Here we are enjoying our Christmas breakfast on the terrace.

Which was swiftly followed by a dip in the pool - it's not often you can go for a swim on Christmas day after all.

Having decided that this would be a very unusual christmas anyway, we (along with a few of our friends here - Tamara, Claire and Nikolai) decided we would spend christmas weekend at an orphanage for HIV positive children. We actually had a wonderful time. The kids were fantastic - full of energy, affection and life. We took loads of presents and organised games like pass-the-parcel (which almost ended in riot - terrifying).

Our piece-de-resistance was a projector and sound system which we borrowed in order to show them a couple of films cinema-stylee. Slightly less altruistically, it also gave us and the staff some much needed sitting-down, quiet time. The children, particularly the younger ones, absolutely crave attention and seem to need you to interact with them all the time. Just a symptom of growing up without parents I guess, and very sad, still we were immensely grateful to The Lion King for distracting them!

Nikolai is looking grumpy because he wanted to watch Finding Nemo.

Anyway we all had a great time on both our visits, even Tamara who got wee'd on...ha ha.

In the evening of Christmas day itself we went back to our house (for those of you who don't know/haven't seen it, we live in a *massive* shared house) and cooked a traditional christmas dinner for all the expat waifs and strays who, for one reason or another, couldn't be with their families. It was actually a very enjoyable christmas even though it didn't feel like christmas at all.

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Nils asked me to make a short film to be shown to potential donors explaining what OS do. So I went to Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi every day to see what was going on, film the interesting bits and with the help of Katy, interview doctors and patients.

Every day hundreds of families would turn up hoping that their kids would qualify for an operation. The waiting room was a big tent outside the hospital - I came across some pretty cute kids:

I met some pretty cool people and saw some amazing stuff, including the actual operations in the operating room.

I think the editing took longer than the actual process of filming, but finally I had an 8 minute documentary put together, including music I wrote to go with it!

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So what happened since the last entry – let’s see if I can condense it a little. In November, Katy and I took off on a trip into previously unchartered territory: Western Kenya.

In Western Kenya they grow tea!

We visited Kakamega Forest – an ancient rain-forest that used to stretch across the breadth of Africa, but which has now been reduced to a mere patch. But it was still impressive, full of noisy monkeys, exotic butterflies and colourful birds.

Here’s Katy pondering upon how marvellous it looks.

Look at the funny ladies with wood on their head!

Katy’s caption: The west of Kenya is less developed than many other areas and few tourists venture there. We couldn’t believe how friendly people were though – particularly compared to Nairobi. We were invited round to a lovely family’s house for tea.

These kids were being taught that chopping down the forest is a bad thing.

Katy’s caption: Increasing populations in villages surrounding the forest means more and more is plundered each year for farmland and wood. The Kenya Wildlife Service has set up weekend schools teaching local residents that the forest is a valuable resource and that they need to find a balance.

More impressive however is the main mode of public transport that this area of the country relies on – the terrifying boda boda. It is basically a bicycle with an extra, barely padded, seat on the back which one must cling to whilst hurtling through bumpy, twisty and hilly roads. A bit like a rollercoaster, really – except with the added exhilaration of potential death.

This picture was taken by myself, and you can just about see Katy’s bicycle behind as we career towards oblivion. Do not mistake the apparent smile on my face for enjoyment – my muscles haven’t moved out of that position since I got on the bike 15 minutes ago…

After all that rural fun, we stopped off at the more bustling town of Kisumu, situated on the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in the World! Or something like that.

We stayed at a posh hotel that had satellite TV and everything, and made the most of it by spending the night in with a couple of bottles of Tusker each and rubbish American comedy shows. But not before watching the sun go down from our balcony.

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Just a week or so after young Philip left us, the lovely Miss Miles arrived. Knowing that Lise is not one to sit around idly we (or rather Lian) had arranged a weekend away in Malewa and we were to set off as soon as Miss Miles arrived from the airport.

