South Germany

Saturday 9th April
We left the hotel not too long after breakfast. It was good that it was so close to Le Midi Station. We bought some food at a small supermarket at the railway station before making our way to the Thalys platform. The journey to Cologne takes less than two hours, and the train is very comfortable. You hardly realise just how fast the train is going. There is a digital display of the speed between the carriages. I think the fastest we went was around 170kph.

The first photo is taken on the way into Liege - the track was quite high above the streets at one point, as you can see. At the railway station was a large globe, apparently there as part of an ecological expo.
We were rather surprised when the train ground to a halt some time before we were due to arrive in Cologne. An announcement came over the loudspeakers saying that there was a problem with a train ahead of us on the line. A little while later, we were told that the track was closed to Cologne due to a demonstration. They first told us we might be delayed by up to half an hour – as there was 40 minutes between our trains, I thought we might just get there on time. But then they started saying that it could take 3/4 hour to get moving again! Oh dear, what to do? I sent our son Jeremy a text to say that we were delayed by a demonstration and that I might need him to phone our friend Ingrid who was going to meet us in Ulm if we missed our train. I only had enough money left on the phone for another text or two.
We started up again 35 minutes after stopping and soon arrived at a small platform (Stoltz Rheinland) that was covered with people – a huge collection of police in bright yellow jackets surrounding a mob of protesters. Apparently they had interfered with a previous train and so the railway company refused to let any more trains proceed until the police had got the demonstrators off the tracks. There were a few announcements about onward connections to various trains, and eventually they came to ours – they said it was being held at Platform 6.
Unfortunately we were one of the last off our train, and by the time we reached our platform, the train had already gone. On looking at the timetable, we found out that the next to Ulm was a whole 2 hours away. I sent Jeremy another text and he agreed to phone Ingrid to let her know.
We had some books to read so that kept us occupied. It wasn’t a very warm day but it was OK. The photos include one at Siegburg/Bonn station, a country town on the way to Frankfurt and two photos in Mannheim. One town before we reached Mannheim was called Waldhof and had some interesting brown and white churches. Further south we passed through some more rugged terrain – in fact it later turned out to be the Swabian Alps. Geislingen was quite a large and attractive town up in narrow valley in the mountains, with plenty of traditional houses with brown roofs and up to 3 rows of dormer windows.
We arrived in Ulm just after 5 to be met by a smiling Ingrid, her husband Bernhard and youngest daughter Friedericke. We decided that, owing to the lateness of our arrival, that we’d just go straight to their home in Horgenzell.
Unfortunately they had already left home by the time Jeremy was able to try to contact them, and the daughter Veronika who’d been left behind to take care of things tried sending them a text – but they had the cell phone switched off! Eventually, after waiting at the station without seeing us, they’d switched it on to phone home to see if there were any messages, and found out that we’d been delayed. So they decided to do a bit more shopping, much to Friedericke’s delight!
We eventually arrived around 6.30, and had a lovely meal. Afterwards, we walked to Kapel, another portion of the little village where their church is. The population of Horgenzell is around 300.

Another spanner in the works

Tuesday March 22nd
We left at 8.30 am as I had an appointment in Balclutha at the opticians’ at 9.40 and Bruce at the dentists’ at 10!
The optician decided the American lens manufacturers had misread the prescription and had only supplied a -13D lens instead of a -13.5D, so he had to take the spectacles back to Dunedin to check them on a better machine and then return them to the US to get a replacement lens. So a much longer wait for a new pair! It's been a long time since I had new glasses as when I visited an optician last year, it was discovered that I had retinal problems that needed investigating. After some treatment sessions that didn't resolve them, it was decided, some 6 months later, that I could now try to get new glasses.
We had a slight detour at Allenton, which made us a little late arriving at the motel where we were going to leave our car until our return. The motel owner, a Surrey man, had tried phoning us, but unfortunately that phone was at home!
Once at the airport about an hour before the flight was due to leave, after completing the automatic check-in procedure we were rather surprised to be told by the lady at the bag drop that the plane might be delayed, and that we should go and have a coffee and to await further announcements. Whilst we were enjoying our coffees, I happened to glance over at the flights’ board and noticed a Cancelled sign by one of the flights. On investigation, I found out that it was ours! We discovered that, due to fog earlier in the day which had prevented a plane from landing, even though the pilot tried three times then had to return to Christchurch, the 'powers-that-be' had decided to cancel the following two planes to prevent another abortive landing attempt. Unfortunately there were no more flights to Christchurch until mid-afternoon, none early enough to enable us to catch our international flight. What to do? Was there enough time to drive to Christchurch? No!
The Air New Zealand and airport staff were most helpful, and offered to fly us to Auckland on a later plane if we could rebook our overseas flights to Uganda with our travel agent. Otherwise we could try to book a later flight out of Christchurch if one was available. Of course there were quite a few others in a similar predicament, although some of them managed to get later flights to their destinations. One lady, a Breton, who’d only started learning French when she started school at age 6, was desperate to get home. She’d been visiting her daughter, who was studying in Dunedin doing post-doctoral research into childhood leukaemia.
We were very glad to discover that we could continue on our travels, albeit arriving a day or two late. One option was to fly to Auckland the same day, then on to Uganda the next evening. A less-attractive one was to fly to Christchurch on Thursday, arriving in Uganda on Friday. That would make us a whole 2 days’ late, and make our onward arrangements in Tanzania not so easy to manage.
We were able to leave that evening after rather a long time at the airport, and stayed with Bruce’s youngest brother, Stuart, and his family in Auckland. We had quite a late tea, and went to bed before some of the family came home from Youth Group.

