A thought for pause

Well, I've been meaning to tap something out on the blog ever since I got back but I've been foiled by recent events thus far. Unfortunately, last Wednesday, just 5 days after my arrival back in the country and the 3rd day back on my bike (after a 6 month break) I managed to confirm Newton's first theory, gravity does indeed still work exactly as he predicted. As I flew from my saddle and crumpled to the road I proved not only that gravity is still working just as it should do but also that when faced in a competition between bone and tarmac, I can assure you that tarmac remains the more resilient substance in repelling forces. So as my clavicle (that's a collarbone to me and you) bore the brunt of rules 1 and 2 above, and separated neatly into 2 pieces, leaving me sat on the said tarmac lamenting the weakness of bone in the tarmac/calciferous composite competition, I have since had time to reflect at length that after a 6 month break from the bike, cycling no-handed in strong side winds is something best avoided.

My 6 year old nephew summed it up best when told of my predicament he commented helpfully, "Perhaps Uncle Jamie needs to keep his stabilisers on for a bit longer..." Yes, thank you Benjamin I really am very grateful for the timeous advice.

Anyway, enough of my moaning, it certainly could have been far worse. It was only 1 bone, my face is still fine, yes yes I can hear the "we couldn't tell the difference anyway" jokes from here thankyouverymuch. The bike is made of tougher stuff than me and bears not even a scratch and I was assured by the consultant just this morning that I won't need surgery and that it should heal in good order within the next few weeks. And at least it happened at the start of our trip back and not the end.

Thankfully this means that our planned trip back to Kenya in mid-October with the roadtrip thereafter will go ahead according to schedule exactly as we've intended...HURRAH!

So how have things been since we got back. Well, notwithstanding the fears of reverse culture shock and the unplanned visits to A&E it's actually been a fairly smooth transition back to Blighty. The tube is still horrendously overcrowded, the pubs are obscenely expensive and there are more cars on the road than even Nairobi can muster at rush hour. Albeit that every single car seems to only carry 1 person whereas from what I've been used to for 6 months, every single vehicle has been crammed to bursting with adults, kids, chickens, boxes and bags....mainly of coconuts.

Although has it been so smooth? Talking to Kate this morning I've realised that I've been in a fairly anxious and unsettled mood ever since we got back. I've not been freaked out by the UK or how busy things are, but there has been a distinct underlying feeling of anxiety or something being not quite right. Perhaps this is the reverse culture shock I had been promised. I fear that now having been away for a while I'll be left feeling not quite sure where home is. Will I miss here when I'm in Africa only to hanker after the wide open plains, sweeping savannahs and seedy cities of Africa when I'm back in the UK. Where will my heart settle from now on? Perhaps that's what has caused my anxiousness, as it's a question I haven't got the slightest answer to at present.

Now though, almost halfway through my trip home I think I am finally settling down to actually enjoy the break ('scuse the pun), the return home and the fact that I am allowed to relax without thoughts of lists of things to do and people to see. I think the broken bone has thrown me a bit as it was most certainly not planned for and I am a man that likes to follow a plan I think. But over and above that I think perhaps I was floating along on top of what was bothering me thinking I was fine the whole time while my sub-concious was doing it's best to give me a psychological dig in the ribs and make me face up to how I felt.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellll that's quite enough of the deep soul searching shenanigans for now I think. As I said above I think now that I have grumblingly confronted my sub-c and listened and dealt with the psycho dig in the ribs I can breath a sigh of relief and relaxation and settle into the important business of enjoying my time over here and catching up with family and friends like I've been looking forward to for ages.

It really has been wonderful seeing my family and being able to talk around the dinner table with a few glasses of wine whilst enjoying a big roast dinner. Talking about nothing in particular but most importantly doing it face to face and with no delay on the line. Seeing friends has been weird in some respects, not the friends themselves but just the feeling that we've never really been away. It felt a bit like that when we landed at Heathrow. As we disembarked with all the hoards of tourists that'd been away for their 2 weeks safari etc, it all seemed a bit surreal that we'd actually not been back in the country for 6 months.

