SAUSAGES – So we have just had the rainy season... the LONG rains. Although it seems to have lasted longer than normal I think and also been more rain than normal. One of the strange things you sometimes get when it rains is sausage flies. Its weird, you never see them any other time, and it doesn’t happen every time it rains, it must just be when the conditions are right. Anyways it starts to rain, then you hear a fluttering sound, looking up at any light which is turned on (oh by the way it only tends to happen in the evening) you begin to see a few sausage flies flapping about by the light, then a few more, then a few more. When they enter a room looking for a light they flap everywhere. They have long white wings and so are easy to spot. Sometimes they are flapping around you and you have to keep brushing them off. In just a few minutes they seem to be everywhere. Once driving back from the hospital I saw them on every lamp post, its like a swarm. Where do they come from??? Where do they go after the rain? Its the strangest thing. I saw them years back when I lived in Zimbabwe. We were having a party at someone’s house, it began to rain and they all turned up, flying everywhere. Pretty soon the house was full of them, all dying on the floor (they don’t last long). The host was picking them up and putting in a bowl. She went to the kitchen, took the wings off and started to fry them. So a long with the crisps and snacks at the party, there in a few bowls dotted around the house were fried sausage flies. One night a few weeks ago, we had a movie night at the kids home, the flies turned up just before we began the movie and before the kids had dinner. Some of the young ones love it when they come because they have fun trying to catch them. They collect them in a pot and start plucking wings, a competition to see who can get the most. One of the wee girls, does this and doesn’t even bother cooking, she is happy to just start eating them, raw, still riggling around! Living in Nairobi you can feel very westernised in many ways, but its times like that when you are reminded where you really are, a lot of these kids have come originally from up country and this kind of activitiy would be normal, a treat even... hmmmmm think I prefer chocolate as my kind of treat!
YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE – A very sad thing happened the other day, just on Friday. Both Samuel and I left work a little early, at about 4pm. I was heading across town to David and Juliets, he was heading to pick up his girls from school. After he got them, (up in a small place called Kiberia, not to be confused with Kibera) he was leaving the school and another car bumped into him, deliberately. Everyone from the village and the school kids flocked around to see what had happened. Any car accident always draws a crowd, I mean come on... free entertainment! The guys got out of the other car shouting to everyone to go away, and of course they ignored that request. Samuel was waiting to talk with them about what had happened, when the main guy took a gun out of his pocket and fired some shots in the air, before pointing the gun at Samuel. At this point everyone scattered. They took his wallet (which he had just been to the bank with to get some money for his family and also money for building materials for the new classrooms being built), they took his wedding ring, phone, pushed him to the ground demanding his laptop. As they went into the boot for the laptop (which also had all the cheque books) he managed to escape running away knowing that he could be killed, although the girls were trapped in the car (and unlikely to get hurt but you never know). He waited a few minutes in a villagers house, before going around at the side and seeing their car had been gone. Terrified about what had happened to the girls he raced back to see they were ok. When he was telling me what happened on Saturday, he said he was watched movies like this, but on Friday it was like living in a movie. It must have only been 4:30pm in the afternoon, broad daylight!!! He was lucky to be alive, many people are killed over such petty things. He was very shaken up and you can’t imagine how the girls felt. Its horrific. Again these are stories we hear happening to others, then suddenly the reality hits when it happens to someone you know so well. Everyone was shaken at Cheryls. It seems so unfair, someone who sacrifices so much for others, and yet suffers such injustice. But at the end of the day we are all grateful he is still alive and unhurt. He was very shaken over the weekend, but I am so impressed by his strength, he is pressing on, coming to work today with a smile on his face.
