THE CITY THAT JUST KEEPS GROWING

STORIES – For the last week I have been chatting with Mary and Samuel about the children staying here at Cheryls. In my office I have some photos on the wall of some of the kids. Each time Mary popped in the office last week we would chat about some of the kids I know. Each one had a story. Each story was in many ways hard to believe. When you see the child today it is hard to imagine that they went through such trauma and yet are so happy now. That is Cheryls Childrens Home story. Broken lives being cared for and healed. The stories of the children who actually live here are often about physical, sexual abuse from the home, parents who have died from AIDS, violence or just extreme poverty. There are some children who have seen their parents killed in political violence, some who have had one parent kill the other, some who have lost both parents and ended up with a grandmother who would beat the children badly. These are not happy stories, but they are real. It disappoints me when some organisations are against children’s homes. Most of these kids have been abused and suffered traumatic experiences, their homes are unsafe places. Here they are protected, cared for and given a future. The majority of children here are in foster care and many of these have also experienced horrific stories, but for them fortunately they have a guardian who can take care of them and through Cheryls they can be supported. The aim is always for a child, where possible, to be in a regular household, but for some that can’t be the case. For those kids that have been rejected, those kids are welcomed here with open arms and are part of this large family. This last week what struck me were the stories, so many...

DIRT – The quest for land seems to be the hot priority for many people in Nairobi. The city is bursting at the seems, flats popping up everywhere and as each new development goes up the question ‘where does the water come from to service the flats?’ seems to be ignored... just keep building building building. At one time people probably thought the streets of London were paved with gold, it seems that many feel Nairobi is paved with some precious jewel also. The truth is the streets are paved with dirt, the lack of rain is crippling the city and its just getting worse. The football pitch the kids play on for some of their matches just up the road is now pretty much sand. The Masaai bring in their cattle to the city centre to find anywhere for their skinny, dying cows. The other day on the way to work I had just passed Death Junction and moved to the next busy crossing, it was rush hour, and there a herder was driving is cattle across the dirt covered walk ways. A cow stumbles into the middle of the cross roads and for just a brief moment the cow becomes the priority for getting through the traffic, hey it even stopped a Matatu driver! As the city grows water will just become a bigger and bigger issue. In the UK we talk about the weather all the time, how it will be this day, it rains too much, we are cold. Here all the talk is about rain, when will it come. The word is that this year there will be an El Nino (spelling???), which means seriously heavy rains. Sounds good, but the truth is if it does come many people will drown in flash floods. It will be both a blessing and a curse. The dirt is so dry the water will just run over the top, clearing everything in its path. The trees have gone, no-one is planning for the future. But for now at least my clothes, my car, my computer, my bag, my skin... all covered in dirt (and I think there must be about 50 kgs of dirt in my lungs).

RALLY FOR ANY LADIES? – Ok so I have mentioned I keep meeting interesting people, this week I met a lady at David’s retirement village. She was hilarious and absolutely brilliant. A muzungu (white) lady, had broken hips and struggling to walk, but a wicked send of humour. We had sundowners (well basically drinks when the sun goes down, which is always between 6 – 7pm every day). Afterwards David pushed her back to her chalet in the wheelchair and she asked me to accompany them. She invited us in and their on the wall were 2 massive collages of pictures of this lady through the years driving rally cars around Africa. It was incredible, each picture obviously had a long story behind it, but clearly she was very brave and courageous. Thankfully her mind is still sharp, she seems to be quite cheeky and we had a very fun evening, but the last thing I would have guessed her to have been was a rally driver.

ROAD TRIPS – My biggest task here in Kenya is to help buy some land to build a secondary school, technical college, guest house, farming facilities, income generating projects and much more! So land is expensive.... too expensive. Last week we did a couple of road trips to see some areas. The first was on the other side of the Ngong hills, about 20kms from Cheryls. The last 8kms though are dirt track and take a while (was fun to do a bit of off roading in the 4x4). Its basically on the other side of the hills and well what can I say... there is nothing there. It was just masses and masses of land as far as the eye can see. A few little huts were dotted around here and there, but this was virgin land... and there was plenty of it. Interesting, too isolated maybe, good water supply, when will the road be tarmac’d??? Lots of questions. We met a masaai/kikuyu who was selling the land. He stood ther, must have been in his 50’s at least, worn trousers, walking stick, old jacket and this was his land to sell. He will make a fortune from it when he does sell and I just wondered what he would do with the money, will he actually even use it? A comparison would be for me to become a billionaire overnight. Interesting. But land is of extreme value and everyone wants it. The other road trip was out to Athi river, Kitengela and Kiserian. We were gone for about 6 hours.... it was a long road trip, but we did some research saw the areas. The crazy thing for a lot of the time we were driving past empty land... most of it bought though in small packets such as an acre, half an acre, quater of an acre. But what amazed me was there was nothing there!!!!! And the land is worth £10,000 an acre. The roads are being improved and everyone expects the land to be used, so they are buying it all up, but not doing anything with it, but thats just pushing the price up. Will the bubble burst? I don’t know, and in many ways I doubt it. But it means for us buying land is going to be a huge challenge. People think Africa is cheap... have they ever come to Nairobi?

