Ok, so it’s probably a bit late for Christmas, but we have gone all traditional and rented our very own postbox. The postal address is:
PO Box 7038 Kisumu,
40100 Kisumu,
Kenya.
We’ve also been busy trying to find me a language teacher and to potty train Tommy, both with limited success. Regarding the potty training, Tommy has successfully used his potty once, but I think that it only happened because he spent such a long time sitting on it, and I don’t think there is any real connection in Tommy’s mind between what he does and what appears in the potty. Sometimes he looks at it as if willing it to produce a poo so that we will give him a treat. Oh well, at least its warm and dry here and easy to clean things up.
I’m hoping that my language training will be sorted out tomorrow when I meet Mr James Odada. He and his wife Asenath are both teachers and Asenath has published widely in DhoLuo, including the ONLY Luo-English dictionary! They are friends of the director of the research institute to which I am affiliated, and have agreed to personally supervise my training (at what expense I am yet to find out….!), which just goes to show that in Kenya it is not what you know, but who you know that matters.
Tommy’s education is well organised though, we have enrolled him in the idyllic International School nursery. He is really excited to be starting and the staff seem really lovely. It’s expensive for here but at around 200 pounds stirling per term its cheap by our standards. Only the best for our Tom!
In other news…
Not used to having guard dogs, there is a growing casualty list of things that we forget to bring in from the compound at night-time including:
One large card board box
One child’s pushchair
One dining room chair
One imitation red London routemaster bus
And every morning we play a game called ‘find the door mat’.
Alas the real Routemasters have been permanently phased out. We shall have to look for another imitation one. Pleased to get your post box number as cards should go your way.
Sitting on the sofa with your father listening to Sibelius and looking through your website. More pictures please, especially of hotels that are not part of hyper-reality and restaurants that svereal not imaginary food. Infants pooh and soft toys are not part of the world we now inhabit -left that far behind! No creeping comments from us in order to ingratiate ourselves intoa free holiday.We will be visiting strictly offsite hence the selfish old bastards request fro information on bed and grub. Do not want rabies from the guarddog !
Seriously I hope you are settiling in well and enjoying this adventure on your lives. Been asking your Dad about your progress and he informed me today of your website. If you get short of Enid Blyton books plus torch and dice let me know.
Seriously though, more visuals but not of three visa photgraphs two of which seem to be of people who would wanted b y Interpol
just wondering if you know where i can locate the Luo-English dictionary, am keen to learn so i can communicate, with my friend in his native tounge
Kylie, I’ve only seen it for sale locally in Kisumu, as it is printed by lakeside press which is based here. As yet, the dictionary is only one way (Dhouo-English), although a second volume, English-Dholuo is completed. It is as yet un-published, it seems.
There a handy phrase book available by the same author. It costs about KSh200 (off the top of my head) which is about GBP1.70. I guess you could get a copy mailed to you from here, but anything over about 30 grammes in weight costs a small fortune to post.