Aidan Hartley Aidan Hartley

Home truths

Laikipia<br /> I ask my neighbours how one fixes a chimney.

issue 18 August 2007

Laikipia
I ask my neighbours how one fixes a chimney.

Laikipia

I ask my neighbours how one fixes a chimney. ‘Throw a live, flapping turkey down it,’ says one. It appears chimney-sweeps are unknown in Kenya. ‘Or lower down a sack with two tomcats in it.’ Another suggests blasting a 12-bore up the flue. My problem, however, is not that we have a sooty chimney. It is that our fireplace smokes, gives no heat and threatens to ignite the thatched roof and burn down our brand-new African farmhouse.

Apart from the chimney — and final coats of paint being slopped on — our home is finished. The farm is up and running. Three years ago we first pitched our tent in virgin bush and began bathing in buckets. Today we can chill a beer, flush a loo, switch on a light, sleep in a bed and have a swim.

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