Admittedly, this had been a little optimistic. Though Lise herself arrived after a night flight in fine fettle and ready for anything, James, Lian, Nils and I had been out rather late the previous night celebrating James’ birthday. After some coffee and birthday cake however we were ready for action.

We all piled into the super-posh hire car (Lian and Nils’ own 4x4 going through a somewhat temperamental phase) and hit the potholed road. We arrived some hours later in Malewa and congratulated Lian heartily for her internet skills in, once again, finding a beautiful little retreat.

Malewa is an eco-friendly game sanctuary far from civilisation. The traditionally-built mud cottages were basic but beautifully furnished with tall thatched roofs and views over the rest of the valley. Though there was no electricity we were amply supplied with lamps which made the whole thing rather romantic and allowed us to see thousands of stars as we sat out at night.

The rest of the weekend comprised a serious amount of sunbathing, walking, swimming in the freezing river (an option I passed on), much girly chatting, a little manly chatting, dinners cooked by lamplight and star gazing. All in all a very relaxed and secluded weekend perfect for catching up and chilling out.

Other highlights of Lise’s visit included a lovely afternoon spent in Karen. I had never been before and for those of you who haven’t seen or read Out of Africa, the area is named after Karen Blixen a Danish colonial settler and independent, pioneering woman who ‘owned’ (in the colonial sense of the word) and ran a sizeable cattle and coffee farm in Nairobi. The area is now extremely posh and mainly inhabited by white Kenyans (descendants of the colonialists) or Kenya cowboys (KCs) as they are locally known. So, for our bit of ‘culture’, Lise and I did a quick tour of the Karen Blixen museum, then headed to the coffee gardens for an afternoon of sun, delicious food and drink.

At the other end of the endurance scale, we also climbed Mount Longonot (named by the Masaai oloongon’ot meaning mountain of many steep ridges), a striking volcano that dominates the entrance of the Rift Valley. I must admit having just done a five day trek up Mount Kenya a couple of weeks previously I wasn’t really concerned about a one day hike up a small volcano, but boy was it hard work! The sun was extraordinarily hot, the terrain extremely dusty and the air surprisingly thin. Still, the views over Lake Naivasha and the surrounding area were wonderful and the sense of achievement afterwards very rewarding.

So before we knew it really, Lise was gone again! It was fantastic to see you though Lise and to hear all the news from home. Hope we can catch up in Uganda in February.

Oranges are not the only fruit

The major news here in Kenya which made some international news was that a referendum on a proposed new constitution was held on November 21st. The constitution that currently exists here is the same one that was drafted almost 50 years ago when Kenya won independence from Britain.

The proposed new constitution was based on recommendations from a country-wide public consultation last year, though the result was a hopelessly watered-down version of what had originally been proposed and, most controversially, enhanced the President’s absolute power rather than diminished it.

For obvious reasons therefore, President Kibaki was backing the ‘yes’ vote and the main opposition leader (and several prominent members of Kibaki’s cabinet) backed the ‘no’ vote.

Now for the interesting part, of course the vast majority of Kenya’s population is illiterate so the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ referendum votes were symbolised by bananas and oranges respectively. Seeing fruit become politicised is not something I have ever witnessed before but my god it was fascinating. In the weeks before the vote, campaign rallies visited the major towns and cities and crowds would be dressed in their chosen fruit colour waving fruit around. Suddenly bananas and oranges were everywhere you looked – lined up along the front of market stands, hung in bus windows and even threaded around people’s necks like necklaces. Seriously, in the week before the vote I wouldn’t buy either fruit for fear of recrimination. Everyone who you spoke to waiting for matatus would ask if you were banana or orange.
Sadly some of the campaign rallies were marked by riots and several deaths including three school children gunned down by police. One morning we were in a matatu heading down a road just outside Mombasa when we started seeing burning tyres on the road and burned out cars along the side of it. A quick glance at the morning’s paper confirmed that a banana rally had turned violent and three people had died the previous evening. Apparently the USA put a travel ban on Kenya for a month as a result.

