And I came back with a live chicken!

And I came back with a live chicken!

It was a Harambee that I had been to.  A cultural first for me.  Douglas, one of the MAF Kenya staff, was fundraising for his daughter, Rhoda, who had a tragic car accident 6 weeks ago and has been in a coma ever since.    There is no NHS here in Kenya and at the moment there has been a doctors strike for the last 6 weeks, so the Harambee is a fundraiser to help pay for all of the hospital bills - which are ever increasing.  

Held at Deliverance Church in Kawangware slums, we arrived an hour into the programme.  We drove through the streets of the slums going from paved roads to smaller dirt tracks; held up by traffic and cows on the way until we found the church tucked in one of the side streets.  We parked the car and could hear the claps of people as they celebrated the money being collected before we had even entered behind the corrugated iron gates of the church.    The entrance to the church was a bustle of noise and people as they paid the 100 KES to enter and a handkerchief was pinned to your shirt to let others know you had paid to get it.  The church was full to bursting, filled with regular members and many other people who had come to support Douglas.  We were escorted to our seats, the 3 Mazungu’s (white people!) as the compare of the event welcomed us specifically and thanked us for coming.  The ‘larger than life’ compare then continued calling people and organisations to the front of the church, asking them how much they were donating to Rhoda as they put their money into a pink wicket basket held by the compare’s assistant.  One by one, people would say their name and how much they were donating, and everyone clapped to show their appreciation.  So culturally different to what I am used to but so supportive for Douglas and very humbling to know that many people who have never even met his daughter were giving of so much to help.  A neighbour looking after their neighbour - loving one another.  

As I looked around, I could see people giving large sums (up to $1000) and smaller ones ($5) but it didn’t matter the size, every one was clapped and thanked for their contribution.  As my hands were beginning to ache from the clapping I looked around.  The alter at the front of the church was laidened with eggs, a cake, a water filter, pottery and then I saw it -  live chickens underneath.  Once all of the money had been collected from everyone coming forward and donating, then came the auction.  Again another new cultural and fundraising experience for me.  It started with the water filter.  One lady bid 500kes and put her money in the pink basket, and then someone else placed a bid for 1000kes and added that.  The first lady raised her bid and put it in the basket and then others put in their bids in support of the two ladies in a  bidding war - so it becomes not just about the two ladies bidding but also who is supporting them and also putting money in the basket - there was certainly a feel of ‘all inclusive bidding!’  Finally it was won.  The pottery came next and then the cake.  When it came to the chickens I had to put my bid in.  It was too good an opportunity to miss, so Daniel (a MAF Pilot) and I kept increasing our bids until we were the winners of a live chicken - and a warm glow that we had donated more to help Rhoda.    There were no tears at the event, just a huge appreciate of the goodness of what God has blessed us with and how we can help others.  I hope and pray that Douglas has enough to cover the medical bills but more importantly, that Rhoda recovers.

Plane in a can

One of the things we've been working on lately is using any spare capacity we have to do maintenance and other technical work on non-MAF planes.

This not only helps us to fund the cost of MAF Kenya but it can also be quite a fun break from the normal routine.  Take this - one of our latest projects, putting together a plane nearly from scratch.

Unloading the plane parts from the back of a lorry - wings first.

The nearly finished article! 

Springtime

It feels a bit like Springtime at the moment.  I know we don't really have a spring - just rainy and dry seasons, but there is a feel of Spring in the air.  The Jacaranda trees are dropping their beautiful big purple trumpet-like blossom over the dry ground and it looks like purple snow in the morning when I open my curtains.

I thought you might like to see a few of the other beautiful flowers that are blossoming here too.  We are so fortunate to have such beauty right on our doorstep.

 

Panic Alarm

Now, this is the sort of button I need when I haven't had a good coffee in a while - but this is not the sort of Panic Alarm button I was looking at today.  

Today we had someone round to assess where we needed the fixed panic alarm button for our house in case of intruders.  When going to bed we already have 12 locks on 3 doors to bolt, 3 night guards on our compound, a walled compound with razor wire on the top along with a huge security gate and a panic button.   Now we will have a fixed alarm button too.  

Having assessed various options of where to put it we decided on a fairly central location. 

Fingers crossed we will never have to use it!

Tis the season to be jolly - not!

One of the hardest things in life is to say Farewell.  And we have come to that time of year again when it is a common word in our daily vocabulary.

This week alone I will have gone to 3 farewell parties of good friends that we have made these last 2 years. People we have had adventures with. People who started life in Nairobi at the same time as us and whom we have discovered the highs and lows of Nairobi together. It is a sad time of year for us as we bid them farewell and wish them the best on their new adventure in new places.

