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| Puka |
Hi Family and Friends,
Hope life is treating you all well and that you are looking after yourselves.
Busy, Busy, Busy………. Well the week was varied consisting of making sure I was in the right place before the rains started in the afternoon, I must admit I didn’t always get it quite right, but that just helped on the personal hygiene front with an extra shower!!
I went to SCANN on Wednesday having agreed that I would go in and help with some of the sewing of the costumes, it was not an easy job stitching white satin…….. I managed two pairs of trousers which I hoped would help towards the finished items. (these are the muslim long tunics and baggy trousers, I am sure they have a proper name but I don’t know it! From SCANN I walked into town with one of the evening tutors who was spending time at the centre called George, he is relatively new and wanted inside information!!!!
It was such a hot day and the clouds building indicated that there was heavy rain on the way I left George in town and went to the internet to read my emails as I had been having continued trouble at home, I think they must have moved my satellite….. How rude!!!! Anyway one of the emails was from a lady that I have been waiting for her to confirm if she wants to stay at the house and when, she told me that she wanted to come on the 17th for three weeks, I sent her an email back saying that I had waited so long for her to confirm that in the middle I had taken two bookings and if she wanted to come she could only stay for two weeks, , with which I gave her the details of Guava Guest House in town run by Danielle.
The story continues that she wishes to stay at the house with her Kenyan boyfriend who works some way out, I suggested that maybe Guava would be better for her. I suggested that due to the distance from town maybe her boyfriend should get in touch to visit the house and see the distance she passed my number on to him.
Yesterday I arranged for a piki piki to pick me up from the house as I was taking a big bag of small boys clothes to help the new boys we have had at SCANN as they seem to be a little thread bear on the clothes front. It was also Clinic day. I am used to walking to SCANN and I must admit that I could easily used to riding on a piki piki it is so much quicker. I sorted out the clothes on my arrival and will check out the lockers tomorrow as it was impossible to do with all the boys at the centre. I attended to my duties in the clinic most of the boys were suffering from sore throats and coughs with the cold weather one boy had an old knee injury which is playing up due to the cold nights so we gave him painkillers and wait for the warmer weather. I cut out some more of the costumes for the sewing lady helped with ideas for decorating the school house and chatted to some of the boys. I received a call from Wesley (the ladies boyfriend) asking if it was ok to view the house, the timing worked out well as I was ready to leave for the afternoon. I told him I would let him know when I had reached town.
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| Lighting the jiko |
I got a piki piki to collect me as I remembered that I had to buy two jikos (cooking stoves) for Jayne my virgin airline friend who I was meeting on Tuesday in Nairobi. I went to where the ‘tin men’ sit all day hammering away at the various items for kitchen use, I can sometimes hear them from SCANN and today as I stood looking through the various items I became mesmerised by the tink tink tink sound of them hammering, it is a lovely sound of industry at its best, none of the supermarket rubbish!! I negotiated the price as he tied the two jikos together and placed them into my large IKEA bag which comes in so handy it is untrue. I loaded the bag and myself on the back of the piki piki and we headed into town, I decided my first stop would be Guava for a bottle of beer it had been a long day. From Guava I arranged to meet Wesley outside Barclays bank as I needed to take some money out from the cash dispenser (was rather worried as hadn’t used it in such a long time couldn’t remember my pin number) . After the second try I got it right and breathed a sigh of relief as my cash was dwindling down to nothing. I stepped out from the bank lobby and was greeted by a man smiling and waving his hand at me, I took this to be Wesley with a friend in tow. Now by this time I was on foot and lugging the two jikos was not light weight………. After polite friendly introductions I asked if it would be possible for one of the strong giants to help carry the bag as it was so heavy, Wesley’s friend happily obliged.
We headed towards the matatu stage which was on the other side of the town at which point the heavens opened and Wesley opted for a taxi ride, as both the guys were in shirts with no jacket or sweater, I was in no position to object and had an inward smile as it would have been a fight at that time with the rain falling trying to get a matatu with three of us together. Having had no notice of Wesleys visit I had not prepared the room but it made no difference he loved the place and said as he had a motorbike the distance was no problem I am just waiting for Belinda to confirm and pay a deposit they only want B&B which suits me to the ground.
After they left I had a mad session of dismantling beds and washing floors, mainly because I only have one double bed and that’s mine……. Whilst I am loathed to let someone else use my bed , due to the short notice I wont be able to get another one made in time and the additional cost will take away any of the benefits of having people stay. Henry and I spent about two hours lugging bits of beds around and fixing them back together, now I sleep on a single bed in my large room which even Kim (the dog) found to be unsettling, maybe she thought I was on the move again. I seriously don’t think my queen sized bed made of solid wood was made to be moved around, maybe I should just change rooms but I would miss my ensuite!