A disastrous trip

Friday July 24th Well, what a day! It started slowly, no-one apart from Bruce seemed to be in any hurry to get up, and eventually I had to ask him to settle down, he was getting me uptight! Breakfast was sooty peanuts and slimy pawpaw at 7. Michael hadn't as yet appeared, and the taxi was due in twenty minutes! We waited for him to join us, and he looked very surprised to see us still sitting there at 10 past, he’d forgotten all about food! Pic: Bibi & Mama Lucia outside the 'new' house.
Just as well the taxi was a little late, Jeremia had had to walk to Nzega to get it as the driver didn’t know the way to bibi’s. We were a bit surprised to see no bus waiting at the bus stand as it was supposed to leave at 8 sharp! Eventually we were told it had broken down on the way from Mwanza, but would arrive at 8.30. Michael jokingly said it wouldn’t come till 10!
Well, it hadn't come by 10 so we started discussing the possibility of getting a refund and finding another bus. Michael wanted to arrive before dark and Jeremia said we’d need to leave by 11! No-one was talking much, Michael kept wandering around the bus station. At one point he hugged Jeremia, asking, “Why are you so cold & your heart beating so fast?” “Mama’s running away, and I want her to stay & stay & stay....!” It was quite sad. He was going to return to Igunga later that day.
Well, we had to wait & wait & wait – until 11.45, when the bus pulled in and there was a mad dash to load up the luggage and push passengers on board. I delayed getting on to give Michael time to stow our bags away underneath the bus, aided by Jeremia who came up to say a last goodbye. Michael was only just in time, we were almost pushed up the stairs by the conductor!
It was sad, we couldn’t sit together again - it was a smaller bus, the seats were in pairs not threes. However, Michael sat behind us, and little Michael sat on my lap.
We stopped just after Igunga, they opened up the panel behind the driver’s seat to access the motor. Bruce was really worried by the hissing sound as they added water to the radiator, he thought we had or would get a cracked cylinder head!
The stop at Singida was only for 10 minutes, hardly time for anyone to get to the loo, so we just stayed on board.
I'd been told it’d be tarmac roads all the way to Dar, but after Singida, it was back to rough sand and dirt. The roads will be nice one day, there’s a major roading project as far as Dodoma. The new road’s being built to one side of the old one, some parts had already been tarmacked by prison gangs. We were only allowed on one brief stretch near Manyoyi.
The scenery near Singida and Dodoma is fantastic, there are amazing rock formations: huge crags and gigantic rounded rocks looking like they’d just been dropped from heaven!
Just after one of several weigh-stations near Dodoma, a helmeted policeman, waiting on a motorcycle at a police checkpoint, came on board to accompany us! At first I thought it was just a routine things, but it soon became apparent we were in trouble!
After stopping in the large car park outside the Dodoma police station, the driver and crew went off, with no announcements made re how long we’d be there. There were a few kiosks selling food, but no sign of public conveniences, and I was feeling uncomfortable.
After asking Michael if there were toilets, I thought he said no, and then he got off the bus. I was a little worried we’d have to stay in Dodoma as it was now 6 p.m., and public transport doesn’t normally run after dark in Tanzania
Bruce and I stood up to rest our weary behinds, but I got too desperate so went outside to see Michael, and was very relieved when Michael pointed around the corner – wondering why on earth he hadn’t come back to the bus to let me know!
Once I returned, I asked if he knew how long we’d be there and why we'd stopped – well, apparently the bus driver, well-known to the police, had been arrested for some minor misdemeanour on the way, and no-one knew how long it would take to get him released!
While Michael took little Michael to the toilet, one of the bus crew came out of the police station to tell the group of passengers standing around to go into the office, but he specified men only much to my relief, I was the only woman outside and there was no way of letting Michael know. I was more relieved that the man hadn't told everyone on the bus to get off.
When Michael returned, I told him what had happened, standing in full view of the three officers at the desk indoors. I don’t know whether the sight of a stranded Mzungu standing outside quietly made them relent or whether the men had had to pay a bribe – but they all trooped back out again, telling us to re-board the bus, we were off! It was great news, although by now it was nearly dark.
We reached Morogoro about 10 p.m., then the outskirts of Dar around 1 a.m., everyone dozing between stops. Just before each stop, the lights would be switched on & the destination announced to the sleepy passengers.
We were very glad to disembark at 1.20, waiting for the bags to be offloaded – somehow they’d switched sides on the way - then went by car to the guest house, which unfortunately had only a double room available, no singles. The two Michaels walked off into the dark back to his little room. Our bed might have fitted three but not all four!
We were glad the staff agreed to look after our bags the next day till the afternoon and to let us pay the next day. We needed a bank or ATM, we didn't have enough cash left and had an afternoon flight!

