Little House on the Equator

Heather met Naomy in 1995 at the NGO forum of the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in the disability issues tent with Lani (then 13). Naomy had become involved in disability issues in 1993 when the (non-disabled) head of a local special school asked her to represent him at a national meeting of the newly set up United Disabled Persons of Kenya. Inspired by this, she set up a local "extremely grassroots" organisation of disabled people, and was soon a disabled people's rep on the Kenya Council of Churches.

She left school teaching a few years later to work full time in disability issues - first in Zimbabwe, then in Botswana. For the last five years, she's been saving money from her earnings and using it to build a house in her home district of Vihiga, Western Kenya - where we're now staying.

Naomy had made sure to warn us, many times over, about the lack of electricity here, how simple it would be - so we're amazed by how big and comfortable it all is. H and I have an en-suite bathroom, the lack of electric fans is not really a problem - we're pretty much on the equator here, but we must be nearly 1500m above sea level, and it's almost cool at night, and not at all the oppressively humid, mosquito-ridden atmosphere we'd begun to fear!

Paul looks after the place for Naomy, and always hears the car coming and has the gates open before we get there. His wife, Esther, washes our clothes and floors, and brings us bucket-loads of hot water for washing ourselves. Susan (not in the photos below), who was Naomy's maid for many years, has come on a visit and is helping out with cooking and other chores. Naomy's friend Rose has been staying, too (though she's gone off for a couple of days to cater for a wedding), and she has been in charge of feeding us a huge variety of simple and more complicated food. With Rose away, Naomy's niece Rebecca takes charge in the kitchen, and Naomy's daughter Anne helps out too, in between revising for her exams at the beginning of the new school year in January. Naomy's sister Lydia was here to welcome us, and Naomy's neighbour Gladys drove her car to collect us from the bus station (Naomy's not yet confident to drive in the local city, Kisumu). And Gladys' youngest son Brian visits most days, too.

The water supply is very intermittent (so they've installed a big tank to store water when it is on), there's no electricity and no phone, and there are lots of padlocks, bolts, ornamental window bars and other security precautions - but this is a very good, relaxing, warm comfortable, secure and generally great place for us to have as home for the next eight weeks.

- Mark

A Passage From India, or "In To Africa"

The day after we arrived, I just slept, and occasionally ate.

We left Sea View Hotel at 4:45am, to drive to Dabolim to catch our flight from Goa to Mumbai, where we rushed around for a couple of days (seeing a film, shopping, buying peacock feathers for Coventry Community Circus, emailing, trying to post ostrich feathers and being told they're "totally not allowed", shopping, posting other stuff, shopping ...) before taking an 11pm taxi to catch our 3am plane to Nairobi, touching down at 6:30 am, exhausted.

Kenya's different to India in unexpected ways - the touts, salespeople nd hustlers have all been on customer care courses, for example. The airport safari-package sellers were very well-dressed, polite and friendly - and happily found the right phone number for the Youth Hostel and got us a slightly over-priced taxi, with none of the desparate persistence in trying to sell their product that we've been used to in tourist India.

We'll see more of Nairobi later - the Youth Hostel's basic but adequate, although all of Nairobi (and much of Kenya) is only getting intermittent water supplies - the Youth Hostel buy a tanker or two of water each day to supplement the meagre mains. Just one night here, entertained by a party of Ugandan schoolchildren, and chatting to Mel and Bob from the US in the morning, then a hot two-hour wait for a late-leaving seven-hour bus ride to Kisumu. Pretty knackered by now, but awake enough (between us) to meet one world-class athlete on his way home for a visit, two charming Tanzanian Sikh men off to a youth camp at a Gurdwara in Kericho, and several very young and friendly Kenyans - and to admire views of the Rift Valley, passing zebra, and the relatively safe and calm driving conditions (compared to China and India!).

- Mark

Safe in Nairobi (and more birds!)

Jambo! We're safely in Nairobi, although a little bleary after flying at 3am from Mumbai for five and a half hours, and arriving at 6:30am in the morning (we just had an impassioned argument about whether it is now Tuesday or Wednesday - that's how bleary). It's sunny now, although when we arrived it was cold and raining - it could easily have been Birmingham International on a grey April morning if it hadn't been for the acacia trees. We've already seen loads of big maribou storks in the trees, a brown bird with a long tail (as yet unidentified), and bought an East African bird book to get us started. We've found and been made really welcome in Nairobi Youth Hostel; booked our bus tickets to Kisumu (with a bit of hassle); been offered about twelve safari packages by very polite salespeople; eaten (we tried Nando's - but it was disappointing); and heard a great band playing, just sitting scruffily on a street corner (about the only scruffy Kenyans we've seen so far ...) We'll blog more soon, but evidence so far suggests that getting words and pictures up on the web is going to be almost as hard as from China: so apologies if we only put them up in big lumps when we can. And sorry if this is laid out funny! Blog you all soon! R, M, H, M xx

