Ginger Rogers and business opportunity for Waterstones in Kenya....

Saturday 15th January

Oh my, Monday turned into quite a day…4 hours in an African bookshop…not quite the Waterstones experience that’s for sure. Hilarious though I have to say. Well, it was quite a long list, but the shop was packed with parents all clutching their list from their child’s school with what they had to buy – text books for every subject, (at least two for each subject), equipment, exercise books etc etc….mmm ‘free education for all children in Kenya’.

Anyway, it was clearly a morning of ‘how slow can we serve everyone?’ and my man would look at my list (which was 2 sides of A4) and go find one thing at a time. I can only liken the layout of the shop to Ollivanders in Harry Potter, as there seemed to be no logical layout to the shop…but eventually (2 ½ hours later) got most of what was needed. So, picture this, big, big stack of books on serving counter (about 300 books!), I’ve completely wilted so am sat on boxes of paper, as delivery after delivery has been constantly arriving at shop. Not too bad first of all, paper, envelopes, rulers....but then the desks arrive…about 100, which all got unloaded into the bit where us customers were, so we’re now having to squeeze a bit more together, all worried that these desks (old fashioned ones with pivot lid and well for books) are stacked about 10 high….oh and then the chairs arrive…ha, ha, not for us to sit on I might add. By this time you can’t see the serving counter or my big pile of books. Eventually it’s time to total up…so said man moves pile from one bit of counter to another, writing down each book/set of books…then he moves them back to where they were before, this time writing the price next to each book. Then he adds them up, in sections, taking 10% off each type of book (why didn’t he do that at the end I ask myself?). 3 1/2  hours later…yippee, a total. Yes, please pack them in a box so I can go, and here’s the money, hail tuk-tuk ready to go home. Not so quick, someone else has to check books… books move from one part of counter to another, with new man checking quantity of everything on list….. all correct. Ok, can I pay and go now? List then checked that the prices written down are correct…yes, all correct. List then checked for adding up…yes all correct. Tuk-tuk given up and gone. Box poised and ready with additional man ready to pack. Pay for books. Excellent – yes please pack into box. Oh no, they then have to counted again and checked against list to ensure correct number of books are going into box. But, TIA, This Is Africa so still smiling (albeit a fixed smile).

So books recounted as they are beautifully packed into one box (does he think I am the World’s Strongest Woman or something?). Ok, thanks, I’m off now, can someone help me carry the damn box to the tuk-tuk…oh no…wait, the box has to have string around it. Well at this point I can only picture the scene from ‘Love Actually’ with Mr Bean gift wrapping the necklace….remember it? Well I am by this time not sure whether to scream out loud or dissolve into giggles as packing man beautifully, carefully and with flourish strings up the box with a perfect bow in the middle! African gift wrapped!

Now, tap dancing….what a fabulous thing to learn. We didn’t stop laughing, especially as we had an audience the whole time. Yes the place we do it is in an outside dance room (half walls) by a sports club, so mums picking up their little darlings from ballet, and dance class after us. Clearly we’re at that age where we really don’t give a monkey about anything, and providing entertainment for others is part of our role in life. So, right foot pretty good…left foot in remedial class…and coordination between hands and feet…..well thinking of learning Irish dancing actually as then don’t have to worry about my hands! Equal pain between legs and sides following day!! Not sure I'll be the next Ginger!


Rest of the week has been just fab. Great to be back in school, and enjoying teaching standard 6 and supporting other volunteers. The bookcase at school is already full, and we’ve just had to get another one…books still being carted in (on back of boda-bodas) so will take a photo when they are all there so you can see where some of the fundraising money has been spent. But the impact on the kids is instant and incredible! They really feel special and are now truly believing that they can learn and succeed. Thanks everyone!

So it’s Saturday morning, and all the other volunteers have gone off on a weekend safari, so I’m ‘Billy No Mates’ here at the apartment…cleaned and tidied it all yesterday evening and am thoroughly enjoying the solitude. It’s just gone 11am now and I’m still slobbing in my pjs…might not bother at all to get dressed… what kind of person have I become?!


Oh, having major problems with my computer…lost skype somehow and can’t get it re set up (not that that’s a surprise to anyone given my primitive tech skills) and having nightmares with photos so may or may not be able to post some at some point.