So tensions were running pretty high with allegations of this and that hitting the papers everyday and donors threatening to pull Kenya’s funding because the President was using public funds to bribe voters. Because so little of the population could read a copy of the constitution or even get hold of one, rumours about its content were rife. (Even for the literate it was a tricky document to wade through…I tried the summarised version and gave up after just a few pages).

The other massive complication which fuelled bad feeling is that politics in Kenya is pretty much divided along ethnic lines. People will vote for an MP (or in this case President) purely because they belong to the same tribe. Inter-tribal racism is rife here anyway and tension between the two dominant tribes – Kikuyu and Luo – was exacerbated by the fact that by and large Kikuyu’s were banana (yes) and Luo’s were orange (no).

We think our politicians get personal when campaigning. There were actually slogans printed in the paper about how the uncircumcised could never run a country! (Luyha’s don’t practice circumcision whereas Kikuyu’s do). How a foreskin has anything to do with political capability I’ll never know…

Anyway, the day of the referendum was a national holiday and all us expats were warned off leaving the house because violence was expected, however the day passed almost entirely without incident. And even more surprisingly, the result was that the orange (no) team won. The President had failed. This really did astound everyone - it was fully expected that the president’s (yes) team would rig the poll.

Jubilation didn’t last long as Kibaki dissolved both the Cabinet and Parliament – still that’s a whole other (and ongoing) story and by now I’m sure you’ve heard quite enough about politics…

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Our first excursion was a trip camping next to Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley. We ventured up with Lian and Nils and their 4X4 (no chance of getting there otherwise; the road is non-existant in places). Naivasha is pretty detached from 'civilisation' with the exception of the flower farms over parts of the shores. Did you know most of the flowers you buy in UK supermarkets are from Naivasha? Anyhoo, we all spent a lovely couple of days taking relaxing walks among zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and gazelle, boating on the lake to see hippos, cooking over an open fire and star-staring - there is very little light pollution near the lake so the stars are incredible and make it easy to believe this was the cradle of civilisation.

Katy, Nils, Lian and Phil spotting local fauna on Crescent Island

Cooking breakfast at the Naivasha campsite

Our next trip was to Laikipia in the Central Highlands. Some people in Nairobi had organised a party at a private ranch in the middle of nowhere so about 25 of us drove up for a weekend. Of course, we all drank far too much and did pretty much nothing though James and Phil provided an excellent set for those of us with the energy to dance.

The boys playing Scrabble by the pool at the ranch

Another highlight of the weekend was a game drive on the ranch itself (which was enormous). The managers kindly provided us with a rotting, dead cow to act as bait...they dumped it at 'hyena point' after dark while we sat in the cars with baited breath (excitement aside, the rotting cow smelt absolutely disgusting). Sure enough within ten minutes a pack of hyenas had started ripping up the corpse. It was grim but also amazingly hypnotic - just like something out of a documentary.

Our final, and most memorable, excursion was a four day trek up Mount Kenya.

Mt Kenya, with glacier...brrr

Day One - Katy, Emily and Phil check the equipment

I say memorable in a not entirely positive way - it was oh so cold and oh so wet up that bloody mountain - but I can now just about say I'm glad I did it without cringing too much.
Basic premise of the trip was three days climbing up the mountain (and gradually getting used to altitude) and one day down (a day that our guide failed to mention entailed 13 hours of walking!). We stayed in bandas (mountain huts) for two nights and camped for two nights. Did I mention it was oh so, oh so cold?!?

Consulting the map

Three bodies in a two-man tent

The top point was 4,900 metres. Lack of oxygen has strange effects causing me to feel utterly nauseous and the boys to have drumming headaches.
We began our final ascent at 3 in the morning (oh my god it was cold). Of course it was pitch black but on reflection that was a good thing as being able to see the full moutain peak and the steepness of the path might well have deterred us. We trudged and clambered over treacherously icey rocks (an absolutely terrifying experience in the dark on the top of a mountain) for three hours and finally made it to Point Lenana - our peak.
The view should have been spectacular as the sun came up but it was completely cloudy - seriously we couldn't see a thing but we couldn't help but laugh. It was also minus ten so we didn't laugh too long.

