26 to 28

26/12

Breakfast then away from the iffy hotel and out onto the road to Mara. It was quite fun to watch everyone bounce around in the car on the crappy roads since I’m used to it by now until my little brother announced that he was feeling like he needed to puke. Sitting next to him I felt that that would ruin my fun. Thankfully he didn’t do it.

After about 3 hours on Kenya’s worst roads we got to the hotel. We had been told that since we were going to live here for 3 nights it would be a lot nicer, it wasn’t. Basecamp, where I lived with school when I was in Mara the first time, is a whole world away. It isn’t a bad hotel, it is just bad compared to what I’m used to live at with my family. And they have Kenyan buffet, I hate Kenyan buffets.

Since I was at a horrible mood and felt that it wouldn’t hurt me to miss one game drive I stayed at the hotel whilst the others went into the Mara.

27/12

This day was one long game drive in Masai Mara. We saw everything there is to see, even a leopard that had just climbed up a tree with its pray, and had lunch in the bush.

28/12

A morning game drive with a sunrise over the Mara, the rest of the day was just spent sunbathing by the pool.

25/12

After another splendid breakfast we left Serena and Nairobi for Lake Nakuru and Lake Nakuru Lodge.

On the way to Nakuru we drove by my school to leave all my presents so that I can enjoy them when my family leaves. After that we had two stops, one at the viewpoint over Rift Valley and one at Lake Naivasha where we got to see hippos and African fish eagles and walk among wild animals (these animals had been take from Masai Mara and then been left behind after some seans for Out of Africa was shot by Lake Naivasha and the animals had gotten too tame to be let back into Mara).

When we got to Nakuru I was a bit disappointed, the food was the same crappy Kenyan buffet as always and the hotel was quite crappy. Don’t think that I’m saying this because I’m a bit spoiled since I’ve been living a lot at nice hotels with my family it is just that I’ve lived at nicer hotels with school and Kenyan food really is boring. We at least got a nice game drive where we got to see lots of rhinos, flamingos (a first for me), pelicans, hyenas and some really stupid Indians dancing at a car roof near to an area where lions had been spotted.

24/12

Christmas!

We had the most perfect Christmas breakfast ever; they even had soymilk and brown bread, and then took a taxi to a huge mall called Village Market where there was a Masai market that day. Everyone was a bit overwhelmed except for Evelina who in about two seconds was bargaining with one of the vendors. One of the vendors expressed what everyone was thinking about the monstrous girl harassing them very well when he said to her “you are annoying”. Why that girl is studying science and not economy like me is a mystery.

After a lunch and before Evelina started too much problem with her bargaining skills we went back to the hotel for some swimming and to see if our bags had come yet. They had come, not to the hotel but at least to Nairobi airport, so whilst Jens and Eric jumped in the swimming pool, dad slept and Evelina tried getting a better suntan than mine Mom and I went to the airport to get the bags. When we got back I got to open all the wonderful presents from my family and everyone at home, it was fantastic. Thanks everyone!

After dressing up real nice in all our new Kenyan jewelry we went down for a Christmas dinner at the hotel restaurant. I was about to pass out when I saw the food. My mom is probably the best cook in Falsterbo and I love her Christmas food but after living on Kenyan food for a couple of months nothing could be better than this Christmas dinner. It was a seafood buffet! The starters being different types of salad and cold seafood like shrimp, salmon (MMMMMMmm) and sushi, the main course being warm things such as masala shrimps, meat things (uninteresting for me), barbequed shrimps and huge yummy, fantastic lobsters. It was a horrible feeling when I realized I was full and couldn’t eat any more so I took just one extra portion of shrimps and then took a breather before attacking the deserts. I wanted to try it all but since both my mom and sister have lost lots and lots of weight since I left home and I’m the fatty of the family I decided to just have a crépsucet (how do you spell that?) (MMmmmm), something tiny made of vanilla and strawberries and a chocolate pastry with some extra chocolate sauce on the side. After a dinner like that I feel asleep happy.

23/12

No sleep what so ever, a taxi at 6.30 and then of to the airport. Since everything in Kenya takes time I had to wait 2 hours at the airport before I could say Karibu (welcome to) Kenya to my family. It took mom about 1 second after she’d seen me before she started to cry, but then again that might be because she was told that their luggage had not arrived.

