Engaging with World Leaders – who needs G20

On Saturday we travelled to Kabarak University, where I was going to preach on Sunday. Kabarak University is a private Christian University established in 2000. The setting up of the institution was as a result of the forward vision of the Chancellor His Excellency Daniel T. arap Moi (the former Kenyan President (1978-2002) who wanted to set up a reputable Christian Liberal Arts, Science and Technology University. It was only on Sunday morning that we found out he would be present at the service and we would be introduced to him. This was made even more interesting that I didn’t have a pair of shoes to wear with my suite, as I had given them away previously, so I ended up wearing my safari boots.

When we arrived we had to line up outside the church, and then he arrived with his bodyguards and he spoke very briefly and shook our hand before he went into the church. I have a nice picture which you can see of me shaking his hand, the photographer didn’t have time to get one of Linda! (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett folder final Kenya) It was quite nerve racking having to preach in front of the former President, but I survived. He sits right at the front, has his own special chair with a table in front. He was listening during the sermon as he referred to it later on in his address. The church was packed as all the Primary Students and High School Students have to attend and there is some with the local community. It lasts about two hours and there is singing and scripture readings. It was very organised and felt quite formal compared to the normal services in the community. Initially I was meant to speak at two services but the university students had finished for the term and so the services were combined. We stayed at the University guest house and had our meals there, it was back to rice and ugali.

We had driven up to Nakuru on Saturday and it was an eventful drive. It was my first time driving in Kenya and although they drive on the same side as we do in the UK, it was more interesting. The lorries drive in any lane they feel like, the Matutus drive across all the lanes as fast as they can, the people just walk or cycle out into the road, as if they own the place and cars shouldn’t be there and then you have to avoid the animals, whether they be goats, cows or Baboons. I felt like I was Lewis Hamilton trying to avoid all the pitfalls to make progress. Although I was not driving that fast, Linda kept asking me to slow down so she could take some photo’s. Once you leave Nairobi the road becomes a single carriageway and then with the slow lorries you need to do some overtaking, making sure first that no-one is overtaking you. It was hard work as you have to concentrate all the time, unlike the English roads where you can sometimes sit back and relax, or if you are on the M25 sit back and not move.

However, we arrived safely and as I am typing this in Nairobi it means we got back safely. We arrived in Nakuru about 1pm and as a treat for Linda I took her to the Lake Nakuru National Park on her own personal safari, with me as a guide. We were there for about three hours and she saw lots of animals and again took lots of photos. I think she is up to about 600 on the trip so far. I even found her a Rhino to watch and take several picture of – what a star I am!

Today (Monday) Linda has gone on another safari to the Nairobi National Park but I have stayed at the hotel as I have several meeting to go to regarding the FCPF Conference. We are flying back to cold England tonight – so this will be the last entry on the blog for this trip!

Finally escaped

I finally escaped today from the complex, but only to go with my wife, who currently resembles a lobster, to a local wildlife park – I was so lucky!! The Haller Park is famous – for guess what giant tortoises – so what did we get to see – tortoises, and it was very exciting.  If you are desperate to see what you missed I have uploaded some photos to the web site (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett) as I would hate you to miss this exciting adventure, and I even had to miss my Swahili lesson to go with her – sacrifices I make.  Linda has been swimming and sitting in the sun and so she is currently very red and warm, I did warn her but she ignored me. I am not burnt at all, it might be 95 degrees but I will not take my socks off in the sun in case my feet get burnt and I think they match my crocs anyway. I had been sitting by the pool but ensure I am wearing appropriate clothing. The food is ok here, but  its very European and you could be anywhere in the world as there is no Kenyan influence.  We are glad to be going tomorrow, it has been good to rest but we are both bored now.

We went to Haller Park this afternoon by taxi, it is about 10 minutes from the Hotel complex. We had a guide to show us around and there were tortoises to see, and tortoises, and tortoises, plus three giraffe, two hippo, several eland and more tortoises. In fact the Guide could find any tortoises to show us, but Linda managed to find them for her, she must have a nose for it. She would then talk to the tortoises and stroke their  legs and heads. Imagine you are having a nice sleep from the hot weather and some red thing with two legs turns up and keeps stroking you and disturbing you and doesn’t even talk in Swahili – I would get the hump and move away.

