Jambo UK,
well not a lot has happened here. The boys are back at primary school after the teachers strike (they supposedly got what they were due). So we are back to having only a small number of boys at the project studying. I am still helping one day a week with trying to teach James Mwangi and Stephen Kuria. I am also providing admin back up by typing the reports and minutes of meetings as they appear. I am supposed to be also doing an inventory of all the boys lockers now they have lockable ones, in order that we know who has what, but it is such a painstaking job and makes me sad to see the state of their clothes although when you think about it, their clothes are better than they would have on the streets.
Health wise the boys are good although some have been down with malaria, part of life here unfortunately. The doctor is very pleased with the fact that all the boys we treat have a quick recovery as opposed to before when they were really sick before being taken to the hospital. Ringworm is starting to creep back again but I think that is because I am no longer the barber and the person who took over is not as diligent with cleanliness and the use of spirit to clean hands and the shaver. I have had a stern word about the cost of medicating all the boys again and the ease of using spirit.
The weather keeps showing promise of a lot of rain but that is all it does, promise…… nothing comes, the ground is dust dry and everything in the shamba is dying. The water pressure to the house is so poor that there is little chance of using a sprinkler so have given up.
The chickens are doing well, we have the hen now sat on 9 eggs, she broke one! I have, as advised by Malcolm a friend who replied to my last email, used a marker to show which eggs are old ones, so that any new ones can be taken from the nest and eaten. Although the hen isn’t getting off the nest for me to check and I don’t like to disturb her……. I have also put food and water within her pecking distance so that she doesn’t have to move far as he warned me that she could easily starve and die of heat as she would not leave the nest!
I am being treated to a weekend in Nairobi for valentines, not sure how that will go but am sure you will be kept posted on my return.
I am eagerly awaiting my sister Nathalie’s visit next month, and she should be pleased that most of the seeds have come through, lovingly tended by Henry and myself, although with no thanks to the lumbering dogs.
Fatso is STILL fat, no idea when her puppies are planning on arriving maybe she is also waiting for Nathalie to come!
In the past few weeks we have had news of two bad fires which have claimed many lives, one in a supermarket in Nairobi whose main cause was the fact that the management called for the shop doors to be locked to stop shoppers running out with unpaid shopping.
Another after a petrol tanker overturned in a very poor rural area, people flocked to collect siphoned fuel which was then set alight when some idiot lit a cigarette! A mass burial was carried out yesterday for the 120 people who died at the tanker incident. The victims who survived have needed extensive burns treatment and counseling to come to terms with their injuries. It has been all that is on the news at the moment, that and the problems with food shortages in the rural areas due to lack of crops and government promises of subsidising the costs of the stable diet of maize meal.
Nakuru is still the same, we see more tourists arriving now, happy to return after last years troubles, the tourist industry has been severely affected and will find it hard to recover.
I finished my Kathy Reichs book that I lugged over with me and am now trying to work out what I read next, may have to convince my friend at the tourist market to loan me some of the books that he has been given to sell secondhand! Visited him and picked up another book with the promise of returning the last one and donating my Kathy Reich book now read. Told him to start a library.
I am still doing the balancing act at the post office and am pleased to report I haven’t fallen off once! No reply from the letter I gave them although didn’t think I would!
I may have to visit Guave Café today as I am attending the SCANN board meeting later and it doesn’t start until 6pm and not sure I will last that long here at SCANN, besides it will save me having to worry about dinner tonight!
(Had a lovely tomato and cheese bake but would have preferred a bit more sauce!) Although even if I have to say so myself, I am becoming a dab hand at the giko cooking. Actually managed Mediterranean roasted veggies last night, not quite the same without the oven but tasted great anyway, (butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes and peppers, yum). Suffering from too much garlic though! The one thing we are lucky with here is an abundance of fresh veg, oh and sunshine of course!
Ok well I am off now as things to do. Think I have missed the chance of getting home and back again for the meeting so may have to apologise and turn up scruffy!!!! (No change there then, I am a volunteer after all)
Love to everyone, sorry no funny stories today will try harder next time, you never know may have some after the weekend!
Wishing you good health and lot and lots of wealth,
Susannah
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