Getting out of Nairobi...

As I enter Week 3 in Kenya I am very pleased to have finally made it out of Nairobi at the weekend – at cities go Nairobi is not the best.
At present it is grey, polluted, cold and full of traffic so I was thrilled to be able to escape to Timau (Central Highlands) at the weekend for a polo tournament. For this I am immensely grateful to my new cousin Ed (really Josh’s cousin) and his girlfriend Nonnie for taking me under their wing and inviting me along... am not sure how else I’d have broken into the Nairobi ex-pat scene.

So, it was a pretty jet set weekend flying off on Saturday and back on Sunday...although the polo here is rather more low key than the Cartier style events that many of you will be used to in the UK.

Ed flew us up to Timau (we waved at those struggling along the gritty dirt roads below) and I spent the next two days watching various levels of polo (some amazing...some rather less so) against a backdrop of mountains and fields. Pretty glorious, although Mt Kenya failed to emerge from behind the clouds to complete the scene.

The evening brought a Wimbledon themed party which I was gutted not to have the right attire for. Unfortunately I didn’t pack my tennis whites so I had to improve and dress up as the net (basically me wrapped up in a giant mosquito net – which had the double advantage of keeping me bite-free all night!). Overall a very fun evening, complete with drinks and dancing for the whole family...although I’m glad I didn’t have to saddle up for an energetic match on the Sunday morning!

After a long week at work it was great to see another site to Kenya, the polo scene is a pretty tight, but welcoming community which whole families get involved in. Unfortunately I won’t be getting more involved due to a lack of budget and horsemanship!! Congratulations to Ed though, whose team won their category..although they do have the most minging colour of T-shirts to deal with (see left)

So it’s back to work this week, trying to move forwards with our project at AMREF. To hear more about how I’m doing at work (although progress is still relatively slow), please see my ‘professional blog’ at http://gskpulsevolunteer.wordpress.com/author/kimberleyburbidge/