Linda also got to feed the Giraffes again at feeding time, and I got the opportunity to take more photos of her with animals. We had a walk around the park, but it was too hot and so we had to rest. The restaurant was being refurbished so we couldn’t even rest in there for a cup of coffee.

When we got back to the hotel I was so hot that I had a quick swim in one of the three pools. Linda went to the gift shop and found some more items for the country house. We will soon have more suitcases with all her purchases coming back than when we went.

We are flying back to Nairobi tomorrow afternoon and then off to Nakuru on Saturday. I am driving this time – so should be entertaining on the Kenyan roads. 

I am writing this at 22.30 and it is still 84 degrees.

We have been informed there are now 24 hour Nakrumat (the equivant of Tesco's) and people are excited about it. However being Africa it means that it opens at 9am and closes at 10pm but is still open for 24 hours!

Disappointing news today as I was led astray by my wife and was looking at her looking at tortoises - I missed the pirates (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7966320.stm)

I see no Pirates

I am sitting on my hotel balcony and looking out to the sea, I am keeping watch for the pirates that allegedly lurk in these clear waters – but I have not seen any.  I have done some research and they all should have black eye patches but If I do see any I am not sure what I am meant to do anyway.  I can’t see any oil tankers either which is probably why the pirates don’t come this way or its too hot for them.  I was speaking to a source in Nairobi who said the Somali pirates were all buying up land around the capital to get rid of the money, I wonder if they want to buy any pens?

We are staying at the Voyager Beach Hotel in Mombasa which is very nice, but a bit too European for us.  We are all inclusive which means that we can eat and drink as much as we like, but we are now used to eating rice and Ugali and don’t really drink much either – apart from tea. The two things we do like are mineral water and Latte and  we have to pay for those anyway. However, it is a nice break, our room is nice and there are three swimming pools for Linda to use and I can also access the wireless internet.  It is interesting how we have changed over the years as when I first met Linda she would swim and sit on the beach all day long, now she gets bored after a little while and wants to move or do something different. I am still the same – can’t sit still for very long, unless its at the computer. 

We have been going to the Swahili lessons once a day and I am making some slow progress. I can say ‘wife come here quickly’   which is ‘Bibi  njoo hapa haraka’ and hopefully tomorrow I will learn ‘wife where is my coffee’!  The good thing is that they have the Daily Nation delivered here so I can at least read my paper over coffee.  The hotel complex is very big and most people never leave it, they come here for two weeks, eat European food and then leave saying they have been to Kenya or Africa without ever interacting with the locals.  I think we will survive three days – just.

On Monday I had checked in on line with Kenya airways and then printed out my boarding passes.  This meant you had to go to the drop bag desk at the airport. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and then went to the drop in desk, which was closed and there was no-one there.  So we had to queue and check in the old fashioned way. The airport was chaos and the security very lax and people were using cameras on the place at landing and take off, as soon as we landed people were on the phone and the air stewards just ignored them.  The plane was clean and they gave you a sandwich and drink for a 45 minutes flight which was good and the company magazine was very interesting and informative.

The hotel is outside Mombasa so unless you get a taxi it is very difficult to leave it. We have three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner in the restaurant.  We are eating a lot of salad and fruit  - more then our 5 a day, in fact 5 a meal so now I am in credit. There is no ugali here which is disappointing as I was getting used to it. Linda went off on her travels this morning and walked out onto the sand and ended up speaking to a local for ages, he was showing her all the sea animals you can find in the sand, she was gone about an hour. She has no pens left so she could not offer him anything  in return. We have taken up darts in the afternoon and played a few games as there is not much else to do here except to sit by the pool in the sun. It is about 90-93 degrees and at night it drops to mid 80’s.

One of my students decided to ring me at 07.20 this morning to see how we are and were we enjoying Mombasa. I was enjoying my first long sleep of the trip – till he woke me up! 

There are some photos at  http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett

Have you got a bible I could have?

