Africa Part 6: Lake Victoria/Ruma Park/Kilgores

Africa Part 6: Lake Victoria/Ruma Park/Kilgores

29th August, Saturday morning Melchizedeck, Mike (whom I met yesterday, he helped me buy my tyre sandals), the Changs, Cathy and I, all pile into Stanley’s safari vehicle and set off for Lake Victoria which borders Tanzania and Uganda as well as Kenya. On the way there we pass several amusingly named places such as the “Hotel Shaq Attaq” and the “Miami Heat Center Bar” we also pass many huts with grass roofs and mud walls. Apparently the women make the buildings (from what I gather they do most of the work: cooking, carrying water, building the huts; many men spend all their time getting drunk) there are large and small huts and we are told that the small ones are actually for grain storage.

When we get to Lake Victoria we see many naked children bathing in the water and people filling containers with water. This is a little concernful since Cathy has just finished telling us that there are fresh water snails in the lake that carry a parasite that causes a disease called schistosomiasis and that we should avoid getting wet. People also fish in the lake for tilapia and tiny little fish called omena. The omena are very small and they catch them in large very fine nets before drying them in the sun. Cathy has tried them and she says she doesn’t care for them very much. There are lots of animals nearby and I take pictures of some pigs sleeping under a truck. There is also an extremely handsome and picturesque young man nearby who I also photograph.

The children at the lake are very annoying. Cathy and the others decide to go for a ride in a boat, Marian and I decline based on our concern about falling in the water and getting sick (I also think it’s a good idea for someone to stay near our vehicle since it has all our stuff in it). The children follow me and Marian everywhere in a flock, like little irritating planets orbiting a sun. Some of them even occasionally dart in to pluck at Marian’s shirt as if she is some kind of celebrity they need to touch. Finally I turn and catch one in the act, I snap my fingers at them and say “stop that” loudly. All the kids jump back frightened and I add a “hapana” which means “no” in Swahili. After that they stay farther back but they don’t go away and whenever Marian tries to take a picture a cluster of little naked boys appear in front of her . As we leave the lake I see a young man with twisted limbs crawling along the ground, I suspect that he has cerebral palsy like Define. I mention it to Cathy and she says there is more need in the world than aid.

We decide we should go to Ruma National Park to see a certain type of antelope that is found only in that one place on earth: the roan antelope. However on the way we stop at what I will call the Happy Infant Complex to check on a well that Melchizedeck helped hand dig and Cathy contributed a generous sum of money to buy and install a pump for. When we arrive the minister tells us that they are not using that well because a church in New York donated lots of money to dig a bigger well and install a pumping system on it. This is good because the compound is a school for orphans, though I never actually see one, and the minister is selling the water to the community for 3ksh per 5 gallon container. We are shown a very large church that has no seats in it the minister says they move chairs in when they need them (which seems odd to me, why would they take them out?). All in all the whole place seems like a prop or a set that is waiting for people to appear. Nobody ever does ask what he did with the money Cathy donated for the pump.

Ruma is a beautiful park very lush and green. We stop at the gate and they tell us about the guest house which can be had for 5000ksh per night and sleeps at least eight.. It even has a kitchen and bathroom with a tub (something we haven’t seen since we arrived). But the best part is the view looking down over the park. It’s breathtaking and the idea of waking up and having a cup of coffee while watching the sun rise over the park is mouth watering, but we have Melchizedeck and Mike to drop off so we vow that if we are ever in the area again this is where we will stay.

We do see the roan antelope (see picture below left) as well as a few other animals but it is nothing like the animals that are to come. I also try my first sugarcane which you “eat” by stripping off the green outer part with your teeth and then gnawing on the white fibrous inside to extract the sweet juice (it is very messy and sticky). As the sun sets we head back to Awendo to drop off the guys thinking that we have beds waiting in Rongo, however when we call to check we discover that the rooms may have been given away. I am very frustrated because I know that the Sugarland will be as loud tonight as it was last night and I am adamant about not sleeping over a disco again plus I’m miserable because my throat hurts. I insist I want to go to Rongo where there may be a couple of rooms waiting. Everyone is cranky and me and Don exchange unpleasantries. However Melchizedeck kindly drives me to Rongo and indeed there is a room where I sleep like a baby. Cathy who accompanies me however is not so lucky and sleeps very little, she is very unhappy because she loves to dig wells and this trip was a big disappointment in that regard.

In the morning we see Melchizedeck and Helen for the last time before Stanley comes woth Don and Marian to pick us up. I am very sad to lose Melchizedeck I have grown very fond of him over the last two and a half weeks. We set off for Kilgores the next leg in our trip to the Masai Mara. We stay at the Farmers Lodge after a long drive. During the drive the safari van starts acting up, something to do with the radiator, and we keep having to stop by the side of the road where we stand in the hot sun and get pestered by children until Stanley once again deems the van ready for transport. This happens several times. Finally Stanley fixes the problem in a more permanent fashion by putting curry powder in it. I’m pretty sure that isn’t good for your engine but it seems to work and it makes the car smell nice.

