Making the Most of Kenya

Aware that we would soon be leaving Kenya, we have made the most of our time here before moving on to another East African country.

Road Trips:
As our time here began to run out, we made the trips to the area around Naivasha, featured on the earlier blogs. It was good to have these few days to appreciate some of the beauty of this vast and varied country.
We also made another special trip to spend time with Andrew's sister and brother-in-law, who live and work in Kenya. We met up for an overnight stay at a beautiful game lodge. Great company, great food, all within the stunning and peaceful surroundings of a National Park! What a wonderful way to spend a weekend.
Once again, we sighted some amazing wildlife in another of Kenya's outstanding National Parks:

Birthday Fun:
This past week was Ben's 9th birthday. This was the first time Ben has had a Kenyan birthday! Joel and Andrew celebrated Kenyan birthdays in 2014: which means that all the boys of this family have now had Kenyan birthdays- but not us girls!
Ben's absolute ambition for his Nairobi birthday was to go quad-biking. Imagine how happy he was when this ambition was fulfilled this weekend! Ben, Esther and Joel were joined by 5 friends and had a rip-roaring morning of fun at the quad-bike trail:,

The Birthday Boy:

His big sister, after a rather fast ride around the course involving just two crashes (!!), which did not detract in any way from her enjoyment of the sport!

His younger brother, receiving some instruction before revving away from the start:

And his Dad, getting into the spirit of adventure after picking up Joel from where Joel's bike had an unfortunate argument with a ditch... Andrew and Joel then rode the course together as a team:

I actually think that it was the dads who enjoyed the quad-biking just as much as, if not more so, than the children!!
We rounded off the morning with a health lunch at KFC (!!) and some birthday cake for those hungry bikers!

The day before, on his actual birthday, Ben had a relaxed afternoon birthday tea at home. His guests were our fantastic friends from our Nairobi block of flats. These are the lovely people we have met here and enjoyed getting to know over the past few months.One of our Serbian neighbours arrived with a delicious birthday cake that she had made especially for Ben! It was like a banana Swiss roll, covered in cream and filled with fresh bananas. Tasty!!

Before the tea-party, I took the children for their last Science class at the Little Einstein's home-schooling class. At their final class, they were excited to learn about how to make ice-cream and enjoyed the hands-on activities which the teachers there provide- and I enjoyed an hour of watching my children being taught rather than teaching them myself :-)

More Farewells:
A few weeks ago, we said goodbye to MAF colleagues and friends based in Nairobi. We enjoyed an afternoon tea party, on the lawn at the MAF compound. It was good to be able to say farewell to some of our South Sudan team members who were still in Nairobi and had missed the Juba farewell.
It was also important to us to be able to say goodbye and thank you to those who work in Kenya and have hosted us during our interim periods in Nairobi: first in 2014 when civil war broke out in South Sudan and again after July 9th this year when serious fighting began a second time in South Sudan.



Preparing to Leave:
Before we leave Kenya tomorrow, we have to have a "certificate of good behaviour" from the police department. Dutifully, Andrew and I went along to the correct department a few weeks ago, to have our finger prints taken and fill in various forms.

Despite Andrew's minor stint as a jail-bird back in 2014 (!!) our certificates were granted. So we can leave Kenya tomorrow with a clear conscience and our printed certificates in hand, proving that we have been good and are ready for a new stage, in a new African country!

We had a final meal this evening with our fellow friends from our black of flats, around the pool at here in our appartment complex. They've been great company and we will miss them! Andrew took a last photo of me with the ladies:

The bags are packed and waiting to be loaded into the two taxis tomorrow:

Our baggage is overweight and we are over the limit of the number of bags allowed on a Kenya Airways flight- but where would the fun be in life if everything was straightforward?? It seems we are still in line for a few adventures in Africa... and I look forward to relating them from our new home in Uganda... Until then, it is farewell to Kenya as we move on!