Together we left for the Serena Hotel in Nairobi, which was really nice, and had a break before I started my little tour in Kenya. The plan for the day was to start at Toi market and then walk from there to my school. In between there we had a short break at Java just to get out of the sun.

After I got to give everyone their Christmas presents we had dinner at Nairobi’s supposedly best Indian restaurant since Indians unlike Kenyans can cook. It was a really nice day and an even better evening.

// Pictures will come later //

See ya'll soon!

I’ve been awake for two days now. It is impossible to sleep when you’re waiting to see your family for the first time in several months. I’ve cleaned my room obsessively, repacked my bags about 6 times and tried out almost all my clothes to find something I liked. Now I’m just sitting around waiting for the cab, dressed and ready, watching How I Met Your Mother to pass the time.

Kirismasi Nzuri na Mwaka Mpya Wa Fanaka

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

// Leaving the boarding, YEAY! //

Chocolate cake

I just broke into the schools kitchen like a high-class ninja and stole eggs, butter, sugar and cacao for Emilie’s and mine awesome chocolate cake. We sneaked in and sneaked out leaving no trays, quiet as the huge freaking rat running around this place. These are the little adventures you have to create for yourself so you don’t go insane when there is nothing to do but sitting around waiting, and hoping, for your parents to get to this godforsaken country.

What's up

Day in day out sunbathing, getting browner and browner, melting my brain away.

It is looking dark for some of us Kenyan kids this Christmas. Some cant get home, one is stuck in London and several families who were supposed to come are stuck in Sweden. Hopefully our families will be able too get here but otherwise we will be a gang who’ll have Christmas at the principals house which isn’t too bad.

Spring break? No, Christmas!

If you’re in Kenya and you’ve just finished the school term what do you do? Well of course you have a pool party!

When school was finally over yesterday we had a pool party that could compete with any American spring break. The music, the sun, all the people shilling in the pool and the guys playing football made it a very surreal 17 of December.

Dancing around the Christmas three

Santa

Animals from hell

Just thought I’d tell you about the near death experience I had yesterday which made me realize that there are worse things you can find in your bed here than silverfish and ants.

After a dinner at a sushi restaurant with 5 people from the boarding we returned to school to go to Galileo to have a last night out before everyone started leaving for Sweden. In the break between restaurant and nightclub a couple of girls and I were standing outside bamba (the name of our kitchen) when we herd someone scream. We went to see what it was all about and found out that someone had seen a rat. We all became a bit jumpy, seeing rats everywhere but then suddenly something came running up from behind me and ran past my legs. I first thought it was a really fat cat or a dachshund (but those don’t exist here) but it was the rat.

I’ve seen rats before but none like this one; this was an African sized rat, with a tail about 30 cm long. It was huge, fat and overfed, probably from the Christmas leftovers. It trotted around not to quickly around us, something that size probably doesn’t feel fear. But I did, I screamed and ran and ran and ran. T.I.A

17/12 Schools out

After breakfast we were all having an hour in our mentor groups just to hang out and talk before the Christmas break. Zanna, my mentor (and English teacher), had bought a huge cake and a bracelet for everyone in her group. We played games and sang some Christmas songs before hugging each other and saying goodbye.

Emma and Ellen's rime:

När vi satte oss på planet som skulle ta oss till andra sidan jorden,

så förväntade sig nog ingen att vi skulle sitta här idag vid dessa borden.

Med flytt-fåglarna flydde vi till ett varmare land,

och nu sitter vi här idag med en vänskap som går hand i hand.

Och OM vi har haft kul,

rest tillsammans på fyra hjul.

Långa, svettiga bussresor är något vi vid detta laget kan,

till Mombasa, Hell´s gate och Kisumu vi hann.

Hoppet om att ett husdjur ska flytta in på internatet,

har slutat med att vakterna fått mat på fatet.

Att svenska skolan kan festa,

har vi lärt oss eftersom groundings delats ut till de flesta.

Att det ska vara tyst vid en viss tid,

är något vi nu känner vid.

Leonis kändaste citat ekar fortfarande i korridoren,

och förhoppningsvis kommer det att avta till våren.