In Kilgores we check in at the Farmers Lodge and after a quick lunch Stanley goes off to repair the van. The Changs head to their room and me and Cathy go for a long walk. We ramble around the countryside looking at flowers and other things, I even see a poinsettia in bloom! We pass many children and pleasantly they no longer yell “mzungu” at us in this part of Kenya, but there is a lot of waving and shouting of “how are you” followed immediately by “I’m fine” without pause for response.

When we return to the hotel the power is out so we sit outside in chairs brought by my new friend William (a member of the hotel staff who takes a shine to me) and write in our journals for a while as the sun sets. Stanley returns in time for dinner and my throat is feeling much better so everyone is looking forward to tomorrow. We should arrive in the Park just in time for an evening game drive. Once again there is a band playing somewhere near by, but I fall asleep with little trouble and the T.V. on.

Africa Part 5: Sare Awendo/Rabondo

Africa Part 5: Sare Awendo/Rabondo

Wednesday 26th August : Our merry band has been reduced to five (Melchizedeck, Don and Marian Chang, Cathy and I) and today we leave Nakuru and head towards Rabondo, I‘m going to miss the Hotel Kunste. As I head up the stairwell to my room for the last time I note in the hallway a poster of Michael Jackson in his Bad era. I might have suspected the poster was recent (as in post mortem) except for it’s extremely faded condition and the fact that there is an equally faded (and random) poster of Sylvester Stallone as Rambo at the top of the stairs.

The way to Rabondo leads up into the mountains and through tea country. Melchizedeck is happy to finally be headed home (to see his wife Helen and his children) and he informs us with cheer that only the top three leaves of each branch are picked (and I assume the branch is then left alone so they can grow and be picked again). That seems like a lot of work to me going over each bush by hand picking just three leaves at a time. You can see the workers in the fields carrying huge bags to fill with tea, they live nearby and their houses are supplied by the corporations and look very well kept but extremely uniform. They remind me of that extremely annoying song about conformity “Little Boxes” where there are houses on the hillside that “all look just the same”.

We pass plantation after plantation of tea (the plants have a funny smell that reminds me of skunk cabbage) and stop for a while in Kericho where there is a Tea Hotel. Out on the balcony as we sip our chai and eat our “gateau with suitable sauce” (which turns out to be very dry pound cake with no discernable sauce at all) we see a little monkey hovering around the edges of the patio. At first we find it adorable and hurry to take pictures but soon we discover that he is a little beggar who comes closer and closer scooting in to grab anything dropped be the guests. Don “accidentally” drops some crumbs nearby so we can get a better picture. I’m sure many guests “drop” things for the monkey which the staff informs me is a vervet monkey. As we leave the Tea Hotel we pass a sign which says: IF YOU MUST DRINK AND DRIVE-DRINK TEA which I think is stellar advice.

Because of some misunderstanding we are not going to stay in the Guest House in Rabondo so we check into the Sugarland Hotel (we have gone from tea country to sugar land apparently) where my room is full of mosquitoes though luckily I have managed so far not to be bitten. I am frightened of the bathroom and decide I will have no part of it aside from the toilet (which turns out to leak every time you flush, eventually they switch me to a different room with an equally scary bathroom). The electric showerheads are known as “widow makers “ according to Cathy and apparently will give you an electric shock if you make contact with them. Besides which they are just hanging right in the middle of the room with no curtain or anything.

Upon waking the next day Cathy and I decide to go for a walk around town. For some reason a strange gentleman takes a shine to us and follows us around town singing and talking to himself. Even though we ask he won’t leave us alone, Cathy tells me that he is probably mentally ill and needs medication. Yesterday I noticed that my throat felt a little tender and unfortunately it will remain that way getting worse and then better throughout the time we are in Rabondo. Since my throat is fine by the time I get home I never go to the doctor which means we never do find out what the heck was wrong with me (we suspect tonsillitis since I am on an antibiotic which would tend to rule out strep) but it makes eating and even drinking painful and difficult for a few days. I eat very little for a while although the food here is wonderful.

Today we are going to drop off an all-terrain wheelchair that has been shipped in legs from the U.S. for a girl here in Rabondo who has cerebral palsy and can not walk. Her name is Define (pronounced duh-fee-nuh) and her family lives on the side of a hill and is having trouble getting her around. They are all excited when the wheelchair arrives and once she has been placed in the wheelchair and wheeled up and down the hill we are invited inside for formal introductions. They go around the room introducing the family and welcoming us to their home. After they are done I introduce myself, say where I am from and thank them for welcoming us into their home, Don and Marian do the same. This seems to work.

