...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.