back to Nakuru...

Have left the beach and the heat back to cool nakuru (kenya cool that is not the british variety!) where i have returned to my usual red cross antiques and healthy plates of ugali, its funny how i actually miss kenyan food without it for a week or so now!
usual dramas at the branch, new faces, new scandals, but all in all good to be back. the process of getting things done is still painfully slow, was rather unimpressed at the amount of tents that have been repaired in my absence, but getting hold of the materials such as string and tarpaulins is more hassle than it should be. we continue though!

Mombasa!

right now i am typing feverishly away in an internet cafe in MOMBASA! the Ventners (check out their holiday pics at www.ventersinkenya.blogspot.com) have been extremely kind to me and invited me on their holiday to Mombasa, a way was opened up to them to spend a week in a resort for missionaries which happens to be right on the beach. this was a surprise for Timothy, Joy and Stephanus, who all thought that they were going to stay for a few days somewhere much nearer to home. so the exciting secret has been well kept but Wilco, Lydia and Maki. SO many times it almost slipped out but luckily it was only when we were actually 300km away from the destination that Joy started to question just how far away these friends we were visiting did stay, and that Stephanus was recognising trees from the time that they went a few years ago that the secret was spilled. what an exciting secret eh!
so the place we are staying is great, we have a whole house from which you can look out to the sea and walk into the sea. the place has been set up for missionaries to take a break at so it does have a few funny rules such as no bikinis (i've been wearing a vest on top of mine) but is so peaceful, has a games room, three bedrooms, A SHOWER, fridge, cooker etc.
we are very much in luxury and i feel very privileged to be sharing this experience with the family.

Nakaru National Park (second trip)

so my first port of call (if not in practice but definitely importance wise) was to go check in with the Venters and see how they were fairing after the escapades of last month's "visitors". I was glad to see that both Lydia and Wilco's wounds have healed very well with tremendous speed, and that adequate security has been put in place to pre-empt any follow up attacks. the house now proudly sports heavy metal doors, a new alarm system and there is also a night watchman (so yes mum i was highly safe there!).
the whole family has been though so much, i really wanted to create a fun day for them, so i manned the wheel of the car and mobilised the kids for a very unforgettable trip to the game park (not without first dropping Lydia and Wilco in town to spend a kid-free day together) so off we lurched in the vehicle (not a small one) in the direction of the park. there was saw all manner of animals, but most amusing for my park was the look on Timothy's face as a monkey CLIMBED INTO THE CAR and starked making a feast of our chocolaty treats kindly purchased by Lydia. Luckily for all involved (not the monkey though) i was able to snatch back the box with minimal damages to said snacks.
the national park has many paths, but you can also go off onto the grass, turning in the road was somewhat hard and ended up in more than one ditch.
we really do have to thank god for our lives though, i tell you my heart was in my mouth as i navigated our way around some of the routs. there was a view point to which one must drive up an incredibly steep incline with your foot as hard down as it could go. the thing that was really going through my mind, apart from the fact that we could have slipped backwards off the cliff, was the fact that i would have to navigate DOWN after the nice view! geezze i have no bones about declaring that i was proud of myself for that.
until we realised back in town that the turnbar (i think its called that...) under the car had broken. GREAT. or the following day when in turned out that THE OTHER TURNBAR was ALSO broken! fab driving eh. Timothy came to me today and said, "Bee please i don't want you to drive us, you are a crazy driver". but i believe fun was had by all that day so it can still be counted as a success despite the setbacks!

will they learn?

seems things are going down hill again. in Elbagon today two people have been killed. there have been reports of a couple of burnt houses too. just as people seemed to have settled down. had these politicians got their act together and formed a government cabinet by now which could act and make some decisions for the benefit of the country then this might not be the case. over 3 months since this all exploded there is still no government. those two powerful men no longer have respect of the people as i see it, people want them to stop being greedy on their choice of cabinet members etc and get something sorted.
today i have been in Molo in a peer education training for IDPs in the camps, they are learning about protected sex, relationships, drugs and generally growing up stuff, this is the worthwhile stuff that needs to be done not endless table discussions. have the MPs been seen around here since before the elections when they wanted the peoples support? no.

back 2 bee's village...

so i'm back to the tents, unfortunately they were very poorly designed so they all either leak or have broken poles it seems, i.e. a lot of work for Bee, Kim and Issac, the RX tent team. but i love it, its great to be back. the job at the moment is attaching tarpaulins and replacing the poles, also a spot of numbering so my nails are back to their black, non existent state. despite the fact that the international press has lost interest in Kenya we still have 14,000 on the camp where i work, 4000 in the other Nakuru camp, several camps of 4000 around Molo, a camp in Londieni and Nivasha all under the Nakuru red cross's love and care. it is estimated, quite rightly i think, that there are still over 300,000 IDPs to this day.

today the Secretary General of the Kenya Red Cross, Abbas Gullet came to the branch and to visit the camp (rather like our version of Robbie Williams) so you can imagine we have been excited. he even came into the office and said hello when i was in here. exciting eh. so we will all be watching the news today in case we are on there!

unarudi nyumbani!!!