I am amazed by all the good Cathy has done in Africa and especially in Rabondo, she works tirelessly. After dropping off the wheelchair and stopping for some of Helen’s yummy Chai we stop at a would be clinic that is not a clinic despite many donations (I‘m not clear on what is going on there but I do get the impression that there are opposing forces at work in the community that might be holding things up). Next door is a dispensary that fortunately is open and stocked, although they are still in need of donations to buy medications. The friendly nurses show us their medication supplies and the birthing room. I jokingly ask them about my throat thinking someone there might look inside my mouth, instead they just hand me some antibiotics and pain relievers which I give to Melchizedeck later (for his kids in case they need them). At his house that evening we have curried eggs, rice and sukuma wiki. Helen is a superb cook (you can see her at left) and I do my best despite the pain in my throat.

Friday is market day in Awendo and I am on the hunt for sandals made from tyres (British spelling) for Mike. Before setting out we stop at the internet café and I check my email and Facebook. When I’m done I sit on the balcony outside the internet café and watch a woodworker at work. In front of the shop are many caskets in different sizes and colours. It reminds me of the fact that since Cathy was here a year and a half ago at least three people she knew have died, many of them from lack of medicine. When Cathy is done we head off to market trying to find a bank and my tyre shoes. As we wander I learn that many of the clothes that we donate to places like Goodwill and Value Village in the States are packaged in bales and sent here for purchase and resale. Some of them are nice, I find a pretty skirt with pink hibiscus on it that I really like. We see roosters and hens with their feet tied together, a dog sleeping with his head in a basket of carrots and many cars, trucks and motorcycles all hooting (honking) away.

Later we run a few more errands and check out Melchizedeck’s tilapia pond. Melchizedeck is very industrious (he even has his own sugar cane fields). I’m pretty miserable throughout the day (my throat hurting very much) and I really just want to be back at the hotel lying down but it is interesting to travel around the area seeing the wells that have been dug (I think by Cathy and Melchizedeck). Most interesting is a hand dug well in progress with a man at the bottom. I think it‘s neat because you can see the different layers of rock on the way down. He is 35’ below us and chipping away at rock with a pickaxe. I shout “hello“ down to him and he “hellos“ back. Every once in a while they lower down a bucket which he fills with rocks and sends up.

However clearly the most entertaining thing we see that day is a very drunken gentleman who calls himself Mr. Fantastic (he gives many other names as well). He climbs in the cab of Melchizedeck’s truck and won’t get out. He wants us to run over cows and shouts “over knock” every time he sees one. He leans over and tries to talk to Don through the open side window, his breath is smelly. He admits to Cathy that he has been drinking as he waves an empty bottle around and Cathy is monumentally unsurprised. When we get to the well, Melchizedeck starts pumping away to show us the water and “Mr. Fantastic” lays directly under the spout to get a sip heedless of his clothes (such as they are). When he tries to talk to me I give him a lecture on the evils of drinking, tell him it is possible to stop and recommend AA but I think it goes over his head because immediately afterward he tells Melchizedeck he likes me. He follows us everywhere until finally after telling Marian that he doesn’t like white people he leaves (we later find out that Melchizedeck gave him 20ksh to go away and get alcohol). I kind of miss him, he was pretty entertaining.

That night in my room I discover that I am sleeping over a live band. I think about dressing up and going dancing (if you can‘t beat ‘em join ‘em) but I’m guessing I can’t talk Cathy into going with me. You would think the noise would be a bigger problem but I’m so tired that I manage to sleep anyway. Stanley our safari driver has showed up and after a day trip tomorrow to Lake Victoria and Ruma National Park we will be off to the Masai Mara. Starting tomorrow it really is a vacation!!!

Africa Part 4: Nairobi and Nakuru

Africa Part 4: Nairobi and Nakuru

The 22nd Saturday morning we head back to Nairobi leaving behind the supplies that the villagers will need to finish the well on their own. Once again we make a special effort to tie down our bags to prevent light-fingered folks from making them disappear. We reach the city in good time and by 17:30 I am showered and feeling much improved. My only worry is a cockroach I see on the door of our hotel room as I exit freshly scrubbed. I go down to the front desk to report the intruder and eventually it is discovered that the cockroach is a long dead husk. Unsurprisingly this does not make me feel better.

After stopping at the bar so Cathy can watch part of a marathon taking place in Berlin we take a trip to the Nairobi City Market which is not particularly impressive and very overpriced . It’s fun to take a little trip out of the hotel though and we enjoy the chance to practice our bartering skills. I walk away from many vendors before seeing something I decide I must have. A tinga tinga painting of a leopard at night. The proprietor (a handsome man named Chaz) and I size each other up and then he whips out a calculator (a tool to prevent others hearing our offers and counter offers) and a furious bargaining session ensues. We both enjoy the back and forth and finally I walk away happy and he has every shilling in my pocket.

