I have been visiting the Salato Women’s plot and doing some management stuff with the different economic groups. They are all doing so well and becoming more and more independent. Their plot is so pleasant to visit now with the flowers they have planted and the benches and resting houses they have built for customers to use to eat the different products that they have bought. We have also started to build the guesthouses on the tourist camp plot across the river from the milk, meat and bakery enterprises. I enjoy using my creativity and hands to design interesting structures based on the traditional Samburu houses but with improvements such as locking doors and a solid floor of cement to deter scorpions and snakes.

And the river is flowing. So beautiful. It is even nice here during the months the river is dry, but during the rains when it is flowing it is incredible. My children have a great time splashing and swimming in it. The dogs have also enjoyed discovering water. They are still only big puppies and flowing water is a new experience for them. The kids and dogs spend hours running and jumping in the water together.

So I rest and glory in the peace of Ngurunit and get ready for the Christmas season. Doesn’t really seem like Christmas to me who grew up in Wisconsin with the snow swirling around and Christmas music blaring in every store loudspeaker this time of year. But Christmas packages have arrived from Grandma, goats are being selected by the different Ngurunit families for their Christmas dinner and the kids are enjoying the time off from school. It is a good time.

December 20, 2003

Time out from baking Christmas cookies to use the computer a bit. It has been fun making cookies with the kids, me rolling and cutting and the kids decorating and then me trying not forget the pan over long in the oven while getting the next pan ready. But standing in the kitchen with a hot oven in a hot iron roof house with a hot sandy climate outside the screen door is certainly a long way from what I remember when I was a kid and helping my mom bake Christmas cookies. Then it was cozy to be in the warm kitchen with the snow drifting by the windows and getting sick from eating too much raw dough and cookie decoration sugar. It is still fun to indulge in the dough and sugar with the kids but it definitely isn’t cozy. Just hot. But oh, the results taste just as yummy.

The computer has been on all morning downloading information from the World Space radio my resource center received from the Arid Lands Information Network several years ago. So, I thought I might as well write some thoughts while the computer chugs away at its downloading work. Need to use the precious solar power for more than one thing at a time. This radio is an information distribution tool that has been made available by the World Space Foundation for people who live in Africa, Asia and South America. The radio receives signals from a satellite and a large number of stations, both auto and data based, are available. The audio stations are all free but the data based channels are mostly subscription. But a few, like the African Learners Channel (ALC), is free. I have a computer link from the radio to my computer and have started downloading the available information on the ALC Data channel as I find it so useful for this area. One of the big constraints in village life far from communication centers is the lack of information. Information on different ways to improve ones life, information on issues such as HIV/AIDS and other diseases like Malaria, information on current situations, including the predicted weather forecast and market situation, information on important educational issues. Just about anything. It just isn’t very available in a place like Ngurunit and that which is can often be just word of mouth and often faulty. This World Space radio system can be a way to make information more accessible to the community. The audio channels bring a lot of information to listen to any time. It still has the constraint that the data channels need a computer to download. I am trying to get it going well and then make the downloaded information available to anyone in Ngurunit. But there are problems. One is the power situation. To download the information can take hours and hours to get anything useful and my solar system has trouble running a computer more than 2 or 3 hours at a time. Then to print it all takes more power and also materials like ink and paper. We have been trying to set up a membership scheme for the resource center to help pay for these expenses and there is some hope, but it moves and develops slowly. Like so many other ideas here. But, no matter. Even if it moves slowly, it is progressing and one day I am sure that the information flow into the community will increase to the point where it can make a big difference. Illiteracy is also a constraint as no matter how many books and articles the center has, people need to be able to read them to use them. But there the youth help a lot. They can read and they can teach their parents about what they have read. The main thing first is to get the interest up for people to want to learn new things. And no matter how much others are interested in this information I get from the World Space satellite, I can use it to help promote development around me. So whatever I get, at least it is a start.

