happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me

it was my birthday on friday, in case you couldn't tell!

first time i've felt properly homesick, but a 7.30am phonecall from mary, one of my adopted kenyan mums, cheered me up. pancakes for breakfast as well! during the day i just went to the school as usual (more about that later) and in the evening we went over to the guys at karanja's for drinks before heading into town. kat and sarah had made african themed birthday banners also the first time i've been sat on a balcony and an eagle's just landed on the chimney, cool as anything. getting out of karanja's was interesting. scooby, the dog, is a foolish dog by day and an evil sod by night. i genuinely thought i was going to end my birthday in a kenyan hospital getting my face re-attached but nya, the house help, kept her at bay with a fairly heavy padlock. take that, stupid mutt. i'm hoping our new puppies (all 12 of them) find new homes before they start getting mean. but anyway yeah it was fine, we hopped into the tuktuk and headed off for our first night out in kenya. there had been loads of powercuts that evening so we weren't sure if we'd be getting food or not but luckily the power sorted itself out in time for the veggie curry i'd been looking forward to. mmm then upstairs for drinking and dancing. clubbing in kenya isn't anything like it is in england - this was the top floor of the restaurant with two pool tables, music and a bit of dancing (ok, quite a lot in my case...) apparently pouring beer over the birthday person is a kenyan tradition, although full immersion is preferable, like a blessing, baptism or something? john, karanja's brother, kept threatening to chuck me in lake nakuru. i got out of that but my clean clothes are now covered in beer (cheers guys!) you don't buy a drink like, a vodka and coke either. you buy a bottle (full, half or quarter) then top it up with soda as you go. i did see a few glasses of wine but it's nearly as expensive as back home...not paying for that when tusker is about one pound thirty a bottle!

i started at baraka primary school on monday, teaching standard five and six. in theory this should be eleven to thirteen year olds but i think the oldest kid is about thirteen. i'm teaching maths and english (don't laugh, the maths is mainly out of a text book with the answers printed on it. thank god.) i've taught two maths lessons by myself so far and one english lesson. the extent to which the kids learn by copying was pretty evident in the composition lesson - while i waited for them to write about their favourite safari animals i drew some lions and stuff on the board. then collected in fifty books, each complete with an exact copy of the animals i'd drawn. the kids and teachers are both really friendly, kieran and i have two small shadows, njoki and lee, who are in the nursery but spend most of their time drawing stuff with us in the staffroom. lee's drawing of a 'musungu' will be up when i get round to scanning it. (by the way, i'm waiting to get a computer at ours before uploading photos as i don't fancy bringing my camera into town) the kids are really well behaved (so far) and love the novelty of this funny looking, pale teacher. i have a bike as well now so i stick out even more. the last musungu to ride a bike around nakuru was a nun, apparently, which explains all the calls of 'sister, sister!' as i ride past. the ride to baraka is pretty idyllic on the way there, down a donkey track then along a pretty rural road surrounded by shambas. the way home is pretty steep uphill though - ironically all the bikes i had in cambridge were mountain bikes, or at least had gears, and now i really need one i have a ladies' 'cambridge' bike with no gears.

on wednesday the volunteers were taken out for a day to see the workings of an organisation called FAIR, i can't remember exactly what it stands for but it's basically an organisation offering comprehensive care to families affected by HIV/AIDs. seeing the work they do was amazing, from growing food to helping build schools. the most impressive thing was perhaps the massive number of what are effectively voluntary social workers - a varying number in each district and each one supports 30 families. each family gets a half hour visit a month, for which the care giver might have to travel a considerable distance on foot, all without being paid. this organisation, based in nakuru, supports around 15,000 children in HIV/AIDs affected families in this way. as well as this they're responsible for helping persuade more people that the disease is a preventable virus, not a witch curse, which was perceived as a considerable barrier in fighting the disease. the effects of tradition here areay beyond what i expected - i thought that everyone who lived in urban areas was pretty much disconnected from their tribal roots but this is definately not the case. i'm even learning to tell apart some of the different tribes in the nakuru area.

anyway, we're off to try out a new restaurant with a relatively impressive number of vegetarian dishes. hoping for something that will give me a break from lentils! xxxxxxx