The summit!

Well, Phil has now returned to Blighty - we miss you Phil - and life is back to normal until our next visitor...Miss Lisa Miles...who arrives in ten days time.

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Hello!

Well, y’all shoulda received an e-mail regarding approximately what I have been doing. Of course being as how I go to an office four/five days a week my life is a little less eventful than ‘I now have the most diverse CV in the world’ James!

The donorship study is going okay. Still really a little too academic for me…the other intern gets to write about the small arms trade…how much more tangible is that eh?

Still, I am still learning tonnes – even if it is making me want to throw my hands in the air and ask what the hell we can do. Seems as if every facet of the development/aid industry is messed up beyond belief and often hinders rather than helps the cause. It is gradually getting better (with some notable exceptions), historically what we have done is nothing short of horrendous.

Anyway for one of the ‘notable exceptions’ I mention, do have a quick scan of some of this article I found regarding what is happening to reconstruction funds in Iraq (it’s pretty long and involved but the basic premise is clear from the outset…) I guess we all knew American foreign policy isn’t run along the most ethical lines but this is ridiculous…

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=8241

Anyway, still got a LOT of research to do so maybe I’ll find some more favourable reports soon…

The other thing I feel the need to talk about here is the expat lifestyle. It’s really been getting me down. I hate it and just don’t feel I’ll ever get used to it although I am frequently told that I will. Of course I was aware that we’d be living in a secure, guarded house and that we’d be conspicuous Westerners with money, but I just feel so uncomfortable, ashamed and guilty constantly. Of course there are very wealthy Kenyans and middle class Kenyans too – we live the same kind of lifestyles that they do – but it’s just so much more conspicuous and contrasts so disgustingly obviously with the people we see on the streets around us. There is a vast difference in wealth distribution here.

It also seems the social pattern here is to hang around with other expats – of course it’s easier as we have so much in common – but I really would like to establish friendships with people who actually live in and know Kenya. Surely part of the experience of living in a new place is meeting the people? I am really trying not to fall into the trap of going to western hang-outs where a drink costs more than a labourer earns in a day even though they feel ‘safe’ and ‘familiar’ and the surrounding poverty is hidden by a frescoed wall.
We’ve found a couple of nice hang-outs off the expat trail – primarily pool joints actually, pool is huge here.

Adding to my guilt 100 fold is the fact that the house we rent a room in has ‘staff’. How ridiculous is that? We have a cleaner (Jane), a gardener (Henry) and two guards (Alexander and Sammy).
We pay them pretty well by local standards (and they each have houses within the compound we live in) but it just doesn’t feel right. We’re very chatty with them and I make them tea/coffee but obviously we are never going to have any kind of relationship with them other than the one whereby they work for us. I know this is completely stupid and niaive but I really thought we could get over that at first. We chatted, I asked questions, I had stupid visions of me and James cooking a roast and inviting them round – all very Dickensian eh?!
I was delighted when Jane asked me to her house – I thought this was the start - that we could learn loads from each other, exchange ideas and opinions on the world. In actual fact she just lined up her children and asked if I could pay their school fees for them. It was horrendous.

Okay, enough of my ranting. Just trying to adjust to life here and also – I suspect – appease my conscience. Laters xx

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This week I have been relaxing at home again - until yesterday when I got a phonecall from Tusker Beer, the nation's favourite beer. Apparently they are looking for white males, in between 25-30 years old for an advertisment that they are filming next week. So this morning I have just been down to the studios for an audition! It took all of five minutes - I was informally interviewed in front of a video camera. Luckily the part doesn't demand that I deliver any lines - I would just be part of a crowd at a football stadium cheering, and no doubt enjoying a crisp, cold Tusker beer. They will let me know in the next few days if I get the part...how bizarre.