Sunday we leave for Athi River to check out some land that is a site for a potential well and orphanage. Along the way we see our first zebras and giraffes as well as a wildebeest or two. Unfortunately for Cathy’s friend who owns the land the site is not favorable for drilling but the people there are very nice and feed us our first real Kenyan food (including some yummy stuff called sukuma wiki and a polenta like dish called ugali).

After that tasty meal we are back on the road. We begin an upward climb that takes us over some kind of pass where we look down into the Rift Valley. I notice that in Kenya the higher you go the greener it gets. Along the way we pass many police checks and eventually we are stopped at one. The police checks are mysterious to me in that there are many of them and they all involve two cops standing out in the middle of nowhere with AK47s, spike strips and absolutely no sign of how they got there. Anyway we are finally stopped at one of these by a cop who apparently wants some “chai” (chai is a euphemism for bribe), first he thinks he’s got us because my seatbelt is hidden under my arm, when I prove to be wearing a seatbelt he switches his attention to a tiny crack in the windshield (that is smaller by the way than the insurance tag Melchizedeck is required by law to display). He takes away Melchizedeck’s license and won’t give it back until we give him 200 shillings. I later find out that Kenya had an anti-corruption minister but he was removed from office for corruption.

We arrive in Nakuru very late and struggle for a while to find the hotel but when we do it is lovely. We are reunited with Sara, Jeremy, Cornelius and Aaron and meet some new friends. We are staying at the Hotel Kunste where at the front desk they hand out keys like they are giving away door prizes. I go straight to my room where I get to watch T.V. for the first time in a week and a half. The only channel that isn’t news or sports is the Cartoon Network which I leave on whenever I am in the room even while sleeping.

The next morning we go to visit another potential drill site. This one is at the Janet School which is located up in the mountains where it is lush and green. It is so green in fact that it reminds me of Washington (or more specifically Carnation since it’s farmland and there is livestock everywhere) and it is hard to imagine them being short on water. The conditions here are much more favorable but we decide we are still too short on time and the best thing to do is to set up a test drill at the Lifewater Kenya Samaritan Children Skill Training Center to teach the technique so that others can duplicate it later at the Janet School.

At the LKSCSTC they help young street orphans to gain skills they can use to better themselves and contribute to society. At the school grounds we wait for a very long time for food which turns out to be very yummy and then we wait a very long time for a tour of the grounds. Finally there is a performance from the boys who sing and dance. The little boys are especially cute frequently losing the beat and looking around to try to figure out what is going on.

Unfortunately the performance is followed by some very touching personal accounts and then some extremely long speeches and then some individual introductions, plus lots of praying in between. I had hoped to leave the compound and go into the city with Melchizedeck partly because I want to go get some kikoy cloth but largely because I really want some time to myself since so far the only time I have really been alone is when I have been asleep. I’m feeling very overwhelmed and after excusing myself from the room I go out to Melchizedeck’s truck and have a good cry. Poor Melchizedeck doesn’t know what to do, I guess he hates it when women cry and he keeps asking me to stop, meanwhile I am trying to explain to him why I feel so upset. I ask him what he does when his wife cries and he says she mostly only cries when people die which makes me feel pretty spoiled. I ask him if she ever cries about anything else and he says “no because I always make sure to get her what she wants first” and that makes me feel better. At any rate I get my kikoy cloth. Melchizedeck is very relieved and we stop for a Fanta which they have everywhere and he loves. After that he drops me off at the hotel for a cup of chai while he goes to pick up the others. Cathy is worried about me but once I explain how I simply wanted to have a little control over some part of my life she is more understanding. Thanks Auntie Cathy!

The next day I decide to exert that control and stay at the hotel sitting on the veranda and drinking milky, sweet chai and enjoying the flush toilets and friendly staff. Breakfast was lovely: egg with toast, sausage and porridge. I wander down the street to Tusky’s and buy a couple of cowl neck shirts (150KSH=2USD) which I then modify with the cute little folding scissors in my sewing kit (Cathy is amazed that they let them through security). After that a handsome gentlemen named Anthony (you can see him at left, I think he is a kind of concierge) helped me put minutes on my phone. I have been calling home a lot, I miss my mom and Mike and I call frequently although it is difficult to figure out when to call. I finally devise a system where I add two hours to the Nairobi time and then subtract half a day.

I really like the Hotel Kunste it is very nice and I enjoyed watching the staff today drying the sheets and other linens on the lawn in the central courtyard. The hotel has a play area for kids and a restaurant that is open all day plus a bar (which I haven’t been to). I love the chai but I realize I am not going to lose any weight sitting around drinking tea with huge quantities of milk and sugar. Tomorrow though we will be leaving for Rabondo where we will meet Melchizedeck’s family and stay a little while. After that we will leave for safari. I have already seen giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, and dik diks. I wonder what else we will see.

