Africa Expat Wives Club

• Inflation
  Just going away for our summer leave and as I pay out salaries a little early, have been hit with the usual last minute loan requests.
  
  I got my max possible daily cash allowance from the bank over the last two days and its not even enough! The two ladies who work in our house want more than 350 pounds each!  Hands are shaking!
  
  The tragedy is that its for clothes, food etc. for extended family up-country - hardly just to blow on crazy expenditure, parties, shoes...la la la.
  
  My husband says 'set a limit and stick...
  
  
• Barney's Centre - Special needs school
  
  Barney's Centre
  
  
  I have been procrastinating for a week before writing this. I don’t really know why. Perhaps it is because it’s a complex and emotional problem as usual and the way I see it there’s no obvious answer. But anyway, not writing anything is unforgivable.
  
  Early last week I went to see a centre for children with special needs set up by a Kenyan teacher I know called Beatrice. Beatrice gave it the rather slick name ‘The Barney’s Centre’, but this name belies the reality of the place. The home or day...
  
  
• Africans don't rate Bob Geldof so why should we?
  Interesting article....
  
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/7893011/Africans-dont-rate-Bob-Geldof-so-why-should-we.html
  

  
  

  
  
  
• The birthday party
  
  
  
  I think I have just about recovered from the ordeal of my daughter’s birthday last Saturday, though I’m not sure. As usual she shared her birthday party with her best friend who has nearly the same birthday and fortunately lives next door. Being the controlling type, I was happy to host the event.
  
  I knew that holding a party on the first weekend after the end of term might be problematic as so many people travel during the holidays, so I got the invitations out nice and early and for once and...
  
  
• The Kenyan Kikoy/Kikoi
  Well, like everyone else, have just survived the last week of the school term with the seemingly endless round of concerts, speech days, gifts to source for teachers and birthday parties.
  
  The week before this last crazy one, I took a very decadent day trip to Mombasa to help my very good friend buy stock for her shop in Central Africa.  She has spent years in East Africa, so knows what she's doing and says that in oil rich Gabon, where she now lives, there is simply nothing locally available to buy, so stock simply flies off the shelves. 
  
  Our girls trip was...
  
  
• What's going on?
  The political soap opera in Kenya has taken some exciting turns in previous weeks and I am sorry that I failed to blog about them.  Here's a post to make up for lost time:
  
  
  
  
  
  1.  Prime minister Raila Odinga was hospitalized last Tuesday.  Apparently he was suffering from persistant headaches.  A CT scan revealed he had a haematoma on his head.  He remembered that some time before he had banged his head on the inside of his car causing the bump.   By the end of the week he was photographed well again but in hospital wearing a shower cap.  He was...
  
  
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  VP45E3D33GRG
  

  
  

  
  
  
• Nameless
  
  
  I missed celeb spotting Ben Fogle at the Lewa marathon although I gather that my friend managed to get her photograph taken with him - but having the opportunity to watch Nameless at our 'Gala' dinner at the Carnivore was absolutely brilliant.  All the other musicians were good but in my opinion, Nameless was definitely the best of the bunch.
  
  We had to wait until midnight for him to appear and do his 45 minute set with his dancers, which was timed around a rather slow charity auction (they always are tedious but necessary) and the end of the Ghana...
  
  
• Lewa Marathon 2010
  
  
  This is how sad I am...
  
  I am half tempted to leap into the car tomorrow and drive 3 hours north, just to go and watch the Lewa marathon...  Why?  Not because I'm keen on running - shudder the thought.  It's because I've heard that Ben Fogle and even that Prince William will be there... I am such an incurable celebrity groupie! 
  
  I've since found out, via a quick look at the Telegraph online that Prince W is back home after his African wanderings with his brother, so that one is looking less...
  
  
• FIFA World Cup Fever in Africa
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ...the England football team visited a Cape Town orphanage today. "...it's heartbreaking to see their little sad faces with no hope..." said Jamaal (age 6)
  
  My husband sent me this joke this morning! Ha ha!
   
  Joking aside, World Cup Fever has certainly hit Kenya.  Suffice to say, my husband came home with a huge flatscreen TV last week and he's not even particularly a football fan!  Perfectly happy with our antique grey box that you needed glasses to see across the room ... I was horrified.  The whole family...
  
  
• Acacia House is now closed.
  To give you a bit of background on the old aid debate I need to come clean.  Certainly a fair amount of my cynicism on aid, development and 'trying to help' was sparked by the fact that the Acacia House friends who started up a small orphanage here in Kenya, have now packed up and gone home. 
  
