort of our own bed, a good night's sleep and a warm shower too much to want to spend many nights out under canvas. We had been together for at least 8 years when we first camped together, for some great friends' hen/stag do - I was the "best man" and although I was let off any organising (or part in choosing what to do) it meant we had no choice but to go along. We borrowed a tent from my brother, an air mattress from friends and tested our ability to put it all up in the front room of our London flat so as not to embarrass ourselves in front of hardened campers.
How times have changed. We're still not natural campers but the mix of young kids (who love the idea of camping and the time spent outside with friends even if they struggle to sleep well) and the cost of staying in hotels as a family of five and the amount of room we occupy if staying with friends coupled with living somewhere with relatively predictable warm, dry weather and a great outdoors means camping is much more part of our lives now. We own 2 tents (which even I can put up without a need to practice), sleeping bags,mattresses - we still have the air bed we borrowed 10 years ago, gifted because our friend never wanted to camp again - camping stoves, cooking gear and of course head torches and lamps galore. And last weekend we bundled it all into the back of our car and set off to join friends in a field right by lake Naivasha.
The weekend was organised by a really lovely family who leave Nairobi next week after 4 years here. They will be very missed both in the school mums net and at work and about 20 or so families with kids between 6 months and 11 came along to mark their departure. Early anxiety from Matthew that it would be all girls and all under 7s were soon dispelled when he recognised a fellow 9 year old from sports fixtures at a rival school and they bonded over a football and Matthew's "tracks and signs" book, trying to work out which animal poo belonged to what - the only one they were absolutely confident about was the tortoise (?!) so I think they have some way to go. Jamie rekindled his early years passion for horses and spent hours riding, leading others on a pony and hanging out at the stables. And Katie disappeared with the afore mentioned u7 girls.
We had a great weekend, with huge games of kids' football, rugby and cricket organised by a few dads, horse riding, toasting marshmallows, bbqing, drinking beer, breakfasting with giraffe's and spending time with friends. Tim and I opted out of the midnight hippo hunt but went on a lazy Sunday morning boat trip on the lake instead and saw loads, along with fishermen and great bird life. We came back to Nairobi tired but reminded that the faff that is packing up is reduced a bit in the absence of howling gales and torrential rain, and when there is a small army of people around to help put it all away, clean out the car and wash out the icebox when you get home. Definitely more glamping than camping.

Naivasha album View photos    Download all You are invited to view anne's album. This album has 13 files.

Anne

How does the garden grow?

As anyone who buys fine green beans in Sainsburys knows, agriculture is a major source of exports here. The mix of equatorial sun, warmth and a good rainfall around Nairobi all make for great growing conditions. There is a saying that if you plant a stick it will grow. Its very lush on the coast too, with cashews and coconuts everywhere. We drove past miles and miles of pineapple fields on our way to Mombasa the other week - a new sight for us all. Green beans and asparagus are shipped abroad along with the best of the Kenyan tea and coffee crops, although there's a growing market for good coffee in Nairobi (if at a price beyond most Kenyans and honestly not entirely related to the various mums I hang out with). And there's a major flower industry around Lake Naivasha, about an hour from Nairobi. Huge bunches of roses can be bought at most roadside corners in Nairobi for the equivalent of a couple of pounds.


There are some less good aspects of this industry - lake Naivasha has been heavily polluted by nutrients running off the flower farms and is now massively over run by water hyacinths - the equivalent of Japanese knot weed. Katie and Matthew spent a happy hour clearing the Lodge's pond of this weed when we stayed near the lake with my mum but I'm sure a month later it will all be back. It's the same in lake Victoria and a real challenge for environmentalists - there are some projects trying to turn these plants into biomass as a source of energy and one guy we met who advises the PM here is very optimistic about one of these. The flower industry is also apparently cleaning up its act (or so I reassure myself when I can't resist the lovely blooms) so fingers crossed something works soon as some beautiful places are being rapidly damaged.

Back at home, and fertiliser free (if you ignore the manure from our driver/gardener's cow) we are enjoying the fruits of our garden - squash, beans, chillies, potatoes, spinach, salad, fennel and rhubarb with regular bunches of bananas. Katie happily crunches though sunflower seeds too, harvested and dried from her sunflowers in September - the next crop is doing well and she's looking forward to showing the cycle of seed to flower to seed in her science lessons this term as part of learning how things grow.


















