Week 2

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Today is day 7 of rain...quite impressive for a country that's only supposed to have 4 days of rain in September! Apparently it's lucky for Kenya to have rain - Claire and I initially considered ourselves celebrities for bringing this weather to the country, but now the novelty's wearing off...though we have had some sun, so at least it's not been raining continuously.
We've come to the conclusion that Kenya has to be the most confusing place we've ever been to - our host has no sense of timing; went for a walk by a river only to discover there is no river; went find an ostrich farm 2km away, only to find it was actually about 15km away; we have power cuts every time there's a light shower, but if there's torrential rain, the power stays on; yesterday all the boys at the orphanage were dressed in pink, and a 2yr old girl was dressed in a Bob the Builder t-shirt etc - think Howler and I getting used to things not being all that they should be!

Last Saturday we went with Julia to her sister-in-law's house outside Nairobi, on the way to Mombasa (about an hour's drive away). We were under the impression that we would go for a walk (by the river that doesn't exist) or visit an ostrich farm (that was too far away to walk to) while she was at a meeting.
We left Julia's house around 12.30pm (the meeting was supposed to start at 1pm) and stopped at 3 different petrol stations to get petrol as they either didn't have the correct petrol or didn't take visa. Anyway, we also seemed to round up various other members going to the meeting (all African women dressed in their traditional clothes), and then there was a big debate about whether we were supposed to be meeting others there. Eventually we got to the house about 2pm - Claire and I had lunch with everyone (15 others in a small lounge), accompanied by very loud African music for the television, before leaving them to their meeting and going for a walk along the main road.

After about an hour we returned thinking that we would sit outside and read until the meeting had finished (assumed it would be about 5.30pm). However, as soon as we sat down we were joined by 4 children from the estate...and then by another 20 who suddenly appeared from nowhere, and so instead of our relaxing afternoon, we spent the next 2-3 hours entertaining all the children with games, singing songs with them etc. The meeting finished at about 8.30pm...at which point we were told that everyone from the meeting was going on to a club/bar/restaurant, and so we ended up going with them...all good fun though. Slightly scary journey back with Julia who kept asking us (because it was dark) whether she was still on the road, but all got back safely...

Planning to go and visit Kenya National park and Lake Nakuru for a few days next week - looking forward to seeing a bit more of the Kenyan countryside.

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