Fyra månader har vi tillbringat på denna kontinent,

enligt de flesta är det nog det bästa som hänt.

Många kanske nu tar avsked och fäller en tår,

MEN, tänk positivt.. Detta är bara början på ett oförglömligt år.

När vi satte oss på planet som skulle ta oss till andra sidan jorden,

så förväntade sig nog ingen att vi skulle sitta här idag, vid dessa borden.

Christmas dinner

16/12

Last day with lessons then it was time for the Christmas dinner we’d all be longing for since we’d herd the roomer that there would be Swedish food. There were, and lots of it! Christmas ham (just tasted a tiny winy bit), KNÄCKEBRÖD and so much more, it was delicious. During the dinner there were a couple students performing my absolute favorites being a rime written by Emma and Ellen, the song that Adrian, Robin and Gustaf did for their girlfriends and the rime that Elvira finished the lunch with.

Emma and Ellen

The boys singing

Per our boarding teacher

T.I.A

Rats in the corridors, killer bees in my room, lizards in my ceiling and ants and silverfish in my bed. All African sized. This is why they need winter in Kenya so that animals like that would die once a year.

Here are the 6 names

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11996652

More blood?

Today the International Criminal court (ICC) is going to name the 6 highly positioned people they believe to be behind the violence after the 2007 election. The names will be announced at 2 o’clock here. We are only allowed to go to the gym or Junction today because depending on which names are produced there is a risk of violence and protests braking out.

More info on what is happening today and why:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11996652

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7792818.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7447987.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7433852.stm

3 Lucia

14/12

At 8 o’clock during our breakfast we got to witness the day’s first Lucia. It was for the whole boarding and the staff and sung buy my classmates from the gymnasium.

It is Kenya, what did you expect? Not even for Lucia we dump our crocs and flip-flops.

Next one was at 9 and was mostly for the smaller kids' parents so here the younger kids joined in which made it a lot better, cuter and fun to watch.

The last one was in the afternoon, we were driven to the Swedish ambassadors house where there was a huge party. Here we are in line to shake hands with the ambassador (the blond woman in front whose head is partially covered by a leaf).

We were served “Lucebullar”, “ischoklad” and “pepparkakor” and also food and a huge cake. Luxury!

The Lucia train was held in front of the ambassador’s pool when the sun had gone down.

Sweden

The trip that was planed for today was canceled; instead I stayed at home working on my psychology assignment.

I’m so incredibly homesick right now. I’m tired of eating the same food everyday, nothing tasting at all as Swedish food. I’m tired of living at a place that some days, especially when you’re sick, feels like a juvenile prison. There are bars over our windows, the grounds are always patrolled by two guards, we’re living in a huge fenced in area and have to write down on a paper every time we want to leave this place for a walk or even if we’re just going across the street to the gym. Sometimes I feel like just jumping the wall and take a walk all by myself, I don’t like the feeling that there is absolutely no privacy at this place and that someone has to know what you’re doing every minute of the day.

I’m tired of Kenyans who, if you talk in general, are rude and stupid. I want to be able to walk down a street or take the bus and not be spoken to. I hate being called muzungo and I hate that if some dumb assed Kenyan whistles or say a rude comment to you and you ignore them they will actually say “You wont talk to me just because I’m black” and call you a racist. IDIOTS!

I hate that this is one of the slowest places in the world. Mom, you would die if you tried shopping for groceries here, there are 50 people working in the store, cleaning and packing up, but none of them know where anything is and they’re all rude. Then when you get to the cashier there is 2-3 people in every line, that seem like little but still you have to wait for 40 minuets before you actually pay.

At the restaurants the waiters don’t know what’s on the menu or how to behave. No salesperson in this country has ever herd of manners, they are so extraordinarily annoying and sometimes even mean.

// I want to go home but still I doubt I would leave this place before the year is over if I got the chance. //

CHICKEN!

When I came into the TV room this morning where a couple of other girls and I were planning to see Julkalendern I was met by a huge horrible monster, namely a hen. I hate chicken! Hens and roosters freak me out, and I do have my reasons for that I’ve been chased by them more than once. And this was no ordinary hen either. It had a head as big as my fist with a very sharp looking beak and huge claws that I bet could rip out my lungs in a second. It flapped its wings menacingly which made me scream like a baby and run for Sebastian (boarding parent) who in turn went and got one of our guards so that he could carry the dumb thing away but before they got it out it had already left a couple of gifts on the floor for us which really didn’t smell to nice.