Later that same day me and Melchizedeck go on an epic voyage to try to locate more fabric with little luck. All the places we go want more money for cloth I like less than that at the place we found yesterday (which is sadly closed) but we do have a fun time looking. Only later that night when everyone goes out looking for a nice restaurant for our last meal together do we understand why the shops were closed (the restaurants are closed too). Kenya is doing a census and the stores are closed to encourage people to be home when the “enumerators” come by (even Cathy and I get counted much to our amusement). We do find a Chinese place that is open right next to the hotel and we all spend a nice last dinner around a lazy susan. It is sad to say “good bye” to Sara, Jeremy, Aaron and Cornelius again.

In closing this chapter I want to remark that things are very different in Kenya the AIDS rates are very high leaving behind many orphans. I remember that I saw a billboard in Nairobi that said “Stay healthy, take your HIV/AIDS medications daily” It makes me feel very small for being so upset about something like $10 USD worth of fabric. Those boys I met yesterday have it pretty rough too and if you want to help you can go to: http://www.childrenswaterfund.org/orphans%20kenya.html

Africa Part 3: Digging in Katutu

Africa Part 3: Digging in Katutu

19th August: Wednesday Morning after a yummy breakfast prepared by Gwen and her mother we head off to the site. The goal is to be prompt because we don’t want the locals to think we are blasé about the whole thing. Of course for the first half hour or so it is just a bunch of mzungu standing around. We do the best we can getting started and pretty soon the locals show up and start to help.

Our first task is to make sure the hole is straight, so someone (I think it was Cathy) attaches a monkey wrench to a rope coming down from the pulley and slowly lower it down until X marks the spot. We also mix the bentonite (by hand, a fun task for the kids and/or any other person who likes to get dirty). Once we have the spot we start digging a shaft by hand as straight down as possible. Eventually since I have the longest arms I am conscripted into service, lying on the ground and pulling dirt from the bottom of the hole. Once the hole is started we lower the drill into the hole, tie some rope around the handle, pour in some water and bentonite, thread the rope through the pulley and tie sticks at intervals to the other end, find “rowers” to pull on the sticks and start pounding the drill up and down into the ground (see video at bottom of blog). Getting the water to come out the top was a trick only Jeremy seemed able to perform.

We start work with a lot of energy and quickly water (and sludge) is moving up the pipe and squirting out the top. It is a very dirty job and soon many of us are coated with dirt and bentonite. We take two breaks for food: first a chai break where we eat a few snacks (one of them being mandazi a yummy fried dough served everywhere we go in Kenya) and a lunch where we eat motho koi a dish of corn, beans, potato and cilantro. The motho koi is sort of bland but certainly filling and it is also a dish that is served everywhere but each region has a different name for it.

By the end of the day we have made it 10 feet and we are having problems with the rope which keeps breaking (partly because it isn’t great rope and partly for lack of lubricant, eventually we have to replace it). 10’ is not great progress and we are all a little discouraged. Melchizedeck has gone off to survey the surrounding area and is grim about our chances; there is rock everywhere, some of it soft but enough of it is hard that he suspects the WFA method won’t work here. For now he keeps it mostly to himself. But we only have 6 days to go another 140’ to 150’ and that isn’t likely to happen if we encounter rock the whole way down. The good news is that the community has decided to get involved and we have many workers as well as onlookers (the women especially are great workers I think largely because they are the ones who end up having to walk to get the water).

When we get back to the BBC we are all very dirty but the best we can do for clean up at the Bush Baby Club is water heated on the stove and an enclosed cement room for washing. We are also dealing with a choo for bodily functions, not ideal but workable (you get used to carrying some toilet paper on you at all times, I also carry lots of alcohol hand sanitizer).

Thursday we wake up enthusiastic to keep going. Dinner last night was the delicious shish kebobs for which I yearn to this day. After a warm breakfast and a visit to the choo we set out early to Rose and Peter’s House. Once again we stand around for a while waiting for the locals to show up but soon everyone is there and we are underway. Things are going along pretty well considering we are trying to drill through solid rock. We are moving at a rate of about a foot an hour which I gather is pretty slow. Because people have different schedules they have to keep to, we are going to start losing people on Saturday so we are doing the best we can. For lunch we have motho koi again, it seems it is a staple around here and simple to make for an army of workers.

Thursday night I have a horrible attack of homesickness. I’ve only just gotten started and already I’m tired of sleeping in a strange bed, washing with water heated in a pot, working all day with nothing to relieve the monotony, people who laugh at you and peeing in a hole in the ground. I’m worried that we won’t have time for anything fun at the end of the trip because we are moving so slowly. After a little crying I try to make a gratitude list of all the things that are good about this experience: Rose is very sweet, the food is yummy, I’ve made many new friends and seen some amazing scenery; I also call my mom and my friend Ann. As a final way to pep myself up before bed I watch the beginning of the movie Enchanted which I have downloaded to my ipod in case of just such an emergency. It does the trick and I go to sleep ready to start digging again in the morning.