In the mean time, I am helping to arrange a 'rave' that will take place on the 3rd of September. There are plans to go to a lodge in the foothills of Mount Kenya with about 40 other people for a big all-night party. I'm in charge of finding and hiring a sound-system which is actually quite difficult considering no companies here seem to have web-pages.

More soon...

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My job was to use my camcorder to get rough footage of what was being filmed. Because it is being shot on film and not video they won’t be able to see the results until they get back to America and process it. So in the mean time they can refer to my footage to evaluate the scenes, action and performances while watching out for continuity errors.

Although a low budget film, there is still a big crew involved including the director, cinematographer, sound, wardrobe & props, assistants, drivers and caterers. The day starts at 6am, which means getting up at 5am and finishes around 6pm – a long day, but it goes fairly quickly as we are so busy. A 2-minute scene can take all day to film after all the setting up, retakes and different angles. Delays often happen while we wait for a noisy train to go past, curious people gathering round to disperse or the right weather. But while that all makes the day sound tedious it is actually a lot of fun. The crew has quickly got to know one another and there is a lot of time for conversations and joking around.

Kibera itself is an amazing place. Hundreds upon hundreds of tin shacks are heaped upon each other. The streets are full of market stalls, bars, running kids, guys pushing along makeshift wheelbarrows piled high with bottles or timber. The people are fascinated with the film and we often have a huge audience gathered round watching what is going on. The children love having their pictures taken, which makes it tricky to get a natural shot as they will all gather round excitedly waving.

By the way, if you happen to see The Constant Gardener which is out at the end of this month, you will see some scenes also shot in Kibera. The same guys who are working on the sound for Nairobi Slam also worked on this film!

Despite the obvious poverty that can be seen here, people here are generally very friendly, and I feel much safer here than in downtown Nairobi. Tonight we are starting the first of three days of night-shooting, so maybe I will see another side to Kibera. Stay tuned to find out more soon…

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It was the end of a long, sleepless and stressful weekend of moving, packing and cleaning - Katy had got to the point of hysteria where she was singing at the top of her voice one minute and then in inconsolable tears the next. As the taxi arrived to take us to the airport we were still frantically scrubbing the kitchen!

We arrived at the airport to find that there was a surprise group there to meet us – Ben, Will, Phil, Rose and Nick. Such nice friends we have. After a bit of faffing at the check-in desk, we grabbed a quick G+T drink in the Airport’s ‘pub’ before sad farewells at the gate. We honestly wouldn’t have been able to sort everything out without their help with moving, storing, packing etc etc – and this final gesture to come to say goodbye was very touching. Thank you again.

The flight to Dubai was uneventful but on arrival at the airport I realised I had left my wallet on the plane, which led to a panicked hour of tracking down the right people to help me (at 4am UK time!). It was ok in the end though, thankfully. We had 8 hours to kill in Dubai, so we bought a digital camera in the duty-free shop and then passed out on a bench before finally catching our onward flight to Nairobi.

Lian and Nils were at Nairobi airport to meet us. It’s only been 5 months since we were here last but it was still a bit of a culture shock to be back again – the noises, the smells and the traffic - I’m just about getting used to Kenyan road etiquette now. We went for a swift Tusker (the standard Kenyan beer) before returning to Lian and Nil’s and passing out for 12 hours or so.

The next day we moved from the safety of Lian and Nil’s to our new home. Home is now a huge house situated halfway up a steep hill in Kitisuru in North West Nairobi. It’s a pretty posh area with equally large properties dotted all around amongst lush green trees and vegetation.

Security here is very tight – a large fence surrounds the compound of houses, we have bars on all the windows and guards with dogs to look after us day and night. It’s not specific to this house though, it’s the standard way (wealthy) people live in Nairobi and it takes a lot of getting used to. It’s not safe to walk on the street after dark, but taxis are relatively cheap.