This was the request not from one of the students or a church member but from a man who sells souvenirs at the T Hotel. In fact we did have a Bible to give him. We had had a previous request from a student and a pastor for a Bible and so that morning we had been to local shop and found some for sale. We needed two but felt led to buy three, and now we know why. Linda was able to give him a Bible, and he asked her to write it in it. Linda asked him why he had asked us for a Bible and he said he didn’t have one and wanted one.’ He told Linda he had seen the muzungu (white man) several times staying at the hotel and heard he was teaching at a Bible College and that he had been preaching at a church down the road.

Unfortunately Linda then saw he and his friends were lacking in some clothing, so I lost my socks, my only pair of black shoes and a T shirt. I now have no black shoes – not even for work and will need to preach next week at the University in a suit and walking boots. I did complain but was told his need was greater than mine. Linda has finally given away all the remaining pens, she has caused chaos doing this. She went shopping in the market place, and offered pens to people if they would have a photo taken and suddenly there was a queue a mile long and she had to be saved by our driver Ben. She has been giving them to all the staff in the hotel and even started to give away the Principals pens at the Graduation (hopefully he hasn’t noticed yet).

We are getting used to African time, which is about 1 hour after the time you agreed to be somewhere. Although when I used this principle at the Thursday Bible Study and turned up at 5.30 for a 5pm start (like they all had on Tuesday) they were all worried I wasn’t coming. They were all on time and I was the only one using African time! However, it went well and I was able to share from 1 Samuel 7 and the feedback was good. We had an invite from Pastor Peter Kirui for supper and he said he only lived a little way from Kericho, forty five minutes later we arrived. He has three children and several animals. We had spaghetti, rice, potatoes and meat for dinner, followed by tea. He does a lot of work in schools and has asked Linda to come with him and talk to the children next she is in Kenya. He was very friendly and drove us back to our hotel in the dark, which was fortunate as it is a long walk – about 37kms.

We finally have hot water, although it means getting up at 6.30am. The food has improved although the other night we nearly didn’t have any dinner as everything on the menu wasn’t available. I ended up with steak and chips and Linda with mushroom soup. We had put our valuable items in the safe, but you can only get them out at night as the man with the key only works nights! It appears no one has any access during the day. I have been so busy that I have had no time to visit the internet café or update the blog.

The Graduation Banquet was on Friday and I found out on about Monday I was the guest speaker so on Thursday night I had to write the course examination and then on Friday when they were doing the exam I was writing my speech for the banquet. I did get some words in from the famous Kenyan Barak Obama. I had finished my course in the morning by 10am and then had to mark all the exams, which I did sitting in the back of the car returning to the hotel to get changed for the banquet. The Banquet was meant to start at 2pm and of course it did! Linda has made some decorations for the tables and we finally got under way about 3.30. There was some singing, several speeches, which when they were in English were short but in the local language long. I did my talk and they liked it and one of the graduates wanted the original! After that it was the food and we were hungry by now, it was rice and meat – just for a change. Linda had bought them a cake which was then cut up and shared about. They were meant to have a goat and Linda had been looking for it and I told her it was in the oven! She later told me that had just bought some meat as they couldn’t find a goat to buy. After the food we chatted with the students and I helped with the washing up which was similar to the UK, but they don’t have a sink and you do it outside with bowls – a bit like camping. We had a video going through a projector and one of the Rev Mutai boys was fascinated by this and stood there watching it.

On Saturday we went into town initially and then visited our friends the Chuma’s who have just opened a small café – tea is about 10p a cup so a bargain, I even put my hand in my pocket and bought my dear wife a cup of tea. After that we went to the Bible College to help them sort out things for the Graduation Ceremony on Sunday. Linda was going to visit Bettys, one of the other lecturers, house for a quick visit, they would be no longer then an hour – four hours later they returned! I was helping with the electrics as they needed to set up the amp and speakers. The biggest problem was the field in which the ceremony was about 75 metres from the power supply. As health and safety doesn’t apply over here we had about half a dozen extension leads joined together with some other electrical wire they found and it worked – eventually. It appears all the local people who had leads donated them but not everyone took the cardboard off the plug so there was no connection – till I found the problem.