Friday is market day in Katutu and I am hoping to take a break and walk into town to buy some fabric for me and my friend back in Seattle, Nile, who specifically asked for some kikoi and kitenge cloth from Kenya (both she and I love to sew and once I see the kikoi cloth I can see why she likes it, I immediately fall in love and purchase them in numerous colors). Don, Marian and I walk into town and I find cloth in a cute little shop where two beautiful women work at a treadle sewing machine. In Kenya I see many beautiful treadle machines (I didn’t even know they were still making these) a good investment in a country where power is intermittent at best. Don purchases a couple of shirts but mostly we just wander around and see the sights. Don is a professional photographer and enjoys taking pictures of the things we see.

There is some culture shock here in Kenya in that we are the center of such interest. We are surrounded by people almost all the time who are interested in our activities, children especially, and I start to feel like an animal at the zoo. It’s weird because in Seattle (or almost anywhere in the U.S.) standing around and pointing and laughing at someone because they are different would be completely inappropriate and rude but here it seems pretty common and children follow you shouting “mzungu” many places you go. They also come up to you and demand money and candy which is something we Americans specifically tell our children not to take from strangers.

At this point everyone is pretty clear on the fact that we are not going to make it to the water and we decided last night that it is our last day drilling. We take many pictures of the drilling focusing especially on getting pictures of the couples working together (on the left are Jeremy and Sara; to the right and below are Peter and Rose), I get my picture taken with Cathy. All in all we have managed to go 25' through rock the whole way which is unheard of, but many of us have heavy hearts at leaving the job unfinished. However after a community meeting the locals decide that they are interested in pursuing the well without us, working together to create a project that will be all their own. Melchizedeck has already agreed that he is willing to come back and help them with the WFA method or failing that, he will bring his drilling rig and if a few basic conditions are met (deeding the land on which the well stands to the community so that it will truly be a community well and making sure that everyone has access) he will gladly drill for free. This coming together of the community to find it’s own solution might actually be the best thing that could have happened in this frustrating situation and to further lighten our hearts the women start to sing and dance, clapping their hands and lifting their voices in a lively call and response (I have included video of their singing at the end of the blog). Tomorrow we will be leaving Kapati and heading back to Nairobi.

Africa Part 2: The Road to Katutu

Africa Part 2: The Road to Katutu

We depart for Katutu on Tuesday the 18th of August. By 8:30 we are packed and ready to go but we have to wait for Melchizedeck so we can load up his truck. Things in Africa happen at a different rate of speed than they do in the States (or Germany for that matter), it is something called African Time (which for those interested is very similar to Island Time, Mexican Time or Black People Time). Nothing ever happens when it is supposed to happen so you get ready and then stand around waiting for anything from 20 minutes to two hours (except on those rare occasions when you aren’t ready on time and then the person you are meeting is there exactly on time).

Cathy is very impatient to get going which is funny because she is the one who explained African Time to me, personally I think it will be a triumph if we leave Nairobi by 13:00 hours (we are actually out of the city around 12:00). I am trying to practice patience and tranquility but as you will see it is a lost cause and by the end of the trip I will have achieved only a kind of fatalism (which I don’t think counts).
When Melchizedeck (and his truck) arrive we load up the bentonite and pipes and our luggage which we strap down in the bed of the truck with special care. We make a web of twine over the top of our bags and through the handles because apparently street kids and other riffraff have been known to simply reach in and remove travelers luggage, even snatching cameras and purses from people out of open windows.

After a stop at Gwen’s house to load up the last of the supplies we are on the road. There is a whole caravan of people heading to Katutu: in the truck are Melchizedeck (of course), Cathy, Don L., Jordan (Gwen’s son, I think he is around 10) and me; in a rented van are Sara and Jeremy (the van will also stop downtown to pick up their friends Aaron and Cornelius and Cathy’s’ friends Don and Marian Chang) , in a station wagon that has already departed are Gwen and her mother Carleen , Gwen’s’ daughter Danielle and Rose and Peter (Gwen’s’ household help whose property on which we will be digging the well. Many of us were under the impression that the well would be a community well and we are a little surprised to find out it is for a single household.)

The drive to Katutu is a long one and the roads are not great. Along the way we pass many police checks.
We have walkie talkies but they are of little use unless you are within 100 metres of each other so we end up talking on cell phones most of the time. We will have to stop somewhere to pick up some wood posts with which to build a structure from which to hang the pulley. The pulley will hold the pipe with the drill bit. The top of the pipe has a handle welded on which we will grasp to “throw” the pipe down the shaft. We find wood near Katutu which Gwen and her passengers reach first.

