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August 13, 2003
August 13, 2003
It is early morning. So happy had to write. The Nairobi visitors, connected to UNDP and organizations working with NCCD (national convention for combating desertification), returned from their trip to see the Ngurunit projects. We talked last night and I answered questions they had. Then they have all but promised to fund three very important things. One is the finishing of the water tank. Another is a continuation of a marketing project they funded before with a men’s group. The third will probably be the development of my Salato Women’s Group tourist camp/conference center that we have been wanting to put improved samburu houses on in order to have rooms for guests. At the moment it is just camping and many people don’t like having to carry all of their stuff. That would really help boost the income generation potential of the women. I’m so excited. When positive stuff like this comes along, it is a real motivation to me to keep trying. I will still have to write the final budget for the projects they want to fund and send it to them, but that is easy compared to the actual searching for the money. Well, they are leaving in a bit to go look at projects in other districts so I have to go see them off. I am happy they made the effort to get up here and look. It isn’t easy and that is one of our big constraints to finding donors. They want to see the projects yet they don’t want to come so far. That is way most development happens around big centers. The remote places where it is really needed never sees any money because no donors want to go through the effort of getting there. I can only hope that I can keep finding the people willing to come here and step by step, good projects will happen.
August 12, 2003
August 12th, 2003
Wow. Can’t believe I have time to sit down and breath. This last week and _ has been incredibly hectic but good. Finally got the estimates I needed from the government water engineers to start ordering materials for the Lebenderra and Namare water project. Then I had to spend the whole week chasing around to get the invoices to send to the embassy to start the process of releasing the funds. Have been trying to arrange for the first delivery of stuff by the end of August. The logistics of this project are very complex to work out. Sometimes I am not sure if I will ever get it sorted. But then I just need to remember that one time I was able to build a very complex water system in the mountains of Nepal while I was a Peace Corps volunteer there miles from the nearest road. Those logistics were nightmare material and I still succeeded. So everything here will be fine and successful so no need to worry.
In between trying to get the invoices and ordering in shape the Maralal Camel Derby weekend arrived. I had committed to helping out with it all and also selling women’s group stuff at it so I had to run around organizing all those things as well. Didn’t help that Reuben and colleague Carolyn, with various other people, didn’t show up from Ngurunit as scheduled on Wednesday. Turned out the car they were in broke down in the middle of nowhere and only good fortune got them a way to send a radio message through the police. So on Wednesday evening I sent my other car off with Carolyn’s husband to find them. They all slept in the bush and arrived finally Thursday evening exhausted and dirty. Then my guests I expected on Friday to come for attending the Derby never showed up and I didn’t find out till Monday that they had come half way from Nairobi, had car problems, and had to return there. They were upset not to make it.
Camel Derby was fun. Too bad it only happens once a year. Kids had a blast. Also sold a lot of stuff for the Ngurunit women. Some day I will train my own camels and ride in it. Could do the amateur race on a hired camel but I don’t want to depend on a handler running along. I will be independent and do the Semi-professional 20 Km race. It is a dream.
Now I am in Baragoi on the way to Ngurunit. We all came from Maralal yesterday, stayed the night and then I sent everybody ahead to Ngurunit. I am staying for a 3 day camel health and milk processing seminar. I am the milk hygiene and processing facilitator. First day today has been good. Tomorrow I start making some milk products for people to taste. Getting here yesterday was hectic. First I sent Reuben off in the ‘new’ car I just purchased for the women’s group in Ngurunit. They will be so excited. Their own vehicle! It is just a tiny Susuki but it will be useful for marketing their dairy and meat products. Then I sent the German student off with various people in our student car. She is here a few months researching on camels for her Master’s. She had come out for the Camel Derby and raced in the amateur race. That was fun. She is quite sore from 10 Km on a camel. Didn’t do to bad though.
I had to wait for some other visitors from Nairobi who want to go up to Ngurunit to check out some of the projects there. We are hoping they will fund the finishing of a water tank project that was started years ago but through community politics and misunderstandings, sort of didn’t get finished. Reuben and I are committed to getting that tank done and working for the community. It really upsets me when just because of a few greedy people, development projects don’t achieve their full objectives. So now I have been working to try to remedy some of the problems that have come down through the years in the Ngurunit area before I was really working there in a big way. These visitors went with Reuben and the kids to Ngurunit and I’m expecting them tonight to return to sleep in Baragoi. Can’t wait to see what they think.
So, in the meantime, I rest a bit and breath after this hectic time. But it is good. Exciting to see so many projects coming together. Also great to have a bit of fun at the Derby and meet so many interesting people. I’ll be here in Baragoi till Friday and then to Ngurunit for 3 weeks where I can get some peace with the family for a bit. Now, to wait for the visitors to return.
August 02, 2003
August 2, 2003
Had a really good day with the kids, though Naiboku wasn’t feeling so well. I needed to go to look at camels at the Mugie Ranch about 1 hour drive from Maralal. Before going, I stopped at the clinic to have them take a blood sample from Nairobu to check for Malaria. She was so funny when she got her finger pricked. Cried a bit and insisted on a big bandaid around the whole top of her finger. And she took good care of that finger all day. Poor girl. She does have malaria and I have her on drugs now. Here malaria is a bit like flu in America. It is so common a lot of people don’t take care with it. That is why so many people die in this area of malaria, even where the real dangerous cerebral malaria isn’t present. They don’t treat promptly or properly. That is one thing I am really careful about with the family.
Naiboku wasn’t too bad so we went on the trip to the camels anyway. I needed to buy two replacement heifers for a couple of my women’s group members in Ngurunit. We’ve needed them for a long time but to get the camels from the ranch where we can buy good ones to Ngurunit is difficult. Over 300 Km and they have to be walked all the way. There is a Camel Derby here in Maralal next weekend. Camels from all over this and the neighboring district are being brought to be raced and rented out to visitors. We are lucky because now I have been able to arrange to have the group camels walk with some of the derby camels from the ranch to Maralal before the derby and then from Maralal to Ngurunit with others going home there after the derby. I took the kids with me for a little outing and because they like camels. I didn’t count on the extra treat we got.
Mugie ranch is also a wildlife preserve and does different work with wildlife preservation. On the way to where the camels were kept, we saw about 20 giraffes. They were so beautiful. The kids were so excited. On the way back from the camels to the main office, the two ranch rhinos happened to be close to the fence. We were so impressed to see them that the manager asked if we wanted a closer look. He then took us into the fenced area, which is about 500 acres so we were lucky to have seen the rhinos from the road, and drove right up to within 15 feet of them. The females name is Victoria, don’t remember the male’s name, and they are hoping she is pregnant. But it is a long wait as a rhino is pregnant for 16 months. Two guards are with the rhinos at all times to protect them. Poaching is such a bad problem that they aren’t even safe on a fenced in ranch.
It was good to see the wildlife and talk with the manager about the issues of conservation and communities. A lot of things have been tried to promote community wildlife conservation with some successes but many problems and failures. Mostly private ranches and national parks are the forerunners of conservation but some upcoming community organizations are trying to promote it as a community asset. I have been trying for years to get some wildlife conservation programs started in Ngurunit community. It is so hard to sort out what exactly can be done and it can be very frustrating. Seeing the animals up close today motivated me again to keep trying. There is still some wildlife in the Ngurunit area, like the elephant I saw a couple weeks ago, and with a bit of effort and an understanding community, it can increase and be a big draw of visitors to help boast the local economy. That is a goal to reach for.
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