14th September - Sunday

We had an early evening last night. Ann & Tony had sorted the suitcases, and we were chatting on the veranda when Catherine invited us to dinner. The dining room is large: it could seat 40, but there were the five of us. The lemon yellow walls decorated with a hand-painted flower motif; a pleasant room to enjoy a meal. Catherine served us chicken, roast potatoes, courgette and carrots, followed by topped and tailed bananas.

Becky came round to check we were OK and what our plans for today are; late breakfast at 0900 if that was alright with Jomo. Catherine checked that it was. At other times it will be 0645, so we can get to devotions at the hospital before work starts.

After dinner we chatted in the lounge area of the guesthouse, and I got Father's Daily Light out. The reading was on resurrection, which fitted well with the beautiful singing we had heard at Anne-Marie's 93-year old Dad's funeral three weeks earlier. Bjorn had shared it on his new Samsung Galaxy. Generations of family had sung a cappello with no rehearsal. A real worship service.

My room has twin beds with mosquito nets hooked on ceiling hooks. Decoration is blue with the description of purple room on the key. A small bedside table between the beds, a large wardrobe with two lockable drawers, and space for my suitcase on top. Bathroom en suite has a medicine cabinet, a sink that has no plug and my universal one hardly slows the drain off! There is a shower beside the toilet. There is an electrical heater for the shower; adjusting the heat is done from a long plastic lead connected to the showerhead. It looks like a broken system, but all the bathrooms have it. I have a shaving light and mirror above the sink. It was good to see two days of beard disappear with my battery razor.

I'm taking doxycycline 100 in the mornings against malaria. This is a bad area, and Becky has had falciparum several times when tummy upsets have made the regular prophylaxis fail. You need to swallow it with lots of fluid and stay upright for some time. Stanley Parrick in the Gambia took 200mg in the evening without adequate water, and his oesophagus suffered for the next two weeks! And he had worked on the Mercy Ship so he might have known better!?

Landing in Nairobi didn't bring any memories back to me. I was born in this capial city over 60 years ago in one of the hospitals: I don't know which one! My Father worked in Kisumu, and I had no memories of that either apart from tiny old B&W photos of sailing on Lake Victoria, and a cine clip. My Father was a keen photographer. The rock formations on the hills around Kisumu are amazing. It reminded me of the Peak District Standing Edge, but much more random with boulders shaping the summits and balancing their substantial shapes on the steep hilsides, all the way to the plateau and beyond. The geograhy of the Rift Valley is fascinating.

My purple bedrom faces onto the verandah which is into a courtyard with the dining room on the far right. The window on the bathroom side looks out to the hills. There are lots of sounds around; children, cows, crickets and cockrels. Dogs had a short howling match last night.

I slept well under the net. The bed is probably 6'3", so I slept on the diagonal. I appreciated my bottled water in the night. I had a headlight, iPad and spectacles beside my pillow, and didn't get too disoriented on my excursions.

A Swahili word for welcome has been shared with us by the staff here. It is Karibu.