Jamhury day tomorrow

First a short announcement

I’m sad to announce that, to the Swedish embassy’s great pleasure, I won’t be able to join in and sing during the Lucia celebration due to the fact that I’m coughing non-stop.

Now to the fun fact, it is not only Lucia but also Jamhury day tomorrow which means we’re free from school the whole day! It is a holiday to mark and celebrate that on the 12 December 1964 Kenya’s establishment as a republic. A year earlier, 1963, the 12 December was also the day that Kenya gained its full independence from the United Kingdom. It is seen as Kenya’s most important holiday and in and around Nairobi it is being held several different cultural events to celebrate it. Sadly I’ll miss it due to having to write a psychology assignment today and the fact that I signed up for a school trip to a small town outside Nairobi where if you pour water on a tilted street the water will flow upwards not down wards (I’ll believe it when I see it).

Tell you more about the trip later.

Two weeks coughing

Thursday I was finally sent to Nairobi Hospital again to get something for my cough. It took 5 min just like last time and I’m already starting to feel a bit better and my cough is slowly getting better. Being sick here sucks but it has its god sides too, these being lots and lots of time for reading and sunbathing when the sun comes out. These two weeks I’ve been able to read 3 whole books from cover to cover namely A Confederacy of Dunces (a really weird book) and the two later books in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. I’m starting to suspect that this much reading isn’t good for my brain, it feels a bit mushy.

// Thanks for all the beautiful Christmas letters, every time I find one in my postbox I jump with joy //

Not news really

Corruption in Kenya, if you have the money you can buy everyone and everything,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11913876

2:a advent

Today the rest of the school is having a little hike over a couple of hills called N’gong Hills. It is supposed to be a nice little walk up and down steep hills lying after each other like the knuckles on a closed fist. It is one of the warm ups for climbing Mt. Kenya and I hate missing it. It is also quite cool because the area my classmates are now strolling around in is quite unsafe because of thieves and buffalos (T.I.A) so they get to have 3 guards with them. The reason I’m not strolling along is because I’m really close now to reach my goal of coughing my lungs out. Hopefully I’ll be able to go another time.

To make sure nobody would stay home just to skip the exercise and have a sleep in our lovely boarding parents decided that even the sick kids had to be up at 7 o’clock if they wanted any breakfast. No Brunch or lunch will be served either today and we’re strictly forbidden to leave the school area so if it was not for the lovely ladies in the kitchen leaving out bananas we would get nothing until 5 o’clock tonight. Thank god for the girl who a couple of days ago bought me a cup of noodles because I’m really too big of a person to live of bananas.

When going out to hang my laundry to dry out in the sun I at least got some company thanks to Matata, who first almost scared the crap out of me, he is very good at imitating a rock and can be quite frightening when he starts walking towards you. The crack in his side is from doing a rock imitation in the parking lot underneath a teacher’s car a couple of years ago.

Christamas Bazar

30 degrees, the sun is shining, middle of a Kenyan summer and on the Swedish school grounds there is a Nordic Christmas bazaar selling glögg, gingerbread and other Christmas delicacies from the northern countries, bizarre? Just a bit.

Wake up at 7 o’clock when the Dutch school has its bazaar, playing Dutch Christmas music at full volume risking being killed by 51 tired teenagers. Put on your bikini, take your towel and go down to the pool to work on that pitiful tan while grownups run around in sweaty Santa outfits. Listen to Sweden’s pride, Carola. Get the opportunity to by Swedish, Danish and Norwegian candy, 50 kr for an Algrens Bilar. Go up to your room, clean it and then pass out from fever. Life is good.