Along the road to Katutu I get a battery for Cathy’s’ extra cell phone so I can make calls of my own. I also get a Safaricom sim chip (Safaricom is a prepaid cell phone service which is huge in Kenya, you see many buildings painted Safaricom green a kind of kelly green color. Many buildings are painted with logos of different products, it’s a free paint job for the residents). I also have my first encounter with the infamous choo (pronounced “cho” like the name of the comedienne Margaret Cho). The choo is nothing more or less than a hole in the ground like an outhouse without the seat. Depending on the inclination of the owner and the aim of the users it can be horrible or sort of okay. In fact Cathy and I end up agreeing that a clean choo is better than a dirty toilet (but out in nature is better than both). Unfortunately I have Obsessive Compulsive tendencies and my first choo is not a good experience (I will be traumatized for the rest of the drive).

Before arriving in Katutu we make a quick stop in Kapati (Pronounced sort of like cow patty) to drop off our luggage at the place where we will be staying the illustrious Bush Baby Club, a cute little bar with accommodations where we each get our own little room . The rooms have cement floors and cute little beds with turquoise mosquito nets (I insert a sea foam green silk sleeping liner between the sheets to protect me from bed bugs and other ickiness). They also each have their own padlock so you can padlock your door shut to keep everyone out, a feature I like since I hate people touching my stuff.

When we arrive at Rose’s house we are greeted with a nice cup of Chai (milky tea like they serve in India). Rose is very sweet and her mother in law is one of those very tough older African ladies, I think she was in her 60’s but it might have been her 80’s I didn’t follow everything completely. I think her name was Regina (but that might just be because she seemed very regal), it was hard to keep track of names because most people had a Christian name and a tribal name. The well would be very useful so that Regina would not have to walk to get water. Rose and Peter have livestock also (3 cows, a goat and some chickens, which makes them pretty well off apparently) and they need to keep them watered and fed.

After the chai we all head out back to survey the ground and figure out where to erect the poles and crossbar. After the spot is chosen we dig into the ground (this is done mostly using a pointy metal digging stick) and get the poles and crossbar up with the pulley smack dab in the centre (I’m using the English spellings since Kenya was an English colony and the spell things the English way. They also eat “chips” instead of “fries” and use “lifts” instead of “elevators”) the fellows clamber up the poles to do the nailing and tying, meanwhile the ladies gather rocks and dig smaller holes wherein we put sticks to cordon off the area with orange tape.

We make quite a stir with the Kenyan children and the Kenyans in general who all seem somewhat mystified by our actions. The children follow us around everywhere like little tiny paparazzi, except they want us to take their pictures. They also call us “mzungu” which apparently means white person (I’m slightly offended as is Don C. since we are both mixed not white but apparently we are close enough being from America and all). I’m not thrilled with being mobbed, especially by children, because I like my personal space but it’s interesting to be so observed, you start to feel like an animal in the zoo.

Once we have set up at Rose’s we head back to the Bush Baby Club for dinner. Gwen and her mother have spent a lot of time preparing delicious meals for us to eat every night and morning (the one I still think about is the beef and vegetable shish kabobs). After a yummy meal and a nice cup of coffee I am ready to head to my room in large part to escape the drunken attentions of some of the male patrons of the bar who seem to have taken a shine to me (a feeling not reciprocated) and who also keep asking me if they can have some of the food which is not up to me ( I also am of the opinion that if they are hungry they should spend their money on food and not alcohol, I wisely keep this opinion to myself). I climb into my nifty sleep sack, pull shut the mosquito net, apply my Magical Mosquito Repellent ( a homemade moisturizer with added lavender and citronella both known for their insect repelling properties) and fall asleep ready to start digging in the morning.

Africa Part 1: Nairobi

The trip to Kenya is a grueling 24 hour journey in two legs. The planes have a feature in which you get your own little screen on which you can select and watch movies. I watched six different movies: Coraline, Star Trek, Monsters VS Aliens, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Sunshine Cleaners and Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. That was a lot of movies!

We arrived in the evening on a Friday and I discover on the drive to our sleeping quarters that not only do they drive on the left side of the road (Kenya is a former British colony, English and Swahili are the national languages) but there seem to be absolutely no rules of the road (cars swerve in and out of traffic wildly and even drive on the shoulder). Nevertheless we arrive safely at the house of Terry and Margie Jones and their son Isaac. They are friends of my Aunt Cathy and from what I gather they have lived in Nairobi for 12 years or so as missionaries and have dug many a well. They put us up in a little guest house on the back of their property and after a good nights rest I take a shower in the semi enclosed outdoor shower in the middle of the property, a house where their live-in housekeeper Nora lives with her 6 nieces and nephews they also have a groundskeeper, I don’t know if he lives on site or not (apparently everyone in Kenya has servants which gives me a weird feeling of colonialism).

