This blog is brought to you all the way from my 39 degrees self

8th Sep

So im back in love with village life. Dont think Il be going to Embu for two reasons, a) the Kenyan guy whose house we stay in is having marital problems (jog on with that) b) apparently the weather is really cold (double jog) c) The other medics have told me that Siaya Hospital is better than Embu hospital and Finally the Nairobi in which I would have to stay for a night before travelling to Embu not only has cockroaches and a million (now we know malarious) mossies BUT HAS A RAT INFESTATION. And so im staying here in the village. Ive swapped beds and am now on the top bunk, far from the floor and encased in my mossie net, that at one time I deplored and now I love as once I tuck it in, touch wood, that my bed is impermeable to roaches. PLEASE GOD. I did find another on the floor yesterday though. Dono why they all seem to come to my room. Ergh. Im not really afraid of them anymore just want them GONE.

Its rainy season here in Kenya. Bloody fantastic mate. This means its summer! The sun is up at about half six and doesn’t go down till about seven, half seven, AND IT IS HOT. The flip side is that every three days we have a day of major monsoon weather, the ground becomes really muddy and everything gets dirty but the next day it warms up and the ground is instantly hard again, almost as if the mud didn’t exist. Also, everyday at about six we have monsoon downpours for about two hours. Unlike English weather, Kenyan weather is predictable, and so it is very easy to arrange ya daily activities around the sun and rains.

This is fab for me as im still bloody ill and the side effects from the AL (antimalarial medication) have kicked in, ive got this really really sore chesty cough and am really really weak and tired and blumming hot. Upside, I aint going back to work until the meds are done and so prob not til next week now. So what’s a girl gonna do?

Sunbathe mate

Oh yeah another observation. We don’t realise how fast we speak, when I first arrived here no one could understand what I was saying, even those Kenyans that understood English well couldn’t keep up with the speed of my speech and so Ive had to slow down what I say. Also I use a lot of slang words that also dosnt go down a treat. Finally, Kenyans have a funny way of ordering their words when they speak, for example

We say : how are you today
They say: today, how are you

We say: Are you going to school today
They say: School, you will attend school today

We say: I am 26 years old
They say: I have 26 years

Er i guess it dosnt actually seem weird now that ive written it down, its like they put the subject of the convo first then talk about it. Also the children write in almost biblical language, again a bit difficult to explain but just a few things that I have noticed.