Well kids Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Ho ho ho etc etc. Many many Christmassy greetings to all of you.

I am still walking round in a bubble of self satisfaction and general pleased-ness after successfully sorting out my visa in a mere 2.5 hours on 9th. I made a flying visit to Nairobi in order to do this. I had my first experience of a matatu and unfortunately it’s unlikely to be my last. A matatu is a Nissan minibus and they are the main mode of transport all over Kenya (both short and long distance) if you aren’t rich enough to have your own Land Rover. They are notorious both for the frequency with which they break down and the delinquency of the drivers. Fun fun fun. The 4 hour journey there took about 5 – which was very good. Thankfully Naomi was also traveling down so I went with her. It was really weird when I got there, 3 months in Meru and I can’t cope with the sight of spaghetti strap tops and tarmac-ed roads. On Saturday morning I stocked up on Hobnobs (!) and came back. We were making very good time (no break downs, no passengers with BO problems and no live chickens!) until we reached Embu when the police decided they wanted the pleasure of our company for 2 hours. I spent a boring time waiting for them to realize that no one was desperate enough to give them a bribe before we continued home. I then stumbled out of the mat in town and prepared myself for the walk home when a random guy called Victor decided to walk me home. He obviously knew me but I still don’t have a clue who he is. It’s one of life’s great mysteries.

Two more random guys (who actually don’t know me) have both offered to buy me. Not sure if they were talking marriage or outright slavery. One seemed to think that the attraction of converting to Islam would be too much to withstand and the other just appealed to Mark’s materialistic side by offering him a million shillings. To his shame Mark gave in and agreed to the price. Thankfully the only people in Kenya who have a million shillings spare are winners of the Safaricom (mobile company) Christams competition (30 winners in 30 days!)

The following Monday was Jamhuri Day. Being British when they’re celebrating independence was rather odd. Especially as people have a tendency to say things like, ‘You colonized us’. I have taken to stressing that actually I’m more than half Irish and giving them a list of all the peoples who colonized Britain. It meant we got to eat chapatti though!

The boys (or should that be men now?) who disappeared have finally come back!!! Though you wouldn’t think it as they’ve been shut up in their room for the past 3 days and are likely to remain so until Christmas. I was worried to see that the news reported that 2 boys who went to the same place actually died! Eek! The story was entitled ‘Right of passage or death?’ Sounds great. I am trying to remember all my EEP training on seemingly scary foreign practices and not ask questions like, ‘Why on earth do you do something so horrible?’ Practices vary from place to place and Angela (who comes from central province) was also a bit confused by how big a deal it all is in Meru.

This weekend I took the kids swimming as I’d promised to. I’m very proud of myself that we left only 5 minutes after I said we would. Usually departure time resembles a train timetable and punctually runs at least 1 hour late. After walking all the way I’m impressed that they still spent over 2 hours in the pool (it’s around 4 miles away and we took the little ones). There was also a wedding reception at the same place so me and Leah gate crashed for a bit and helped ourselves to sodas. The bit we were at was pretty much like home – people eating loads and taking pictures, giving speeches etc. Although, it’s traditional to eat fermented porridge at the end of the meal, I don’t think it’d go down too well in Britain, trust me, I’ve tasted it! Leah was saying that the best bit is the evening when all the women dance. There was a bit of dancing while we were there. They had to go round the car before the newly weds got out and they sang a traditional song, which to my ears sounded out of key. The singing takes an acquired ear and at the moment I don’t appreciate it as I should I’m sorry to say.

Hope you all have a good, stress free Christmas! Don’t eat too much or blow up your microwaves.

Siobhan