With the Sumerian Foundation now taking on funding from external parties it became essential to ensure that the accounting systems and records in Kenya were of a standard that would allow us to report the activities there quickly and accurately. It was proving an impossible task to do this from Scotland and so, as Treasurer of the Sumerian Foundation, I ventured forth to Nairobi and in particular to Studio House, the Sumerian Foundation in Kenya’s new home which was to become my home from home.

Francis, our (finance) man in Kenya, had done a valiant job in trying to make sense of the various projects, their funding and their costs but needed help in pulling it all together in to a reporting framework and in establishing systems to control shop income and stock movements in particular and although the task is not yet complete we made significant inroads in to it.

It would have been crazy to go all that way and not to have visited the various projects we support and so we spent most of Saturday doing a whistle stop tour. First off was Kandara Childrens Home (fabulous smiley children (even the one doing numbers in the classroom – one to tell the kids at home that these kids take their education very seriously indeed)). Despite the horrendous backgrounds of the children the overall feeling here was one of happiness and peace all in the most gorgeous setting on a lush hillside amongst lush hills. At Kandara we were also shown round the botanics project and sat in on an update session that Jennie was holding with the team there.

We then headed back to Nairobi to the Ayani primary school to meet the Year 8s (young teens) which is the final year of primary school in Kenya. These children sit an exam in November which decides which secondary school they go to. I really struggled emotionally with this – the gulf between my over-cosseted teenagers and these kids was just so enormous and the whole injustice of it all really got to me. Here they were with absolutely nothing in the majority of cases, working incredibly hard to do as well as they can in these exams and yet the dream of getting to secondary school never mind to achieve their career ambitions will be just that for most of them as secondary education is not free in Kenya and even if they could afford the fees they would still need money for uniform, books, stationery, bus fares and food.

Composure regained (although outlook on life seismically shifted) we went to visit Rosabella in her shop in Kibera (you would all recognize Rosabella from her graduation picture on the wall beside the water cooler in Edinburgh) – another unique experience as normal tourists would never have ventured in to the shopping area. The shop was tiny and I have no idea how she manages to lay out fabric to cut out the material in such a small space. Like everywhere in Kenya business is poor following the troubles at the start of 2008 as food prices are high so no one has any money to spend on life’s extras like clothes.

On the following Tuesday I also managed to take in the Seed of Hope Centre in Nairobi and here I learned another valuable lesson for us Europeans. Because of the cost of the sewing machines, electricity and the intermittent nature of the electricity supply when the girls are given the seed funding to set up their own businesses they are given treadle machines however donations of machines tend to be electric which would be fantastic if you were setting up in Europe but not much use in Nairobi. Our way is not necessarily the best way.

Then a quick visit to the Johari shop in Titan which is very different “in the flesh” from photos I had seen – when you see it in context it is a really lovely shop. This visit helped me understand what we could and could not achieve with our shop and stock systems.

All work and no play as they say so Sunday morning James took Mel and I to the National Park for a safari which was stunning the only disappointment was we did not see the lions although we saw evidence of their existence - part of their last feast lying in the road. We did see almost every other species possible – even saw a real life scene of the ubiquitous picture of a giraffe grazing the top of a thorn tree. The bizarre thing was that we kept seeing glimpses of Nairobi and yet here we were on the African plains. We even went walkabout to a Hippo pool – not realizing we should have been with an armed ranger. We spent a good 20 minutes in the bush unarmed until he caught up with us. Luckily we never came across the animal responsible for the enormous piles of droppings we had to step around.

All too soon it was time to return to Scotland although it is definitely au reviour to Kenya and not goodbye.