So we all have names and many of us have nicknames, but if I were to give you the name from the season you were born in, or chose to name you after the weather conditions on that particular day, the chances are you would probably look at me funny right? Well I guess if we were living here then there would be plenty of funny looks flying around, as it has come to my attention that there may be a good chance of being blessed with a name such as “Wafula” which means Rainy Season. Speaking of nicknames, I’m still in the first week and two of the guys, Dennis and Edgar, have already called to me as JT. I’m predicting it’s from the short hair and the slight beard, but the beard has now gone so maybe they might need to come up with an alternative for the time being.
Sat 19th and today is the first day of my first weekend and it is wash day. I had a little longer to sleep in this morning and came for breakfast at 8.30am. Breakfast was kind of different with some new food to try. I was slightly late compared with everyone else so I was sat for most of the time at the table on my own. I ate Mandazi, which is like a hard donut with a slightly popcorn taste to it which was quite nice when coated in jam. Matthew was washing his clothes out by the garden using the filtered water collected by the rain. I didn’t need to wash quite yet as it’s only been a few of days since my arrival, but I’m pretty sure by the way things are going next week is going to be my first attempt. I sat on the balcony or veranda, whatever you want to call it and finished off the remainder of the blog from the night before. The sun was shining as always and the birds tweeting, so I sat with the laptop on a very unstable desk, writing in peace.
Once Matthew had finished his washing we decided to take a walk to the offices to take a look to see if I could fix the Office email account that wasn’t working properly and start on creating some I.D cards for the IcFEM mission staff. We didn’t spend long here as it was coming up to lunch time, but just before we were due to leave, Matthew was asked to cover for Norah, the lady at the Cyber Centre, as she went home for her lunch. I left Matthew to continue with things and hold the fort at the Cyber Centre and took the short stroll back to the guesthouse carrying my laptop in my rucksack and constantly pulling up my trouser legs at the back to stop them from becoming caked in red soil.
I had lunch on my own then went to my room where I was to wait for Matthew to come back at around 2.15pm. I haven’t mentioned this before but since the very beginning of my trip I have begun doing sketches in a notepad illustrating my feelings and activities I have seen and done in each particular day. I began to create a masterpiece using only my black biro and my A4 lined pad and sketched away for about 15 minutes listening to my music with the ipod at full volume. By this time I was chilled out to the max and began to feel a little sleepy and realised I still had a bit of time on my hands before Matthew was back for dinner and we had to be off again. I laid down, stuck in my ear plugs to drown out the sound of buzzing flies and chattering people and got a little bit of rest which I guess I needed. I woke up maybe two hours later and with no clock or time in my room. I was a little worried that I had missed Matthew and that he had been to wake me but left with the result of me not waking up. That was the case. Well kind of. Matthew had been back but was back later than expected. He then had to rush off to get his bike mended at the “Fundi” and had left without waking me. I thought he may be down at the offices where we had arranged to originally spend the afternoon, but when I walked all the way there, I got there and realised he wasn’t. Fortunately I was able to get a lift back in Solomon, the directors Volvo.
Matthew may be gone sometime and I didn’t really have much to do around here. I knew I had and episode of Heroes, a TV show I like watching back home, downloaded onto the laptop and I knew this was a better opportunity than any to catch up while I could. After finishing this, Matthew appeared at around 6.15pm. I had already spoken with the guesthouse staff and arranged for the others to return before I had my evening dinner. So Matthew was back but we thought it would be polite to wait for John as he had head off to DreamLand with Solomon to take his very first look around.
After dinner we sat in the guesthouse lounge. Matthew and I discussed and created designs on the laptop and were getting quite excited at what we had put together on screen. We continued this until late in the evening, creating him a document template with a header and footer for his Gap Programme letters.
It was now Sunday and time to hit up church but not before we had sausage, tomato and toast for breakfast. I was told over the next few of weeks I would get to experience a number of churches to see what the difference was between them all, and then finally decide which one I liked best and would prefer to visit for the remained of my trip. Ann Lipson, who preaches at the front of the church we were to visit today, offered Matthew, John and me a lift onto the service. I was suited up smart in my black suit trousers, rocking the shirt and tie and also wearing my black shoes that hopefully wouldn’t get ruined from the ground I would be walking on. Luckily for me it hadn’t rained for the previous day so the ground was solid and reasonably dry in most areas. We hopped in the car and set off to the church which was about 10 minutes away. We hit bumps and bounced in and out of ditches from the uneven back roads and just over half way there we realised that the front driver side tyre had got itself a nice big puncture making it completely flat. Typical eh, I just took in the whole situation as the people on the streets all started to gather round and point.
