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February 24, 2004
February 24, 2004
What an incredible day. But all in a routine sort of a way. I mean, it was basically an ordinary day as days normally go here in Maralal. Waking up, getting kids to school, going to work, organizing the needs of the household. That sort of normal stuff. But for some reason it all came in a very intense way today, with a few special twists. Woke up at the normal time with the kids and went though the routine of breakfast, washing, dressing and getting ready to go to school. Loidelua, the youngest nephew who has been sickly a lot, was in a bad mood. Had been crying in the night and now in the morning was still whining and crying. Asking him what was wrong didn’t help a lot. Every time I asked him I got a different answer. Neither of us speaking a language very well that the other understood did not help. While trying to deal with him, my 3 ½ year old, Naiboku, proceeded to unroll the entire roll of toilet paper on the bathroom floor and was proceeding to open another one by the time I noticed. Meanwhile, the older boys were complaining about wanting a ride to school instead of walking. Chaos. Oh well, that is how it goes around here some days. I finally got everyone ready and off to school and went on with my day.
My first chore of the day in town was to find water. We rely on rainwater in Maralal and have a big tank to collect the water off our iron sheet roof. Unfortunately, it was almost empty and no hope for rains for at least 3 weeks. I went to the government arid lands office to look for a water tanker to bring some water from the city water supply. I much prefer the taste and smell of our rain water and hate to contaminate the tank with horrible, treated water, but now that it was almost out, I decided that instead of running around town every day with water containers looking for water, it was just easier to fill the tank with whatever water we could find. I found the right person to deal with and organized for a tanker to come. That involved running around town paying the water utilities’ fee at the District Commissioners office, buying some fuel for the tanker and returning all the receipts to the right office for sending out the vehicle. Sometimes I feel like I spend most of my day running around on little errands.
Those little errands done and the assurance that the water would show up around 4:00 in the afternoon, I finally went to the office. Sitting there trying to do work, I also realized that I still wasn’t feeling well. I had been fighting a chest cold for over a week and I started to suspect that something else was effecting my immune system. So I decided to go get tested for Malaria. I wasn’t surprised to find out that the test was positive. So, being lunchtime, I decided to go home, take my medicine, eat and then rest. Going home, eating and taking the medicine went okay, but the resting idea certainly didn’t go as planned. First, the older boys were home from school as they only go half days and Loiweti wanted me to continue helping him with his knitting that I just started teaching him yesterday. Then my cat, Buro, who was massively pregnant, wanted constant attention in a way that I suspected she was about to deliver. After giving up resting on the bed with them on top of me, I got up and decided to see about the water tank. I had the wonderful thought that maybe I should clean the tank before the water tanker came instead of just pouring it in on top of the bit of rainwater that was left.
This thought led to 2 hours of hard labor on my part, despite the malaria running around in my body and my head sort of spinning around, getting all the water out, tipping the tank on it’s side and scrubbing all the dirt out with a towel. Great way to rest. Of course I got soaking wet doing all this. Though inside the tank, which I had to crawl into, it was boiling hot so I didn’t mind being wet. Until I came out into a cool breeze. Our watchman, who helped me move the heavy tank around, said the work in the heat inside the tank would be good for my malaria and heal me instantly. I love all the wonderful medical advice that is freely given out by everyone one meets.
That finished, I went to town with the kids to take Loidelua to the doctor. He has a cough that just can’t get well. Got him some medicine, bought some handkerchiefs the kids wanted, as well as some mangos, and came home. On the way I stopped by the truck driver’s house to see how his trip to Ngurunit went. He said the masons had gone to Lebenderra to finish up there before going to start Namare. I’m happy with that.
Upon getting home, I got a snack and went to collapse in my study. That lasted less then a minute and the kids were yelling that the cat was having babies in a different box than her nest. I ran in to find the poor thing giving birth in her litter box. I quickly transferred to the birthing box her and the three kittens that had emerged, only to find one had died. Poor thing. The kids and I then went to dig a hole to bury it and had a little funeral. In the meantime, Buro had a fourth kitten, so now she has three beautiful, healthy babies.
Up to this time, and it was well after the promised 4:00 in the afternoon, our water hadn’t arrived. Just as I finally got a few minutes to sit back down to my snack, the water truck arrived in the gathering dark. We sorted it out as quickly as we could and filled the tank. Then I got the kids, all exited from the truck and the tank filling exercise, back into the house and sat down at dinner. After dinner, we played some card games before bed. After the usual fights about who is winning and loosing, I got them off to sleep.
What a day. Nothing out of the ordinary, really, but so many activities squeezed into one day is hectic. And writing it all down, it seems to have taken the space of three days of normal journal entries. That’s about how it felt. So now, I will end the day before anything else happens. It has been a good day, even with the malaria and other problems, but I’ve had enough. I’ll go check on the kittens and give Buro the cat a couple strokes like she enjoys. She also had some hard work today.