So here we are, 2 weeks down out of 4 on our trip back to Blighty. It still feels like there should be a list of things we should be doing but I think I am coming to terms with the fact that notwithstanding that feeling I can still relax, take it easy and enjoy myself. I intend to pursue that whole-heartedly for the next 2 weeks come what may.

So until next time, not sure when that'll be but at some point in the next couple of weeks, also enjoy yourself (anxieties aside) and make sure you take some time out to relax. This really is a very hectic country and one should always remember to take a sideways step outside of it even if it is for just a few minutes each week.

So that’s it! We’ve finished our 5 months with GVI in Kenya. There were times when I was really really tempted to throw it all in and run back home. Other times I wanted to quit and just run off around Africa. But those times have been thankfully few and far between. For the first couple of weeks here everything was so new and exciting that there was no time to feel homesick. For the next 3-4 weeks after that I had a real struggle as the realization hit home of how long we had committed to and how long we would be away from everyone we love. That period was very hard indeed and I was sorely tempted to throw in the towel and head off around Africa, rejecting the restriction of the programme that we had signed up to and just drifting around and seeing some more of the world. Recently with news from home there has been another period of difficulty coping with the distance. The delays on the phone and the simple fact of not being able to sit down and have a proper face to face conversation has hit hard at times. That has left the last few weeks with me feeling at times like I was treading water and counting time before we left. But for the last 2 weeks the time has started rushing by and the realization that we’ll be leaving here for good and saying goodbye to the very good friends we have made here has tempered that and has made me appreciate the time we have had here.

All the experiences we have enjoyed and that I’ve been able to share with you by writing this blog have been quite simply some of the most amazing and enriching experiences of my life. At last I have a wider view outside of the world I had always lived in and that was completely outside of my comfort zone at times. The things that I now accept with an easy shrug might have made me scream with rage before. The food that once I would have turned my nose up at I now crunch and munch with relish. And the sights, sounds and SMELLS of places like Mombasa now provoke nothing more than a misty eyed smile as I think about what a crazy place it is and how charming it is in it’s own chaotic and colourful way in a crumbling, dusty and dirty, rundown and rusty way that you just don’t get back in the UK.

But for sure I have never been so pleased to have done something in my life before. I’m not quite sure what I’ve learnt from it. It’s hard to pin down how I have changed or grown in this time away. Perhaps when I get back to the people that know me so well I will be told. Perhaps I’ll be told I haven’t changed at all…I really don’t know. But for sure I feel far more ready to approach that unknown than ever before and I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that I have never been happier in all my life.

I am really really excited about coming home but slightly tredipatious at the same time. Before now I had never been away from the UK for more than a 3 week holiday. And since being here I have been told many many times about the reverse culture shock being 10 times harder than the culture shock you have when you first arrive. Kenya is a crazy country with so maybe differences from home. Some huge and almost overwhelming but the ones that you really notice are all the little day to day ones that make your life just that little bit different all the time. But from what I’ve heard when I get back to the country I’ve lived in for my entire life and the city that’s been my home for almost 15 years it’ll be very very strange indeed. That in itself excites me as it’ll be a whole new and interesting experience that I’ve never had before. But please bear with me if I freak out a bit for the first few days :)

I’m so pleased that people have enjoyed reading this blog, but I think I’ve got way more out of writing it than anyone has from reading it. It has helped me make sense of the things that I’ve done here and the experiences that I’ve had. It’s made me think a lot more clearly about what has gone on and how I can understand it, make sense of it and communicate it. I’ve tried my best and I would say that I’ve achieved about an 80% rate on a good day and maybe 60% on bad days or when I’m feeling too lazy to try harder and get it just right. But that’s way better than not having done it at all and I know that what I have managed has been really worthwhile for me. In total I’ve written 26 entries with somewhere in the region of 30,000 words which is a pretty fair amount. And thank you for reading whatever you have and for some of the wonderful emails I’ve had from people that have enjoyed it.

I’m very excited about the next stage of our trip around Eastern and Southern Africa. I’m sure we’ll have some amazing experiences and I cannot wait to enjoy them and write about them. But for now I will spend my last few days of Kenya soaking up as much as I can and then I have a whole month at home with friends and family to look forward to as well and boy am I looking forward to it a lot.