We took out the spare type from the back of the car and also removed the jack ready to change the flat tyre for the spare. All of a sudden the thought of home came back to me as a couple of weeks previous to coming out here, my dad was working on my car changing the tyres as he was putting on new wheel trims. I remember thinking watching my dad tinkle with the tyres, “Man I would never be able to do that”. Well it was my time to have a go. So John and I had to tackle this problem and between us both we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing. I wacked the jack under the car and began to twist the leaver thingy until the car starter to rise. My bad, I had put it too close to the centre so the back started to rise instead of the front. How was I supposed to know? That’s why I’m an IT Technician and not a mechanic. Anyways I began to move it towards the front when a gang of little children ran over to watch as two Mazungu’s attempted to fix this car, then soon after 2 older guys came round who were more than willing to take over without being asked. I just stood back, kept quiet and watched as they removed the old type and replaced it in a matter of minutes. I was chillin’, there was no need to get all worked up over nothing was there.
So the car was fixed and they drove on to church, I walked on with Matthew who had come back to the car and we sat in for the service which hadn’t even started yet. It began and lasted just short of two hours. There was singing, praying and bible readings involved, just like it every normal church. It was even in English which was pleasing. We were greeted and welcomed by almost everyone. During the service John and I had to stand up and introduce ourselves. John went first and said his name and where he was from but also elaborated a little, wait, elaborated a lot. I began to start worrying as I was struggling of things to think of nevermind say. He didn’t go on for too long but said enough about himself to please everyone and let them have an idea about his background. I couldn’t just stand up and say “Hello, I'm Paul and I'm from England” could I? So I bucked up my ideas and just improvised the best I could. “Hello, I'm Paul or Paulo which ever you prefer. I'm from a town called Halifax in England and this is my first time in Africa. I've been here in Kenya for about 5 days now and I have been made feel very welcome and thank you all for making me feel very welcome this morning”. That’s what I said and everyone clapped and said “Karibu”, which means welcome. Phew that was over, but apparently I did very well and the people I spoke to afterwards remembered everything I had said and were interested to find out more.
We left church and took a stroll back in the afternoon sun. It was warm but I propped up the collar on my shirt to stop the sun from settling itself on the back of my neck and giving me a nice red mark which may give me grief for the next few days.
We came back and had lunch and we knew that this afternoon was for relaxing and doing anything we wanted. We had talked previously about watching a DVD on my laptop in the lounge, so we got out Matthews speakers to amplify the sound and sat back and watched The Pianist for the afternoon. We had to take a break at 6pm for evening dinner but we eagerly returned to watch it after an awesome roast Sunday dinner. I realised that I am actually getting my recommended 5 daily portions of fruit and veg here in Kenya and its actually preparing me and making me look forward to it when I get back home.
We watched the film till late into the evening and soon went to bed once it had finished. Doing nothing can make you more sleepy so once we had finished and packed up I headed to my room to kick some Z’s. Now this is where it gets funny and I show off more of my feminine side. I'm a man right, I mean I like to chop wood and stuff and don’t mind a kick around with the football from time to time, but when it comes to spiders, insects and creepy stuff that can hang over your head while your sleeping, I tend to turn into a bit of a pansy I must admit.
There was this massive spider right, hanging by the side of my bed. When I say massive I mean it was about 2 centimetres in diameter, it wasn’t exactly a tarantula size, but if that bad boy crawled on your face you wouldn’t be best pleased. I sent it outside using a tissue then came back in to notice I had something hanging just off the ceiling. I stood on my bed bare foot, leaving red dust all over my pillow, to peer up to see what it was. Just off the ceiling was what looked like a small golf ball and attached to it was some kind of fly. Now I don’t know exactly what dangerous insects look like, but I wasn’t going to take any chances in leaving this to sit there over night and maybe multiply. What do I do? I thought. So I did what any sensible person would do. Go get someone else to move it.
I went to see John who was just about to lock up the lounge and hit the sack himself. I wouldn’t want to insult him by guessing his age, but he’s retired and I had him climbing on my bed collecting this creature from its hanging position. He collected it down and gave it me to flush. I was like, “Thanks dude”, “I would have done that myself but I’ve got this thing where I don’t like to kill any creatures its not fair” which translates to “Thanks a lot, i'm a scardy cat”.