February 22, 2004
February 22, 2004
Sent a truckload of stuff off to Ngurunit yesterday. Sometimes it seems that is all I ever do these days. Run around load trucks to send of into the bush for various reasons. This truck carried materials for two other projects I am working on. Some of the things are to finish the tannery equipment store room that the Salato Women’s Group are building in cooperation with KARI (Kenya Agricultural Research Institute) on the milk/meat/skins/hides preservation project that is winding up in April. We are trying to work fast to finish everything we want to do and make the best use of the funds we have before the project ends. Some of the other stuff was for the tourist camp that we are improving with the help of UNDP funds. Some of the guesthouses are finished and I sent some beds and other furniture for them. We have some guests coming to use the place middle of March so tying to get everything set up and ready to start. I’m so exited to see the camp looking so wonderful these days with the neat houses. This has been a dream of the women’s and mine for about 4 years. Slowly, slowly we have been improving it where we can with the goal of having a training facility with a seminar/activity hall, guestrooms, self-sufficient water, latrines and other needed structures. Success is now in sight. I’m am so enthused to see the progress made even if it has taken a long time. Time doesn’t matter so much as long as one keeps striving ahead and eventually reaches where they want to go.
Along with the truckload of stuff, I sent a mason to go to Namare to start building the tank and other things needed for collecting the rainwater. Reuben came back Thursday night with news that the Lebendera project is stalled and none of what I hoped would be done had even been worked on in the last 1 ½ weeks since I had been there. And he couldn’t find the carpenter/mason to ask what was up. One of the big problems is that now the dry season has set in strongly up in the North and the women are in one of their hard times. This has made it difficult for them to continue collecting the materials needed to complete the water project. They have done well so far. I am amazed in fact. The Lebendera project is incredibly hard being on the side of a mountain far from sand and water, which the women must collect and carry on their backs to the construction site. Even though the project is stalled, the end is in site and with a little more effort, it should be completed by middle March. I was able to find a pipe thread cutter, which lack of was one of the constraints we faced in finishing the pipe work of the project, and I sent it with the truck yesterday. The women had asked me to try to find a way to get the pipeline fixed as quickly as possible because that would help them in fetching water. Instead of walking up the mountain to the source and then carrying the water down on their backs for mixing the cement, they could just pour it down the pipe. That will speed things up a bit. So many details and little complications in building these water projects.
The latest difficulty with the Government water department is their refusal to give us a detailed plan of the 100,000 liter water tank we need to build at Namare. They say there are difficulties with giving out the plans without them being there to supervise. I tell them come and supervise, we have no problem with that and would appreciate their help. They say they have no money to go. I say we don’t either so just give us the plan and we are competent to follow it. They refuse saying they can’t give out to non-technical people. I say then send the technical people. They say they have no money. I offer to give them transport but they want allowances on top of the salary the government is already paying them. I say I have only enough for the mason and plumber and we will just build the tank as best we can from experience without using their detailed plan. They say we must use a good plan to have a good tank and that theirs is the best. I say, then give us the plan and we will follow it carefully. They say no, their technician must supervise to make sure we do it right. I say, fine, come and supervise. They say give us allowances. I say we have no money. They say you can’t have the plan. And so it goes around and around and around in circles until I want to pull my hair out. I thought maybe it was just me and my way with dealing with the government people that was a problem. So last week I sent Rueben, him being a Kenyan and knowing the system, and he just ended up getting the same circular run around and ending in a big fight with the engineer and getting nowhere. So now, we have just figured out the best we can how to build the tank and found a mason who has some experience and we are simply getting the job down as best we can. And I certainly can’t wait until it is down. Reuben will be going back next week to check out how the construction is going and then I go again the middle of March. That is the time the donor will come to see how the projects are going and look at the other water project and the water pan scooping projects I am trying to get funding for. So, I hope that some sort of tank will be done by then. Despite all these concerns and worries, I know everything will turn out. So mostly I just need to relax and let everything continue at its own pace.
February 19, 2004
February 16, 2004
Time to write some thoughts after a long time of not taking the time. The New Year sort of took me by storm it seems. I think back on the last month since I last made an entry and it is just a blur of activity. Crazy but very, very good. For the most part. The only really bad part, if I can call it that, is not having the time to sit down and get my thoughts together. No time to sit down and write anything other than that which directly related to work. No journal. Very few letters. No thoughts and stories that come to my mind in my daily activities. So now, when I do finally sit down to get some thoughts on paper, I feel like a whole month has just slipped away. But not to worry. I can still try to capture some of the amazing activities and thoughts of the last month. Just have to take the time.
I have been to Nairobi twice and Ngurunit once all in the space of 4 weeks. Seeing as each of the trips takes 6 to 7 hours each way, I have been on the road a lot. And non-stop movement in between. First to mention the Ngurunit trip, which is to start in the middle I guess. During my first trip to Nairobi the middle of the month, I had a breakthrough meeting on the camel basket marketing I have been doing for the Ngurunit women. I ran into a women I had known about 4 years ago and had thought had left the country. She had gotten a new job as display designer at a African crafts gift shop in Nairobi. I was given the chance to put a display up in a really popular and well placed shop, called the Banana Box, and needed to develop promotional materials to go with the baskets. The display was planned for February so the last weekend of January, I dashed to Ngurunit to get some pictures and more baskets. I was able to go with the new American Peace Corps Volunteer, Nancy, who has just moved to Maralal recently. We had a great time. She took some amazing pictures of women weaving their baskets and got to see how I went about my community work.