WHAT NAME – So quite a few people have put in names for my car, some very good ones, some totally obscure???? But basically I’ll give you 1 more week and then I will announce the winner. So keep sending in your entries... sounds like I am going to give a prize out, but that might be tricky....hmmmm if you win I’ll give you a free tour of Nairobi in the big 4x4. So send them in, and winner announced next week.

THE MAMA’s – Just before coming to Kenya, me and some chums went to see Coldplay at Hampden park. Coldplay are my favourite band and it was a special night to say goodbye to some good friends who were with me. As we left we commented on how that will be the last time for a long time before I see such acts and go to a gig like that. Well in fact it was a really long time... a whole 4 weeks! This year Nairobi was the proud host of the MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA’s). I had seen bill boards around the place advertising it and a friend of mine suggested we tried to get tickets. They were quite cheap for what it was, only about £18 (which for a gig is extremely cheap). I doubted there would be any left, but eventually we found one of the outlets were they were selling and we went. So we went to the MAMA’s on Saturday night. I tried my best to dress up and look cool.... I failed... but Clare who I was with looked glamorous as did many of the other people their. The night was full of the who’s who of Nairobi, but mainly Kenyans, which was great to see. It was an awesome night and I just couldn’t believe we were there. It was in a sports indoor arena, probably the only one of its kind in East Africa. We saw Wyclef Jean present and perform, Akon and a whole load of fantastic African artists. So if you have MTV, have look for it on MTV Bass channel I think and see if you can spot us. I think now I can safely say though, it will be long time before I go to another major gig....

LILIAN – On Saturday morning, praise the lord it was a public holiday. The roads were quiet. Mary and I headed down the Mombasa road, past Athi river to a place called Lukenya. We were going to Lukenya Girls High school for their annual prayer service for the Form 4’s who are about to take their finals. Lilian is about to take hers. She is 18, one of 4 children taken in to Cheryls after her father died and just before her mum sadly passed away. They were living in extremely bad conditions, in a room without any beds. Lilian has recently finished being head girl and is hoping to do nursing next year. She wants to serve and help others in Kenya. She is confident, funny and intelligent. She was so pleased to see us, she had no clue I was coming. The service last 4 hours.... i did struggle at times in the heat but made it through. As we sat there I saw all the different parents coming in with their familes to support the girls and in a way it only dawned on me then, we were their for Lilian, we were her support, we were her parents. Although I had not seen Lillian since our 2004 trip with church she remembered me and i felt honoured to be their to support her. I was the only Muzungu and well a lot of heads turned when we arrived, but for Mary, Lillian and me that didn’t matter. It was a great day, she showed us round the school, had some lunch and then we left. I will go and pick her up from school in November when she is finished. It was a very small gesture on my part, but a very special moment and a real privilege to be there.

LEARNING THE NOISES – So yesterday was a very sad day. I moved into my new house. I am thrilled to be able to use David’s dads house as my new home, it has some spare rooms which is great for guests and volunteers, it has some furniture which has made things much easier, David and Juliet have already got bills sorted etc for me to pay, its been amazing....BUT... I think all 3 of us have been enjoying spending time with each other these last few weeks, and I think we all felt a little sad when they left yesterday afternoon and I was then alone in the house. We were so sad about it that they are coming round for dinner tomorrow night and I’m going there on Wednesday night!!! LOL. But the house is good. Last night I locked up the house and went to my new bed. To be honest i hadn’t really unpacked so it was all a little strange, especially suddenly feeling alone. As the night went on I heard all the sounds of living back in the middle of a city, dogs barking, kids yelling, dogs screaming, cars, people talking, dogs really yelling and the strange noises of this beautiful old house. In many ways this house displays where the city is heading. Its on about 1 acre of land. At the back at the bottom of the garden there are some large apartment blocks, over looking the house, all around buildings are starting to come down, new apartments rising, WATER???? ANYONE???? ANSWERS???? One day this house which has been here for at least half a century will be gone. In a way the new apartments are a sign of economic growth, the creation of a larger middle class, which is great.... but the resources of the city are limited, at some point there will be no more water, no more electricity, and there is still a great deal of poverty, resulting in crime. I lock so many doors in the house, infact this will soon become a nightly routine. The house over the road, belonging to Mo was robbed the other week while she was in South Africa. Crime is on the up. But for now, I will have the fortunate opportunity of spending time in the last days of this house, before it too will be knocked down and flats, or offices built. This is now home.

PHOTOS – Lillian and THE MAMA’s posted below, check them out: