Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 March 2004 08:17:16
I'm back in Kenya, and back on the wiblog, after a long absence. I think real life must have got very busy, and all my other web-based distractions too distracting. But this I find is the best way of keeping my thoughts in order while I'm over here, partly because I can update it on my palm and then upload it at work...
It's very hot here, and that's going to sound silly, but it isn't always very hot here. I've once again scrounged a place to stay from someone with a magnificent house - but very oddly arranged - all the rooms are off a verandah which looks out over the creek, but none of them let off each other, except the living room and my bedroom which let off the dining room. So I can walk into the dining room for breakfast straight from my room, but the other guest has to go outside, and in through the other end of the house.
Of course help comes with the house - I know them both quite well since they have worked for the same person (who is away at the moment) for quite a while, and I've stayed with him before. One of them doesn't speak English, and since the other one was ill for a few days, and the other guest doesn't speak Swahili, we were greeted in panic by the non-English-speaking housekeeper who hadn't been able to communicate to her that they had no food left in the house! It is very relaxing to have your breakfast and dinner (and lunch if you want it) prepared for you, and your clothes ironed and put away, and your bed made. I always find my fingernails grow long while I'm here.
I've also been lent a car, which is, er, interesting. It's a very small jeep type thing, a Suzuki, and very bumpy in the back (so I'm told), the top will take off if you want it to (but we haven't worked out how yet, and I don't want to ask the owner!), and it's left-hand-drive, which is interesting when driving along behind large lorries which are driven very badly, and you want to turn right. It also has a warning printed inside the drivers door about not making fast manoevres in case it rolls over, and the passenger door will only open from the outside - so passengers have to open the window and let themselves out that way.
We went out to a village this morning, and it was pleasantly cool, and shady, and everyone was very welcoming, and it was very beautiful, lots of palm trees... it's lovely. Oh, and I saw a monkey with sky blue goolies the other day. What more could you ask for?