In Nairobi

Our journey to Nairobi went smoothly and we arrived on Tuesday evening. ByThursday afternoon  the sun had at last appeared and warmed the chilly air. Hard to believe we are near the Equator and not in BC.
Wednesday we went to Immigration to collect our new resident cards that we ordered last March. No sign of them! The fellow put a ‘trace’ request to see what might have happened. The good news is we have our old ones, plus the receipt for the new ones, and someone else can collect them for us at some unspecified future date.
We dropped in at Nakumatt the big supermarket for Rod to buy a cap (he forgot to put one in the luggage!) There we met two young men from Kakamega who, as always, beamed with joy to describe their ‘home’ when they learned we know the area.
Wednesday lunch BBQ at the United Kenya Club offered goat and chicken and many local vegetables. Breakfast gives us large slices of pineapple, papaya and delicious passion fruit.
Our vehicle is here thanks to our network of willing friends and left early Saturday expecting to arrive in the late afternoon. Of course there is something to be fixed, so stopped by our reliable mechanic in Kisumu. Hopefully it will be easy to put right.
As far as the grant goes, we are toiling up the long, slow slope of approval. It looks as if the East Africa District will give the ok but I have to do some work with the local club to ensure they qualify for this kind of grant. (Yes, this could all have been done weeks ago!)
The public school teachers have been on strike for three weeks and are now back at work after receiving a lump sum payment. This means that the very important exam schedule has been thrown out of sync and delay in their administration will mean a delay in opening of school in the new year. This in turn could radically affect our teacher seminar plan which is a major part of the grant proposal.

We never come back to Africa thinking things will be easy! But it is so good to see all the smiling faces and to receive so many welcoming phone calls, that it’s hard to stay frustrated for long.