Off to Arusha

Thursday July 16th We were up at 7 and went outside to wait for Michael as usual, then Ntarula came out, hearing us talking, and told us Michael had already gone to Rosa's, so we went together to look for him. He was outside cleaning his teeth!
At breakfast, we were joined by another of the Mzee’s brothers, Saidi’s father, who’d come down the mountain for the day.
We went to the bus stand around 9, Michael had wanted to leave earlier, Rosa wanted us to delay! We were to take Michael mdogo with us too (pictured with mama + Bruce)!!
It seemed a long wait before we left in a battered old landrover. First Michael had to bargain over the price: the driver wanted to charge for little Michael, although small children normally travel free as they sit on a lap. It's always a bit nerve-wracking waiting, they keep on tooting the horn like they’re ready to go, then drive away to make a circuit of the village to try to find more passengers before returning to the bus stand. Our luggage stayed up on top without being tied on for ages, but once it was fastened, it was REALLY time to go.
We drove off the road into part of the village criss-crossing a drain + squeezing between trees to pick up a passenger from his house. Back on the ‘main road’ – a dirt track wide enough for 2 vehicles - we stopped to hoist a motorcycle onto the roof, it almost didn’t make it! We ended up with several people on the roof + hanging off the back door!
We'd been told Same was only 1/2 hour away, but we Took 1 ½ hours! It was a very rough road, the countryside a mixture of lush, wetter areas & dry thornbush-covered land. Little Michael was very proud to be coming with us, not at all concerned to be away from home, but he soon thought we’d already arrived!
Once in Same, we travelled down the dusty streets to gingerly cross a drain on wooden boards to arrive outside a mechanic’s workshop to drop off the motorbike. It took a bit of manoeuvring to reverse the Land Rover back onto the street, there was no room to turn round!
It took a while to find a bus with enough spare seats going to Arusha at the bus stand. We'd decided to stop there for the night instead of Moshi, to be able to visit Michael’s sister Evelina. We bought some bananas, biscuits, juice & water while we waited. Bruce + both Michaels sat in the back seat, but I had to sit by a rather sulky lady + young baby. It was nice to have tar-seal roads, although shortly after reaching a large town at noon, the bus broke down, just 28 kms from Moshi - a broken tie-rod.
Many got off the bus or stood up during the 25 minutes it took to fix it. Unfortunately my neighbour spilt juice on my seat, and I started to wonder if it was ‘accidentally on purpose!’ as she didn’t even want me to sit on the edge of the seat.
I was very pleased to be able to change seats after Moshi, where a lot of people disembarked, and Michael even came over to sit next to me and chatted the rest of the way to Arusha!
I was very impressed by Moshi, it's very clean & beautiful – the only part of Tanzania to have anti-litter laws! This region is lush & green, there are lots of good crops & trees, very unlike many other parts we passed through.
We arrived in Arusha about 3.30, and Michael left us with the bags + little M to buy tickets to Nzega + find a taxi to take us to a guest house. We then went to a nearby ATM, as we didn't have enough cash for both the tickets + a guest house. The glass cubicle was guarded by an armed man sitting inside a small room with a roll-up door. As the taxi was waiting, I only briefly checked the money, and later on found the last 3 notes were only 5,000 Tsh each instead of 10,000!
The guest house was nice, quite close to the bus stand in a very quiet street. We were glad to put on our sweaters before going by daladala to Eve's. The busy streets were lined with people selling wares, and we even saw 6 Europeans!
Once off the daladala, we walked along a narrow, raised dirt pavement alongside a deep drain, and stopped at a small shop to ask where Evelina was; Michael had expected to see her selling corn but she’d gone home early.
We went through a dirty alleyways, stepping over a smelly drain to enter a gate in a tall mud brick wall. Eve’s was the last on the left in a small alleyway between 2 buildings. 2 small boys, Joshua & David, came out from the opposite curtained doorway to greet us, then Mary (Evelina’s step-mother - Boniface has remarried) invited us into her small living room: a bed on the right, 2 sets of chairs with a low table in the middle (not much leg-room!) + a large wall unit on the left. A second curtained doorway leads into another room. It's typical rental accommodation: you rent 1-2 rooms in a house and share an outdoor kitchen, choo & bafu.
We sat on the chairs, Michael on the bed, listening to Mary. She’d just got over being sick for a month, firstly a lung infection then a painful stomach. Eve entered without greeting us properly, rather reluctantly sitting next to Michael, who eventually got her to greet us in English, even to answer a couple of questions + count to 100! She likes school & is in Standard 4.
She was sent back out with the 2 boys to buy soft drinks; Bruce had fun trying to take the tops off with no opener! Betty (Mary’s teenage daughter from another marriage) came in with the pastor’s eldest daughter who's 19 and has excellent English. Her mother came round with her youngest son Tito (6), inviting us over for a chai afterwards, although her husband was still at church.
Boniface turned up later on his bicycle, he’d had trouble getting back from work as the roads were so busy. He’s a salesman. He’s very nice but isn’t a Christian, unlike his wife.
We all went to the pastor’s for chai, and were told it was the first time they’d had such visitors, other Wazungu have refused to come! How rude!
I tried to take a photo of Eve, her father + the rest, but the battery went flat & the spare one was in the guest house! That was sad, our only opportunity.
Both families accompanied us out to the street, we caught a daladala with Boniface back to the guesthouse, then he left us at a nearby café where we ate chicken/chips for tea – yummy! Little Michael ate an omelette with his & whilst we were waiting, we played with a marble on the tabletop! But it escaped & got lost!!!
We went to bed about 9.40, arranging to meet at 5 the next day for another early bus.

