The ladies of Kimwarer Valley

Before I introduce the ladies of Kimwarer Valley, I would like to pass on Grant's heartfelt thanks for all the kind comments and birthday wishes yesterday. In the two-and-a-half years that I've written my blog, he's never read it. Last night I showed him his birthday post; he enjoyed it very much and was touched by the many comments.

Anticlock-wise from left: Caroline, Head of the local school; Charda (nearest camerar left) who is my neighbour and stays home; then Sue, the MD's wife (bottom right) next is Karen, Human Resources Manager and lastly, Jo-Anne, Health and Safety Manager

On Tuesday evening, the company MD and his wife returned from their leave in South Africa. The HOD's and spouses were invited to a dinner at the guest house. It was super meeting the ladies from the mine, Caroline, Karen and Jo-Anne, my namesake!  I already know the other two who spend their day on camp as I do. Sue and Charda are also very involved in after-school activities. Sue has asked me to join them in helping the children with their clubs which they love. They have Scouts (this is big in Kenya, more about this later), a computer club, a science club and have now introduced a journalism club.  I know I'm going to enjoy joining in the extramurial activities of this progressive Kenyan school.

It's Raining in Khartoum!

I woke up this morning to find my husband had left for work and the power was off. Power-outage in Khartoum is a regular thrice-daily occurance. Because all the ceiling fans and airconditioners were off, I could hear rain pelting down on the roof.

Sure enough, when I looked out of the window I saw that the street was a quagmire and there was hardly any sign of life outside. I've found that things get going much later in the morning. Africa only wakes at about 9h45 and slowly eases herself into the day.

I phoned my husband and told him the power was off. He phoned the nightwatchman of our building (who I'm sure was NOT impressed at being awakened at 7h30) to start the generator. A few minutes later the power was restored and I began to prepare for my day.
At the moment my day consists of sleeping until 6h30 - 7h00 (Unheard of back home in South Africa where I was up at daybreak to see to my animals and to go to spinning and have my quiet time) I have a shower, dress and go off to the kitchen to make breakfast.

There is a large variety of fruit on display in the supermarket. It is very expensive so instead of buying a bag of apples and a pocket of oranges as I do in South Africa, i picked out three firm looking apples and two ripe oranges. My husband had already placed a punnet of grapes in the trolly, not looking at the price, but buying them because I love grapes.

Every morning I cut up half and orange, half and apple and then cut them into pieces in my cereal bowl. (I store the other halves on a side plate covered in plastic clingfilm. I add a few halved grapes and then top this fruit salad with a few spoons of yoghurt. I'm not sure whether the yoghurt here is fat-free but I recognise the container. It's the same yoghurt we had in Guinea. As far as I can recall, this was NOT a fat-free variety. Mmmm. To complete my health breakfast I add two tablespoons of cereal on top and decorate with more halved grapes. Viola!

My North African Health Breakfast

These scone which I got off Lynda's blog, are delicious and easy to make

When my husband arrived home this afternoon, I had baked a batch of Lynda's scones. These are delicious and so easy to make. You can see her recipe here.

Hubby readily tucked into the scones, cheese and strawberry jam snack I placed in front of him

At the moment I'm cooking dinner in between writing my blog post. It has stopped raining and we have the door open to try and dry out the floor.