The maize and avocados look like they will be ready soon too, and the Passion flower I planted on the back wall in July is about to fruit.

And with luck we will get to them before the monkeys who we spotted in our road the other week find them.

I would love to claim credit for any of this but I can't really. The hard work has all been done by Bernard who is clearly a farmer at heart who also drives, looks after the kids, does my shopping, advises me on life in Kenya and generally provides life support for our household. Tim has put his back into the garden too, building steps through the bananas and working out how to direct the torrents of water that rip through the garden when it rains away from the veg - the hours we have spent building waterways and damns with the kids on rainy UK beaches are paying off!

Standing with Bernard earlier, harvesting beans in the mid morning sun with beautiful birds flying round us and then reading about snow and fog and minus temperatures in the UK really did make me feel on the other side of the world.


Anne

Happy birthday Matthew

As a mum I spend a fair of time saying "not now" and "no" to the kids (or "maybe, which they all know means no but I don't want the row now). And when I'm not directly denying them their wants I'm often busily trying indirectly to do so by encouraging them to stop doing things like fighting, or spending endless time in front of various screens, or eating like savages, or leaving their rooms in a state...... As our most physical child and as the one with the lowest boredom threshold at the moment Matthew is probably the main recipient of this mothering approach. So when he asked a couple of months ago if we could spend his birthday on the beach it was almost as much a treat for me as it was for him to be able to say yes. No need for any stalling "let me think about it" or "I'll need to check with dad". Just yes. And where?

Matthew wanted to return to the place we went to in October - for a child who has adapted fantastically well to his new life, new school and new friends here he really doesn't like too much change! So after a very nice Nairobi New Year's eve having friends to dinner, opening the fizz before midnight on the basis that in our international lives time zones are really irrelevant and at our age we should all be in bed soon after midnight anyway so there was no need to wait for the sake of waiting. And a very mellow New Year's day swimming and BBQing with more friends, we packed our shorts and snorkels and headed off to the coast to get the sand between our toes.



Its made for a lovely start to the year and a very nice end to a month of school holidays - we swam, snorkelled (including Katie who has only recently become a confident swimmer and declared her first proper look under the sea to be awsome), read, built sandcastles, went sea kayaking, made new friends, chased crabs on the beach, enjoyed watching the sun setting on the indian ocean, played uno, saw a few people we knew, and just had fun hanging out together. As I had done in October I occasionally looked up from a sun bed to suggest a trip out, for an ice cream or to East Africa's largest snake farm but I was always rejected in favour of more time in the pool. Jamie's record was a cool 9 hours one day, coming out only for a hasty lunch and an occasional fizzy drink with added sugar - a speciality of the pool bar and one of the attractions for the kids. With the kids very happy and occupied Tim and I were able to have a lovely dive each and Tim also decided to learn how to windsurf. But a lack of wind put paid to his final final lesson this morning and deferred it to our next visit - not that we need any excuse to come back.








For Matthew's birthday itself we thought we would start the day by going dolphin watching. The weather was ideal - the sea in the bay was flat as a pancake and it wasn't too sunny to risk frying the children on a boat trip. So we negotiated a deal (of sorts) with one of the guys on the beach and set of with a group of others to see what we could see. Matthew up front as Birthday boy.

We looked and looked, with the kids turning slowly greener as the ocean swell grew beyond the shelter of the reef. Absolutely nothing as far as the horizon. But presumably thinking their tip would be larger if they actually found dolphins, the boat crew seemed determined to press on, ignoring both Tim's suggestion that they turn back as the visibility was so good it was evident we weren't in the right place and the fact that two of the 4 kids on board were repeatedly throwing up. In the end they accepted what had been clear for some time and turned back. Just as they did a mobile phone rang to say dolphins had been seen on the other side of the bay. But by then the queasy feeling was spreading and even Matthew who prides himself on not getting travel sick had had enough so we jumped out on the beach and let the remaining adults set off for more hunting. 10 minutes later, after a restorative lemonade and swim in the pool Jamie was tucking into a second breakfast - poached eggs on toast with bacon, Katie was running off to play cards at kids club and Matthew was deep into a water polo game. 45 minutes later the boat and our former company spotted dolphins and jumped in for a swim with them. We were all really pleased they had found some and all really glad we hadn't had another 45 minutes on the sea.