  After a lot of soul searching and ground work, they eventually found a very nice, well run, larger home to place their girls.  They spent a long time settling in the children, have passed on the money they've raised and will continue to sponsor the children....
  
  
• Neil's response in support of aid and development:
  (Neil - sorry for making you a guest blogger - without your permission - you raise some very valid points)
  
  Neil:
  
  Thanks for the honour of the new post.
  
  
  I work for Save the Children and live in Kenya.
  
  My argument is based on logic backed-up by practical experience and is not just theoretical; I hope to give you some concrete examples to convince you and Anonymous.
  
  Your main points are that there is waste and theft of the UK overseas aid, exemplified by what happens in Kenya, that this has led to...
  
  
• DO cut UK Government Aid budgets 2!
  Since this debate rages on - I am going to be really mean and publish my last comment received as a new post and my response to it and see what you think: (sorry neil).
  
  neil said...
  
  
  I dont agree with your article (see previous post) because it confuses many different types of aid or charity and the practitioners.
  
  You move from consultants at DFID, but base your comments on benefits which are available to permanent employees, to charities, about which you simply assert that money does not reach those who need it and that it...
  
  
• Joe Biden's in the house!
  
  
  
  
  While Obama is up to his elbows in the BP oil slick crisis, we in Kenya are all in a twitter about Joe Biden's visit.  Biden's here for three days on his way to the opening of the SA Fifa World cup and arrived last night.  Since he's the most high ranking American statesman to ever have visited Kenya - the question is; why is he coming?  The local newspapers for one, seem to be pretty hazy on his agenda. 
  
  
  The party line is that he will discuss with and offer support to leaders regarding security...
  
  
• What is El Niño anyway?
  It's still raining.  Though the rains in Kenya have admittedly eased, we still have odd nights of dashing around with buckets to place strategically under leaky roof patches.  I have also read a bit about scientists predicting a very hot summer in Europe this year.  Well they said that last year didn't they, but with all this heavy rain we've had I wondered, what exactly is El Niño? What does it mean?
  
  I decided to do a bit of research and to be honest got more than a little confused by a lot of highly technical information concerning jet streams, hurricanes, wind directions, ocean currents and...
  
  
• Rhino Charge
  
  
  
  
  I dragged the kids off to watch the Rhino Charge on Monday which this year was located at Magadi on the edge of the soda lake.  For weeks I had begged as many friends as I could find to accompany me, but they all refused with lame excuses like,
  'I don't know where my camping kit is' or
  'I'm going to the cinema.'
  So we went alone.
  
  Rhino Charge is the famous charity 4x4 challenge that takes place every year in the Kenyan bush and is certainly not for wimps.  I always wish that Jeremy Clarkson...
  
  
• The Pros and Cons of moving to Nairobi
  I wrote this for an Expat website called 'ExpatArrivals.com'.  Let me know if you think the following is fair or if I missed anything out!
  
  Pros
  
  1. Kenyans
  The Kenyan people are wonderfully friendly, charming and tolerant of visitors.
  
  2. Language
  English is the first language spoken here, though most Kenyans are trilingual, using tribal languages and Kiswahili or a mixture of all three!
  
  3. Society
  With the emergence of a large middle class with disposable income, the expat and local community are not as segregated as they used to be. Kenyan and expat parents...
  
  
• 
  Oh dear, just googled him and the new UK shadow Chancellor George Osborne is even more perilously close to my age!  (born 1971!)
  
  I note that on Monday, though he announced a first round of rather radical government spending cuts, 'international development' (along with defence and education) are areas that he states will not be affected.  Shame.  The online comments on the UK Times and Telegraph indicate that many people are outraged that International development continues to be ring fenced - so it's not just me and you then?!
  

  
  

  
  
• It gets under your skin
  'The only problem with going to live in Kenya is that you will never want to leave.'
  
  An ex-Kenya friend of my husband said this recently.
  
  It's true.  In spite of all the negatives described in the blog, this pretty much sums it up.
  

  
  

  
  
  
• Young Guns rule the World!!
  
  
  
  
  
  It is sobering to find that people of your own age or era are attaining major positions of power.  It does rather make you wonder what you, yourself have been doing all these years, while Cameron, Obama and Clegg have been plotting their way feverishly to the top. 
  
  
  
  
  
  We now have 'easy on the eye' David Cameron 43 and Nick Clegg 43 (a friend of a friend actually remembers the latter from university - how scary is that!).  There's Obama 46 and also Nicholas Sarkosy not far behind...