So I’ll say cheerio for now…or Kwaheri as they say here. The next blog I write will be on a computer not cursed with power cuts, on an internet connection that doesn’t collapse every 10 minutes and in the comfort of my own home!

Love to you all

Jx

PS Since first drafting this I have been for my first scuba dive which was absolutely amazing. We had an incredible day, almost all the staff out on a boat together. What a great way to round off our time here.

On the downsie we have now left Shimoni and have had to say huge goodbyes to many many great friends which has been not so great. But I hope through this and the many other wonders of the internet that we can all stay in touch...bless Facebook!

First of the lasts!

I can’t quite believe that this adventure is coming to an end. When we arrived it seemed like we were going to be here forever and now it seems like just a couple of weeks have passed and suddenly we are having to think about packing up and doing all those things we meant to do while we were here!!! We also keep finding ourselves saying this is the last time we are going to be doing something – going to Abdul’s restaurant for his amazing food on a Wednesday night followed by a cold Tusker at Smugglers, heading up to Diani for the weekend with all our friends, spotting a turtle whilst out snorkeling, sitting at the Reef in Shimoni or Paradise in Mkwiro together for a sundowner at the end of a busy day, teaching our adult English classes, going out on the boat on a beautiful day and seeing dolphins, walking through the village being greeted by cheerful cries of ‘Jambo’, sitting typing with a kitten draped around my shoulders, the list goes on and on and all too soon it is going to be our last night on the island and our last night in Shimoni and finally our last night in Kenya in just 10 short days. Some of those lasts I’m not going to miss so much – doing my washing by hand, the mosquitoes and sandflies, using a long drop toilet, showering in cold, salty water, sleeping in a single bunk bed in a room full of snorers, finding monkeys in the kitchen stealing our food, cooking for 30 people on a two ringed gas stove but those things are all part of this incredible experience and we are going to miss it all so much.

Last night we were lucky enough to be part of a wonderful event to mark the end of our time at the Shimoni Base Academy. A few weeks ago we were asked when would be a good time for them to throw us a surprise leaving party and so we were very surprised when we had it last night, the night we had suggested! We were given even more of a clue in the afternoon as we made our way back from our last adult class and someone shouted “see you at your party at 7:30 tonight”!!!! So 7:30 saw nine of us from GVI trooping through the village to join a number of village personages who were gathered in ‘our’ classroom at the Base Academy. What followed was a very special evening as we were treated to some incredible cooking by the teachers – fried fish, coconut rice, soup, bajia and Mr Mwamose’s extra special hot sauce – awesome!! Before we ate I was presented with a gift from the women of a pair of kangas which they showed me how to wear in the proper Swahili style and after the meal we were surprised by even more lovely and thoughtful gifts from the teachers – a beautiful woven floor mat and some woven placemats and our firm favourites, two polo shirts adorned with Shimoni Base Academy on the back! Then finally some words of thanks from Athumani, Mr Adam and Mr Mwamose, all of which made me cry! Luckily Jamie was on hand to offer our own words of thanks as I am pretty sure that I couldn’t have managed it without dissolving into more tears!

And in a night full of lovely moments some highlights were: Mr Mwamose informing me that the community would no longer call me Kate and that my new name would be Nuru meaning Light, and this, one of the best references I have ever had which was sent to our Country Director from the Principal, Mr Mwamose!

Dear Sir/ Madam
RE: APPRECIATION OF GOOD WORKDONE AT SHIMONI BASE ACADEMYOn behalf of Shimoni Community especially Shimoni Base Academy children, Staff and committee members, I’m here to express my deep gratitude to the G.V.I’s gift of insights and support communicated more effectively by:

(i) Providing free English classes to the locals to break the language barrier
(ii) Improving the look of Base academy Classroom by (plastering. fitting doors & windows, painting, decorating and creating various subjects corners like Maths, Music, Art and Science)
(iii) Painting World map and writing alphabetical letters around the Blackboard
God bless you for happy brightening and improving the learning Environment for the pupils

We feel inspired to recognize the way madam Kate and Jamie came out to shower us with their countless personal kindness to enlighten us to be more sensitive and aware about our environment, I hope who will read this may feel invited to join this long circle.

Once again we thank you for your valuable co-operation.