Anyway so since I last wrote I am back to work and already on week 4 – time flies!! I spent my last week of the holidays, chilling out, eating good food, spending time with special people and occasionally looking after a sick dog!! I also played squash for the first time and really enjoyed it, my backhand is pretty pathetic but something I will definitely keep playing from time to time!! I am also looking into entering my first ever triathlon which would be pretty cool but really need to get myself in gear after a very good start my new exercise regime has pretty much declined since October it is pathetic so I am back on it!! With something to aim for!
Work is gong really well I expected to really hate this term as it is predominantly hockey season, however I waved my magic wand and got gymnastics and dance on the curriculum so I am lucky enough to teach both boys and girls gymnastics at the minute leaving my head of department to teach girls and boys hockey. Gymnastics has really taken off the kids are so enthusiastic to be learning something new and are progressing really well I have a gymnastic activity on a Thursday and despite 12 being the supposed limit I have 30 children – I don’t have the heart to turn any away – I became a PE teacher to get kids to really engage with sport and be enthusiastic so I don’t want to turn kids on to gymnastics in lesson then turn them away from the only access point. That’s one main negative about Mombasa there are no outlets for sports, no clubs no pathways which is a shame as so much talent gets missed and under developed. So I am thinking I could maybe set up a community gymnastic club somewhere but I need to look into it further! I will keep you updated! I also have a dance club on a Wednesday which I am also loving and have good numbers for – boys even missed football training to come to dance woohoo 1 nil to Goodall!! We are working towards a dance performance evening so I am really excited about that just hope I can pull something off in a short amount of time! But the kids are so enthusiastic and practice so hard outside of school!
The only negative so far to this term has been trips to Nairobi I generally don’t enjoy them it involves a 10 hour bus journey there and back, we usually take a thrashing because we have limited students to select from, its freezing at night and for the last 2 visits accommodation has been abysmal so I am not looking forward to going again in march!! On the up I finally saw some animals both on the way up and back down – zebras just chilling, grazing at the side of the road – truly amazing!!
I will take this opportunity to explain a near death experience that I deliberately left out of my last blog I decided it may give my mum a heart attack but ..I think she can handle it – I will set the scene first and explain the Kenyan driving skills – bearing in mind that the test in Kenyan consists of a car full of people waiting to take their test you sit in and drive a hundred meters and then pretty much everyone passes most people who learnt to drive here have the funniest stories about their test – the one that springs to mind is when a girl I know was on her driving test the girl before her got into the driving seat and was already pretty much in tears as she had never driven a manual car before, the girl admitted to having no idea what she was doing, so from the back seat my friend discreetly explained she need to put her left foot on the clutch at the far left side etc. etc. and basically spoke the girl through her test – the girl proceeded to kangaroo the car in a backward direction before bursting into tears only to be told by the instructor ‘you’ve passed!’ unbelievable!!! So you get the idea – many matatus use indicator as accessories and just have them flashing to light up their vehicle, as we in the UK would flash our headlights to indicate you are giving way to someone here it means ‘I’m coming through move out the way’ so you can see where some problems might start! I was also informed that Lorries often indicate right if it is clear for you to overtake! Which leads me nicely on to my story, whilst returning from our Diani trip I was stuck behind a big lorry, I kept pulling out but vehicles were always coming in the other direction, after a while the lorry began to indicate I sat behind it for a while presuming it must be turning right – I then remembered he may actually be letting me pass – I pulled out and saw no vehicles – aha I thought I’m finally reading the lingo of the roads – I accelerate a long side the lorry only then to realise, no I was not reading the lingo I might as well of been attempting to read braille as yes you guessed it this time the lorry was actually turning in- by this point I was too far overtaking to go back so instead I swung my car on to the dirt at the side of the road, bounced through massive puddles, feared for my live, my poor passengers were lifted out of their seats before I safely returned them to the road in front of the lorry – close call.
I have had some lovely Skype sessions with home this weekend, particularly getting to Skype with my Gran, I am so proud of her, since I moved to Kenya she decided it was time she leapt into the 21st century and became technological. She secretly attended some computing lessons and got set up with a computer and internet – she even has Facebook, she is a total legend. Well done Gran can’t wait to speak again!!
