Family life

I've said in a previous blog that although the backdrop is very different, family life here is similar in many ways to our London life. Recent highlights include Katie finally mastering her bike - something I hadn't anticipated her doing on Nairobi roads;

Matthew narrating and racing round with an Olympic torch in his school show.

And Jamie thriving on a mass of competitive sport with success for his rugby and football team in local schools' tournaments.

Still to come is Katie's ballet show next week - she is one excited girl; an olympics themed sports day at school this Thursday - at least dressing as a sports star is relatively easy; a football tournament for Jamie; and Tim running his first half marathon this weekend in Lewa conservancy. There will definitely be photos of the first 3 but I've been warned that no one does Lewa and keeps their dignity so I might hold back on pics of our own marathon man.

Anne

C is for cocktail parties, conspiracy theories and car jacking

We have been getting out and about a bit in the last week or so. A friend celebrated his birthday last saturday with a "party like its 1982". A great evening despite some truly terrible music and many very wrong attempts to dress in the style of the day. They are leaving Nairobi in a few weeks so this was also a bit of an excuse to empty the drinks cabinet of those mysterious bottles that gather in the darker recesses. Blue curaçao - what is its purpose in life? As for advocat...Of course, we mainly drank coke in 1982 so Tim and I lived to party another day.

Our next social gathering was the Queen's Birthday Party at the High Commissioner's Residence this Thursday. A big celebration, privately sponsored (for those of you who worry about what your taxes go on) of UK/ Kenyan partnership with lots of Olympics and Jubilee references and the landrover used by the Queen here in 1952 in a very big marquee on a very big lawn. It was a fun, if slightly surreal evening where we both met lots of interesting people and also realised quite how many people we have already met, albeit from a very narrow spectrum of Nairobi society.

But life here is of course not all socialising, safaris and sunshine. The unexpected death of the interior minister and other senior officials in a helicopter crash last weekend has dominated the news. Conspiracy theories abound. The Minister, Professor Saitoti, was a longstanding politician who has survived under multiple Presidents - a relatively rare occurrence suggesting he was either very good or very influential or knew where the skeletons are buried. As former President Moi's deputy and Treasury Minister he was linked to (but never convicted of) a major fraud. And whilst in the UK I would discount almost all conspiracy theorists as unhinged, it does feel different here. That said, having spent nearly 4 months driving now, mechanical failure or pilot error would still be my best bet.

This week has also seen a friend of ours deal with the aftermath of being carjacked at gunpoint leaving their road in the relatively early evening. They weren't hurt but they were held for 5 hours or so (to give the guys a chance to take money from the atm before and after midnight so doubling their haul). Of course there have been numerous similar stories of crime since we arrived - it is a topic that comes up at virtually every social gathering we have been to including all the kids parties. But this is the first time it's happened to someone we know, and locally, leaving a slightly uneasy feeling. Doubt the afore mentioned landrover ever found itself in such a situation.


Anne

Moving in

After 3 months of getting to know Nairobi from the comfort of a serviced apartment we took the plunge and moved into our new home last weekend. Having picked up the keys last friday, we stalled moving in to the empty shell by heading off to the Rift Valley for a long Independence day weekend. Although obviously not a public holiday here, the jubilee celebration has had a fair amount of coverage partly because her maj was staying in the Masai Mara when she became queen, so it seemed fine to spend a weekend amongst the Zebra, gazelle and Rhino near Nakuru. It also meant we slept in comfy beds and ate good cooked food rather than camping out in our empty new home for too long. Tim took the boys on a mammoth drive in the national park. Matthew kept a list of their sightings and Katie and I were later talked through each one - black rhinos, lions and some great birds were the highlights but being allowed to "drive" the landrover on the way back to our camp trumped even that.

Batteries recharged, we headed back home and set up camp for the night. Everyone seemed very pleased to be in a bit more of a permanent base. And even more thrilled when our possessions arrived on Monday - I would like to claim credit for such slick organisational planning but the reality is that we were very very lucky! I've been immersed in boxes and cleaning and generally sorting stuff since. We still have a few boxes to go but we are nearly there, our hammocks are hanging in the mango tree, kids toys are scattered across the house, and a major backlog of washing is giving our home the feel of a Chinese laundry. Despite various attempts I have yet to succeed in getting us hooked up to the Internet or satellite tv. Luckily we have very nice neighbours with kids at the same school as ours and so we are able to enjoy Euro 2012, even if it means bilingual match analysis from the comfort of French and Belgian sofas.




