Full house

Kosele is full of visitors now that our friends from Cisco have arrived. I have a feeling that we are in for a very busy week. The day got off to a slightly worrying start, as it looked suspiciously like it might rain again first thing. Fortunately the sun kind of sputtered into life eventually and the rain stayed away. We are all now praying for a return to the normal weather pattern of rain at night. It would be a shame if our visitors were subject to the Noah's Ark version of Kenya while they are here.

One of the nice things about having visitors is that it helps you to see Kenya from a different perspective for a while. It's easy to become so accustomed to your immediate surroundings that you stop noticing the small details. Having to stop and explain places, events and people provides a bit of space for reflection and, sometimes, reassessment.

The Cisco team flew from Nairobi to a small airstrip about an hours drive from our place. It was the first time that I had been there and I was surprised to discover a perfectly serviceable airstrip down one of the rough red roads that we are so used to driving on. The arrival of the plane turned into the usual spectator sport with a large crowd of people of all ages gathering to watch the landing and to weigh up the largish number of mzungus, (white people), that disembarked.

On our way back to Kosele in the Landrover John Appleton, (one of our UK trustees and the leader of the Cisco team), and I noticed a guy by the side of the road scooping something up off the ground and eating it. On closer inspection we could see that he was eating flying ants as they hatched. A freshly hatched flying ant is a real delicacy it would appear. I do remember the same thing happening on our compound when we first came to Kenya. The flying ants hatch in large numbers after heavy rain then burst into life and fly upwards in a great swarm. When it happened in Kosele we had a Kenyan girl who became my daughter Ellie's friend staying with us and she happily chased around after the flying ants, enjoying every, presumably, juicy mouthful.

During the journey back to Kosele from the airstrip we encountered the usual road hazards – potholes deep enough to break your suspension, other drivers suicidal overtaking and vindictive speed humps. Having moaned previously about the state of the last seven kilometres of the journey from Oyugis to Kosele it was really good to see that the earth moving equipment had been in action and scraped off the worst of the potholes, significantly speeding our journey up. It would be expecting too much to expect the road surface to be tarmacked but it does make a change to be able to get as high as third gear on the last leg of the journey home. Let's hope it is a sign of good things to come in the days ahead.