As I am sure many of you are aware or many of you have certainly asked the question…yes I will confirm that there has been a bit of a blossoming romance – I have met a very nice guy, who I get on really well with, and he likes me so much he decided to move to Uganda to get away from me!! He already had a job posting out there when we got together but we shall see what happens I am going out to Uganda (secretly just wanted a cheap holiday to Uganda – but don’t tell him until I get back) in February for a couple of days, but before he left he managed to claw his way out of the doghouse for his ridiculous time keeping and endless work calls interrupting any kind of date nights, by taking me on a surprise dhow trip with a lovely 4 course meal, watching the sunset and finally getting time together with no interruptions, it was the perfect evening before carting him off to the airport the next morning! Watch this space … if I never mention it again … it means in true Goodall form it’s all gone to pot so don’t even ask!!!
I am so excited to be having a spur of the moment visitor from Wednesday my Bezzie Hannah is coming out for 6 nights, I absolutely cannot wait! It’s a shame I have to work but I am pretty sure she will find it very easy to entertain herself lounging by the pool in 37 degree heat!!
Well since I last had chance to add to this blog Hannah has been and gone L but what an amazing 6 days we had!! Despite having to work we managed to cram a whole lot of Kenya into such a short space of time! Hannah got to experience volleyball, eating out, safari, camping, Haller Park, boating on the creek, shopping in Shanzu, beach days, pool days and meeting pretty much all my friends.
Having Hannah here was a great excuse to finally experience a safari I can’t believe I have been living in Africa for 6 months and not been on safari!! So with minimal knowledge and zero experience 3 of us set out on a safari to Tsavo East National Park it is only a 2 hour drive away so since we only had a weekend a perfect distance. We rocked up with our residence cards (Hannah becoming Luisa for the day) and paid 1300KSH for entrance and camping for a night that is the equivalent of £11 which just seems ridiculous! It is then free range – follow the map to the camp site and hope to spot some animals - 200m in we saw our first siting … an ostrich!! Not quite a lion but hey it was a good warm up viewing and gave us chance to set the camera’s up. We spent the next few hours driving along spotting all kinds of animals and birds. Simply stunning, quite possibly one of the best experiences of my life. We saw zebra, elephants, gazelles (a variety of breeds), warthogs – which are so cute with their vertical tails and heaps of birds. We took a route which was signposted to a swamp – as we turned the corner we saw the most beautiful view with over a hundred elephants meandering around!! There were lots of baby elephants playing and trotting behind their parents so cute, we literally sat on the roof of my car out hanging out of the sunroof for about 20minutes just taking it all in!
We then headed to pitch our tents a little disappointed to have not seen any giraffes or cats. Arriving at the campsite we were pleasantly surprised to find showers and toilets and even a guy who would find us fire wood and build us a camp fire!! The only concerns were the amount of baboons and the fact that we were not enclosed so any animals could just wander through our campsite!! A little worrying especially for non-campers. After successfully pitching our tents in record timing and trying to make some kind of comfortable beds out of sheets and towels as we didn’t have any mattresses, we headed back out to watch the sunset with a bottle of wine. So glad we did as within minutes we had a sighting of our first giraffe – granted it was about 500m away and looked like it was made out of wood but as we continued down the road we saw 10 more all gracefully walking alongside the road and crossing our paths! Following the giraffes there was a really calm herd of elephants which walked down the side of the car about 10m away and then crossed the road in front of us between my car and the sun setting!! I felt so lucky on this trip to be seeing so much! As the light faded we headed back to camp for some tea (dinner – as I keep getting reminded) Again we weren’t the most organised campers so we had left over pizza, a tin of tuna and then toasted marshmallows!! We decided that we would try to get an early night so that we could arise early and go on another drive as the sun was coming up to see what else we could see so we headed to bed!