DEAL OR NO DEAL – So the latest on the old land issue. We have gone into a deal with the land owner, an old mzee, a tycoon, who certainly has plenty of cash! He has agreed a price with us that we are happy with. He gave us 60 days to do our surveys and then if all is fine we can begin the real deal! I can’t believe we have finally got to this point, it is so exciting! For me there will be 3 important days this year. The first is when we find a piece of land and begin the process of purchasing. The second will be when we sign the formal agreement and pay the intial deposit, and the third and probably most important day will be when we have payed the balance and the land belongs to Cheryls Childrens Home! Our future will secured! So day one has arrived, we have reached that mile stone, I wanted to crack open champagne, even though I don’t drink, but we were being cautiously optimistic, we still have a long way to go to get to day 3. So we have engaged lawyers who are doing the surveys, checking everything out. So far we have raised about £70,000 and to reach the full amount we need to raise a further £50,000. According to the deadline now in place it looks like we will need the full amount by September. Not long now to go, but we are pressing forward. This will be the biggest milestone of the whole project. Many people want to help raise money to build a school and the other projects, but buying the land is the hardest stage, lets be honest it’s not exciting buying a piece of land for most people, also maybe some have doubts it can be done, but without the land there is no future for us beyond what we are currently doing. Even then at any point the Kenya Railway Authority could demand their land back and we would be homeless. This land we want to buy is our future, another £50,000 and we are there, the clock is ticking. You can download the updated building project proposal, which has all the latest details and new details from: www.box.net/shared/01ldis939k
RUNAWAY TO THE HILLS – Sometimes life here can be from the sublime to the ridiculous. It’s been a while since I have been to the Muthaiga club (a very old colonial private members club, I think the one in Out of Africa). I can only go if invited by David and Juliet, occasionally we go swimming there, or have afternoon tea. It’s a small treat from David and Juliet I really love. It’s where Kenya SOCIETY like to hang out. We often laugh at how on earth David and Juliet were invited to be members, but even so they are there! Sometimes the club runs a special event, and one thing that I think happens every year or certainly regularly is “Beating the Retreat”. I was a little confused about what this was all about, but said yes to the invite. I pitched up from work, trying to look reasonably smart in my £3 white Tesco shirt and Marks and Spencers trousers... am sure no-one would really know! Juliet and I sat and had some tea and cakes as the others arrived. Slowly by slowly Society turned up along with the KTB’s (the Khaki Trouser Brigade, of which I am a fully fledged member, my regular uniform for work) and we headed out to the lawn. Although the club is international and is increasing the number of Kenyan members, this event was predominantly white, and mostly British. We had our drinks, caught up with some friends, and it was nice to see I was getting to know more people... not Society people, but the middle class whites, teachers etc. Eventually the beating of the retreat began. In processed a small group of pipers and drummers in their green camouflage. We sat for about 25mins in the failing light, as the small band piped through various tunes including highland cathedral etc. At one point 2 off the group did some highland dancing to the tunes, which did look a bit odd in their camo army uniforms and not in highland dress, I did wonder who plucked the short straw in having to dance. Eventually it came to an end, the head piper marched forward to some old chap in a panama hat, said a few words and they then processed out. In Kenya there is a large British army contingent, partly as an aftermath to colonialism and the good ties between Kenya and the UK and also because the northern parts of Kenya make great training ground in preparation for Afganistan. Now I presume, the beating of retreat is done when an army group is heading home, or heading off to wherever their next destination is, possibly Afganistan. So its a traditional thing. It was the oddest experience in many ways, 300 expats and old colonials sat drinking pims and various drinks as these army boys carried out the old ritual. Although I don’t truely belong in such places as the Muthaiga club, and if I was around it long enough I would begin to despise it possibly (or maybe not its kind of nice...) but I do love these brief encounters and experiences, and a taste of the old colonial history. How many times has the beating of the retreat happened at Muthaiga, how many dignitaries and members of high society have sat and witnessed the same thing. It’s kind of fun, kind of surreal, and a bit of a laugh, and for a brief moment transports my mind from the daily struggles and pressures from Cheryls, to focus on something different and see a whole different side to life in Africa. If only Society knew who I really was... I chuckle inside myself as I hob nob with the rich and... well rich.
3 FUNERALS AND NO WEDDING – Imagine I have been here in Kenya for about 8 months, I know a few people, not many but a few. The strangest thing happened the other week. In the space of about 10 days 3 people I know died. I didn’t know some of them that well, but in the space of 10 days, out of the limited number of people I have come across, 3 die in 10 days. The first to go was Mo’s mother, a lady called Tinka. I haven’t seen her since our youth trip in 2004, but I remember long ago, back in 1995 I was spending a Christmas in Nairobi while on my gap year in Zimbabwe. I was staying in the guest cottage next to the house I am living in, with Mike and Gerry. Tinka lived opposite, and on Christmas day invited all the waifs and strays in Nairobi, people who had no-where else to go on Christmas day. She was a lovely, fun, slightly crazy lady, but I will never forget how she opened up her house for so many people. She has been in a nursing home recently and her daughter Mo was living opposite me. Sadly she passed away. Following this a guy I met before Christmas last year committed suicide, an old school friend of David. I only met him once but you could clearly tell he had serious problems. He hadn’t worked since school, was on various medications, but nothing helping. He had tried to commit suicide once before but failed. David is one of the few people left who spent time with him. We would often talk about it and he would beat himself up that he doesn’t do more for the guy and his brother (also with mental health problems), but in reality David was the only person left in Nairobi who would even bother to give them the time of day. Eventually it obviously got too much for the guy and he killed himself. He lived just down the road from me. Finally the third and the saddest one for me is that Geoff has passed away. I met Geoff and Dorothy back in 1995 when Mike and Gerry took me to Geoff and Dorothys house in Naivasha for new years day (I think a tradition for Mike and Gerry). We were the only guests, I had never met them before but they knew Mike and Gerry were bringing this young lad with them from Zimbabwe. They welcomed me into their home and as Christmas presents were passed between the 2 couples I was shocked and humbled to be given some Christmas presents from Geoff and Doroty. Having never met them, they still wanted to welcome me and give me some Christmas greetings. I have never forgotten that, and probably never will all my life. I have never met anyone like them. They were missionaries here for most of their life, doctors serving the poor. Even into their 90’s they were still providing medical to the local community from their house. When I brought youth groups from the UK in 2004 and 2007 I took them to meet Geoff and Dorothy, a little worried a bunch of teenagers would overwhelm them but they welcomed us all in and I think Geoff particularly liked chatting about the education system with the youngsters, I was just praying in the corner everyone would behave and remember their manners (I needn’t have worried, they were always great teenagers). We only spent a couple of hours there in 2007, but when I visited Kenya for 10 days in 2008 I had coffee again with Geoff and Dorothy and David. As we went back to Davids house Geoff phoned him, he was desperate to send a message to me. Both him and Dorothy wanted to say thank you, because 7 months earlier when we had visited with the teenagers, 2 of the leaders had done the washing up for them, they had wanted to say thank you! I couldn’t believe that they had remembered something like that, they didn’t even have to say thank you, but again I was humbled. The last time I saw Geoff was October last year, we were up in Naivasha with David and Juliet and Claire. David and I popped down to see them, but Dorothy was asleep, we saw Geoff walking around the garden, still in his shirt, sweater, formal shorts and long socks, enjoying the birds and flowers. We chatted for a while and caught up. They have a guest cottage there I have been meaning to use for a while, but never got organised enough. I was even going to use it the other week, but it didn’t happen. Dorothy is very old and frail, deaf and blind and relied heavily on Geoff, we all thought she would go first, but sadly Geoff fell in the shower the other week, he went into Nairobi Hospital, he took quite a bump to his head. David managed to see him, both him and Dorothy were there, a week or so later he passed away (in fact it happened during the night of the Beating of the Retreat, we had just been talking about them over dinner). He was muched loved by so many people in Kenya, it was a privilege to know him and have a few moments of my life with him, I regret I didn’t organise myself to spend more time with them. His memorial is on Friday, I won’t be able to make it, but I will be thinking of him on that day, and if any of the young people are reading this who met him, i hope you can spend just a brief moment thinking of him on Friday.
THE NEW TIGER – Having watched the Constant Gardner and seeing there was a golf course right by the Kibera slum, I thought I would never play golf here, its like in England where Golf is usually for the well off (unlike Scotland where everyone plays). However I discovered there are other courses and David wanted to play and was probably as bad as me. So when I came back from the UK in March I brought my clubs over. After many cancellations we finally had a round on a course called Vet Labs, which is part of a university. It’s not the poshest course but its still nice. The kind of informal golf course I like. Of course here you don’t carry your bag, a caddy does it for you (a source of employment and only costs £2). I loved playing golf with my best friend Mark back in Edinburgh, just the 2 of us out at melvilles, slicing, hooking and occasionally striking the ball well, in and amongst the trees, not taking it too seriously but competiting a little with each other, thats the golf I play. This time there were 4 of us in the group (including a 12 year old who I knew was going to be better than me!), plus the 4 caddys. Hmm too much of a crowd for my liking, and having not played in nearly a year the pressure got to me. Thats my biggest weakness, I phsyc myself out, rush, try and hit the ball as hard as I can, and any golfer knows that’s all completely wrong. It was strange because it had been really wet weather all week, and despite the warmth, it was wet and drizzly and like playing back home. I totally managed to embarrass myself by rubbish play, but we made it round, and thankfully the 12 year old didn’t laugh at me too much. My first strike I topped it, and it kind of dribbled off the tee not going anywhere (hmmmm good start infront of the club house). Alice, the 12 year olds mum, just said casually “thats what you call an air shot” trying to lighten the mood and help me relax, and the 12 year old quickly piped up “no mum, thats what you call a DUFF”, Alice all embarrassed now by her cheeky son. But it was all cool, i didn’t even hear them, and actually I wouldn’t mind, he was right it was a duff. We laughed the whole way round, sweated in the heat and altitude and despite some stress on my part it was a bit of fun. David and I both agreed, it was embarrassing, but we need to play more often, get some practice in and its good fitness! So hopefully tomorrow we will hit the course again, hoping to do a little better next time. OK not Tiger woods yet, but getting there (golf wise).