Kisiwani

Monday 13th July What a sleepless night! The neighbouring bar played LOUD music all night. After checking the time at quarter to four, we decided not to try to get back to sleep, so had a shower and got up. It'd been hot, but we'd only had the fan on low so it wouldn’t make too much noise!!! Needn't have worried about that!
We went downstairs just after five, Michael turned up at half past, looking a little embarrassed to see us waiting! We took a taxi to the bus station due to safety reasons. There was tight security at the gate, only one person is allowed in at a time, & if you don’t have a ticket, you pay 200 Tsh. I guess it's to discourage touts, salesmen and pick-pockets.
After putting our packs under the bus, we climbed on – it was a long way up! It had three seats each side and seven across the back where we sat, Bruce in the middle stretching out his long legs! We started having a lovely chat about Michael’s favourite subjects: history & politics, his new room, etc. It was rather a shock when the ticket inspector came round and found some other people had the same seat numbers as us! He decided Bruce and I should move forward, but I was so disappointed, I felt like telling him we'd been apart for almost two years and were just starting to catch up! However, I decided not to cause a fuss! It seems seats are quite often double-booked; different agents selling them - although they each get a seating plan with their seat allocations on it. Some companies are sell tickets twice over just to get more money.
The bus set off very late, 7.45 a.m., but we didn’t know why! There seemed to be interminable discussions between the inspector and some of the passengers.
There were good roads as far as Korogwe, which we reached at noon, stopping for 1/2 hour. Not much further on, we turned off onto the A4, a dirt road. The landscape became very dry: baobabs/thorn trees, not much other vegetation. After a while, interesting mountains started to appear, rising sharply out of the flat plain. Some of the many rivers had water, but others were dry.
Closer to the mountains, there were lots of big trees, flowing rivers, but no grass. Late in the afternoon, we started to stop at every little village to drop people off, before coming to a final halt in Kiswani (‘on the island’) in the Same district at 4 p.m. There's no sea or lake there – but it’s like an island of flattish land surrounded by tall mountains! If you click on the map to enlarge it, you'll just make it out near the Kenyan border, half way between Moshi and Tanga.
The last section of road was SO bumpy that the person in front of me nearly hit his head on the padded piece housing the seat lights/ventilator! I think there were sore bottoms all round!
We were met by a few folk who helped us with our bags. After crossing back over the bridge the bus had driven over, we went up a small dirt road to a house surrounded by a big hedge which we entered through a large gap: Mama Rosa’s.
Mama Rosa is the sixth of Michael’s grandmother’s seven daughters, and she is only five years older than him (33) – but her husband, a doctor, is called ‘the mzee’ (old man) as he’s 62! Unfortunately he was away in Mbeya, attending to a family matter. They have two boys, Frank (Standard 4), and Michael mdogo (little Michael to distinguish him from ‘our’ Michael!) who’s repeating S1 – he started school the year before, but has only just turned six: usually they start at 7 in Tanzania. There are 7 standards (Kenya has 8) in primary school. Only about 10% of Tanzanian children ever get to secondary school, although the government is trying very hard to make more schools available. There are two primary schools, a kindergarten (chekechea) and a secondary school in Kiswani.
The house has an open-plan lounge/dining room, two bedrooms (the main one has a bucket-flushed European toilet!) and a traditional choo off the lounge that leads into a large storeroom. We were amused to see an electric stove being used to store pots and pans in the dining room! The cooking is done over an open fire outside in a small lean-to jiko (kitchen).
Pic: lounge/dining room showing the low table where we ate. As it only sat four, the others ate at a big table near the back door behind the sofa.
After our things were put in the boys’ room, we bathed in mama’s ensuite using a jug of water. We had black spicy tea at 5.30 - yummy, and the bread & oranges that Michael had bought on the way. It was our first food: we'd left too early to eat breakfast, and we only had enough change to buy water on the way.
Some visitors came to greet us: a young man, Ntarula, who’s from Kigoma but is studying Form Three here, and a young lady called Francisca, recently married, also from Kigoma. Her husband turned up later.
When Michael tried to switch on the TV, he got a small shock & the power went off - the fuses didn't blow so that was a bit scary!
We went for a nice walk with Michael 'round the block' after inspecting the section around the house, which is surrounded by hedges on three sides, and tall trees near a stream on the fourth. It was sad to see so much bare soil where there are normally plants – the drought has been bad here too. Michael was surprised to see that the banana palms had died since February.
Then Rosa took us to see the family's guest house, it was their former home. It isn't far away, and has a small mill on one side and Rosa’s pharmacy on the right. The front door is up several tall concrete steps leading into a lounge containing a sofa, with 1-2 bedrooms on each side. Half the wall between it & the next room, which also has 1-2 bedrooms on each side has been removed. There is also a small kitchen annex at the back leading to outside. Each bedroom has a bed, mosquito net + ‘self-container’: a small room with squat toilet on a small platform, a tap that doesn’t work (you use a bucket!), an open space for washing with a hole in the wall to drain out the water.
The small two-room pharmacy only had a few stock medicines & bandages. Michael told Rosa about Bruce’s rash, which had reappeared on Sunday, so she had a little look, and was sure it'd just go away again. We hadn’t been sure whether it was a staph rash or caused by poorly-prepared beans - but it wasn’t terribly itchy & TCP seemed to calm it down. Some of the wheals were a whole inch across!
They also own a restaurant + bar behind the guest house: the outdoor tables stand under a thatched roof under huge trees; the bar/servery are in a little kiosk on a raised concrete area with more tables. She sells fried pork + soft drinks as there are no girls to serve in the bar.
We returned to Rosa’s for a nice dinner at 8.30: meat mchuzi (stew) and rice, followed by pieces of banana and oranges, before returning to the guest house to be given a couple of rooms there.
It was a bit noisy for a while, there were lots of people outside talking & laughing (in the bar?) till late. I woke up far too early, so spent some time thinking and praying about Michael & our children, thanking God for the opportunity to see them all this year. I was sad that we'd missed 8 hours of conversation on the bus by having to sit apart!!!
It was impossible to get back to sleep once it was five: the mosques started up, the bus honked its horn, the first trucks roared away, roosters began to crow & people talked outside as they started off their day!