Nairobi is a very dirty city with a lot of poverty in it. It would appear that there are no regulations on car emissions and many of the vehicles here run on diesel fuel so you see many vehicles belching huge black clouds into the air. I especially appreciate the irony of a sky blue truck that says CLEAN WATER on it spewing smog. We spend our time in Nairobi mostly running around trying to get the supplies needed to start the well (despite the fact that Cathy was under the impression that all the supplies would already be purchased). The technique used is one invented by a gentleman named Terry Waller and used by a group called Water For All International (I hope this info is correct). We meet up with a lovely young couple, Jeremy and Sara Boucher who are trained in the WFA method of well digging and spend a lot of time comparing notes with Cathy. We also meet Don and Carleen Loveless who have gathered the money for the project from their church and other sources back in the states and their daughter Gwen (and her husband and kids) who lives in Nairobi. The last member of our merry band is Melchizadeck a native of Kenya and the nicest man you could ever hope to meet. He works for Operation H2O and has a lot of experience drilling himself, he also has a truck which will be really handy for transporting our supplies and later at the drill site water.

All the running around is very dull for me, although I try to stay alert because I would like to understand the method in case I want to try and reproduce it sometime. So far as I can gather it involves using the leaf spring of a car to make drill bits that are like darts. They are welded onto a bolt that goes through a piece of pipe that is wide at one end and narrow at the other creating a one way valve. These are welded onto other pieces of pipe and reinforced so they will survive the pressure of the pounding into the ground (especially in case you encounter rock). During all this you try to protect the threads at the end of the drill bit because you will later screw them onto a piece of 10’ metal pipe. The pipe is metal and to add weight to it they cut another piece of pipe into two pieces lengthwise and weld them around the first pipe. We also purchase many lengths of PVC pipe the purpose of which is to add length as you go deeper and deeper into the ground (we of course also need couplings to link all these together) and bentonite a mineral whose purpose seems to be to thicken the water we will pour into the hole so as to help bring up pieces of rock.

Cathys’ luggage did not arrive with the plane so for the first couple of days she has to get by with a limited amount of clothing (I loan her a shirt to sleep in). Another complication in the luggage scenario is that on the day we arrive the Kenya Air baggage handlers go on strike. On Sunday we head to the airport hoping to find Cathy's’ bag. Happily it is there and I get to play tourist for a while as we head to the Giraffe Centre. It is a rather small place but you get to go in and see Giraffes up close. I even get to feed a giraffe and learn more about the animal. Giraffes are beautiful and have huge long lashes that any girl would envy, they also walk in a strange way moving both legs on the same side forward (you would think they would fall over!) their blood pressure is extremely high (it has to be to get the blood up their long necks to their brains) but is regulated by valves in their necks. There is a big crowd around the giraffe but it takes a pellet from my hand, it has a big purple tongue. There is also a cute little warthog at the Giraffe Centre running around and eating. Warthogs are one of those animals that are so ugly they achieve cuteness, they also feed on their knees, kneeling down to graze.

On Monday morning we discover that the power is out at the location where our welder operates (it is also out at the Jones’ house). To save power the city of Nairobi (and we will later find many other places) has scheduled blackouts from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.. For the Jones’ they happen Monday, Wednesday and Friday for Gwen they happen Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday so the plan is to gather up the welder and his equipment and meet in Gwen's’ courtyard where he can finish his work so we can leave Tuesday morning as scheduled. With this done Cathy, Don, Terry and I go to gather up a few last important items, water containers, rope and sheet plastic at a store called Tusky's which is sort of like an African Kmart and has the creepiest mannequins I have ever seen. By the end of the day we have accomplished everything we need to do to leave the next morning for Katutu the village in which we will be drilling our well.

Camlann

So once again I am working at Camlann Medieval Faire for a few days this summer as a serving wench. It's always fun to take a trip out to the Duvall/Carnation area for this event, however this year the heat has made things really slow. Luckily my trip is not wasted because I use my half hour drive to and from the faire to practice my Swahili, I am leaving in 7 days, yikes!

The people at the faire are really nice. Roger Shell is the gentleman who came up with the whole idea and he serves as the innkeeper. Sarah is the cook and Juliana is my fellow waitress at the Bors Hede Inne. I have included some pics of Sarah and Juliana (and the inn). Sarah is wearing green and spinning wool into thread. Juliana is wearing red. I'm wearing red too but I also have an embroidered chemise under my dress.

I also have included some pictures of the faire grounds and the feasting hall which is under the inn and rented out for private feasts (weddings, birthdays) as well as seasonal feasts (Yule, Lent, Halloween). The hall has been beautifully painted by Diana Peterson.

There are lots of demonstrations on site from sheep shearing to candle making, plus pony rides! I haven't ridden the pony but I do like to go feed him apples.

It's been fun so far and will hopefully pick up now that it is cooler.