On arrival here we met our housemates Tamara and Patricia. Tamara from England is currently living here and writing a book. Patricia is an Italian who spends most of her time working in Somalia – she happened to be back in Nairobi for a few days for R&R (rest and recuperation). We were warmly welcomed and made to feel at home immediately. Nate is our other house mate but he was (and still is) away in Sudan, working on their new constitution!. Our room is large but currently a little bare – our only piece of furniture is a sideboard that I’m using as a computer desk, but we also have a huge built-in wardrobe to store all our stuff. There is a definite 70s/80s feeling going on with the house, but it’s kinda cool – makes me want to make a film here!

Katy had just under a week before she started work, so we spent the first few days discovering the house, the garden (huge again!) and our surrounding area. The nearest shopping centre is the Sarit Center, a ten minute Matatu ride away. Matatus are private mini-buses that whiz around Nairobi in their apparent millions. They are staffed by a driver and a guy who takes the money (usually around 20 bob - about 15p) and tries to drum up business while driving along, usually by sticking his head out of the window or even hanging out of the door and shouting to pedestrians. The ride is usually a little hair-raising to say the least but it’s a good introduction to the Kenyan way of life.

In the evenings we went to people’s houses, bars and parties and met so many new people that I still struggle to put names to all the faces. On Friday night, there was a party at our house to celebrate Tamara’s birthday. Our house is apparently known for being the party house, and accordingly loads of people turned up. I was the resident DJ using my laptop, and although I tried a varied mix of tunes during the evening, it was Phil’s collection of power ballads that really got the party going… At some point in the early hours of the morning Nils decided that I wasn’t drunk enough and proceeded to pour Tusker beer down my throat in the form of shotguns – where you punch a hole into the bottom of a can of beer, aim it roughly into your mouth and then pull the ring-pull at the top which results in the entire can being forcefully ejected into your mouth. After several of these delightful experiences, I…actually I can’t remember – but I’m sure it was amusing.

Monday saw Katy’s first day at work and having just about recovered from Friday’s excesses she bravely emerged from the warmth of the bed into the cold room. Strange as it may seem, Nairobi is bloody cold at the minute. We have arrived towards the end of winter where temperatures seem to average around 20º C during the day and get much colder at night. None of the houses have any sort of heating though, which is really needed in this big old house that just doesn’t seem to warm up. I’m sure it will be nice and cool in summer (which starts next month, I’m told) – but at the minute I tend to have to go outside to warm up a bit. Anyhow, I shall leave Katy to tell you about her work, as I’m sure I’ve already lost most readers by now due the length of this entry.

The last bit I want to talk about (honest) was the weekend just gone which we spent with some friends on the coast, about an hour’s south of Mombassa at a place called Diani. Katy and I got the night coach on Thursday evening whilst everybody else flew to Mombassa from Nairobi (hmmph). The coach was actually not too bad and comfortable enough to sleep for most of the journey. We arrived into Mombassa at about 6:30 in the morning. Immediately we could tell that we were in a much warmer place. Nairobi is cold because it’s at altitude, but here at sea level things were much nicer. We got a bus to the place we were staying arriving before any staff had arrived so we sat by the sea, feeling a bit groggy and in need of a shower. Finally we got into our lovely cottage – a cute three bedroom place overlooking the beach.

After a hearty breakfast we ventured to nearby shops for some more food and beer then returned and promptly passed out until Nils with two workmates – Cala and Ed arrived after a meeting they had attended in Mombassa. We sat and chatted on the patio and awaited the others to arrive – Lian, Emily, Leslie, James (another James – every other bloke in Kenya seems to be called James), Madeline and little Tola, just over a year old and very cute. By the time they got there we were starving, and went straight to the local Swahili restaurant for some delicious food.

The rest of the weekend was spent walking along the beach and stopping to eat or drink. Very relaxing. We had good weather on Saturday, but on Sunday it rained and we got soaked ending up in a restaurant to warm up with loads of pizza. All in all a lovely weekend with some lovely people and lovely food – what more can you ask for?!

So that about sums up what we’ve been up to so far. I’m about to start helping out with a film that’s being made here in Nairobi, but I’ll tell you more about that next time.

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