Even on the way home from school today, Edie was chatting about everything and anything and then said with a forlorn face; 'Mummy, I will miss Armrah and I will miss Anya.  I will miss their giggles.' All I could do was agree.

As part of living abroad we have to prepare our children for a lot more friends who will come and go in their lives and how to manage this without constantly feeling too hurt or shutting themselves off from making friends altogether.  Something we all have to learn to do.  And I have to be more aware of bad behaviour that it may just be their way of saying they are hurting and are sad.  Not always easy to do.

Last time in Church they also mentioned transition and asked everyone who was moving in the next few weeks to stand up and we prayed for them.  You really know you are living internationally when your church does that.

(Oh and even as I write this and Audrey is playing the piano facing the other direction she asks 'Mummy, when is Nicole leaving!'  So I tell her to come over and read what I am writing - and she humphs and tells me I have made a grammatical error)

So there we are, another part of 'normal' international living - saying Goodbye.   All I can say (for once) is thank goodness for Facebook and keeping in touch with people all over the world.

Life is pretty normal

It's been such a long time since we last wrote a blog, I almost don't know where to start.  Life is pretty normal for us now (for normal read 'hectic!' - the same for any family life with children I'm sure!)

At Christmas we traveled home to spend time with my mum who was sick during the summer months.  It was great to see how well she was doing and it was lovely to be back in 'normal' Christmas temperatures rather than the heat of Nairobi.  It just doesn't seem right celebrating Christmas in shorts and t-shirts! It was great to catch up with friends and family. We also went to the cinema a couple of times (something which we don't do here) and enjoyed staying in another of our friends' houses whilst they were away (thanks guys!)  We were reminded of Christmas in February when we enjoyed reading some of the Christmas cards that arrived snail mail - literally!

Elijah celebrating 1st place

The second term at school has started with a rapid pace of swimming galas, play rehearsals, school residentials, singing festivals, scouts and school productions.  If I had written this a while back I would also have mentioned (with a whisper) that the traffic was better, but it seems we are back to the erratic timings of the school run - anything between 5 minutes and an hour and a half for a 3km journey. The kids are settling ok but still miss their friends terribly in the UK.










Oh and did I mention that I celebrated a significant birthday!  We are so grateful to live on a compound with a large garden as we celebrated with friends in 20's style.  We had a lot of fun organising it and people dressed up really well.  Two of our friends bought their outfits from a  second hand market at the end of our road and were robbed at gun point on their way home.  A familiar reminder that we need to always be vigilant about our security.

We are enjoying seeing some of the sights of Kenya with our new roof tent (bought at the bargain price of 100 euros.)  We thought that we wouldn't need to waterproof it, living in Kenya with rainy seasons and dry seasons, but every time we have camped so far it has rained!   We are thankful for short children as we can still squeeze all 3 of them in it.

We have hosted some of the MAF families whilst they have been visiting Kenya and are looking forward to hosting our first international guest (Ken's mum) in 23 days - yes we have begun the countdown already.  We have some trips planned with her to take her out of Nairobi for a while. Here you can see some of the traffic jams she may experience when travelling outside of Nairobi!

We are also enjoying watching the 6 nations rugby in the comfort of our garden - which is lot of fun!  Inviting friends over, we project the screen onto the outside of the house.  Again another joy of living in Kenya as it is always dark by about 7 and so watching movies outside is great entertainment for us and our friends.  

 

MAF Kenya is working hard to begin the new base near Marsabit (more news of that in our next newsletter) which is really exciting to be reaching out to the isolated communities up there.  Our friends (colleagues too) moved into their house last week.  It has all the mod cons - outside toilet, solar panels, water tanked into the compound, one light upstairs and one downstairs!  Luxury.  They traveled up by car to take some of their belongings and had to pick up an armed guard half way through the journey for protection along a stretch of road notorious for banditry - a stark reminder of why the work of MAF is so important here in Kenya. 

Ken has also recently been on a two day tax course (which was very taxing!) but glad to know he has more insight into the laws in Kenya.

So as you can see, life is pretty normal in so many ways.  Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers - especially for our continued safety.  

Time out for training!

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a two day Human Resource seminar covering employment law in Kenya.  It was a great opportunity to meet with others with HR responsibilities in various parts of East Africa and I thoroughly enjoyed the course.

At the end of the course we got an official group photograph as a memento and a certificate of attendance.  Here I am getting my award!

Employment law in Kenya is very similar in many ways to that in the UK however I couldn't fail to notice that the first of the general principals of the Employment Act is the prohibition of forced labour. For this reason the signing of employment contracts in Kenya are witnessed by independent witnesses. There are also specific sections in the Act relating to the prohibition of the "worst forms" of child labour and a requirement for the employer to provide housing (or a housing allowance), clean water and sanitation for all workers.