Saturday 2nd February
Kenya Airlines is absolutely fine - food OK , took off on time, generous with the G&Ts, and my rucksack with EVERYTHING and I, were reunited at Nairobi Airport. Transported to the volunteer house in Nairobi in a "Matatu" (Swahili for 'transport driven by lunatic") to spend the night with about twenty lovely, young, and very very loud, volunteers, most of whom seemed to come from one part of Canada or another..... Spent a nice day laughing and chatting and fell into bed very early indeed - not even the time challenged cockerel was gong to keep me awake...
The next day it appeared that the only other Brit in the house, and I, were intrepid enough (I'm definitely sticking with intrepid), to head into Maasai Land for our placement - and my one month here pales into comparison next to his six ! We're staying with a lovely lady called Maggie, her Mum, her cousin and two of her children. I haven't quite worked out exactly how she fits everyone in yet, or where...
Maggie runs the clinic that I''ll be working in, and Philip, her cousin, took me on a little tour round the village and the clinic this morning - it looks exactly how I would imagine it to - I can't wait to get stuck in. Today I have been given my Maasai name - "Nosim", which apparently means " friendly" or "companion" ( when Granny was calling me earlier it took me three shouts to realise it was me she was after!)and tonight I swear I am drinking no liquids after five o'clock - not because I'm scared of the outside loo, but because when I "crept" out last night, it was so quiet, that drawing the bolt back on the front door sounded like a thunderclap, and I was sure the next village across could hear me ! So far everyone has been lovely, friendly and welcoming and Maggie is clearly not going to allow me to lose any weight (her food is delicious) . Tomorrow is Sunday, and some of the family will be going to church. Matt (my English house mate) and I are going to try and find some gazelles, which apparently hang out "over the ridge", and try to learn a few more words of Maasai. Busy busy busy.
Tuesday 29th January
Why does it always take me longer to get organised than I think it will ? Having done nothing except work over the past week, I assumed it would be reasonably simple to get up after 37 seconds sleep following a night shift on Monday, and have the weeks worth of washing/washing up/cleaning/hoovering/general chore-i-ness, all done by Monday night, then I'd have all day Tuesday to pack and organise the dog/cat. Turns out I was a little ambitious. By ten pm on Monday night, not only was a gin and tonic saying my name very loudly, but I realised I was exhausted, and gave up. Today I've been mainly quietly panicking, and am now sitting on the 2100 train to London, approximately 3 hours later than planned..... I think I'm pretty together, except I really can't quite work out why I appear to have packed several lead bars in my rucksack, and why my (very large) rucksack appears to have shrunk. I had all three of us sitting on it earlier - although the dog and the cat together probably weigh less than the contents. I was ruthless ! I promise! But there's stuff for the clinic, stuff for the holiday afterwards, more stuff for the clinic... the only consolation is that perhaps once I've divested myself of all the toiletries and supplies, by the time I get to Zanzibar I may actually not have to pay two burly men to carry it for me... I also made a schoolgirl error with the flights, but nothing I can't handle - I carelessly chose my flight by convenience for me - it was going at the right time, it was direct (must be good, right?) and it is the "Pride of Africa". Booked and paid for.....then I read the reviews...... "surly staff" "in-flight entertainment always broken", "often several hours late with no explanation" "continuously losing baggage" "food terrible"....I wasn't sure that there could be anything else that could be wrong with an airline, but there was, and the list went on. And on. So, ever the pragmatist, I have packed my own in flight entertainment (this tablet) , and armed with lots of films, and some sturdy earplugs, I aim to ignore the surly staff and watch my own films. So there. I may even bring a sandwich just to spite them. Just please, PLEASE, don't lose my enormous rucksack full of EVERYTHING . Please ?