A day in Nairobi

Wed July 1st It was a cold morning, grey and cloudy, but it got hot later when the sun came out. We were up at 7, I was feeling VERY tired and scratchy, which made reorganizing & repacking my bags very slow. Chatted afterwards with Agnes and her oldest child, Maurice (4), also with Emily, Agnes’ younger sister, who has very good English – although she doesn’t think so! She’s in Standard 7, so should finish Primary School next year.
After breakfast of bread & chai, we started towards the city centre by ute. Bruce drove at first, but they thought he was going too slowly on the dirt roads! The next problem was not giving him directions in time! Maa instructions were shouted by those on the deck to John who was sitting inside, so by the time he'd translated them into English it was too late to take the turning! We were very glad when one of them took over! We were dropped off at a petrol station to take a bus to Barclay Plaza to the Precision Air office.
The most wonderful lady, Sarah Wachira, helped us, she deserves a gold medal! What we’d thought would be a quick job turned out to take many hours! Each time she tried the on-line payment system: “Transaction declined”! The proble: a missing office code on our voucher which hadn't been issued by Precision Air after all but by the travel agent. She said it might be possible for us to give her the voucher + the balance of the fare to send Arusha: a ticket would be issued manually from there! Oh dear, we know the African postal system is rather dodgy! However, we agreed to go away for a few hours so she could get it all sorted.
After lunching in a cafe, we spent over an hour in a taxi trying to find the Amex office to report the loss of the travellers’ cheques. We'd been told to go to Upper Hill, and that it'd be easy to find the office there, but no-one knew where the office was when we got there!
Some fun encounters in the city: 3 guys in a truck gave Bruce a thumbs-up, totally delighted when he returned it. A motorcyclist gave him a big smile and was overjoyed to have it returned. A lady in a phone card shop was really excited when I greeted her in Kiswahili!
We were very surprised to only see a total of 6 Wazungu during our few days in Nairobi. On previous visits there have been lots! Perhaps they were all on safari or keeping away after last year’s fighting.
Public toilets are a bit different: you pay the outside attendant 10 or 20 Ksh (20 or 40 NZ cents) & get some toilet paper. After using the squat toilet, you flush it with a couple of dippers of water from a barrel outside the door. I was pleased there was also water for washing your hands too, sometimes outside.
As we arrived back at the Plaza we were thrilled to see Sarah just outside the main entrance – no need to leave Bruce’s passport at the desk this time in exchange for an ID tag! Back in the office, she gave us a huge smile, handed over our tickets and we paid the balance, which was much cheaper than the amount I’d been told on-line. So it was smiles and thank you’s all round! It was so good to get all that sorted out, we couldn’t leave it till our return to the city as it would be at a weekend, and no offices open. We cashed up the extra 100 USD, so we could buy supplies and pay for transport over the next week.
We were surprised to be taken to an up-market supermarket, but it was good to use some clean Western-style toilets. When Nicholas turned up, he treated us to huge lattés in the nearby cafe – I’ve never seen such stiff foam before! The severe headache I’d developed eased off a little.
Back in the Maasai shopping 'centre', we stopped to greet a pastor who has a church there called Harvest, he wanted us to visit him after tea.
Our tea was different: ‘Nescafe chai’! It was strange that it was still called 'chai' even though it was made from coffee, not tea!
I tried to phone Amex using John's cellphone, but got no reply. John was too tired to visit the pastor, so we stayed at home talking to a young teacher who had come to greet us. He teaches a class of 70 Standard 3-4 pupils!
We had more chai at 9, dinner at 10: cabbage, potatoes and chapattis, but couldn’t eat very much! I was a bit disturbed when John told me we would be discussing transport arrangements the next day, we'd thought it had already been sorted!
Had a few hours’ good sleep once the talking stopped, we'd been given 2 blankets this time!