Kenyan cuisine

Maybe you’ve wondered what we eat here in Kenya, well not Kenyan food that is for sure. To be frank most of it is disgusting. Most Kenyans eat basically the same things every day (the only ones who don’t are the ones who can afford to try different things). The daily meal consists of Ugali that is a type of rise/mashed potatoish white thing that really tastes like… nothing. With that you either have beans or African spinach that tastes like seaweed. That is the basics since the average Kenyan can’t afford meat or fish with every meal or every day, it is only when they get a shilling or two over that they can buy a little bit meat to make a stew of or a fried fish head (yes it looks as disgusting as it sounds), the fillets being to expensive. Eating 3 times a day is also a bit too expensive for most Kenyans so if they are short on money but still have a coin or two they can always buy samosas for them (fried bread with either beef or vegetables in them), they actually tastes lovely, or eggs or sausages sold from carts in the poorer areas, tiny anchovy like dried fishes that you eat whole (if you see how they are sold you would never consider tasting those) or fried corn. We even have our own corn lady working just outside our school who’s making a fortune thanks to us.

Thank good for the Chinese, Indians, Ethiopians, Lebanese and Italian people living here because was it not for them I would starve. There are simple restaurants everywhere here in Nairobi; also in Mombasa and Kisumu, that serves amazing food for almost nothing at all (seen from a Swedes perspective).

The first of December

Have for 3 days now been trying to cough up my lungs, so far I haven’t succeeded but I don’t think it is far to go now. I drink liter after liter of tea and sleep as much as possible, as the school nurse say there is not much else I can do. Except for being happy being in warm sunny Kenya and not cold snowy Sweden. I thought it would be hard without a real Christmas but we are not really missing anything, we just get the best parts of Christmas and skip the rest. For example tonight everyone is getting ready to see the first episode of this years Christmas calendar on SVT.

101 days in Kenya

1:a advent

När första ljuset brinner står julens dör på glänt

och alla barnen glädjas att fira få advent.

Yesterday we watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 and today it is time to let the Christmas frenzy begin.

The tea farm at the tea hotel

18/11

Before starting the bus ride back to Nairobi from Kericho (the tea district) we got a morning tour in the tea fields and were told about how you pick tea, what part of the bushes you pick, when you pick it and so on. There where several people out on the field already, working hard with the plucking. One person at that farm picked up to around 60 kilos a day and got 8 kr per kilo, not a bad salary being in Kenya. One very positive thing with bigger tea farms like the one we visited is also the fact that the workers get a place to live with their families, newly built houses in very neat rows built on top of the tea hills, houses a lot better looking than the Kenyan homes I’ve seen so far and with much better access to clean water. They even have something that is extremely rare here in Kenya, which is privacy; usually houses here are located wall to wall without any space between them, squashed together to save space but here there where almost a front yard for to house.

We also got to see the next step in the tea production, which was the tea factory. It was a 40-minuet tour and we got to sea how the tealeaf went from being a leaf to the finely grinded powder that they have in tea bags.

Lucia

For the first time since I was 8 I’m participating in something that involves singing, namely the Swedish Schools Lucia. After an hour of practicing for the first time for this I’ve lost my voice, which just shows I’m not used to sing. The reason behind that, well of course it is because I’m tone deaf and can’t sing at all. So far they haven’t kicked me out but I guess that won’t be too long because I doubt they are going to risk having to bring me to the embassy where they are going to perform. We are a couple of girls, about 5 who sing in quires, 4 who sing very well, me, and 3 guys + all the 1-9^th graders. We were discussing the possibility of going to Junction (the mall) to sing but decided to not do so thinking that walking around in white robes and pointed hats with a girl with fire in her hair leading the whole thing might be miss interpreted being in Kenya and all.

Fish

17/11

The whole group of SP students went to the fishing ministry in the morning to learn more about Lake Victoria, nobody really did, it was quite a bad presentation but after that we got to do more fun things like visit a small harbor where they were just taking in the days nets. We got to see a Nile perch, the most disgusting fish ever; it was bigger than Jens (my brother). When the fish had been put in boxes we got to go to the next station namely a fish factory. It was very interesting and we happily explained to the guide that being in the huge freezers made us feel very much at home. The fish that they packet at that factory goes to all Europe, including Sweden. It has a life span of 2 years… and the fish inside the plastic airtight bags comes from the green water of Lake Victoria that you could see on the previous pictures. If I were you I would check once or twice on the packet of my fish sticks before I ate them to see where they are from.

Stole Lisas photos again

(I love my batique pants, they are so not fashion!)

Kenyans

Frida

Jacob, a dead Lisa and Fanny

Lisa and Emma