Parents' meeting

This Thursday there was a parents' meeting at my school. Some visitors had announced their coming, they were going to talk about morals and advise the children in class 6, 7 and 8 as well as their parents. Supposed to be there at 10 am, the visitors showed up at 2 pm, however, those things don't surprise me much anymore. I had a relxing day at school while waiting for the guests (old, wise people, pastors from various churches and so on), the children were not there at all(who would then look after the house and animals when their parents attended the meeting?). I spent a day in the shade with the female teachers who prepared food for the guests, we had a very nice time, chopping tomatoes, discussing life and relaxing. The male teachers were hiding (as I would call it) to get away from any kind of work. Maybe I'm exaggerating now, but something that upsets me more and more here is the strict gender roles. Women might have a job (many female teacher), but she is still expected to do all the cooking, cleaning, housework in general and raise the children. I quote: "My husband won't even pour himself tea in his own home." I can tell I'm well on my way into changing my topic, so I'll leave the gender roles for now.

When the meeting finally started (at 230 pm, the visitors had to eat before they could speak of course), I was placed on a chair in front of everybody (because I was the only white person, they are so proud to have me here, it's a bit embarrasing) even though I tried to sit with the pupils, or the other teachers. After 2,5 hours I had to leave, although the meeting hadn't finished. Can't really say that I learned much about morals though, most of the talking (except when they adressed me) was in Swahili or Kipsigis.

The pictures should speak for themselves.

Hiking

Last Saturday we finally managed to take a walk we had planned to do weeks before, thanks to our friend Josh. We set out at 2pm (couldn’t start earlier, because Josh had to work), carrying water and homemade brownies. What a great day! Sunny and a bit windy, beautiful landscapes and great company. It took us about 1,5 hours to reach the place which is famous for its view and wild monkeys. Have forgotten the name of the place, even though I’ve been told a number of times. When Kenyans go for walks, they don’t rest like the Norwegians are used to – ten minutes of eating and admiring the view, and we were back on track, but taking a different route home. Through thick bushes, narrow paths (sometimes we couldn’t even see a path, but a local man volunteered as a giude and showed us the way out.) and muddy hillsides. Got back just after 6 pm, had walked for more than four hours with almost no stops. A highly recommendable trip though!

I’ve put together a number of pictures from the trip, so I’ll explain them briefly, starting from top left: 1: A chameleon we found just outside the gate where we live. We’ve just begun our trip. 2: Children running to greet us, and the fire in the back is a field of sugar canes, they burn it before they harvest, I think. 3: A traditional hut, on the wall is written “All visitors welcome”. 4: Josh and I inside a church with no walls. 5: Children washing themselves in a river, thrilled to see two white persons waving at them. 6: Josh admiring the view for a few minutes. 7: A river we had to cross. 8: Josh and I on a tree that functioned as a bridge across the river. 9: Ingeborg at the bottom of a ladder we had to climb down. 10: Beautiful, gigantic tress filled the valley. 11: Two of the monkeys we saw, they are a pain in the arse to the local farmers, stealing chicken and destroying the fields. 12: A small stream. No, didn’t feel like drinking it, only washed my hands and feet. 13: Ingeborg has got thorns stuck in her hair, we are about halfway through the bushes. 14: Finally something to drink! We reached a small village on our way back, our water had run out a long time before that so it was needed. 15: Back on the “main road” again, only another 40 minutes to go. 16: Dirty foot, and the rest of our bodies were no better.

African hairstyles

It takes a lot of work to keep the African hair in style - and faking a hairstyle by using a wig or extensions is even more common than keeping it natural. School girls shave their heads, young women normally braid it, while the older, married women wear a wig or scarf. The girl with the blue cloth on her head is just protecting herself from the sun though.

Where am I?

It took us a long time to find out where we actually live, because Kenyans hardly ever use maps, and buying one proved not to be easy. When we finally did find one in the right scale, our village was not there! So Ingeborg had to put it in - look for "Sigowet" in hand writing just below the middle. Now you know where to find me!

Game night

I have played dozens of board games, card games and other games almost all my life, I love winning and hate losing (if you’ve ever played against me, you know…), and still, I had one of my best game experiences last week, playing a simple game of Ludo. Ingeborg and I invited our neighbours over for a traditional Norwegain game night on Wednesday. We knew that they had already got some board games from Norway, however, no one seemed to have explained to them how to play, something we wanted to change. We started of with the easiest one, Ludo. If you ever thought Ludo was a boring game - try to play it with someone who has never even rolled a dice before, let alone played a board game, and I promise you a great experience. How do you roll a dice? Which way are you supposed to walk on the board? Why can’t you walk backwards? Why can I only move the red ones? We spent a few minutes going through the basics, then answered millions of questions as they came up during the game. Their enthusiasm was incredible, their winner instincts unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much laughter and screaming at a game night, at least not when playing Ludo. Ingeborg and I had a fantastic time as well – giving away the joy of playing board games is great!

Inspired by the success with Ludo, the Norwegian girls decided to make up two more board games to give to the pupils at the boarding school. We made one each, on large posters. Not too complicated, like “stigespill”, where you try to reach a destination, and on the way you can jump backwards or forwards depending on which square you land at. We made them really big so that many people can play at the same time. Hopefully they won’t create hostility between winners and losers.

Pictures will come when the network allows me to upload it. Stay patient, I do.

Everyday life

Just thought I should post some more pictures from the interiour of our house.

The first one is from our living room, it's me sitting on the sofa, mending a night gown. Notice the carpet on the floor! The other picture is kind of a follow-up to a post I put out last week. Even after learning how to cook the Kenyan way, these Wazungu still prefer their Western food. Our kitchen is packed wih great food, and we love cooking.

Domestic duties

We had planned to get a housekeeper to help us clean the house and wash our clothes, but so far we’ve managed on our own. It is not that I all of a sudden love doing housework (that would surprise you, wouldn’t it, mamma?), but we have plenty of time to do it, and it’s a good workout, sweeping and washing the house. A thing we’ve learned, is that cleaning the house before we leave for three days, is not a good idea. In Norway, the house would still be clean when you got back. Here, however, a large number of different bugs have visited the house – and died – while we were away, and thus leaving us with more sweeping to do.

The Kenyan way of washing has also made me discover new ways of getting blisters. Washing all our clothes by hand makes the outside of our fingers sore, because of the way we rub the clothes between our hands (and you can not blame our technique, we learned from the pros next door!). I guess we could use rubber gloves to protect our hands, but when in Africa, do as the Africans…And besides, I hate rubber gloves.

Washing floors manually is of course not a new experience to me– but washing an entire house with no stick to put the cloth on, is. You can definately feel it in your back afterwards.