|
Home
Diary
Topics
| |
After an early rise with Stott, and a no-surprises breakfast, a few
of us went shopping for sarongs. Actually, I bought some beach sandals and a cap,  rather than a sarong, but the trip
demonstrated that we had no real need to fear being out and about in Nairobi, if we were
sensible. We actually felt like we were shopping, rather than being herded through a
highly dangerous and threatening crowd, as we had done the previous time. We were still
the only white people around though. We returned to paint more doors at Sheepfold. Alison
and Becky took Nicola to hospital. She returned about £25 worse off, having been
entertained and diagnosed as having a virus that would probably last about another three
days. |
| Almas returned in a state of excitement from the plain. He had
borrowed my binoculars and had managed to spot some zebras and gazelles. They were just
about visible through the binoculars. After that brief moment of excitement, we headed off
to Kibera, Nairobi’s biggest slum and the most densely populated informal settlement
in Africa, according to the World Bank. Pigs, goats and other animals moved freely around
the tiny makeshift houses and stalls, jumping over or through the open channels that
carried the sewage of thousands of people. Apparently, 60% of the population of Nairobi
live in slums, using just 5% of the land. That’s somewhere around 1 million people.
Before leaving Kibera, we visited a very loud and lively worship time at a church there
– the Jesus Gospel Church. They seemed genuinely happy to see us, but didn’t
stop to ask who we were or why we were there. We stayed and joined in the best we could
– even when songs were in English, the words were hardly ever intelligible through
the overstrained PA system. |
When we returned to Sheepfold, Alison and Nicola were waiting for
us,  both pleased to
have had a definite diagnosis. Malaria was always the fear in the back of people’s
minds throughout our time in Kenya. Food poisoning was considered good in comparison.
Dinner was typical – ugali (the fairly bland Kenyan national dish made from cornmeal,
with a consistency between that of rice and porridge), rice, roast potatoes (plenty of
carbohydrate as usual), spinach, chicken (or did somebody say old hen?), and sauce,
followed by banana, pineapple and orange. We were nearly always well catered for with
fruit for afters.We had a relaxing evening, where the
remainder of the team had the chance to send emails, and a few of us worked on
Alison’s Dingbats, most notably Paul, Carolyn and myself. Realising a shared sense of
fun (and arguably humour), Carolyn and I struck up a lasting friendship here. |
| Eg. GIVE GET
GIVE GET
9ALL5
Answers: Forgive and Forget
GIVE GET
All in a day’s work
GIVE GET |
|
