Big day out

It has been a very African day today. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because, in the end, everything that needed to happen happened. The down side is that the ups and downs of making it through the day aren't always very good for my blood pressure.

Anybody that has spent any time in Africa will be familiar with the idea of 'African Time'. It is a fact that very little happens on time in Africa the way that Westerners are used to. This isn't a problem for Africans and it shouldn't really be a problem for us Western folks who are, after all, usually just visitors to Africa.

Today was a big day for our oldest children – the pupils in Class 8 who recently completed their primary education by taking their KCPE, (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education), exams. As a celebration of this fact we arranged a nice lunch and small excursion for them. All of the Class 8 pupils and all of the teachers took part in the day's activities.

The day didn't exactly get off to the anticipated start due to rain. I have commented on the amount of rain that we have had a number of times but today's rain was unusual – it started in the morning and has continued on and off all day. As I type it is raining quite heavily. This was not, obviously, the ideal way to start the day. Fortunately Plan B – watching a video for a bit – worked, (thanks to our small generator). We were finally able to get off on our day out at about 10.30 am. It is perhaps just as well that the rain delayed the start of play as the bus that we had booked for 8.00 am was nearly two hours late arriving, ('African Time'). Once aboard the bus we piled off to Kendu Bay, a nearby town that is by Lake Victoria, stopping en route for a brief sightseeing visit to a new water project.

It has been a while since I visited Lake Victoria. We used to take the children their fairly regularly when they were small enough to fit all of them in our Landrover. Revisiting the Lake I was struck by how much the waterline has receded. An old cargo boat that was 'moored' (actually half sunk), by an old pier is now resting on dry land. The fishermen now land their catch at a different site, hemmed in by weeds and vegetation that is now colonising what was once the shore of the lake. Despite this change it was nice to be back at the lake, watching two fishing boats land their catches, (which were promptly bought up by Mary our manager who has a keen eye for a bargain). The Lake has a soothing effect. The fishermen that we watched plying their trade today could just as easily have been fishermen from Jesus' day. They use the same boats and the same 'technology' – ragged sails and fragile looking boats seemingly held together by prayers and string.

As we made our way back to the bus to go to our lunch appointment I noticed a group of our teachers stood on the pier by the old boat pointing at something in the swampy ground beneath them. “Shhh” they said, “there is a big snake down there”. Peering down into the grass I caught a glimpse of the middle section of a very fat, (and therefore quite large), Black Mamba as it glided through a gap in the the long grass – the first time I have ever seen one of these deadly snakes in the flesh in the wild. It was an exciting moment.

We had lunch in a restaurant called the Big Five in Kendu Bay. (Though quite when any of the Big Five animals was last seen in Kendu Bay heaven only knows). The meal was wonderful – between us we had chosen fish, beef and chicken dishes which were served very efficiently, (though the seating arrangements were a bit squeezed). The kids were served first followed by the rest of us. The meal was, (I think), a great success. As we finished eating the rain stopped, allowing us to extend our day a bit by taking a visit to a local 'historical site' – a volcanic lake called Lake Simbi. According to a travel website “Simbi Lake is a popular destination for birdwatchers and a footpath allows visitors to walk around the circular lake. There is a local myth about this crater lake. As it goes, an old lady was denied food and lodging by the residents of a village and she made the rain came down so hard that the village was swamped to become Simbi Lake.” We had a very nice walk round the lake and did seem some beautifully coloured wading birds.

I did have a 'mzungu, (white person), moment just before we set off for the Lake. The driver of the bus ate slightly later than we did, (because we had packed out the dining room), and so we were kept waiting, sat on the bus, for about twenty minutes while he finished his lunch and then had to do something to the bus before we set off. As I said, it was a very African Day. I'm sure I was the only person on the bus who was at all bothered by the unscheduled wait, and we did set off eventually. It may sound a small problem but this type of transgression of Western notions of service and efficiency is one of the most testing things about living in Kenya.

As we were waiting by the bus for the last stragglers from the walk around the lake to arrive back Madam Nyangwe, (one of our teachers), told me that a small gaggle of young children standing by the bus were very pleased about our visit. They had never seen a white person before. Another example of something you just wouldn't expect.

The route we travelled to and from Kendu Bay on was a 'short cut' that seemed to take longer than the road that we normally use. It was, to be fair, a much better “road” and it made a nice change to see some new scenery. On the way home there was a nice atmosphere in the bus – the kids were quite talkative and in good humour. As we alternated between hurtling and crawling along the red dirt track back to Kosele it was good to be able to reflect on the day. I think I must be mellowing. As long as you don't let it get under your skin African Time works. On the whole the delays didn't add up to much and everybody had a good time. Maybe us mzungus are just too uptight. Our Kenyans friends die from many tragic causes, but I'm fairly sure stress isn't one of them.