...of moonflowers, maids and monkeys, of buffalo and cars!
Not many photos this time … just a sort of journal of a few days of my life here in Green Park… but I’ll start with the ‘moonflowers', I’m sure they
have a botanical name, that have just started to bloom (with a hypnotic
perfume) outside our bedroom balcony.
...in which I justify
not having a maid!
It’s 7 o’ clock: not my usual hour of rising in the UK but
the lack of dawn at the equator brings such a dramatic change of light that it
seems natural to rise and get on with the day. It’s almost pitch dark at
6, with sunrise on the dot at around
6.35 as the sun peeps, blasts or
spreads, depending on cloud cover, over the Aberdare range to the east.
Peter has already left on his trek to the
office. He’s had his four wheel drive Toyota for a week and it makes a huge
difference to the first third of the journey which is basically downhill over
rocky and dusty roads. The last car was called the ‘tin can’ for acoustic
reasons: this one will be Kubwa (big) can…due to its registration KBW! See
below for the continuation of the ‘Can’ riff… This photo is of the amazing fig
trees we pass drivng to the farm. They look as if they will rise and walk to
Mordor any day soon…
OK…housework first… The bath has proved to be the best
solution for clothes washing as we’ve no machine …yet! I have resisted frequent
suggestions that I have a maid: there’s just not enough to do with two of us in
this small cottage. I rarely mention it (lack of maid) round here as I’m pretty
unique in such resistance and don’t want to muddy the waters. I understand that employing a maid is helping
another family but if there’s really nothing to do day to day…?
...in which I almost encounter
a buffalo and acquire a car: quickly!
I have my last yoga session with Lel (Peter’s boss's wife) later on before I go back to the UK next
weekend. I’m really appreciating learning the breathing and the extra
stretches, with about half of the positions familiar from Pilates and dance
warm-ups and am reciprocating with Lel who wanted to learn French in an active
way: just my style! For my first yoga sessions I used to walk down to Lel’s;
about 15 minutes stroll out of this fenced garden, down the open road, across
the airstrip and into her fenced garden. However, two weeks ago, I was stopped
by a pickup and greeted by Val, the estate manager’s wife, who queried the
freedom of my walking and said they’d been culling buffalo at the weekend, who
do roam at night around these roads and the open areas and there was a wounded
one still on the loose! Hmm…no notices around to warn us…and the locals walk
freely on these roads. I hopped in for a
quick lift downhill and had to do a retake on the speed at which I acquired a
car! A pity … as I was enjoying those longer walks, although we’ve got a great
half hour trek, uphill and down dale, within these grounds: bring strong
trainers when you come. Luckily our neighbour Nella, who runs a luxury safari company
(check out her lovely site: www.tintrunksafari.com)
had an old RAV for sale…and now it’s mine!
As its registration is KAN… J: it’s now known as the J-can! Here it is on the drive at the back of the cottage.
...in which I praise the
World Service and look forward to a school visit
My blog typing and housework is accompanied by the wonderful
World Service: a more political, less ‘arty’ replacement for Radio 4. We pick
up the East African service here which is partially London based, for world
news, and partially east African. Last week there was a focus on the benefit of
the World Food Programme, linked I think to Clinton’s visit to this area:
balanced and informative.
My days may seem a bit indulgent at the moment. OK I know I’m
vaguely near retirement age (this week I celebrate my first official UK
pension!) and I have enjoyed my first walk around a golf course and game of
bridge (yes Mary and Elizabeth, you read that right!) I am also, however, working
on getting more involved in the local community and paid a visit to the HT of the
local primary last week, before the children were back. I’m going again
tomorrow to see the school in action. I’ll write more next time but to set the
scene this primary has almost 2000 children with parents ( 90% single parent
families) working mostly on local flower farms and almost 100 children in each
class: the size of a Norfolk school assembly! The new HT was very enthusiastic
and when asked for three priorities for the future said: textbooks (they’ve
approximately one to 6 pupils); chairs (not enough for each pupil)and more teachers = smaller classes. I’ve learnt a bit of the background, curriculum,
exam system, existing but decreasing trust help, funding issues and the history
of its rapid expansion as the farms have developed. Tomorrow I’m just going to
sit in on some classes and see the classroom dynamic in these huge groups. When I
come back, if I can help in any way, I will.
...in which Sammy
remains very much at home and we watch Colobus monkeys at play
Here’s Sammy with Larka and Nimrod who come to pay a visit
and have a nose around during the day. But this is Sammy’s patio and she’s
queen of this castle!
On Sunday we had to pay a morning visit to the farm to check
on the progress of tunnel erection...
We decided to have Sunday
lunch out and went to the Elsamere Centre on the shores of Lake Naivasha. This is Joy Adamson’s
old house (Born Free/ Elsa the lioness) and is now a small lodge and museum.
The buffet lunch was excellent, the environment really peaceful and ‘old-colonial’
and the resident Colobus monkeys, playful and photogenic. Definitely somewhere to return
to with friends and family.
It was lovely to welcome Ewan and Leila and show them around this part of Kenya. We really look forward to our next guests at Christmas time xxx