I am getting to know some villagers now and they stop and chat to me, especially the man whose wife owns the shop in the next field, he is a retired geography and history teacher but now just like to look after his cows. He has told me where his house is and to pop in for tea anytime. In fact I have so many invites for tea that next time I will not have any time for teaching. We left about 4pm and came back to the hotel, and in the evening the Rev Ronoh popped in for a chat and then we went to the Rev Chuma’s for supper. We had rice, potatoes and spaghetti. It was strange I have never had spaghetti on any of my previous visits but we had it twice this time. We spent some time with the family and then he dropped us back at the hotel.

On Graduation day we were at the college by 8.15 and started to help get things ready. This included carrying pews from a local church to the field and the Principal said I should be resting not doing that. I ignored him and carried on working, there was a lot to do. We needed to get the speakers up a tree so the sound would carry, so a student would climb up and we would pass the speaker to them, hoping they didn’t drop it on our heads – all risk assessed properly of course! After this I went and helped with peeling the spuds, no peeler just a big knife to use but they were impressed with my handiwork and Linda was impressed I hadn’t managed to cut myself.

The ceremony was starting a 9am according to the programme, but as usual this was delayed till just after 10 when the possession started. Linda had her camera and took over 150 pictures. She even had a word with the Bishop when he was giving out the awards and told him which way to face and what to do. The guests were seated under the canopies but every else had to sit on the floor. It was very hot so a lot of people sat under umbrellas. There was a lot of singing and then the speeches, I had been told that I would not have to do anything and was sitting there relaxing enjoying the event, when suddenly the principal introduced me and asked me to say a few words. The whole programme lasted over four hours and then it was food – rice of course.

After this we chatted with the students and there families and had our photo taken. The children all wanted to shake our hands so everywhere we went we would have them following us and shaking our hands – it was like being royalty. Then about 5pm it was time to say good bye and go back to our hotel. It was sad to leave as we had really bonded with the students this time and made some good friendships. They want us to return in September.

On Monday we came back to Nairobi and it was nice to drink Latte and have hot water coming out of the tap. We sat by the swimming pool and did some reading, Linda went swimming a couple of times. We then went out for a meal with friends in the evening. Its off to Mombasa in the morning – where it was about 93 degrees today.

There are some more photos at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett

One pencil, two pencil, three pencil zzzzzzzzz

We don’t count sheep if we can’t sleep, we count pens and pencils. We brought out 1160 pens, 1543 pencils and 446 coloured pencils a total of 3149 as well as 5 pairs of shoes, 3 balls, 17 jumpers, 6 dresses and   30 books plus a few sundry items. We have given every child in Mogonjet school a new pen or pencil plus pens and  books on assemblies for the teachers. We have been able to provide bread for the Bible College students every day as well as exercise books, study books and a new printer.

Linda has been walking around the street handing out pencils to every child she sees. She is known as the Pied Pencil lady of Kericho. I have been very busy at the Bible college teaching and it is also warm and humid which makes it tiring work. I have the digital projector working and there were surprised faces on the first day as they couldn’t understand how the image got from my computer to the wall. I have a Papershow device where I can write on the designated paper and it appears on the wall – this totally threw them. However the projector has been good as we can watch videos and I can use PowerPoint presentations, as well as write my notes on the pad and it is displayed on the wall – it saves on chalk. I have 11 students in the class from years 1 and 2, but the 3^rd year also keep slipping in as they don’t have any lessons.

We have the formal graduation meal on Friday and I was informed on Tuesday I would be the guest speaker, so I have another sermon to prepare this week.  In fact I have been so busy I have not even had time to go to the internet café for a couple of days.

On Tuesday I spoke at the church, it was meant to start at 5pm, but as usual no-one turned up till about 5.30pm, although the Pastor was even getting concerned at this stage.  I have marked the students homework and  returned it to them.