So good gracious that was over, I could now sleep without worrying. I said my nightly prayer that I promised my Dad I would do and went to sleep hoping I would sleep like a baby and be well prepared for the next day.
I woke up in the morning having to peel myself from the bed, I was still really tired. That’s another story thought so until next time, I hope you are all well and God Bless x
Sat 19th and today is the first day of my first weekend and it is wash day. I had a little longer to sleep in this morning and came for breakfast at 8.30am. Breakfast was kind of different with some new food to try. I was slightly late compared with everyone else so I was sat for most of the time at the table on my own. I ate Mandazi, which is like a hard donut with a slightly popcorn taste to it which was quite nice when coated in jam. Matthew was washing his clothes out by the garden using the filtered water collected by the rain. I didn’t need to wash quite yet as it’s only been a few of days since my arrival, but I’m pretty sure by the way things are going next week is going to be my first attempt. I sat on the balcony or veranda, whatever you want to call it and finished off the remainder of the blog from the night before. The sun was shining as always and the birds tweeting, so I sat with the laptop on a very unstable desk, writing in peace.
Once Matthew had finished his washing we decided to take a walk to the offices to take a look to see if I could fix the Office email account that wasn’t working properly and start on creating some I.D cards for the IcFEM mission staff. We didn’t spend long here as it was coming up to lunch time, but just before we were due to leave, Matthew was asked to cover for Norah, the lady at the Cyber Centre, as she went home for her lunch. I left Matthew to continue with things and hold the fort at the Cyber Centre and took the short stroll back to the guesthouse carrying my laptop in my rucksack and constantly pulling up my trouser legs at the back to stop them from becoming caked in red soil.
I had lunch on my own then went to my room where I was to wait for Matthew to come back at around 2.15pm. I haven’t mentioned this before but since the very beginning of my trip I have begun doing sketches in a notepad illustrating my feelings and activities I have seen and done in each particular day. I began to create a masterpiece using only my black biro and my A4 lined pad and sketched away for about 15 minutes listening to my music with the ipod at full volume. By this time I was chilled out to the max and began to feel a little sleepy and realised I still had a bit of time on my hands before Matthew was back for dinner and we had to be off again. I laid down, stuck in my ear plugs to drown out the sound of buzzing flies and chattering people and got a little bit of rest which I guess I needed. I woke up maybe two hours later and with no clock or time in my room. I was a little worried that I had missed Matthew and that he had been to wake me but left with the result of me not waking up. That was the case. Well kind of. Matthew had been back but was back later than expected. He then had to rush off to get his bike mended at the “Fundi” and had left without waking me. I thought he may be down at the offices where we had arranged to originally spend the afternoon, but when I walked all the way there, I got there and realised he wasn’t. Fortunately I was able to get a lift back in Solomon, the directors Volvo.
Matthew may be gone sometime and I didn’t really have much to do around here. I knew I had and episode of Heroes, a TV show I like watching back home, downloaded onto the laptop and I knew this was a better opportunity than any to catch up while I could. After finishing this, Matthew appeared at around 6.15pm. I had already spoken with the guesthouse staff and arranged for the others to return before I had my evening dinner. So Matthew was back but we thought it would be polite to wait for John as he had head off to DreamLand with Solomon to take his very first look around.
After dinner we sat in the guesthouse lounge. Matthew and I discussed and created designs on the laptop and were getting quite excited at what we had put together on screen. We continued this until late in the evening, creating him a document template with a header and footer for his Gap Programme letters.
It was now Sunday and time to hit up church but not before we had sausage, tomato and toast for breakfast. I was told over the next few of weeks I would get to experience a number of churches to see what the difference was between them all, and then finally decide which one I liked best and would prefer to visit for the remained of my trip. Ann Lipson, who preaches at the front of the church we were to visit today, offered Matthew, John and me a lift onto the service. I was suited up smart in my black suit trousers, rocking the shirt and tie and also wearing my black shoes that hopefully wouldn’t get ruined from the ground I would be walking on. Luckily for me it hadn’t rained for the previous day so the ground was solid and reasonably dry in most areas. We hopped in the car and set off to the church which was about 10 minutes away. We hit bumps and bounced in and out of ditches from the uneven back roads and just over half way there we realised that the front driver side tyre had got itself a nice big puncture making it completely flat. Typical eh, I just took in the whole situation as the people on the streets all started to gather round and point.
