Week Six at IcFEM

Christmas week and it has been quite a contrast to what is the norm at this time of year at home, on the day itself we even had a barbeque with the sun cracking the flags. Christmas Eve was spent continuing with the painting in the IcFEM office nursery.

All 3 classrooms are now complete, after further work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with just some adjustments of furniture, and cleaning of windows to be completed. I’m fairly glad that it is over, the classrooms now look fairly good, but it wasn’t the best job ever. The roof was hard work and then applying the yellow border was hard work because the paint was so thick, and then after spending most of Saturday sanding the paint spots off the floor I really was ready for a soda!

Christmas day itself was boiling hot, and was the first day I ate in the house, and the food was great. The day began with a huge breakfast, of toast, mandazi (abit like doughnuts), bananas and even a small packet of sweets. I got through a fair bit, there was just loads of food, with about 3 buckets of mandazi on the table, I couldn’t believe my eyes when even more came, there was no other option but to tuck in! After this it was time for church, and for me there was a last minute change of plan, instead of going with Mathew, I instead went with Solomon, Trevor, Leslie and Chris to Kamusinga. We set off at around 10:20 and arrived back just before 2. We then had a light lunch, of noodles and cake, before starting on the Barbeque out in the yard.

We sat down to eat outside at around 7, and once again it was a real feast. We had a full sheep, chapatti, chicken, salad, and some mashed potato, and then some cake for desert. Once again I managed a fair bit, and so it was no surprise that a little later, and especially the next morning, I did not feel too well, and missed breakfast the next day, while I tried to sleep it off a little.
Christmas day seemed to be just like any other day really in town with shops open, buda budas in business and people seemingly going about their usual business. It was funny, despite this, on Christmas Eve, I was asked whether we celebrated Christmas in England, and was then told that it was a big thing in Kenya and the people were preparing hard!

Once awake, Boxing Day was spent lazing around a little and playing a bit of football in the garden. I also went into town in the early evening to watch the Man Utd match.

This week has also played host to the Kenyan Elections, with votes still being counted as I speak. It has been fairly entertaining and the last few days, town has been quiet. Even Christmas day was busier. The man at the local shop opened and worked Christmas day, as did a lot of others, but had the 27th off for elections, even once he had voted was riding round watching the voting take place. Over the past few days people have been hanging around any TV they can set their eyes on, and most of the house also glued to the TV. It has been a real show with some results being announced, others delayed, with some ECK officials seemingly gone missing and the inevitable claims of rigging. It is now 3 days after the elections and there is no announcement of the next president and even demands for recounts! There is nothing on TV other than these elections, at least over the rest of the time I have been here we have at least had a small break between the continuous talk of elections.

With only a week to go in Kenya, it seems a shame that I am on my way in a little while, as since Christmas my point of view has seemed to have changed, from being a Englishman thinking “o look this is Kenya” to realizing I have now been living in Kenya for the past 6 weeks and feeling more and more at home with the Kenyan way of life.