Happy Birthday Jax!

31 01 2009

It’s a big contrast to last year…this time on Jax’s birthday last year we were in Venice, Italy living a life of luxury…this year we were in a mud hut in Africa.

Honestly…Jax’s birthday was a quiet one. It seems Africans don’t celebrate birthdays – as every hint I gave them just was overlooked as a ‘oh that’s great!’.

It was a quiet day, but we didn’t want to work. So we celebrated by doing the things we enjoyed in Africa, like going for a walk and relaxing in the hot sun on our rock!

It was a nice day, but not a exactly as we had in mind for a birthday!





The Matatu and the Cow!

30 01 2009

Its Friday and the news breaks early this morning that will school will return…on Monday! The day after we leave Africa! We just have to hope that all the hard work we have done over the past two weeks will be appreciated by the staff and the kids of the school!

We get up early to catch the first Matatu to Ngong for the morning. As we wave down the Matatu we notice that its not dangerously filled to the brim as usual, and even more odd to find most of the men still standing onboard instead of sitting. On arrival to the back of the truck, we hop on and realise why…a huge cow lies on the back of the truck with everyone sitting and standing around him! Its very sick and weak and is being taken to the town vet in Ngong. Jax gets a seat, with the cows head leaning on her legs, as Jordan stands, and his shoes get a through clean that customs should be happy with, provided from the cows tongue and slobber! Despite this, its an amazing ride, yet very dangerous. Standing on the back of a flat bed truck, hanging onto a tiny roll cage that would crumble with any impact, and cruising at HIGH speeds on the bumpy African roads! Every Matatu ride is like a different experience though, as we cruised past giraffes and other African wildlife – you could think we were on a Safari again!

We soon got into Ngong to complete our chores – Internet, phone charging and treats! As we only have a couple of days left we spend our remaining shillings on chocolate and gum for the family as a parting gift. Before long we were back on the Matatu and heading home. Only another 1 1/2 hours on the bumpy, dusty roads!

That afternoon we decided to finish our jobs at the school, as we did not want to work on Jaxs birthday tomorrow. We cleaned all the new windows, the blackboards, straightened the desks and got all the classes ready for class on Monday! On return home we completed our now usual chores, before heading to our new fave spot on the rock overlooking the valley watching the sunset on our last week in Africa!








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