Our new home is an old Nairobi house thats just been refurbished so it looks and feels quite shiny and very secure (which matters here) even if the plumbing and wiring are always going to be a bit flakey. The garden has just been replanted after all the building work and needs time, and a bit of love and attention to flourish and to turn the red mud lawn green. But even in a week we can see that the grass has grown and we all have plans for how we will develop it over the coming months. I sense that there will need to be some compromises as a major cricket net/football goal/ rugby posts is not entirely compatible with successful vegie growing or a peaceful, tranquil space away from the hubbub of central Nairobi. I will keep you posted. In the meantime here is Katie's tour for you.

In the News - local to global

Its been a busy few days in Nairobi. We have been preoccupied signing the lease on our house, moving out of our apartment and generally getting sorted for this next phase of our time in Kenya. We have been tracking progress on the house for the last few months - it features in April's through the keyhole blog - and it's still not quite there. But it's ready enough for us to move into and we are all up for roughing it a bit and finding all the snagging issues at first hand. Or that's what we say this week! I suspect the boys will feel differently if i fail to hook up the Internet and tv in time for Euro 2012. But they and Katie are already planning the house warming party - we all agree that we definitely want to do something to thank all those who have helped us get here, mainly through propping me up with coffees and moral support.

We have also had world environment day this week and Matthew and I made the most of a school plant sale to stock up on herbs for our new garden.



We bought an acacia too, in the spirit of the great Kenyan environmentalist and tree planter Wangari Maathai. I'm hoping that planting it might go some way to offsetting the carbon footprint of the 4x4 I carted it home in!

On a more sombre note, this week has seen a bomb attack in central Nairobi which prompted far more international and local news coverage than previous grenade throwing incidents. Fortunately, and unlike the grenade attacks, no one was killed this time. But the timing and location of the blast - Monday lunchtime in the central business district - coupled with the fact that it was almost certainly a homemade bomb have really had an impact here. Visible policing has significantly increased and lots of people we know are adjusting plans and staying away from central Nairobi for a bit. Whilst it might not seem the ideal backdrop for signing our lease, it will be great to have our own home to seek refuge in for what I fear will be the inevitable further incidents over the months to come.


Anne

Shipping news

Whilst we have been settling into our lives here our belongings have been slowly making their way across the seas and through Kenyan process to join us. Like many things here, it hasn't been entirely clear what the various steps are on their journey, when our stuff is likely to arrive and which bits of paperwork with which stamps we need to present where along the way. So we've just been biding our time, watching and learning about international shipping processes, with a little help from my brother who was able to check the whereabout of the container whilst it was at sea and so reassure the kids (and us) that it had avoided all pirates, storms and other catastrophes.

On Thursday we got a request to present ourselves at the customs clearing point in Nairobi to validate entry of our stuff into the country. Apparently our urgent attendance was required because, unbeknownst to us, our stuff was suddenly about to outstay its welcome at this clearing point (which we had no idea it had reached). The container has in fact been in Kenya for a over month waiting in a congested Mombassa port and then taking a few days to make the 16-20 hour train journey up to Nairobi. But this was the first time we've felt that our belongings are nearing the end of their trip. Anticipating that validation was going to be neither a swift or entirely transparent experience I took a good book, various passports and all the shipping related paperwork I could find and set off for a day out in the industrial lands around the airport.

I could describe the day in a couple of ways but the more positive version is a gentle drive with 4-5 hours reading a book in the sun, practising my Swahili with a group of packers whilst we waited for various officials to do their stuff, trying to avoid anything that would prompt extra work or require "express payments" to unblock non existent blockages. But it was quite a strange feeling sitting on a huge area of tarmac surrounded by stuff that we have very happily lived without for 3 months and still not being able to take any of it home with me. The things we are most excited about reclaiming are a large bag of footballs - the ones Jamie, Matthew and Katie packed as essential in our travelling bags are all punctured to varying degrees - some pink, glittery arts and crafts things, our ice cream maker and juicer, ninjago Lego, my jeans - the weather is turning a bit cooler and I will be really glad to expand my wardrobe again - and books.

Anyway, we are through the next hurdle and there are now just a few more bits of paperwork to sort over the next week or so and then delivery to arrange. We were in part helped through this latest stage by the rain, which threatened most of the afternoon causing the packers to put everything that they had taken out of the container for inspection back in and illustrating that age old experience that stuff never quite fits as well if you've rummaged through or half unpacked to find something. When it finally came, the rain arrived at the same time as the customs official (whose lunch break had lasted from 11:30 till 3:30). She took one look at the sky, a cursory look at the outside of the container, spent 2 minutes chatting to me about the contents and signed us off. The shipping agent was clearly of the view that we had lucked out. On balance, and with very limited experience of Kenyan authorities, I was inclined to agree.