Part Four: Kenya

Tuesday 30th June Descending into Dubai, 2 small children started vomiting, one was panicking, and her dad was rather brusque.  She coped much better when she sat by the window with her mother. 
What a hot place, 32° at 5.30 a.m.!
We had a rather frustrating time trying to get our homeward journey organised.  We wanted to use our Skywards points to upgrade to business class from Nairobi to Dubai, and also wanted to find out whether we would be able to get a shuttle to/from our hotel.
Everyone had a different idea as to where the Skywards desk was!  First we were told it’s at Gate 121 in the old terminal – nothing!  The information desk sent us upstairs, two sets of people directed us back through security to another desk where we were told to go upstairs to the Business lounge.  However, we couldn't get there from where we were, so had to go back to Transfers passing through security again!  Well, we were back where we started, halfway down Terminal Three! 
When we went upstairs, we were confronted by a large lady who asked if we were registered!  Only Silver and Gold customers can use the Skywards desks at the airport, so we'd have to use the internet or phone!
After walking around the airport for 1 1/2 hours, we were feeling rather tired!  After having orange juice and sundaes at McDonald’s, we put our feet up for 20 minutes before heading off the the boarding area.  We were very surprised to be upraded to Business class along with many others!  God has a real sense of humour!!It was good to be able to put our feet up on the plane, no swelling for once!  None of the other planes had had foot rests.  You certainly get a much larger variety of foods (including a glass pottle of jam!), larger servings of juice, a choice of teas & coffees, a bottle of water and good earphones!
Take-off was delayed by the paper war that ensued after a passenger didn’t board, also their baggage had to be offloaded, caused a paper war.  Further delays were caused by rescheduling the runway!  However, we were still on time in Nairobi!
Part IV – Kenya
It was humid, and warm, 21° at 3 p.m.  We were shocked by the brownness of the countryside, it should have been green.
After waiting in the queue for ½ hour for a visa, we found we needed another form!  That meant another ½ hour wait!  They were certainly taking swine flu' seriously, you were given a special form to fill in with a tear-off slip for a doctor in case you got sick.
We were met by 5 Maasai including our friend John Tino. They’d been there since lunchtime, although I'd told them not to be there before half 3!  Some had never seen planes before, so had been having lots of fun watching them take off and land.
Unfortunately I managed to lose some travellers’ cheques by accidentally replacing them between my money belt & skirt.  I was trying to be very careful as it's offensive for a woman to show her waist!
We went to the Kenya Airways office outside Departures hoping to pay for our tickets to Tanzania, but they wouldn’t accept our voucher although we’d been assured it would be OK.  That meant planning a trip to the Precision Air office in Nairobi the next day.
We all went in Nicholas Teeka's ute – one of John Tino’s half-brothers – to his house in a small Maasai settlement near the airport.  He and his wife Agnes live in a 3-room corrugated iron hut with their 2 children and one of his other wife’s children.  The other lives with its mother at his father’s manyatta.  Pictured from L to R: John, Nicholas, Agnes + child, Elizabeth (John's fiancée).The house is surrounded by netting fences - animals live on three sides in pens, the fourth has a gate.  A smaller hut contains the jiko (stove), a bed and cupboards.  Hens fly up to peck scraps off the dirty plates stacked in the wooden dish-stand in the yard.  Young animals stay around all day, older ones are taken out to grazing.  The bathroom is a tiny iron shed behind the 'house' with a branch for soap and wire for towel + clothes.  The toilet was a padlocked long-drop in the open space outside the fence.
The settlement has sll kinds of houses from traditional mud/thatch huts, through mud brick to iron.  Many are dilapidated or derelict.  It's approached on a dirt road that first passes between home-made dukas (shops) and kibandas (roofed stalls).  It's a noisy place to live, there are planes all day, (a Red Cross one at 4.30 p.m.), and at night: cow bells; animals snorting, coughing, & urinating; little children crying; people talking; even 2 birds that together sounded like a squeaky see-saw! 
We were only able to eat half the food offered as by the time we got to eat, it was so late at night! However, it was good to meet John’s fiancée, Elizabeth, who’d been staying with Nicholas and his family for a couple of weeks.  She finds the city hard to get used to as her home is out in the bush. 
We were quite shocked and very sad to hear, during the after-dinner discussion, that their wedding had been postponed.  The church leaders had decided this at a meeting on Friday: because John's house isn’t finished, and people can’t afford to bring gifts due to the drought.
It was hard to sleep too as it was so cold and we only had a bottom sheet – usually you supply your own, but we hadn’t packed one!  Everyone else had gone offto bed too, and we didn't want to disturb anyone, so we put on sweaters and socks, and huddled together under my dressing gown all night! 
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling very upset about losing the money, feeling such a fool! I'd only found out when we went to bed so couldn't do anything about it straight away.

Essen to Barkenfeld

Saturday 27th June Humid, partly sunny.  Lots of people at breakfast today, but it's a busy weekend in Duisburg.  It was a day of missed connections!
We missed the first u-bahn to the main station so had to catch a later train to Essen to visit a former coal/coke works.  It was strange using a former coal elevator near Tower 12 (an old mine shaft, pictured above left) to enter the building which is now an information centre and shop, but still complete with all the old machinery (above right).
After having a browse around, we walked alongside the old railway tracks to the coke plant.  The windows of a most unusual-looking school (right) in the distance proved a real eye-teaser.