We have been living on rice and Ugali  at dinner time and are loosing weight slowly. We have been invited out for several meals which has been very nice, but it means we get rice and Ugali again! Linda isn’t too keen on the food and because it is too hot there is no chocolate to eat either. We were invited to the Principals house today for a cup of tea and dinner. He said it was not far – over an hour later on unmade roads we arrived. In his garden he  is growing tea as well as vegetables.  We ended up driving back in the dark, which was adventurous as you have to avoid the cars without lights, the animals and people walking in the road. Everyone driving in the opposite direction doesn’t know how to turn their main beam off (I should be grateful their car has lights I suppose) and so you get blinded all the time.

Linda has been keeping busy, she taught the students about Barak Obama on Monday and they liked her input and started asking questions about the (Kenyan) President.  She went for a walk outside the college and gave away  a few pencils and started talking to a man ( as she does) and he asked her where she was going. She replied the Bible College and he said ‘there was a white man who comes to the college twice a year and has been for there for a couple of years, his name is Werrett’  Linda replied “Oh I know him, he is my husband’. The man then insisted on escorting her to the College, introducing his wife enroute and showing her where he lived.

Linda has been out visiting several orphanages over the past few days, three in total and of course she is the Pencil Santa Claus leaving pencils where ever she goes. She went to one in Kericho run by Grace which has 21 HIV children and they all were neatly dressed and happy. They sang for her and had been kept off school especially for the royal visit. They keep their own animals including goats and cows. The children were very polite, clean and tidy. It is not supported by the Government. They have some sponsors who come out from England to support them, and then we found out they were staying in the next room to us at the hotel.

She went to Mogonjet schools and was mauled by the Kids who were pleased to see her. She was able to give out pens and jumpers to the children. She also took some photos of the science block and the new pharmacy. The primary classrooms are being used. On the way back she visited a baby home which had 45 babies  aged from a few weeks to four years. They have been abandoned by their parents and the Home looks after the. Fifteen of them were sitting on the grass, but when Linda tried  to take a photo one of them started to cry. They weren’t too keen on the Muzungu (white women)

We have been eating marmite sandwiches in the room in the evening as we have been too busy to stop for  dinner. Its surprising how useful a jar of marmite can be.  We did go for dinner last night and they gave us a menu. I asked for fish fingers – but they had none, ffish – no we have run out. It was easier to ask what they did have – which was steak or chicken. Linda ended up with vegetable soup.

Whilst you can’t sell coals to Newcastle or sand to the Arabs, Linda is bringing her own Tesco tea bags from England to Kenya ( where they were grown in the first place) and at tea time at the college she gets out her Tea bag sto use. She has even given some to the Principal and Staff, so they are probably think they have beautiful English Tea to drink, when in fact it is home made in Kenya!

There are pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett

 

"A leader is a dealer in hope." - Napoleon

The seminar on Saturday should have started at 10am, but of course this was 10am African time. This was actually fortunate as I had been given the wrong location for the seminar, I was at the college and everyone else was in Kericho. We had left early after scrambled egg on toast for breakfast, and the day was already starting to get hot and we got to the college to find no-one there. I was then informed that everyone had gone to town for a seminar and so I worked out I was in the wrong place.  We had tea before we left as it was rude to refuse and then picked some delegates up on the way, and arrived at the church about 10.15.

I had been told 200 were coming but Africans always over estimate.  I was surprised when there were only about 15-20 for the delayed start. It was going to be translated into the local  language (which I can’t spell – let alone speak).  I set up the digital projector and powerpoint and we started. As usual people turned up during the day, the last person turned up at 12.45 just in time for  lunch. Overall we had  about 85 people from all over the district.  Linda was giving a pen to everyone who attended – so they could make notes. It was all going fine, till the electricity went off and suddenly no powerpoint! This was a slight problem but we found a blackboard and chalk and continued.  Dinner was provided – rice, meat and beans, it was ok. Linda seemed more fascinated with the velvet monkeys than she was eating her dinner. Her camera was constantly out taking pictures of them.

The seminar day finished about 3pm and the feedback was that people enjoyed it and found it helpful.. They wanted a copy of my notes so I will need to find a photocopying shop to do that. After this we went into Kericho to do some shopping and then back to the hotel. It is very hot and humid today and Linda can’t last without her tea so she had bought a kettle for the room, so it will be on tap.

