Charlotte came to stay! She was only a little bit jet lagged … for those of you who haven’t met our favourite daughter, this is what she looks like

She has published a lot of what we did on her blog, so I will give my versions.
Of course we had to go and visit some baby elephants on her first day:

These little ones still have such tender skin (they usually stand in their mother’s shade) that they get easily sunburnt, hence the blankets, which may or may not stay on.

No dog obedience class is like any other.
The Labrador Association of East Africa runs one in Nairobi, and the class is quite large. Lucy (our housekeeper) and I both take Hannah the dog along. She is the smallest dog in the class - most of them are Rotties, Rhodesian Ridgebacks or Great Danes.
This is Lucy (two legs) with Hannah (with four legs).

The class is very large but well run.

Some of the dogs have particularly vicious natures - guard dogs are very common in Kenya, many people would have around 4 - 6 to guard their house and garden. Poor Hannah finds it rather nerve racking.

The shelves in the shops are getting a little bare, and I asked a shopkeeper what was up. He told me that the shipping containers are stacking up high on the Mombassa docks, 15,000 or them at the last count, in scorching tropical heat. Bribes go up at this time of year, I am told, as shopkeepers try to get the goods in for their customers, and bribees lift their release considerations, because ‘time is of the essence’ when it comes to Christmas shopping. But there seems to be a bit of an impasse at the moment, as bribers/bribees fail to agree on the bribe size, so no Branston Pickle, no gut settling yeast preparations to settle one’s DelhiBelly etc for us customers. John West the tinned food company apparently have had to burn the contents of one container, it had spoiled in the heat (when our container was coming in, a max/min thermometer registered 50ºC, deep inside a box inside the container, and it wasn’t delayed at all).

The telephone lines continue to be problematic: the buried lines are dug up and sold for scrap to China. However they don’t always get it right, when they dig up fibre optic cable, that has precious little copper in it. It’s good to see that Australia has something in common with Kenya with regard to copper theft, from the power cables of the Hurstbridge railway line.

And just to continue in the Christmas spirit, our president Kibaki has just had his pay and allowances doubled, to more than Bush and Blair each get. Bush & Blair gets about ten times more than the average US / UK wage. Kibaki gets a thousand times more than the average Kenyan.

I got an invitation to the Japanese Emperor’s birthday party at the Japanese Embassy.
Well, not me directly.
It went to the ILRI Director General, who couldn’t make it, so gave it to Sandy (ditto) so I stood in for fun. It was in one of the best parts of Nairobi, in a gated enclave, with lots of security. Rows and rows of huge red plated 4WD parked outside, with uniformed drivers; many security checks to get in, but a beautiful house.
The proceedings were a bit like a parent teacher interview: first the ambassador made a speech, all about how things were going reeeeaally well between Japan and Kenya, tourist numbers going up, students going in both direction, Aid4Trade, etc etc, etc etc. However, the ‘could do better’ areas were: Kenya needed to lift its security game, improve its roads and LEARN ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT; and let’s have a toast to that. Kampai. Then the Kenyan representative made an equivalent speech.
Then lots of Japanese food, which everyone assured me was the best in Nairobi, not normally part of a parent teacher meeting. It was rather good.
The Japanese school put on a drumming display:

Notice, if you will, that some of the students have very muAfrica appearances. That is Nairobi for you - even the rather xenophobic Japanese have absorbed a bit of the culture.
On my way out a security guard offered to call up my driver to tell him to drive round and collect me. Shucks, I had left my driver at home ….

Dudu is the swahili word for insect, or more broadly, creepy crawley. (I believe a slug doesn’t count as a dudu, but I am not sure about spiders and millipedes). There is the government Dudu Research Institute, so it is a genuine, serious word.
This photograph is of a dudu that someone brought round to our house, and it is reputed to be especially nasty.

The light brown sticky thing is a toothpick - so this particular dudu is about the size of a large grain of rice. It is supposed to be a flesh eater, that rips out a little chuck of flesh and makes off with it, to gobble up or feed to its babies or maybe lay its eggs on … … ? It is also supposed to have quite a nasty sting, exudate or bite, that you should take off to the doctor, I am told. I don’t know its name, nor does anyone else, it is just called a Nairobi fly.

Anyone who can shed light on this, please give of your opinions!

PS. a postscript about this dudu - look at

for further information