Back to school

It feels a bit more normal over here now that all of the children are back at school. I arrived during the last week of the school holiday so it was a bit quiet. The start of term in Kenya is a significant event. Rather than talking about “going back to school” we are opening for the new term. It's good to add a bit of gravitas to the first day back. It always gives us an opportunity to encourage the pupils with a pep talk.  The children looked keen this morning and I was pleased to see that they are still enthusiastic about the maths project that we started last term. Josephine and Rose (the two teachers who have been coordinating the project) gave me some very encouraging feedback about progress so far.

We had our monthly visit from the guys from the water management department this morning. They arrived in a very nice four wheel drive pickup and carried out their usual tests (water table level and quality of our water). The rains this year have pushed the water table up to the point where the floors of some of our neighbours' houses are very damp now. Just before travelling out to Kenya I received an email from our management team informing me that we will have to pay a small 'water extraction' fee from now on and that the first payment would be back dated for some years. It wasn't a huge amount of money but it's never very good hearing about new expenses. The guy who was in charge this morning was very helpful and advised us that we should write a letter to claim exemption from the charge. It's good to know that we have someone on our side.

We are going to have to replace our trusty Landrover very soon. The water management team's driver seemed quite knowledgeable about second hand vehicle costs and said that he would see if he could find a suitable vehicle for us. He was a very nice guy and took my number so that he could contact me with any news. I guess the more people we have looking out for a vehicle for us the more likely we are to find one.

We do need to buy it fairly urgently. Parked next to the government pickup our Landrover looked in a bit of a sorry state. It wasn't new when we bought it and it has seen some miles in the last ten years. Getting stuck in the mud last night didn't add much to it's appearance. Every once in a while we are asked to carry a 'patient' to one of the local hospitals. This is usually OK but it's a bit of a difficult request to respond to very late at night, as happened yesterday. One of our neighbours came to the gate at about eleven pm last night, obviously very worried because his elderly relative (one of our children's grandmother) had 'fainted' and was very sick. The nearest hospital that provides affordable care is not very far away but it isn't on the main 'road'. One of our night guards was willing to drive the lady and her carers to the hospital so they set off to pick her up.

It's hard to appreciate how difficult it is for members of the community when a serious medical problem strikes. The lady's home is not easily accessible so she had to be carried to the nearest point of the main road to be picked up by Leonard in the Landrover. Once the vehicle had departed I went back to bed. When I got up this morning I noticed that the Landrover was still missing. The road was so bad that it didn't quite make it to the hospital and had to be towed out of the mud this morning. Poor Leonard spent the night guarding it for us. We heard later that the lady had pneumonia. I hope she makes a good recovery.