SACK – I had the toughest day a week or so ago. I had a friend visiting from Uganda on her way back to the UK. I was waiting at home to go the airport to pick her up in the morning when I got a call from Samuel. “The teachers are on strike”. I rushed in, emptied my bank account almost, I knew it was about money. I came in to find some of the teachers in Samuels office, I had 30 mins before I needed to leave for the airport. Its a very long story, but in brief this is what happened... until we can get most of the kids sponsored we will struggle to pay for all our running costs. Our priority is the kids, they must get fed and also get their education, which usually means it’s the staff that go without being paid. This is the hardest bit of my job, as Samuel and I discuss how to spend the little resources we have its when we see its the teachers and staff who must suffer. We talk about it a lot with them, we understand their difficulties, and its often people like Samuel and the other core staff who go the longest without being paid, the teachers tend to be the first to be paid because we don’t want to lose them. We know that if we can dramatically increase the child sponsorship we can pay everyone every month, its hard asking someone to work when we can’t pay, knowing they have their own families to provide for, food to buy, rent to pay. If someone is in real trouble we always give them something, and when they are not paid there is always a record kept. We know one day we will generate enough monthly income and will also pay everyone what they are owed. We talk about it at almost every meeting. But the sad thing is a few teachers wanted to cause problems. Samuel offered to meet with them, sat and discussed it and gave chance for them to talk more, ask questions, but everyone left agreed with the situation. It then transpired that they decided to sit in their classrooms not teaching, and then on the Friday had a strike by sitting in the staff room refusing to teach. Samuel invited them in again to discuss, they refused, he went down to see them, they refused to talk. I came into work that Friday, they didn’t talk. We discussed it and had to find what money we could to pay them all they were due. The Head teacher was furious with them, 2 other teachers refused to strike and carried on teaching. As in the UK there are strict laws about industrial action, you are obviously meant to negotiate as long as possible, and then striking is last choice, and if you do strike you are required to give formal notice. The first we heard of it was when the kids came to the head teacher asking why is no-one teaching us. This was the worst thing. Although we have no problem staff coming to ask for money, we totally understand, but these teachers had made a big mistake, by not talking it through with us, and then punishing the kids with an illegal strike. We discovered that some had not been teaching properly since the Easter holidays. For us the kids come first, and to punish them because the teachers were unhappy was wrong. We had no choice but to let all these teachers go, their attitude was all wrong. We can understand if someone needs to leave and find a new job that will pay every month, we would wish them well, but to punish the kids like that and treat them that way was wrong. Thankfully money had come in on the Friday, which we would have used to buy food, and pay schools fees for the high school kids from last term and a little bit this term, some also would have gone to the staff, but now all that money has had to go to the 7 teachers. We now face a difficult couple of months ahead, and the risk that some of these kids will be sent home from High School because the fees have not been paid. The teachers left us not even apologising for the strike. One teacher came back immediately to apoligise, infact during the strike he continued to mark books, but realised he should have stood up to the others, he had been a recent appointment so we understood he was afraid to resist. He acknowledged how wrong the others had been and wanted to give back some of the money we had given him. We decided to welcome him back to us and he is back teaching. Over the weekend Rose, our head teacher began recruiting, and by Tuesday we had a full compliment of staff again. We discussed with all new staff the situation, that money is tight at the moment, but the kids must come first, that our future building project is to make sure our future is secure and money for that can’t be used for the day to day stuff (something we had explained time and again to the old teachers, but they didn’t care about the future, just about today), that the only real way to secure paying staff is to increase child sponsorship, which guarantees food for the kids and salaries for the staff. They all agree and see what we are trying to do here. We are so pleased with the character of the new teachers and already the school is vibrant and we are moving forward. The old teachers have tried to spread horrible rumours to parents, trying to persuade the community kids who come here to leave us. But thankfully the parents trust us and see what we are trying to do. The old teachers went to the labour office to try and sue us for more money, but the labour office has investigated and seen what the teachers have done, and shown them where they have gone wrong. Its been a horrible time, and horrible that we had to do this. It has been really stressful and hard to have broken a relationship now we these adults. I’m sad they have left so bitter and still trying to cause problems. We won’t get dragged into anything with them now, we will just focus on carrying on with our work, we believe we will stand strong and all the other staff see the work we are doing and stand with us. Its been the hardest time. BUT this week has been positive, the new teachers are great and although we still face tough times ahead this whole experience has brought the rest of the staff together and a greater sense of unity. I desperately want us to reach a much higher number of sponsors, so that as each month comes we can pay the staff what they are due for working so hard, we can pay for food, we can pay our electricity bill, pay for water, pay for our kids in high school, we can truely provide for all these kids. We have 144 kids not sponsored, thats our target, thats what we need to aim for and fast! This has been an epic week, and maybe hard to understand from an outside perspective, but I believe Samuel and I have been professional, we have discussed everything with the head teacher and acted as a team, the labour office have confirmed we have done nothing wrong. It’s time to put the past behind us and move forward with a new team, confident in the future before us.
If you know of anyone who would like to sponsor a child you can download a form from: www.box.net/shared/o96v6386is
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