Anne

Disco diva

Great excitement for the last week in our house about the first school disco - last Friday night for katie and her friends. The boys have theirs later in the term. Katie carefully selected her clothes and checked each morning how many days to go till the D.I.S.C.O. Tributes to Donna Summer on our way into school on Friday morning helped get everyone in the mood. Parents are barred from participating and so retreat to the school bar to reminisce about their own school discos - Donna and The BeeGees were big features of mine so I'm feeling particularly nostalgic (and old) this week!

School discos aside, the soundtrack to our lives here is pretty similar to back in the UK. Driving to school gives us plenty of time to listen to music as the kids have all decided that the news is just too grim and "always about bad things happening" so I save my world service fix for my solo car time. Charts pop is ubiquitous and we get regular blasts of Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Maroon 5 et al. Jamie does a very fine comedy Justin Bieber impression - there is complete consensus amongst the boys in his class that JB is rubbish, whatever the girls think.

But we get the odd splash of something different for our ears. The weekly school assembly on Fridays starts with the Kenyan National Anthem, although having experienced the school singing it when I went to Matthew's work share I'm none the wiser on tune or lyrics. I'm trying to broaden our listening options via the radio too. Africa World Service always has a featured regional artist or group playing a few tracks in the morning and I'm adding any I like to my Spotify playlists. A Zimbabwean singer called Prudence was a particularly striking feature. We are all agreed that the Swahili track which heavily samples Coldplay's Paradise isn't going anywhere near the playlist.

Friends and family are also making their contribution to our soundtrack. We went to a very lovely choral performance of St Matthew's passion at Easter, sung by a group of people we have met here. Jamie continues to enjoy the Toto album he got for Christmas as part of acclimatising the kids for our move, mainly at full volume in the shower. rains in Africa has been very appropriate for the last month or so. Matthew is learning about the tribes of Kenya in his topic this term so is picking up some traditional songs and instruments. Katie is learning the recorder and also invested her pocket money in a small African drum to make sure she can join in too, although I'm not sure that's what I call music!

Nairobi book club

Our lifestyle here brings loads of opportunities for us all to do lots of reading. I'm mixing some gentle fiction with learning more about Africa and all aspects of life here, and plenty of bedtime reading of Angelina ballerina and Hiccup's dragon related adventures. School has a well stocked library for the children and a grown ups' book exchange so we can all regularly refresh our reading material. And we are making the most of the worldwide web. There are book clubs here too but for now we are keeping this as a family activity.




Much of grown up reading time is spent keeping up with the news locally (where the rain and associated flooding and political manoeuvring in advance of likely elections in 10 months time currently dominate) and internationally. We get most of our international news from the radio and on line - another reason I love my iPad - but sitting at the table over a lazy Sunday morning coffee doesn't quite feel the same with laptop and tablet next to us rather than Sunday papers sprawled across the table. Regular purchases of the weekly Guardian offer some relief although the boys (young and old) still miss their Sunday fix of extensive sports coverage.

A particularly thought provoking read for me has been Africa,
Dispatches from a Fragile Continent, a collection of essays by American journalist Blaine Harden written during and soon after the four years he spent living in Nairobi in the 80s. Of course lots of things have changed in the subsequent 25 years, not least the end of Apartheid, but much really resonates with the current themes on world service Africa. Harden writes about the importance of family in society across Africa; tribal tensions in Kenya (a common theme here just now as various men start positioning themselves for next year's Presidential elections and tribal allegiances come to the fore); bitter war between north and south Sudan (then one rather than 2 countries but many of the names haven't changed); military coups, lack of election transparency and big men running Africa (at the end of the 80s Charles Taylor is just emerging as the chosen successor to take Liberia out of the mess Samuel Doe made - now he's an indicted ICC war criminal); the challenges of aligning aid to people's needs and knowing that donor funds are making a positive difference; and the vibrancy of life here, which resonates with a current twitterati debate Why I love Africa . Writing in the late 1980s, Harden sees Nigeria as Africa's big hope - I think he doesn't factor South Africa into his equation because at the time of writing it still stood apart from black Africa. The economic stats still largely support his thesis but his observation that Nigerians largely put aside tribal and religious tensions following the horrors of the Biafran war looks increasingly out of date in light of recent events there.

As Kenya and others' approach 50th anniversaries of Independence, I found it sobering to reflect on what has and hasn't changed in terms of the quality of individual lives here during my adult life time.


Anne