I am definitely not a camper I must have seen every hour, I felt claustrophobic, I could hear a heap of animals which sounded like they were right outside our tent and I felt as though I was sleeping on lumpy concrete! I was willing time to pass more quickly finally 5.30am came around and we got up and sorted to head out. It was lovely to be out so early but didn’t see any different animals, however we did see a pile of bones next to the road!!! We headed back to camp for breakfast and this time we came slightly more prepared and cooked sausage sandwiches which went down a treat, and of course to finish it off some more toasted marshmallows!!We packed up the tents - after being told baboons had been using them as trampolines whilst we were out!! Oops!! - And planned our route back to the exit of the park. We were desperate to see lions and after about an hour we spoke to a couple who were also hoping to see lions and had been told there had been a sighting at Aruba lodge – we checked the map and headed that way – the journey went so quickly as once again there was so much to see buffaloes, more elephants really close to the road, impala and zebra. Every time we saw a couple of parked up cars we got excited as we hoped there might be lions but no. We continued driving and eventually we saw 4 cars all parked up with people hanging out of windows with binoculars and ultra-zoom cameras – surely they were looking at the lions – we pulled up whipped out the binoculars and as luck may have it there were lions!!! 5 lions all chilling, sitting around their latest kill… a zebra!! Although they were quite far away it was still incredible to see such magnificent animals in the wild!! After hanging out the sunroof for a further 15minutes hoping they might suddenly have the urge to walk towards the road we decided to continue on our journey. Just around the corner we came to a swamp with the most stunning back drop – an array of gazelles, zebras and elephants topped off by 3 hippo’s wallowing in the water. We finally made it back to the gate and headed home- all with aching bodies and tired eyes from our camping experience!!
On returning to Mombasa I had a text from a friend inviting us out on his boat – although we were so tired I thought it was a perfect opportunity for Hannah to experience the creek- to top it off he had brought his doughnut along so I got to watch Hannah hanging on for dear life whilst being thrown around on a giant doughnut so much fun!!
Monday we headed to Haller Park straight after I had finished work – I arrived feeling quite anxious after my traumatic monkey incident the time before!! We paid our entrance and headed to feed the giraffes – the monkeys also felt it was feeding time for them! Luckily I managed to stay calm and surrounded by other people I felt a little safer! We fed the giraffes and then watched the hippos and crocs being fed before heading to Shanzu for Hannah to do some last minute souvenir shopping!
Saying bye to Hannah was awful I don’t think saying bye to people will ever get any easier but so glad she came out and we got to spend some time together – it is amazing despite not seeing each other for 7 months everything slotted perfectly in to place, I laughed until I couldn’t breathe on several occasions, we reminisced, we bitched and even cried at the airport- a true lifelong friendship!!
The following weekend I had planned a weekend of nothing – sleeping in, chilling by the pool and catching some rays however that all changed when I got a surprise visitor from Uganda at 1.30am despite not seeing him for 3 and a half weeks his timing was once again ridiculous, I had decided to bite the bullet and get my hair done out here as it was in terrible condition and I thought it would be nice to make the effort before my trip to Uganda – I chose to get it done on Friday so I had a few days to get used to it, for the colour to settle and for the cut to grow in – my skin is also in terrible condition but again thought I have till Wednesday for it all to clear – but no I had to answer the door with hair dye around my hair line still, terrible skin and hair that I definitely wasn’t used to yet possibly because I look a little bit like Morticia from the Addams family!! But it was still a great surprise and although it put a stop to my lie in on sat, and we then spent 3 hours at the vets with his dog and I spent Sunday feeling like I had food poisoning (we are destined for a rough ride) It was still a lovely weekend and only a few days till I fly out. Speaking of which again true to Goodall form I booked my flights to Uganda and 2 weeks later he gets an email from his boss telling him he has to go to Ethiopia for 2 days on the day I fly out to Uganda!!! Typical!! Luckily his company are pretty nice and therefore are flying me out to Addis in Ethiopia for 2 days too!! Bonus really I get to travel around in such a short space of time!! I will probably need another holiday when I get back but I can’t wait!!!
And that brings us to now! It has only taken me 2 weeks to write this but never mind I got there eventually!!
Final thought – I am loving the home comforts Hannah brought out – sultana bran, fajita kits, minstrels and dolmio sauce!! But the best home comfort will be when my parents fly out in 6 and a half weeks – can’t wait!!!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Steph xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