We were very tired and exhausted so we had a nap in the afternoon, I fell asleep to Liverpool beating Manchester United. We had our tea downstairs, I had fish fingers and Linda a fried egg sandwich  as everything else on the menu she asked for they didn’t have. We still have no hot water so we had to shower in cold! The problem this is the best hotel in town so we can’t even move to another one as they are even worse.

On Sunday we had a lie in and didn’t leave till 9am. It was boiled egg and bread for breakfast. I was preaching at Kapsoit church which is run by Pastor Mutai and it meets in a school. It is in the process of building a church in the village and has just bought some land. There were about 40 people there from young children to OAP’s. Of course they all turned up and left at different stages during the service.  It lasted about 3 hours, we had singing, and then more singing, and then the Sunday school sang, the youth sang, the ladies sang, and the men as well. I preached on the Good Samaritan and highlighted the tribal differences between Jews and Samaritans and linked this in with the tribal  issues in Kenya.  They had an offering and those who didn’t have any money gave their produce like pineapples and greens. Linda didn’t have any money so she gave two packets of biscuits (not just any old biscuits but one you get in club class on BA ) and a packet of tissues. These are then auctioned off to raise money for the church, I think the biscuits went for about 20p.

We went to the Mutais for dinner and had fresh ‘holy’ pineapple straight from church, followed by rice (just for a change), beans and meat (Linda didn’t have the meat) and chapatti. The Mutais have two young boys – Iain and Emmanuel (the oldest). When I was here last time Emmanuel had asked me to bring him a football as he didn’t have one. So we had bought him a big football and Iain a small one. They were over the moon and played with them all day, they even wanted to bring them to church.  Evidently Iain was very worried about losing his ball and woke up in the middle of the night asking his mum where it was. He then found it and took it to bed so no-one could steal it!

 I introduced them to a new game, I kicked the football downhill as hard as I could and they had to run and get and bring it back for me to kick again. This  lasted for about 30 minutes before they were tired out.  We then went out to a forest area outside Kericho  so  we could kick the balls, walk around and talk. There was a river area and it was very pleasant.  I ended up carrying one of their friends children on my shoulders as he was tired.

We stopped for a cup of tea in town and tried a local pastry, it was a bit like a donut and was nice. We then walked back to the hotel for some exercise. In the evening we had marmite sandwiches and some biscuits for our tea. We stayed in our room and started getting ready for college on Monday  - Linda is still reading the book. Still no hot water.

The photos are at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett

How nice to see you Mr Simon your usual room is ready – No 10

We left Nairobi on Friday morning and the car was filled up with our luggage. We had even more then we started with as we had to buy some supplies to take with us.  I had sorted out mobile phones for both of us so if Linda gets lost she can call me – and of course I will answer! 

The ride to Nakuru took about 2 ½ hours and Linda was in her element (again).  I was trying to  doze on route listening to my pod and  the Quo singing  ‘I fought the law and the law won!’ and she kept waking me up ‘look at that’ and pointing out yet another monkey.  There were loads of them by the road side all walking along very nicely, there was even a small baby walking along and another one being carried.  There were lots of donkeys, all working pulling carts and creating chaos by blocking the road. As we approached  Gilgal there were zebras on the roadside and we even had to stop for a zebra crossing the road!  Initially, it was interesting seeing all these wild animals but it soon wore off as they all look the same – but not to Linda. Fortunately, we didn’t see any tortoises today.

We stopped at Nakuru for a working lunch with Joseph and discussed the  University and the Mogonjet school.  The menu was interesting, they had an ostrich sandwich which looked nice, so I asked for that ‘Sorry sir, very nice picture but we don’t have that today.’ ‘So what do you have ‘, the normal reply ‘well we have chicken or beef’. I went for the beef, although you need a magnifying glass to see it in the sandwich. Linda went for the vegetarian option or so she thought. The only difference between a normal burger and a vegetarian one is the spelling on the menu.

We then made our way to Kericho and it has not rained here for months but today it rained, just our luck! It was a short shower and soon we were sitting on the patio enjoying tea and coffee. Linda has been chatting up the security guard asking about the local monkeys. They have heard she has arrived with her camera and so moved out for a couple of weeks.