Birds of India

Just a quickie in our last few hours that we are in India (boo hoo). I have a little book of Indian birds and have kept a note of some of the ones that we have seen - couldn't identify them all and probably got some of them wrong but for any of you bird lovers out there (Vicky....anyone else?) here goes:-

• black drongo
• common myna (very common)
• hummingbird or purple sunbird
• red whiskered bulbul
• white breasted kingfishers
• common kingfishers
• sandpipers
• sea/fish eagles
• pariah kites
• brahminy kites
• little egrets
• cattle egrets
• little cormorant
• Indian shag
• dabchicks
• green parrots

Hope to get a book of African birds too.....- Heather

Famous Photographer! LOL

(LOL = Laugh Out Loud, for the older generation hu dont spk txt!)

Well I took these Photos from Utorda beach!

 

- photos taken by Rosa Parker-Hinton and not by her dumb dad

And the reason I'm sooooooo happy about them is that they are great (in my opinion) and Dad said that the only way that i cud take a photo like that with out the flash and on night scene (extra long exposure) would be if i had a tripod! So HA to Mark!

well i hope you like the photos!

luv yas

- rosa xxxxxxxxx

Nando's!

Oh my God! There is a Nando's in Kenya, that is going to be so much fun - I can't wait till I go. If you are going to any of these places go to Nando's (here is a list where they have them):

• angola, ghana, malaysia, qatar, tanzania, zimbabwe,
• australia, israel, mozambique, saudi, arabia, uganda,
• bahrain, indonesia, namibia, senegal, uae,
• botswana, kenya, new, zealand, south africa, united kingdom,
• canada, lesotho, oman, sri lanka, usa,
• cyprus, malawi, pakistan, swaziland, zambia,

go there: you will have so much fun!

or go on to www.nandos.co.uk then you will see if you like it.

- melissa

Last days in India

Can't believe that it's almost time to say goodbye to my beloved India! I read somewhere that people go through phases with India, first "I love everything about it", second, "Ok not everything about it is great" and third "I hate everything about it". Well if that's the case then I haven't yet moved out of the first phase. Of course there is a lot here that is not great - poverty/wealth, dirt, treatable diseases not being treated, over population etc etc - but somehow I find it reasurring to have those things out in the open and in our face. At home I am accutely aware of them anyway and hate the way that we are able to 'forget' that that is the way that the world is set up in England and that we are profitting from the system without having to face it. Here we are in no doubt at all how our comfort is at the expense of even the lives of others and I actually feel less burdened by it than I do at home where I think I feel that I have to keep reminding myself of it because noone else will. Hope this makes some sense!

Anyway for whatever the reason I really do love India and will be very sorry to leave. However, we have now bought the Kenya guide book and are really getting excited about Africa! Can you belive that we are actually going to Africa?! I have to keep pinching myself to check I'm not just in one long amazing dream! How lucky we are. We are all a little scared of Africa, mostly for me the heat and mosquitos. Since having the guide book the children have got less worried about the food - especially as Melissa has found out that not only has Nairobi got a "Nandos" (high excitement!!!) but that the Kenyans eat a lot of barbequed meat and that there is a lot of Indian food available.

So for our last days in Mumbai, we are back in consumer heaven. Last night we went to see "Vanity Fair" at the cinema - first cinema visit since leaving England and I miss it. Then we felt we had to try Indian MacDonalds at least once (not worth it!) and went to our favorite coffee bar. Today we are internetting, shopping, phoning and resting, tomorrow we will buy Malaria drugs and post some stuff home and we are leaving late tomorrow - actually at 3am Tuesday morning. Next blog from me will be from Africa!!!!! Lots of love to you all- Heather

From Mark's Notebook (4th Dec)

Flying at 15,000 feet with AirDeccan (the EasyJet of India) over the coast of Maharashtra. Heather and the girls are sleeping, but I've got the best view - rivers, forests, hills, the seashore and then blue off to the gently curving horizon - somehow much more of a sense of the Earth's curvature than I've ever had at 30,000 feet before. From here, you could get lots of great ideas for trips to what look to be perfect, unexploited beaches ...

