Out of Africa - Jon and Sarah's home

Most of you will know that Jon and Sarah (my daughter) are spending a year in Kenya on a voluntary basis to start a school. Here are some of my pictures from my recent visit. The house and garden that they have free use of is owned by a charity.

Sarah in her garden

Spot the differences!

The house is a bungalow made of local bricks: I think the walls are one brick thick (no cavity - no need for insulation here!). The roof is tin on somewhat scary timbers. All the windows and doors are barred for security and individually made by local metal workers. Thus these two windows are nominally the same but you'll notice many differences if you look carefully!

They collect water from the roof for washing and showering. Drinking water comes from the local communal spring, and Sarah boils this. They have mains electricity (most of the time) and have a fridge and gas cooker (though no kitchen as such yet).  And they thankfully have sit-on loos (which discharge into a cesspool under the garden).  As such the accommodation is a good deal better than the average in this area but then we are m'zungu's!

Water storage collected from the roof

Cinnamon buns are actually cheap to make 

Washing clothes the Kenyan way

Visitors from the church enjoy chocolates I brought over

Kenyans and us enjoying a m'zungu meal

Sarah's garden after heavy rain

Jon's coffee making was legendary

Sarah does school prep most evenings

Typical Kenyan evening taken just outside their home

Convention is over

Some left yesterday, others left early this morning after having been dosed with multiple mugs of coffee, some will remain a couple more days. So it is more or less over. Things will gradually slip back into routine. Am I pleased? I think I may have already intimated that conventions and other such large-scale gatherings are not at all my scene. I tend to crawl into my shell. The noise deafens me so that I cannot even hear the person the other side of the dinner table. I am embarrassed because I cannot remember some of the names, or cannot tell people apart. Gatherings between the meetings are about socialising, about small talk, and I don't do small talk - I long for proper relationship and not just a meaningless, yearly brushing of shoulders. Thankfully there is always plenty of clearing up that has to be done, to occupy my time and energies.  And so, once again, convention has come to pass.