last day in SA today, tomorrow i return to Kenya. so i guess this may be the last post for a wee while as we all know i'm not that good on the ol contact side o things back there!
Many thanks to Lucy's family, Auntie Vee and Mike for welcoming us at the bus station, great to have an escort in a comfy car after the suspensionless bus plus use of computers/washing machines and all manner of modern electrical items muchly appreciated as was curry - not sumt we've had for a while!
the time i have spent here in SA has been a great opportunity to rekindle links with a side of the family that is now dwindling what with the lack of my grandparents and father on that side. Milton, Niki, Richard and Kate have been fabulous hosts welcoming me right into their lives here, i have also gotten the chance to meet my Nana's cousins Rodney and David and their wives who are both appropriately called Joan!
it has also been a great eyeopener into a side of Africa that i had no idea existed. i knew that there were Brits living over these sides but never imagined the standard of living here, no jokes: most of the time one wouldn't guess that you were in Africa at all!
Joberg is highly developed but there is still a long way to go as far as internal relations go; apartheid wasn't that long ago.
so until i get to a computer again, love to all my readers and please pray for peace in both Kenya and Zimbabwe.

A nourished thirst for history

yesterdays visit to the Joberg Apartheid Museum gave me a nourished thirst for my chosen uni subject (much to the delight i'm sure of those family members dubious of the likelihood of my return to 'the real world'). i saw just how little i actually know about a subject that has been so formative in Africa's most economically developed country today. Milton (uncle type figure - his father is my dads mothers cousin), having reservations about the bias of said museum has never paid it s visit despite being a Joberg resident all his life, so took my being here as the opportunity to pay it a visit himself. we were both enthralled. on entering the place at 2.30pm we only noticed the time at 5.15 when the lights went off as a not so subtle sign that we should get out pronto if you please (or if you don't also id imagine), a rather good sign of its ability to capture visitors.

i don't intend to give you a list of facts, more to encourage anyone heading down to this side of the world to bee-line the place.

but what did strike me was just how recent all of this was. in my life time the segregation was still taking place. no wonder there is violence here now, id be angry still if id have been forced under those conditions.

back in the land of dairy milk...

still have a firm standing on my 'little Britain' claim, all i can say really is that it is a good job that i went to Zimbabwe first where i had my first major culture shock as i wouldn't have managed it here if not!

am currently staying with a distant branch of the family on my fathers side, not of the Moore variety but the Jones side, or Espley-Jones as the South African dwellers chose to change themselves to over a hundred years ago. seems there are members of our clan spread far and wide over this global neighborhood of ours, pretty good for me as a traveller!

they live in a HUGE house with a heated outside pool, rooms with big ceilings, hight tech security, so i am probably more safe here than i have ever been in my life! there is not only a sky high gate and a constant both day and night patrol of cops but also an alarm system for outside during the day and in the night it also runs across the house. this means that i cant go for any sleepwalk wanderings as i'd be prone to set it off. and this is no mamby-pamby system either - if it goes of the cops get here pronto to investigate. serious stuff.
but what was the most shock i have to say was to discover a fully stocked fridge and snack cupboard. you would not believe my eyes at the sight of a dresser laden with chocolate easter eggs, bunnies, marshmallow eggs, Lindor truffles (you know those red ones - it is so long since i have seen them that i have forgotten what the official name is for them), jars full of coloured sweets (the big, old fashioned lollyshop variety), then a WHOLE CUPBOARD of chocolate digestives, finger biscuits, custard creams, pink wafers (not waffers Achacha if you are reading this!), and more varieties of which i cannot even describe. and that is not to mention the crisps!

i tell you, there was more variety than a large Zimbabwean supermarket.

so obviously the 'slim up' idea has been quite rightly thrown out the window in favour of the delights of this new discovery. Milton has said that i must help myself as if not he will feel that he has to offer me things all the time and that would become tiresome leading him never to invite me over again. so dairy milk double decker it is for breakfast!

SA (Little Britain)

have arrived in the legendary 'danger centre' that is South African capital Joberg. have to say we are very disappointed, we have not been mugged or attacked once. I was rather looking forward to the stories we could exaggerate on but we have none at all!
jokes aside though we are here at last but sad to say that is the final day of the fab travelers duo that is Lucy & Bees travels in Africa.
traveling here was a mammoth expedition including a 16 hour bus journey from Bulawayo to Joberg during the night. put me right off buses it did, the 3 hour wait at the border in the middle of the night and a toilet covered in barbed wire being highlights. journey started off to a bad start, driver was not there, so finally leaving an hour late (so on time for Africa really) we were on the road and had bagged a three seat for the two of us so happily munched our cucumber. but sleeping was next to impossible given the suspension on said bus and I had developed a peculiar itch on my whole face and there were cockroaches galore. but the border was the pits. not even a shop to purchase the usual womens solution to undesirable moments, a chocolate bar. so we sat and after exhausting games of: think of something, cards and remembering the top ten disgusting trip things/stupid things said and food consumed I gave in to sleep and snuggled (as much as one can snuggle with no bedding or pillow into lucy's bright orange bivy bag. rather a sight I hear, so good thing I have no high regard to randomers laughs on my sleeping habits. Surprised to see such clean streets, new cars and brittainesque feel to the place. rather peculiar really.