I loved the Sonnenrad ride (left), which completed two revolutions!  It was a little like sitting in a cable-car except it was attached to a huge wheel which slowly revolved, giving lovely views from the top.  Even Judith enjoyed it, although she hates heights!
We missed the next tram from Zollverein Süd by only two minutes - pictured right: some interesting old houses across the road - but it was enough to make us too late for our train to Barkenfeld, so Judith had to phone her parents re our new arrival time. 
Her father drove us to their home where we had a very late lunch of strawberry cake, strawberries and cream, and coffee at 4 p.m.
We enjoyed our walk around the neighbourhood with their small dog, passing the remains of Judith’s old primary school - not enough children!  We also passed the Green School where Judith’s mum teaches & the Blue School where her father teaches.  He’s due to retire after another half school year, but during the summer holidays, they are going to Mongolia to stay in a yurt!
The town was deliberately designed to be child-friendly - vehicle access is limited to the perimeter of the housing area, and there are lots of paved walkways which are good enough for cycling.  The population is only 10-15,000, not the expected 40-50,000.
We had our BBQ indoors as it started to rain: speck, Bratwurst and salads.  Particularly nice was one of Greek yoghurt, garlic and cucumbers.  We sat outside later on for a couple of hours, it was only just getting dark when we went to bed at 11!

Second day with Eleanor

Tuesday June 23rd Another lovely fine day! First stop: Palais de Justice, what a massive building with interesting brick-filled pillars. Trapped - a young couple who’d parked too closely behind another car, someone else parked too closely behind them! They tried many manoeuvres to try to get out again, but had to give up! Unfortunately we couldn't push the front car forward either, so they left, good-naturedly, to do some more shopping, hoping that one of the other drivers would return before they got back.









The Musical Instrument Museum is a fascinating place with over 7,000 instruments from all over the world. There are some weird hybrids, e.g. a trombone with 7 bells, a harpsichord/monochord - which looked like someone had tried to jam a one-stringed cello into it, a piano/harp etc. There were some rather odd folk instruments too, like a violin having a covered fingerboard with large metal keys near the base. Videos showing how they are played would be good! Pictured: clavier d’archets, rectangular virginal, hexagonal piano.









On the way back to Grand-Place we passed through this lovely garden (above), before lunching on sandwiches and crispy Belgian waffles at a street table.
The Brussels City Museum contains art works & tapestries dating from the Middle Ages as well as various displays about the history of the city. My favourite: a mediaeval 3-D altar screen on ‘The Life of Christ and of the Virgin” - incredible delicacy of detail.

We took a photo of the city (left) from the top of the tallest car park building before walking to the Place de Palais. Eleanor rested in the gardens, while we visited the remains of the 12th century Coudenberg Palace, buried in 1700 under a market place! Seeing the collapsed ballroom floor (above) & hearing the traffic passing overhead was a bit nerve-wracking. The Rue d’Isabelle (left) used to be above ground, leading to the old market.
After meeting back up again, Bruce & I went to the Atomium (right), whilst Eleanor went to meet boyfriend Ben. We arrived back at St Catherine’s (left) much later than planned: the metro took longer to get to the Atomium than anticipated, we had further to walk due to road works, then to return we left from a different metro station which happened to be further away than it looked on the map + a vital road sign was missing! We also waited 20 minutes to get a train, missed the 1st as it had a different number/route on the front, but found out later it would have done!
We ate traditional Belgian cuisine together, nice but a bit dear + small portions. It was interesting hearing how Eleanor & Ben first met, & that she’s staying with his parents, & the cats she house-sat recently are his sister’s!
A mystery accident near our table: a policeman arrived accompanied by sirens to interview a motorcyclist partly obscured by pavement hoardings. An ambulance arrived
next & took someone away on a stretcher - but we didn't see what had happened.
Before saying our goodbyes at the metro, we went for a little walk in the dusk to visit a famous shopping street – oh dear, rubbish day tomorrow! Someone was a bit camera-shy!

Brussels with Eleanor

Monday 22nd June Nice breakfast of yoghurt, croissants, bread rolls, juice and strong coffee. The waitresses were kept busy pouring coffee, clearing and resetting tables. All the guests except us were French-speaking Africans so we felt quite at home!
As Eleanor had still not turned up 20 minutes after the arranged time to meet, I went downstairs to try to phone her and was successful on the second attempt. She was having problems owing to a faulty Google map, and no-one seemed to know where the hotel was. However, our helpful hotel receptionist soon gave her the right directions, and she arrived very quickly, she’d only been a short distance away! I was touched that they didn’t charge me for the phone calls
After spending some time discussing where to go, we set off for the Cathedral on the metro. It's a great public transport system, a day ticket takes you everywhere within the city. Unfortunately our camera’s batteries went flat, and Eleanor’s were too!

