Malindi

In September I went back to Durban for another conference, and in October to Johannesburg for a similar reason (though I also popped in to our fairly new office complex which is almost as green as Shenzhen HQ with lakes and waterfalls). It does make a nice change to travel occasionally and it is nice that it is not too often.

During October school half-term my Dad came out and we went to Malindi and rented a place by the beach, just to the north of the town, where the beach stretches for kilometers and is empty all the time. It is great for running, though of course fairly primitive. Just by the town itself the beach has a small pier, which is occasionally packed. We did go to some places to the south of the town where there are a few more hotels and beach bars, but still quite basic and not very busy (December should be peak period). The kids were a bit put-off by the 10 minute walk to the beach and spent most of the time in the pool, making the most of their mermaid costumes (at least Hannah was, since she can swim) with mermaid tails which enable swimming butterfly-style. In fact it was hard to get them out of the pool and we were worried they would get sunburnt!

Airbnb has really broadened up the opportunities for tourists along the whole coastal areas as many holiday homes are available. With fairly low demand, and more and more supply through airbnb, prices are good and there are a lot of options (though many of the nice hotels are still expensive) which tend to come with cooks and cleaners.

Malindi has historically been the center of Italian life in Kenya and still many properties are owned by Italians, and there are some good restaurants in town. Though the town itself does not have too much to see, transport by tuk-tuk is fairly easy, its a short flight from Nairobi, and its not expensive.

Nearby (heading south towards Watamu) is one of the major historical sights of Kenya, called Gede Ruins, which are the remains of a town from 500+ years ago which was quickly abandoned and of which the remains are fairly good quality. It is well worth a visit, though the guide struggled to keep the kids entertained with the history of the place and the buildings. There are several complexes available for viewing and many still have walls as well as foundations. It reminded me of visiting Roman ruins in Barcelona or the UK. 

Next door was a butterfly center which has a short tour and talk about butterflies whilst walking in the butterfly house, but is primarily a social enterprise. This means it helps create work for locals, it does this by helping locals breed butterflies which it then sells to butterfly centers across the world. With butterflies only living a couple of weeks, there is a steady stream of revenue (the larvae are flown overseas) though butterflies don't sell for a lot of money.It was certainly not something that I would have ever thought of but was interesting!

Also near Gede is a little-known tourist attraction next to Mida Creek. The Creek itself is great for exploring by boat and seeing the birds, mangroves and small islands. Beautiful water for swimming in too. The attraction that was built is a boardwalk, that stretches for a few hundred meters about 2 meters above the mangrove forests. The fact that about a third of the wooden planks are missing makes it quite an adventure, especially with kids! I'd highly recommend spending a day there with a walking tour around the creek, another tour of some local villages, and a meal at the ecocamp making for a packed day. The local village tour included the rice-wine that I'd sampled in Lamu before (made from coconuts), coconuts, and a visit to some of the locals' houses and even the local cinema (i.e. a hut with a TV). The whole host of activities has been set-up by some entrepreneurial locals.

Next time we might head to a different beach, but Malindi is definitely worth visiting. Though I returned early back to work, the rest of the family also found a place to visit with owls and eagles and the like (which like the butterfly center rarely gets any tourists), so there are a few things to do beyond just the pool and the beach.

German School

In late August, Leah moved from the local kindergarten (Bambini) to the German kindergarten; a switch which went fairly smoothly. It probably helped that Hannah was just one building over, and that Leah was already friends with one girl in her new class. With both kids at the same school, we decided that Andrea would drive them to school, stay and work from nearby the school or at the school itself, then drive them home afterwards, rather than using the school bus (which was fairly expensive, and took a long time). It did cause some problems with Leah running out of her class looking for Andrea at the beginning, but it settled down and Leah seems fine, with a few German words already coming.

Hannah moved up from the kindergarten to the primary school (you need to be 6 to start the primary school), and though it didn't really seem like a big deal to me (she's already had her first day at kindergarten in Beijing, and in Shenzhen and in Nairobi, and now she was only moving from one building to another one), it was celebrated as a big thing at the German School. There was a whole ceremony with a show from older primary school kids, speeches, photos and shultute that parents watched. I am not sure Hannah felt particularly different compared to kindergarten, and the schedule is still similar with classes in the mornings and after-school activities in the afternoons. 

She does, finally, have more normal school lessons (as the kindergarten is not very academic in the German system, but primary school is) with maths, english, german, art, science and even ethics. They start learning to read and write (in German, they won't confuse the kids with reading/writing English until next year) using an approach focusing on syllables rather than letters. And they have homework. Hannah has always enjoyed doing homework since she had it in kindergarten in Shenzhen. Long may that continue!

The afternoon activities at the German school are quite good for both Leah and Hannah. Leah is doing cooking, karate, ballet and swimming for example. Hannah is doing cycling, scouts and ballet. The Chinese teacher also comes to kindergarten to do some lessons a few times a week, to fill in some gaps. So far everything is going well though it is becoming more demanding for us parents. Not only the homework support but also teacher-parent days and much more. They are very keen to keep parents informed on what the kids do and how to help them.

Their classmates are a big mix: the German school (especially at the playgroup and kindergarten stage) is quite popular amongst Kenyans, and also non-Germans who like the "play rather than study" approach, or just like the location of the school. As kids get older though the numbers tend to fall, and usually there is only one class per year group (which means class sizes of around 20-25, though this year Hannah's year has two classes, each around 17 kids per class), and more of those remaining are of course those who are German, half-German or German speaking, but that still leaves quite a diverse group of classmates. All communication with parents is in both English and German since at least one of the parents often doesn't speak German.

The school is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year but it's current compound is less than a decade old I think. It has all the normal things a school should have along with a swimming pool, volleyball court, tennis court etc. Although its certainly not the most modern or grandest school in town compared to some others, at least some of the fees seem to be reinvested into the facilities quite regularly. The focus is really on the teaching and activities for children than facilities, and so far so good!