We took out the spare type from the back of the car and also removed the jack ready to change the flat tyre for the spare. All of a sudden the thought of home came back to me as a couple of weeks previous to coming out here, my dad was working on my car changing the tyres as he was putting on new wheel trims. I remember thinking watching my dad tinkle with the tyres, “Man I would never be able to do that”. Well it was my time to have a go. So John and I had to tackle this problem and between us both we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing. I wacked the jack under the car and began to twist the leaver thingy until the car starter to rise. My bad, I had put it too close to the centre so the back started to rise instead of the front. How was I supposed to know? That’s why I’m an IT Technician and not a mechanic. Anyways I began to move it towards the front when a gang of little children ran over to watch as two Mazungu’s attempted to fix this car, then soon after 2 older guys came round who were more than willing to take over without being asked. I just stood back, kept quiet and watched as they removed the old type and replaced it in a matter of minutes. I was chillin’, there was no need to get all worked up over nothing was there.
So the car was fixed and they drove on to church, I walked on with Matthew who had come back to the car and we sat in for the service which hadn’t even started yet. It began and lasted just short of two hours. There was singing, praying and bible readings involved, just like it every normal church. It was even in English which was pleasing. We were greeted and welcomed by almost everyone. During the service John and I had to stand up and introduce ourselves. John went first and said his name and where he was from but also elaborated a little, wait, elaborated a lot. I began to start worrying as I was struggling of things to think of nevermind say. He didn’t go on for too long but said enough about himself to please everyone and let them have an idea about his background. I couldn’t just stand up and say “Hello, I'm Paul and I'm from England” could I? So I bucked up my ideas and just improvised the best I could. “Hello, I'm Paul or Paulo which ever you prefer. I'm from a town called Halifax in England and this is my first time in Africa. I've been here in Kenya for about 5 days now and I have been made feel very welcome and thank you all for making me feel very welcome this morning”. That’s what I said and everyone clapped and said “Karibu”, which means welcome. Phew that was over, but apparently I did very well and the people I spoke to afterwards remembered everything I had said and were interested to find out more.
We left church and took a stroll back in the afternoon sun. It was warm but I propped up the collar on my shirt to stop the sun from settling itself on the back of my neck and giving me a nice red mark which may give me grief for the next few days.
We came back and had lunch and we knew that this afternoon was for relaxing and doing anything we wanted. We had talked previously about watching a DVD on my laptop in the lounge, so we got out Matthews speakers to amplify the sound and sat back and watched The Pianist for the afternoon. We had to take a break at 6pm for evening dinner but we eagerly returned to watch it after an awesome roast Sunday dinner. I realised that I am actually getting my recommended 5 daily portions of fruit and veg here in Kenya and its actually preparing me and making me look forward to it when I get back home.
We watched the film till late into the evening and soon went to bed once it had finished. Doing nothing can make you more sleepy so once we had finished and packed up I headed to my room to kick some Z’s. Now this is where it gets funny and I show off more of my feminine side. I'm a man right, I mean I like to chop wood and stuff and don’t mind a kick around with the football from time to time, but when it comes to spiders, insects and creepy stuff that can hang over your head while your sleeping, I tend to turn into a bit of a pansy I must admit.
There was this massive spider right, hanging by the side of my bed. When I say massive I mean it was about 2 centimetres in diameter, it wasn’t exactly a tarantula size, but if that bad boy crawled on your face you wouldn’t be best pleased. I sent it outside using a tissue then came back in to notice I had something hanging just off the ceiling. I stood on my bed bare foot, leaving red dust all over my pillow, to peer up to see what it was. Just off the ceiling was what looked like a small golf ball and attached to it was some kind of fly. Now I don’t know exactly what dangerous insects look like, but I wasn’t going to take any chances in leaving this to sit there over night and maybe multiply. What do I do? I thought. So I did what any sensible person would do. Go get someone else to move it.
I went to see John who was just about to lock up the lounge and hit the sack himself. I wouldn’t want to insult him by guessing his age, but he’s retired and I had him climbing on my bed collecting this creature from its hanging position. He collected it down and gave it me to flush. I was like, “Thanks dude”, “I would have done that myself but I’ve got this thing where I don’t like to kill any creatures its not fair” which translates to “Thanks a lot, i'm a scardy cat”.
So good gracious that was over, I could now sleep without worrying. I said my nightly prayer that I promised my Dad I would do and went to sleep hoping I would sleep like a baby and be well prepared for the next day.
I woke up in the morning having to peel myself from the bed, I was still really tired. That’s another story thought so until next time, I hope you are all well and God Bless x
No comments:
Post a Comment