We enjoyed looking at the Bourse and Grand-Place – fantastic buildings, some decorated with gilt. There were some lovely paintings on sale in the square, as well as plants in pots. After buying museum and transport passes, we walked to the palace through some interesting gardens.
We were quite amused by the guards’ slow march, each arm being raised up to horizontal at each step. What a boring job!
The yummy chocolates + beautiful lace in the shop windows were very tempting, but we resisted very well. We only came across the Manneken Pis by accident, nearly missed it as it’s so SMALL, but I really don't understand why everyone raves over it so much, I think it’s rather rude!
We ate some spicey Turkish kebabs for lunch, before returning to the hotel for a rest, our feet were sore after all the cobbles, which are laid in scalloped patterns.
There didn't seem to be a good restaurant near our hotel, it's in rather a grotty neighbourhood, so we returned to town, ending up in a Thai restaurant near St Catherine’s and the Bourse. The food was beautifully served; Bruce had an orchid on his plate + my beef curry was served in a clay pot kept warm over a candle in a bowl.
An amusing incident – a police car stopped in a side-street, a second joined it, blocking the entrance – 2 other motorists tried to enter the street, blocking the main road as they couldn’t get past the police cars! Traffic started building up in the main road, people started honking their horns! Eventually one of the police cars was moved, restoring everything to order!

Part Two: Belgium

Sunday 21st Changeable weather, fine then colder, windy and cloudy.  I got up too early, making the dog rather excited when I went downstairs, she wanted to go outside - but I missed one deadbolt so she had to wait a bit longer!Managed to bypass the Baptist church due to talking too much, realising once we reached the Catholic one that we'd gone to far.  We ended up about 15 minutes late but enjoyed the service plus chatting to some of the friendly congregation and pastor afterwards.  They help an African church in Nairobi by sending teams to teach pastors and Sunday School teachers.
We went to Heathrow by bus after lunch. British Midlands seemed very efficient, but there was a long delay on the tarmac before we were cleared for take off, so the pilot made a big joke out of it.  However, we made up half an hour in flight time due to tail winds!
Part II - Belgium
Our first glimpses of Belgium were interesting: lots of tiny fields, some looking like mediaeval strip-farms, entwined within a cobweb of roads that sprouted clusters of houses along their lengths.  There seemed to be few trees apart from a large area near the city, but there were quite a lot of canals and other waterways. 
At first airport formalities seemed pretty scanty with no arrival forms to fill in.  However, two out of the three queues for non-EU passport-holders were stationary or almost so, so people started moving to the only one that was proceeding quickly.  We decided to do the same.
The charming official only wanted to know whether we were there for business or not, so was interested to hear that we were going to visit our daughter in Belgium, and that we were from NZ, saying, “Old Zeeland is very close!”
It was a little hard to find the right platform for the train, but it was a quick trip to the Midi.  It seems young Belgians love covering things with graffiti, even the train carriages! 
It was also hard to find the right exit out of the Midi station, we thought we’d come out on the other side, so we went in the wrong direction down the street looking for our hotel.  There seemed to be few street signs + my street map was confusing, even the bus stop one didn’t help, so we went back to the station to ask directions.  I also asked at a few places on the way, trying out some French! 
The hotel was a bit grotty, and our room only had a shared toilet, with no bathroom, so we paid a bit more to get a room with a shower.
Dinner was interesting, we went to the next-door Greek restaurant.  It was hard to work out which dish was which + the staff only spoke French - but a kindly Asian girl helped us.  The chef complimented her on her excellent French and it was quite funny how quickly they became a little flirtatious, although he was twice her age! It was a cheap filling meal, so we slept well afterwards, although it was amazingly light outside after 10 p.m.

Sleaford

Saturday 20th Went for a walk with Diane before breakfast to the local shop to get the paper + a few toiletries, it was cloudy & cool. It wasn't one of the 2 days a week when the mobile postman comes so I couldn't buy stamps for my postcards!
We had an uneventful trip to Sleaford to visit Aunty Mary, except we missed the correct turn-off, the exit came up too fast! We tried to find an alternative route from the town centre but couldn't, so returned to the main road to return to the correct exit - so we were a little late for lunch.
It does seem strange that my aunt's now my own height, having lost 6" through severe osteoporosis. She has daily caregivers in to help her with a few tasks but manages most herself. It was fun looking at photos together before returning to Oxford.
Unfortunately the Silverstone Races were on, so we were detoured from Northhampton to Banbury. The roads closer to Oxford were poorly signed + my map wasn't detailed enough so we got a little lost, then it started to rain! It was a relief to suddenly come across Banbury Road at a street I’d walked down going to the doctor’s! Great! The car got taken back to the hirer's after tea.

Part One: England - On our way!

Part I - England

Monday 15th Left Christchurch New Zealand at 3.55 p.m., arrived in Sydney at 5.15, a pleasant 18°. I was screened for explosives – need to learn NOT to look at security staff!

Tuesday 16th Arrived 40 minutes late due to headwinds in Bangkok, 27°; Dubai was even hotter, 32°; arrived in Gatwick 12.25.
I was pleased to be allowed to use the phone at the information desk to let my uncle and aunt know which bus we were catching as I didn’t have any small change for the pay phone outside, although I was prepared to go to the Forex.
There was no sign of Uncle Norman and Aunty Mary at the bus stop in Oxford, so I went to the public phone after changing some money with a kindly bus conductor. Of course, there was no answer, they'd already arrived!
After a cuppa, we went on a long walk in the water meadows with Varga, their Norwegian Elkhound, now 8 years old.
Bruce went to bed early, but I couldn't resist the chance of playing chamber music with one of Uncle Norman’s quartet groups - we tried out a Schumann Piano Quintet! I had a nice chat with the group over supper at 10 p.m.