After this slightly shaky start to his day Matthew had a great time. We had agreed he will get a few presents from family in the next couple of weeks rather than on his actual birthday but he was really touched when the main guy we deal with on the beach gave him a bracelet and a little girl who had become a firm friend with Katie presented him with a homemade card. He was also secretly pleased, if claiming to be mortified, that we had organised a surprise cake for him. This was presented to him after dinner by various kitchen staff processing out of the kitchen carrying a flower festooned chair for him to sit on whilst banging pans and spoons and signing to him (as appears to be the norm judging from similar displays we've witnessed). Jamie and Katie fled from the noise in embarrassment but were quickly back for the cake, which Matthew happily shared around the children in the restaurant before settling down to a card game with a group of the older children (now that he is 9).

And now its back to Nairobi and work and school and a busy couple of months for everyone before our next break. But despite an hour or so delay on our return flight (more playing of cards called for)

and rain clouds over Nairobi, I suspect it will take a few days for the sand to disappear from swimsuits, bags and between our toes and for Matthew's memories of turning 9 by the beach to fade.

Anne

Christmas, Kenyan style

We've had a lovely, very relaxing family Christmas at our home in Nairobi. It's been much less of a consumer experience and much more about time off together than we have been used to. And Jamie very sweetly reassured me that it was his best Christmas ever, with great presents. Clearly my efforts to manage expectations weren't completely wasted.



Some things have been very similar to previous festive seasons. We've eaten lots of turkey and mince pies.

Our 3 Father Christmas refusniks were transformed, with a bit of NORAD santa tracker and some philosophical debate about how, if mum and dad are father christmas they can get to all the other childrens' homes - katie had no answer to that - into very excited children up by 6am and ripping open stocking presents. Presents that appeared straightforward took longer to set up than anticipated not least because Matthew decided that the only way to really try out his new camping plates, cutlery and scouts pen knife was to set up the tent and have a picnic - he took more of an executive role in the former.

Some things were a little different. Kenyan Christmas crackers came with morals rather than jokes - "the ballot is stronger than the bullet" seemed a very appropriate message to be sending out in advance of March elections here. On Christmas Eve, carols from Kings College accompanied our evening meal. The carols at tea time, with christmas cake and mulled wine, were a more local affair with the kids joining in happily (particularly in cake consumption) and the weather significantly sunnier than we are used to at Christmas.

And some things were very different. An afternoon swim at a local pool whilst the Turkey roasted.


A boxing day breakfast with friends in the national park.

We have had torrential rains the last few nights (which made us all glad that the kids had eventually opted out of spending Christmas night in the afore mentioned tent) so the park was pretty muddy and we were briefly stuck at a spot called lion's corner. Luckily our friends were close behind and towed us out. But that did necessitate both Tim and Steve getting out of the cars to attach ropes and issue instructions. In the midst of this activity our friends' 13 year old son pointed out a male lion slowly heading in our direction. I was a little distracted and failed to get a photo. But believe me it was very real and unlike any other Boxing Day search for fresh air and exercise we have had before.




Anne

Out and about

We have had granny visiting for the last couple of weeks and school broke up on 7 December so we have been taking the opportunity to get out and about a bit and show my mum life beyond Nairobi. We have stayed in a couple of great places and seen loads of wildlife as well as learning about the tea industry here and seeing some more of the countryside. Highlights have been a getting up close to giraffe and zebra in the garden of the lodge we stayed at in happy valley country just north of Nairobi.

Watching the boys see how close they are to Samburu manhood by trying to throw our guide's stick over a large tree - one of the traditional rites of passage which our guide demonstrated with ease - was very amusing for me although I think Tim was more interested in the arrival of Saba Douglas Hamilton (of big cat diary) and her dad in their small plane and her tales of similar efforts as a teenager to be a Samburu warrior.

Standing on the Equator and watching Lion and Rhino lounging around and wandering close by in a conservancy called Ol Pajeta was pretty special too. And for granny and Jamie, seeing cheetah in the wild and a lion catch a warthog on a night drive was up there with the top wildlife experiences so far - I had advised against taking a camera not realising there would be a massive torch to light the scene so was briefly in Jamie's bad books as he's really keen on his photography just now (and lots of the photos in this blog are by him and Matthew).