January 1, 2004

Happy New Year. Can’t believe it is already 2004. And now the holidays are coming to a close. Tomorrow I take down the Christmas decorations and start packing to go back to Maralal on the 4th with the kids so they can go back to school. I was able to get a ‘real’ Christmas tree this year. Usually I just get a thorn tree from the front yard but this year I was able to send someone to the top of the mountain to bring me back the top of a cedar tree. I must say that when the man arrived with the tree, it was quite pitiful looking. I didn’t think I could ever get it to work as a Christmas tree. A real Charlie Brown Christmas tree. And like that tree, once the kids and I worked on it and got it all decorated, it looked just beautiful. And the smell of a cedar tree brings back childhood Christmas memories. I have really enjoyed looking at it this last week. Tonight we turned the lights on for the last time and sang some Christmas and New Year songs before they went to bed. Tomorrow everything gets packed away for another year and the tree is put outside to be a roost for the birds.

It has been a good time here in Ngurunit. I have been out to the Lebendera and Namare water projects a couple times. Lebendera is progressing and the blocks at Namare are increasing every day. I will go one last trip there tomorrow to finalize what may need to be sent from Maralal next week when I send the last two lorry loads of stuff. Work on the women’s tourist camp plot has also been progressing. Three of the six guesthouses are started. I won’t get the first one quite done as planned before I leave but it is almost there. I will be able to organize things so the work goes on after I go to Maralal. I will come back the end of January to check up again. Reuben will stay behind to receive the donors who will be visiting the camp project, a water tank project and a livestock marketing plot projects that we are supervising. I will get to meet them in Maralal as they go through. It is one of the UNDP departments and if the projects we are doing now finish well, which they will, then there is a chance we can get a regular connection with the donor for projects next year. Maybe even on a larger scale. I’m hoping. Well, off to bed. Tomorrow will be an incredibly busy day trying to finish up everything before going to Maralal. Not to mention the packing for myself, the kids, the women’s products for sale and the dogs. Yikes.

January 11, 2004

We are all settled in Maralal again. Well, almost all of us. We left Reuben in Ngurunit to receive the visitors and he is due to arrive here today. The visitors came through Maralal on Tuesday and it was really good talking to them before they went to Ngurunit on Wednesday. Besides the one woman who I know through the projects that her UNDP section is funding in Ngurunit and she was coming to see, two other people from the UNDP Drylands Development Programme section came along with her. It was really interesting talking to them about possibilities of development in the Northern pastoralist regions of Kenya. One of the main topics was water, and the projects and development of sources of this valuable resource. They were very interested to hear about the water projects I have been working on in Lebendera and Namare and have made a plan to pass by and look at them on their way back to Nairobi. As far as I know, they have left Ngurunit Friday, but are going another route home so I will have to wait until I meet them all again in Nairobi to get their impressions of the area. Communication is always difficult in these remote areas. Though, of course, when Reuben arrives sometime today, I will be able to get some feedback from him. If he arrives. Without means of communication, I can never find out any changes of plans ahead of time. They just happen and one has to go with the flow. He plans to arrive today. If he doesn’t, I just assume the plans changed and expect him tomorrow. As simple as that.

I sent truck load number three of materials to Namare on Friday. One more to go. That one will wait a bit until I can see the projects almost completed so we can put any last minute needs in it. I left the water projects with a lot of work left to do but they were progressing slowly. End of January now looks a little optimistic for completion of both projects, but February sometime is attainable.

In the mean time, I am still chasing donors to fund new water projects. As well as resources for the camel projects and health project some communities want to engage in. That is the way of development work. Finish one thing to launch into something new. There are endless opportunities to pursue. One project I left Reuben pursuing was a Nursery School establishment endeavor. He was having a meeting with the community the day the kids and I left for Maralal so I am exited to see how it went. There are plans to start the school as soon as possible, even under the shade of a tree at the beginning. Then, gradually, through community contribution and any support we can find elsewhere, a classroom and latrine and other needed structures will be built. A teacher has already been identified and there are many parents looking for a place to send their young children to get a good basic start before going to the Ngurunit Primary School. The community I work with in Lebendera is also attempting the same. More and more, people are seeing the benefits of education but the education system in the pastoralist areas is lacking in many ways. So I am very enthused to see people starting to take interest and create ways through their own initiatives to get their children educated. I am always ready to help support these community driven activities.