Things that creep and fly and scurry about !

There were gecko's on the ceiling in my room ... strange, almost transparent animals but they eat the insects that come in the room so were very welcome.  

This lizard lived in the palm tree outside my balcony, and appeared in the afternoons.   He was very difficult to photograph because any slight movement on my part, and he was off, among the base of the huge palm leaves.

This pied crow shared the palm tree with the lizard, and its possible that given the chance, the crows might eat the lizards !

A sand bee, which dug the burrow you can see in the heap of sand at the workshop.   I first noticed grains of sand flying out of the hole, and crouched down to watch what might be making the hole.  Then he shot out and flew off, so I had to wait patiently until he returned; he landed on the scraped out sand each time, before crawling into his hole.

A nasty piece of work !   A solitary wasp - although they sometimes seemed to be in two's or three's - which made a hanging 'cell' in which they raised one or two more wasps.  They are about two inches long, and pack a nasty sting if annoyed !   Common on verandas and under eaves.  

Enough to give anyone nightmares !   But this little spider lived on my balcony, where it appeared to eat gecko poo !   It was, in reality, about a third of an inch in size.   If touched (and I used a pencil !) it jumped about six inches ... 

Mill Hill Guest House, Milimani, Kisumu

This was a great place to stay !   K. sh 2,500 per day for full board ... three decent meals a day, tea, biscuits and cake available at all hours ... cold drinking water always in the fridge ... (oh, that's around £18.75 per day)

My room was upstairs, right behind the palm tree in the centre of the picture.   The room had louvres and mesh windows at both ends, plus a balcony, so it was possible to get any breeze going.  The temperature was often in the high 30's C ... the hottest day being 39.2 C.  

Nice big room, with its own shower room.  I spent an hour or so every day on the balcony, just watching the world go by !   One day I watched a huge convoy of cars screaming along, with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and President Museveni of Uganda, going to open a new University of the Great Lakes ... a joint venture of African countries around the lake.   I never did find out why in the middle of the convoy, which was closely guarded by army and police, there was a pick-up truck containing a very nice pedigree cow !   Maybe it was a gift from the PM to the President, or vice versa ?

The open door onto my balcony; the tree right outside had a very well camouflaged lizard living in it.

The 'lizard tree' and the view of rather nice housing opposite.     Lake Victoria was a quarter of a mile beyond those houses ... and so were the lions I kept hearing at night !

My night-time view from under the net !   It was reassuring to hear mozzies zizzing outside the net while I was inside it, but it made bedtime a bit of a palaver ... everything I might need in the night ... book, glasses, torch, bottle of water, iPod ... had to go under the net with me !



The workshop when I arrived

I visited the workshop the first day I was in Kisumu, when I knew no-one would be there. I was initially shocked by the untidiness and the mess everywhere.    The ceiling showed signs of damp getting in, there was an untidy heap of wood in one room, and the floor hadn't seen a broom since we left !   All the sawdust and shavings around were an obvious fire risk. 

The outside of the building shows the metal doors that were fitted just after we left last year; the sign looked newly painted ... can I be sceptical and say maybe because they knew I was coming to visit ?

Water had been getting in and leaving salt stains on the ceiling.   Paul later told me there was a slight dip in the cement on the 'roof' which had been holding rain puddles, so he removed a brick edging above the door so water could drain.  If and when the upstairs is built, then this problem will be resolved.

What a mess !  The heap of wood in the side area was a mixture of the scaffolding we had left (tidy !) and some new wood Paul had been given.   But what was most worrying was the shavings and sawdust ... a real fire hazard.    I bought Paul a broom before I left, and it was put to good use.   I suggested they had a drum outside for the shavings to be put in each day, so the local people could collect them for lighting their cooking stoves.   I must check this has been done.   A tidy workshop shows good, tidy work is done there.

Some photos

I've been busy this last week, sorting out 'stuff', washing clothes, and have at last got to finding photos of my journey.

To start with, here are some of the children who live around the site ...

Baby in a bath ... he lives with his parents and brother

in a house made of corrugated iron sheets !

Beautiful children, despite the circumstances they live in.

Blog on a plane !

BLOG 17 … back to England.

Breakfast after an interesting night; my bed was against the wall, the other side of which was the next door rooms loo … I heard every pee during the night from whoever. 

Breakfast … I had a substantial one with omelette and toast and cereal and juice and toast and tea … and I noticed the Swedish ladies were passing round a big pot of pills … presumably their anti-malarials.   They drink coffee out of soup bowls … interesting.

Peterson took me to JKI airport, and I wandered around the duty frees for something to do for a couple of hours.   Had iced coffee and my soluble aspirin.  Does it do any good, I wonder ?  Had a look in the book stalls and decided that a few I fancied were priced in dollars and my mental arithmetic made them very expensive so I noted the titles and authors and will look on Amazon.

Flight on time; I'm sitting next to a youth who sleeps all the time; he awoke for lunch (it was awful  greasy food) and is asleep beside me again. 

Have I said that I've at last observed a use for the Kindle ?  People like NC who live in Eldoret, and the fathers at Mill Hill, can't get books via Amazon like I do (parcels never arrive), BUT … they can download them from the internet onto their e-readers.   Better than no books at all.   When we lived here I used to get book society books sent out, but one can't do that now.   I've still got some of the Folio Society and other books I bought in the 60's and 70's !

It looks like the flight will be on time or even a bit early.  I have the skymap on, and we are over southern Egypt as I type this.   I wonder if Jan and the others are SkyRadaring me ?!  It gives our altitude and distances and right now we are just north of Abu Simbel, having crossed the Nile, and have 2613 miles to go.   We are due to land in 6 and a half hours.    1718 miles from Nairobi, speed 504 mph and altitude 36000 feet and outside temp -56 F.  Isn't technology wonderful … even me using a laptop up here in the sky …

I watched the spoof on James Bond film with Rowan Atkinson, and a film about dinosaurs, and an episode of some not very funny comedy about a supermarket … it passed the time.

Later … we reached the sky over London half an hour early … then circled Bromley in Kent … twice, and then central London … once, and finally got into Heathrow at the scheduled time, so weren't early at all.   I texted daughter that I had arrived, and got several texts from friends who had been radar tracking my flight !   Daughter and her husband were there to meet me and drive me home.

Good to be back, even if it is B. cold !

I'll have to sort lots of pictures to put up next ….