Henry and I decided that we deserved to watch a movie on my laptop after all the hard work so I planned to start cooking early as it was a bean and vegetable casserole. Little did I know that on a jiko it would take 3 hours for the beans to cook…… add to that the additional vegetables and rice to go with it, bearing in mind I started at 3.45pm we didn’t get to eat until gone 9. We washed up feeling very full with the lovely meal but so tired that I went to bed to read, I don’t think I got to the end of one page. Sleeping in a single bed and sharing it with the dead weight of Paka will take some getting used to.
Today, after a rather disturbed nights sleep, at one point I woke up with a start and shouted out for Henry to help (luckily he had not heard), not sure what the dream was about but it wasn’t good was the feeling I got. Kim woke up at 4.30 am needing to wee so wanted to be let out and before that at 4am my neighbour was chopping wood for his wood burning stove to heat the hot water for a shower……… I was NOT pleased and let him know this when I opened my window and shouted at him. I have had conversations in the past with him asking that if he must shower at that time, due to his work commitments, then why could he not cut the wood during the afternoon for that evening (made sense to me) . Now this guy looks older than the hills and always talks to me in what he regards the Queens English, and lets me know he understands that my bedroom is on the other side of the path separating our two properties where he has his ‘wood burner’ and that is why he no longer chops wood at night. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Next time I will take his photo, hopefully not while he is standing in his yard showering under the stars!
I got up today (Sunday) at 7am and wished that I was able to stay in bed longer but I seem to be so busy with things here that it seems like such a waste. I sat on the step as usual with my coffee, giving Kim an early morning brush, (she loves it). I set down the empty coffee cup and started plucking at the weeds in the pebble drive. Since the rains the weeds have gone crazy, I am sure that if I sat long enough I could watch them appear, I go out in the morning and by the evening there are loads, even after I have just weeded. I ended up out there for 3 hours, hand plucking the weeds, luckily it had rained last night quite heavily and the weeds just pulled easily from the ground. I have only managed to complete about half of the front drive way but gave up due to the sun getting too hot. From there I swept the house, no idea where all the dust comes from, I sweep daily. Henry disappeared for the day to Church and as usual I asked that he include me in his prayers, well someone has too! The mains water came early today and I managed to get the storage tank filled with no problems. I then got to work washing my bedding, blankets and quilts ready for the imminent visitors, with the amount of rain we are having it would take a while to get anything dry, at least I now have lines set up in my garage for drying when the day turns wet, the garage is at least getting used for something!!
After my hyper work session I had a shower myself in the ‘family’ shower to make sure it still worked, it did and quite nicely too. I then flopped on my (small) bed and had half an hour feet up reading my book. Guilt soon hit me as I needed to go to town to get milk and some meat for Kim as she was without. I got dressed, put clean bedding on my bed and headed off, just in time for the clouds to darken and the wind to build.
I started walking down towards the highway, stopped on the way to talk to the man at the hotel and order some bones for Kim which I would collect on the way home, at this point it started spitting so I hailed a passing Piki Piki and headed into town ahead of the rain, but only just. As a treat to myself and to save me getting home and having to light the jiko I had a late lunch in Guava Café, it was a delight, smooth mashed potatoes, steak with onion sauce and a soda. I left there and picked up some shopping headed in the rain to the matatu and alighted at the hotel on the way to mine to pick up the meat for Kim. I then had to walk home all of 30 mins in the rain (I did remember to take my rain jacket, but not sure it is supposed to stop you getting wet). On the way I was passed by 4 empty matatus going in the opposite direction and guess what, none going my way. It was a long walk with a bag of meat and shopping but it was OK, I didn’t mind the rain. I got in just as the rain had soaked into the material of my skirt making it hard for me to walk as it was clinging so tightly to my legs. I put away the shopping and thanked my stars that I had the foresight to get the washing in the garage before I left! I flicked on the kettle for a hot cup of coffee only to find that the stema (electric) was out, it was Sunday afterall, a normal day for power outages.
I sat at the laptop as it had a bit of battery left and I am still here, in between, Henry has returned from church, (glad that I reminded him to take his rain jacket). The stema has come back on, I have managed a cup of hot coffee, Kim has been fed and paka is sat hanging on to my lap as I am typing….digging her claws into my belly….. purring away. A lovely end to a very tiring day…….
My credit just died on internet so had to top up from my phone, just my luck.
Love to you all.
Susannah
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