When we paid our hotel bill, we couldn't believe we'd been at Patnem for nearly a fortnight - Goan laid-backness certainly grew on us. My sister Sasha asked us to look out for honeymoon possibilities: this area is a definite recommendation. The night before last we walked from Patnem to Pallolem through beautiful Colomb Bay:

We spent the evening in the Big Fish restaurant at Pallolem Beach South End, which was throwing a party with ice sculpture, live music and fireworks to which many now-familiar faces from Patnem came: a nice send-off.

An early morning the next day, for our dolphin trip (see H's post, below) - then packing, a rest, a last swim, some final panicking, and we spent our last evening at the Sea Cafe - the girls playing/hanging out with Tizzie, Jess and Naveen, while Heather and I chatted with Jackie and Jane and started to get to know Eric - good people. We'll have to visit again in a couple of years when Eric and Jackie have set up their eco-friendly paradise on Pallolem Hill ...

So, three more days in India, getting last minute chores done in Mumbai, with hopefully enough spare time to see Chowpatty Beach one evening and maybe even catch a movie (we ought really to see one somewhere in India, surely?).

Later ...

The approach to Mumbai from the air was breathtaking - I could make out the Gateway of India and Chowpatty Beach as we flew past - then we took a long curve round over amazing mountains in northeast Maharashtra, huge and red and brought out beautifully by the early morning sun: one seemed to be sheer on all sides, with a flat expanse of forest on the top...

We'll let you know when we're safely in Kenya -

lots of love

- Mark

Rosa enjoys Goa

Goa grows on us and now we're sad to leave

Well Goa has certainly grown on me and now it's almost time to go, I'm sad to leave it. Sati came, had a great time and left yesterday and we are leaving for Mumbai tomorrow. My initial impressions of Goa weren't inaccurate; but still we have met some really nice people here, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and there is plenty of variety away from beach resort land if you are bothered to find it. Of course the beach is fantastic, the weather perfect - hot and sunny in the day, cool in the evening. We swim twice a day, eat delicious food - sometimes Indian sometimes European. We have got into a habit of eating a lovely fruit salad with yoghurt and museli down at the Swiss cafe for breakfast after our early morning swim. We have had great thalis away from the beach area and the cafe next to our hotel (run by the Anglo-goan family) has become our second home. The kids have made friends with Tizzie,the daughter of the house,and we have made friends with the adults.

Last night we went off to Palolem to a restaurant that had music,fireworks and ice sculpting, the place is getting really busy now, but feels nice. Mark will put up some photos soon I'm sure. Tizzie stayed over with us so that we could get up early to go on our dolphin trip.

We got up at 6.30 and we saw plenty of dolphins. Rosa was sick but other than that it was gorgeous. We got back to shore and went to "Home" - the Swiss cafe, lay around in the 'chill out' area eating our fruit salads and Nutella milkshakes!I lay there fantasising about coming here to set up a school - can really imagine it. It's hard to believe that by the time we get home, Patnem will seem like a distant memory.

Having Sati here was fantastic, but its amazing how quickly it just felt 'normal' - it was a wrench when she left yesterday but again by tomorrow it will seem normal not to have her here I guess. It was a shame that she couldn't stay for long as she was having a great time.

I'd love to know what its like to be here out of season. There are quite a lot of Europeans that live here, both for six months of the year and permanently and I ask everyone I get a chance to talk to 'what's it like?' 'how do you afford it?' - it's expanding my ideas about the possibilities for the future.

Well that's it for now, we're off to Mumbai tomorrow and then off to Kenya on the 7th - good to leave still wanting more and looking forward to the next leg of the journey. I will be really sad to leave India though - I still love it, sickness and all (although I've been well for a couple of weeks now!).

Bye for now - love Heather

Sati blogs from Goa on her last night

Hi everyone,

Well what can I say, I came to Goa because the gang refused to take me up on my offer of a flight home for two weeks! I was missing them so much that I gave in. I am so glad that I did!! Goa is a fantastic place, beautiful sea, lovely people and to top it all my Coventry family and Indian brothers and sisters.

I thought somehow the gang would have changed, but they haven't really. I am really impressed with the girls, who by the way are both taller and Melissa has put a bit of weight on, they have really settled into the different cultural experiences with little fuss. Heather I believe has found her second home, both Marki and Parki are pretty chilled.

I have had such a good time, that for the first time ever I am not desperate to get home, I wish I was spending more time with them.

 

 

To all those Blog readers out there, I highly recommend that if you get the chance to join up with the family, do it, it has been a rich experience, watching the sun go down with beautiful people and gorgeous surroundings.

Take care

See you all soon

- Sati xxx