Some time out in the sun

So, my Christmas in a nutshell:

I shared Christmas 2011 in Naivasha, Kenya with a 'white Kenyan' family. My good buddy Ollie, who also works in Rumbek, adopted me into her family for Christmas. It was really great to have a 'family Christmas', especially as I wasn't going to spend four days sitting on planes to get to Australia and back, only to have a week's time there. It just wasn't worth it.

We stayed with Ollie's sister Katie, her husband Alistair, their five dogs and pet pig (a massive but serene beast called Pancake, who looked especially glowing in her tinsel collar) - in their beautiful (and huge!) house, surrounded by yellow acacia trees, overlooking Lake Naivasha. The expansive grounds are fenced with electric wiring to keep the hippos out! I was visited in the mornings by 1) their dog Gypsy and 2) beautiful black-and-white colobus monkeys, who cheekily sneak into your room if you leave the balcony door open. We drove around in their old yellow LandRover 'bumblebee' with the top down, watching zebra and giraffes grazing on the roadside, visiting other Kenyan families and their stately homes for breakfasts, Christmas morning present-opening, dinners, tabletennis on the front lawn while African wildlife cruised past, Christmas carols with mulled wine ... and then messed about in boats on Boxing Day (including waterskiing on the Lake - wow!). It all made for a Christmas I won't forget in a hurry.

Ollie, Alistair's cousin Suzannah and I were then driven the ten hour journey to the Kenyan coast by their family's personal driver (!). We spent six days in a beautiful beachside house in Watamu, eating seafood, drinking Pimm's, sitting by the pool and walking on the beach.  in The social hub of Watamu is Ocean Sports Bar, where we spent the rest of our time socialising and people watching.

I think the entire population of white Kenyans goes to the coast for Christmas and New Years. I spent a lot of time meeting the friends that my new family members catch up with once a year. While it was generally fun, I found myself to be a real outsider in the natural habitat of the 'Kenyan Cowboy'. Everyone knew everyone, and were only interested in talking to their own. The usual conversations you have with new people were limited to 'who are you, and how do you fit in here?' and once this was out the way, I was practically ignored, and often had people turn their backs on me. I really struggled to 'fit in' - and in many ways I didn't want to in this cliquey environment. It was all so contrived; everyone spent their time gossiping about each other. But my new family members were great and made sure I enjoyed myself.

NYE we dined at the lavish buffet of Savannah restaurant, draining a bottle of Jaegermeister via shots at midnight, and then drank/danced the night away til 5am. It was really fun. The next day hangover wasn't though.... and New Year's Day is a bigger event in Watamu (at Ocean Sports of course) than NYE, so everyone was out in force from lunch time, drinking away in the hot afternoon sun. I couldn't stomach even a cold refreshing Pimm's!

That day Ollie and I unfortunately had to head back Nairobi ... some of us have to work! We caught the delightfully colonial overnight train back from Mombasa, which was a mammoth 17 hour journey (double the time to drive by car). But it was something I've always wanted to do, and while my hungover state meant that I didn't enjoy it as much as we could have, it was good fun. And we followed it up with a day of shopping in Nairobi and eating delicious food before flying back to Juba.

Ten days out of South Sudan was just what I needed ... but I'm still recovering!

I'm not looking forward to the post-holiday blues, and I've got loads to do in the field.

First stop: Jamam.