New folder View photos    Download all You are invited to view anne's album. This album has 12 files.

And for all of us, getting out of town, leaving traffic jams behind, walking (and running) in the fresh air and spending some very nice time with granny has been a lovely start to the Christmas holidays. We were all very sad to see granny go but her next trip is already being planned - the Mara for the migration and the coast because its great - and we have lots of lovely memories (plus a huge suitcase of UK goodies) to keep us going.


Anne

Christmas spirit

I have been finding it a bit tricky to get into the Christmas spirit without the nights drawing in, the Christmas tunes blaring out everywhere and the temperature dropping. Of course there are santa's grottos appearing in all the shopping malls and decorations and Christmas marketing opportunities everywhere but that just feels a bit surreal rather than festive. And Father Christmas popped into the school "stocking filler" sale, on the back of a major 4x4 -apparently he's come by helicopter in previous years. Only in Kenya!

The children, of course, are having no such difficulty and are revving up for Christmas with advent calendars thanks to granny, nativity plays, Christmas parties and lots of discussion about where to buy a Christmas tree here - most plants come from roadside nurseries and the closest i had seen to a tree was a small ornamental cyprus type bush. But after I had been told that pine trees do appear and having almost certainly spotted a couple up by the US Embassy earlier in December we set off for some Carols by candlelight last week via the roadside nurseries. And after some negotiation (both between the kids and with the trader) we settled on a local, straggly tree which smells nice but is struggling a bit with the weight of our decorations and a splodgy giraffe print pot to keep it in. And our sitting room now feels a bit more festive.

So with only five more sleeps to go till Christmas morning I am beginning to get there. Cards are written and were dispatched to the UK with my mum when she flew back on Tuesday night. We've tried to manage kids' expectations of presents - although Tim's suggestion that we would only get gifts available in Kenya led to some urgent calls to go back to the UK for Christmas after all as the boys are really hoping for a wii sky landers game which they have seen costs the equivalent of half a year's local salary here. I've ordered a turkey - we spotted some being fattened up on the side of the road when we went out of town with my mum a couple of weeks ago and whilst i doubt this is a traditional Kenyan food there are enough Americans and canadians who celebrate thanksgiving here and enough Europeans and others looking for Turkey at christmas to help the market thrive. I've made my mincemeat (with thanks to mum for some of the ingredients and with the addition of fresh mango to supplement cooking apples and quinces that I tend to use in the UK) and Matthew has asked to make a first batch of mince pies today, assuming our power comes back on. Fingers crossed its ok for Christmas day otherwise we will be working out how long a turkey takes to BBQ! At least I've restocked our drink supply so that bit of Christmas Day should be fine.


Anne

Wild weekend

Ray Mears style rather than 3am girls.....

The rains are passing and the weather is really warming up now so, with a friend staying last weekend, we thought we should make the most of the great outdoors here in Nairobi. Matthew started us off in the right mood by staying overnight on the school field with his scout troop. I'm not sure he is really getting the full camping experience as some nice blokes put up and took down their tents and built the huge fire (the tall thing higher than the tent next to it)

But he had to peel his own potatoes to make chips and provide his own marshmallows for toasting so its not completely glamping. And they apparently talked into the night, found it pretty uncomfy to sleep and woke up early with the light and birdsong so I collected a very happy but very tired 8 year old we on Saturday morning. Our day was therefore very gentle, popping in on the elephant orphanage for our dose of wildlife and having lunch at a local cafe at the flip flop factory - a place where broken flip flops are turned into all sorts of wonderful colourful things - toys, Christmas decorations, door stops.

Sunday saw us up early to get to the National Park for first light. We were hoping to be as lucky as some friends who had seen lions at this time a few weeks ago but even the smell of our bacon cooking on the camp fire didn't tempt them out. We did get a very close, brief glimpse of a black rhino and its baby and saw plenty of gazelle, birds, some buffalo and lots of giraffe. One came to check out breakfast.

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And with or without big cats, a mini safari half an hour from home is always fun so the kids are planning a re-run with granny who is visiting now. I'm not sure if its the wildlife they love or the treat of toasting marshmallows for breakfast. But either way its great to have something for everyone.

Anne