Day 2 blog for Thursday 17th
October, 2013 (Ignore automatic dating !)
Eight hours blissful sleep ! I awoke
at about 4.30 and after hearing a mosque nearby calling the faithful
to prayer, got up at 5. Its delightfully cool at this time, with a
slight breeze coming through the mosquito wire covered windows.
Wendy was only just up in time for
breakfast, but had had a good nights unbroken sleep. I went down to
the chapel for the catholic mass, but Father Gerry sleeps late, I
think, and no-one came to take it, so I'll try another morning, maybe
!
After breakfast of porridge, bacon and
eggs and malarone pills, Jonathan went off for a walk to Hippo Point,
where he sat and watched the hippos for an hour, and Wendy and I took
a more leisurely walk round Milimani. I'm enjoying our
conversations.
Then back to Mill Hill to do our
laundry, and for me to attempt to get online. They have a new ISP
now, and I can actually link in from my room, which is good. I
connected to Skype with no problems, but couldn't open and thus post
on this blog. I think its something to do with this ancient laptop
which has XP and nothing more up to date. But I later found that by
down-loading Google Chrome, all was suddenly well ! I'm not a
techie enough to know why, but it works and I was able to blog.
Wendy and I had a problem with our two
phones; we need to be able to call each other if we are working or
visiting two different places at the same time. I could text and
phone her; she could text me …. but NOT phone. I decided we ought
to visit a Safaricom shop to try and sort it.
After lunch I called Morris to collect
us with his tuk-tuk, but due to some misunderstanding he didnt turn
up, so Raphael (the gate-keeper here) called a tuk-tuk man he knows
…. who turned out to have the same name as my son ! We went to
Mega-City Mall, and he took us via Nyalenda, and Wendy saw her first
local shanty area. Such a contrast there …. slums one side of the
ring road, large posh houses in security fenced compounds on the
other.
We found the Safaricom shop in the
Mall, and we still don't know what the problem was, but the man fixed
it ! Then we followed a huge group of children upstairs to the
childrens area, and watched them going on a helicopter roundabout,
and some on the dodgems. The tiniest children looked terrified but
the older ones enjoyed the experience. I think perhaps for them
the best bit of the school visit was seeing the two ancient white
ladies sitting on the steps outside eating ice cream !!
It is both
interesting and terrifying to know that this Mall in Kisumu is almost
the same pattern as the one in Nairobi. We see today in the
newspaper that a bodiless head and some guns and an unexploded bomb
have all been found in the Mall there …...
Letters in the paper saying Kenya will not be defeated by terrorism ....
Waiting for the tuk-tuk to return, I
had a phone call …. it was Morris calling to say he was back in
town …. and I looked up and there he was walking towards us ! Its
lovely having friends here in the city, and suddenly meeting them on
the street.
Here at Mill Hill House, we all gather
in the common room for 6.30 drinks …. very civilised, before the
evening meal at 7 ! Various visitors, such as priests travelling
through to Uganda or Rwanda, or nursing sisters, come and go and stay
for a meal, or for a few days, so there are always new conversations.
I discovered that my eldest daughter who was born ¼ of a mile
away, was delivered by a Mill Hill sister who used to stay here 40
years ago ! Another link to the past …..
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