Linda is also busy reading the Obama book ‘Dreams from My father’ as she has to talk about it to the students on  Monday. We have 11 students as the third years are out on a practical term and the fourth years have finished. It will be nice working with a small group I may even learn a few names.

We had dinner at the hotel  and it was fish fingers and chips. It was hot and ok. The evening was warm which made sleeping difficult.

Kenya March 2009 and beyond

Linda has been in her element today, she has been feeding the Giraffe at the Wildlife centre and also saw THREE tortoises.  Unfortunately the Giraffe centre didn’t do take aways  otherwise  I would have tasted one as well. It is nice and warm here, well very hot in the mid 80’s today – so we need to take in plenty of liquids which means coffee stops.

We managed to pack all the items that people had given us, we had six bags to put in the hold, so good thing we were going business class. Three were full of pens, jumpers, books and shoes, one full of electrical items plus all the  plugs you have to bring to charge everything up, as they never all use the same plug.  This left two bags for clothes, one weighed 13kg and the other one 22kg – no prizes for guessing whose was the heaviest. With the computer and digital projector we had two lots of hand luggage each as well.

We had stayed in  a Travelodge the night before  and had to get the Hoppa bus to the airport, which was fun as I had to put all the bags on and then get them off again. We checked in and then went into the business lounge. This was good as there was plenty of free food, magazines and papers – which we could take with us. The plane was due to leave at 10.05 but it was about 10.50 before it set off.  The good thing with business is they look after you and check you are ok, you get a nice meal – and then the seat is like a bed so you can go to sleep – which I did.

They had the Oscars winning film ‘Slumdog  Millionaire’ on the plane – well it was totally rubbish, there couldn’t have been much competition  this year, I watched 15 mins, got bored and ending up watching Bond, which was not much better but at least some action in it. After a big dinner  and a glass of Stellenbosch wine I fell asleep and snoozed for a couple of hours. Linda had the window seat but it was over a wing, so she couldn’t see much apart from I would get an early warning signal if the wing fell off. The flight was about 8 ½ hours and we landed about 9.30pm (Kenya is 3 hours ahead of UK).

We already had visas so we got through quickly and our luggage was one of the first out.   We didn’t get stopped by customs which was  fortunate as it might have been difficult to explain over  2000 pens in our luggage and probably saying we were going to do a lot writing might not have been believed! Ben, our driver, was there to meet us and soon we were sitting in our room at the Hilton, just in time for the football to start.

On Thursday we had a busy day, first we went to the aforementioned Giraffe centre, you could stroke the Giraffes’, feed them, talk to them – anything apart from eat them. Linda was in her element and was soon feeding the babies and adults alike.  I had just sat down for a nice cup of coffee when she rushed over and said – there are some tortoises over there would you like to have a look, they are different from mine. I said ‘different, you mean they haven’t got a head, four legs and a shell.’ She said ‘no they are bigger they are African’. “ How interesting I replied.’

After this we went to see a craft shop which was in fact 8-10 small craft shops in a house. Linda had a look round in every room and soon found some things to buy.  There was a gardan where you could have tea and coffee, and it had  a tree in the middle with some bird on it which Linda was fascinated with. So the camera was out and several photos taken. We then went to visit Julius (old Principal of Sitotwet Bible college) at the Nairobi International School of Theology where he is doing a doctorate. We had a chat and he showed us round the establishment. After this it was back to the Hotel, as the car was making a knocking noise and needed to be checked before we went off to Nakuru and beyond tomorrow.

We had a walk around Nairobi town centre and stopped at the Thorn Tree coffee shop at the Savora, where Barak Obama ( a famous Kenyan) had previously visited. Linda had crepes as she was hungry and I had a banana cake.  We had just got back to the hotel when our colleague  Kibinge rang and we met him for a meeting to discuss the Christian Police Association, the International work and the joint conference in 2010. We were with him for a couple of hours and then he dropped us back at the hotel. We had some dinner before retiring to our room so I could do some emails and typing on the computer.

There are a few photos at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/simon.werrett