sunny days

The days take a while to heat up, but by lunchtime I am blocking out the noise around me, dishing out the lunch in silence, the heat giving us all (not just me, surely!) a short temper.Trying not to take it out on those around me...but it's hard. By 4pm, all remaining energy has been sapped from me, but being 'on show' at the end of day car-park duty requires a bit of a smile, a wave and a word or two.

Friends and I talk of our time living in Kuwait, the smell of the heat and the burning hot steering wheel. It's 10 degrees Celsius cooler here, in Nairobi. But being British, we like to have a wee moan occasionally and the weather is the topic of conversation.

Another difference here to that of the heat in the Middle East, is that it cools down at night, right down. Cool enough to forget how hot it gets. So cool that in the mornings we spend break complaining that our toes are still cold and repeatedly reminding ourselves to leave a cardigan in school.

The red dust streets need watering, to make those on the school-run happier. More able to breathe and see where the school gates are. The idea of that waste does not sit well with a lot of people. Most of us are happy to wait until the rains find us. They have reached the coast and some parts of Tanzania. It won't be too long. Apparently, the rains may arrive as soon as Friday.

Ants cover my flat, in the search for a water. My taps run dry most of the time, so they are out of luck there, but they have found their way to the inside of my kettle and the toilet...clever leaders they have.