Umoja

Sorry that we haven’t put anything on the website for a while. Its a sign of how busy we have been rather than problems with the site. Anyway, here’s a little update of our news…

Tommy has settled in well at playgroup, he really enjoys going and has made some good friends there, although he still talks about Sonny and Ismay more than any of them. He must be turning into a good swimmer, as he goes twice a week and tells me that he jumps in, makes big splashes and kicks his legs. He seems to have picked up some singing genes too, although most of the time his songs degenerate into Twinkle Twinkle. Potty training goes really well for a bit and then seems to completely go back to the beginning, but he doesn’t wear nappies at all in the day now, even for his rest, so we must be getting somewhere!

David has started Swahili lessons and is suddenly making a lot of progress. His teacher seems very good but is so popular that the only free slot he has is at 8am every day. This makes our mornings a bit hectic as Tommy’s school also starts at 8am and on Wednesdays i go out to the field with TICH and leave at 7.30am. The only benefit of being up early is that you get to enjoy the coolness of the day. David is really busy, and seems to find plenty to do, he also has a few leads up his sleeve for possible jobs or work to do, so nothing to worry about there!

One of the reasons that we have been so busy is that we are looking for a new place. We would like to have a spare room so that i have somewhere to work and we can put up any guests who come to stay (hint hint), but we also have been finding it a bit difficult to share a compound, although i don’t want to go into detail on a public forum. Anyway, practically the whole of Kisumu is helping us but so far nothing has come up. We nearly rented a lovely place that was a bit bigger than we really wanted but was lovely, if at the very top of our price range, but our bargaining came to nothing when another woman stepped in offering 7000/= per month over our highest offer, and 5000/= more than the landlord had told us he wanted! So now back to square one! I’m sure we will find something soon…

My language training is also going well. I’m getting a reputation as ‘the one who speaks our langugage’, and keep getting tested when i am out and about. My teacher is a lovely woman who has set up a gender and development NGO and has written widely in Dholuo. She is really intelligent and knowledgable about Luo culture. I have also been going to Bondo and Siaya and meeting staff at the district hospitals and district officers as a way of networking and getting contacts at the district level. I am waiting for ethical clearance from the university of Nairobi before i start really proper research and once i have it i have been offered voluntary work in the VCT (Voluntary Testing and Counselling centre) at BOndo district hospital which will be a good way to access patients and their carers.

Mum sent me a long list of questions that she wanted me to answer, i think that covers most of them but also:

Our tummies are fine, although David and I have terrible colds at the moment and Tommy has to be tricked into eating sometimes as he seems to get bored after a couple of mouthfalls. We feed him ourselves somehow absent mindedly and he will eat, but if you leave him he just wants to play with his cards. It’s a real change from a boy who once ate three weetabix in a go!
The Guardian Weekly arrived yesterday, it is great to read it again, especially with politics so crazy here at the moment, andI did get your christmas card too, plus a couple of others!
Love to you all xxxx