the most notable change, other than the hair is that i must wear a skirt now. there is a cult, an extreem group of kikuyus who believe that women should dress traditionally, ie not in trousers. they are in town at the moment, lurking at the stage where you get matatus, and if they see trousers on a girl then they will demand they be taken off, if the wearer does not remove them then they will slash them of with a banga (big knife) and either way the lady must walk home stark naked. i have not actually seen this happen personally but the other day, Chiro, Harriet's friend who is also staying with us at the moment, had this happen, luckily she had a lasal (African cloth like a sarong) with her so could wear that home.
so i have been wearing skirts! it is interesting walking thought town, it is VERY hard to see any lady in trousers! this was problematic as i left all my skirts in Egerton when we left thinking that they would not really be very useful working at the showground pitching tents or in the store etc! so i had to buy one.
but dont worry, if you have a skirt it is safe. and i dont really go places on my own now anyway just to be on the safe side, and becase i get much less abuse or attention if i am walking with a kenyan friend. the street kids and leering men stay off a bit!
me nd ngore having a secret snack in the stores. that was way back before my birthday in jan when the stores actually had things to snack on! now there isnt even enough maise to give everyone and the kitchen has vertually given up...
this is a pic of me inside the M6 (vehicle donated to the Red Cross after the vietnam war) getting out clothes for distribution in Koresoi, this was back in december when we were just dealing with IDPs from the clashes bearing no relation to the elections, ok that is not quit true they were incited by the politicians even then, but we did not have IDPs on the same scale as now. 
this is a pic of charles, me and scovia posing for fun when we were doing the family day at molo before christmas. i have had alot of fun making friends at the red cross, these two are particularly close ones.
this is a pic of me (with new short hair) at the campsite carrying a tent. as you can see they are hefty things, needing two to carry them. these are UN tents in which we have housed two families per tent, when i left there were around 1300 up. theyr pretty tricky as ten people are needed to hoist them up and often the poles are broken or the slots are stuck together. that is not to mention the difficulty of getting the IDPs to co-operate! but dispite the tough conditions, the work was great fun, the volonteers were a good team and i got a tan! all good... apart from the blistered fingers...
this is a picture of me at red cross branch stamping meal voultures for the IDPs at the showgroud a couple of weeks ago. thes where very premitave pieces of card, ripped into squares, stamped reading name, date, date of return, baggage, and a signature, and of course the red cross stamp i am holding to show it was bonefide. they were so scrappy coz we would need several 1000 per day, but really a joke as i did later find thjat the gateman was not even checking them! the idea was to monitor inflow but is is SO hard, people dont want to co-operate at all.