We also went to visit the Lebendera and Namare water projects to see how everything is going. The last truck load was due to be sent from Maralal and I needed to assess any last minute materials needed. The Lebendera project is still going slow, slow, slow. Two months over due now. But moving. Just sent my husband to Ngurunit today to see if it is finally done. Will find out in a few days what the verdict is. Rains are due in March so we really want to finish Lebendera and then rush to build the Namare tank before it rains.
February 16, 2004
Ran out of power on my computer yesterday so my writing ended abruptly. Didn’t want to plug into the solar power as it was night and the battery was low. So I will continue to write a bit more now this morning before getting on with more ‘important’ work. After getting back from Ngurunit on February 1st, I spent a week finishing up on some water project business and getting prepared for my next Nairobi trip. I have now sent the last truck load of stuff to Namare along with the few more needed items for Lebendera. I also spent a lot of time trying to sort out some of the various problems on the water projects like needed another skilled mason to send in order to speed up the work and looking for a tank design for the big tank at Namare. Dealing with the government water technician regulations is still giving me headaches. They refuse to give designs without one of their technicians being involved yet they insist we pay them extra allowances to become involved, even if we don’t have it. We will get it worked out though. Just can’t wait until it is finished. It is so frustrating to try to help the communities to help themselves and have to deal with so many obstructions from government. They say they are so happy you are helping the people, yet they make it as hard as possible to get the job done.
After sorting out what I could in Maralal, I took off for another trip to Nairobi. I was scheduled to give a presentation on the processing and marketing of livestock products from the community enterprises viewpoint which was based on my experience of the last couple of years working on the milk and meat preservation project. At the same time, I was trying to prepare the Samburu/Rendille camel milking basket promotion material for putting at the Banana Box. Not to mention the report writing and other consultancy work I was to have done for other meetings in Nairobi. Hectic. I was feeling I needed to be three people to finish it all. But by some miracle and just hard work with little sleep, I was able to be successful on all points. And in addition, even find time to arrange for a visit by a US embassy donor who is interested in coming to Ngurunit in March to see the progress of the water projects and to assess two other projects for possible funding this year. One is another water project in the community of Seren that we have been trying to find support for. I am excited about the possibilities of finding the money so soon. The other possible project involves using animal power, like donkeys and camels, to dig out water holding pans with specially developed harnesses and equipment to increase the rainwater harvesting ability in the dry lands collecting runoff from the base of the hills and big rocks scattered around. I am even more excited about that. I have always been interested in animal power ever since I had trained my own horses during my school days to pull a cart and then went on to an internship in oxen and horse power at a tourist attraction farm in New Jersey just after I finished college. And along with the water pan digging equipment, I have also found some very efficient donkey pulled water drums that can help people to collect 10 times more water at one time with basically the same amount of energy. This would allow the women to have to make the long trips to the watering places much less frequently as their donkeys could bring home so much more at one time. Then the household can use the water over a period of several days instead of having to go every day, or even several times a day, to fetch the needed water.
As I think of all that I have done in the last few weeks and the opportunities that have been coming up, the one I think most of is the basket marketing stuff. On Thursday last week, the display was set up at Banana Box and is scheduled to run from Friday to Friday. It was so beautiful. I had some beautiful pictures taken by Nancy, which I used to put with information about the women, their lives and the baskets. Within an hour of the display being put up, already one basket had sold. I am so happy with this opportunity because I have seen the great difference a little bit of income can make to the women in my community of Ngurunit. They come to my house desperate for some money to buy food, or medicine, or for sending their kids to school. Before, many of them only had the option of begging for help. Now, they come to my house looking for help and I am able to give them the money they have made from their own efforts in their basket making. Finding the market has been difficult and a long struggle over the last three years. But now, with this last trip to Nairobi, things are changing. Not only the opportunity of the Banana Box display but also several other opportunities came up out of the blue while I was there. One American friend, Janice, a weaver, who has been helping me with advice on how to teach the women to make the baskets better and more marketable, was able to get a place for showing the baskets at a private craft show that will happen next week. Also, again purely by chance, I ran into a man whom I had met in Maralal some years ago when he worked as a consultant with my husband in a German/Kenyan government project. It turned out that now he does African crafts marketing to shops in Germany and he just happened to be in Nairobi filling up a container of goods to ship to Germany in a couple weeks. Because of the display at Banana Box, I happened to have a lot of promotion pictures of the baskets and the women weaving them in Ngurunit. The connection was made and he most likely will buy some and take them to Germany to try to interest the craft shops there. Amazing. It is these chance meetings and unlooked for breaks in life that I have experienced to be the most profitable for all involved. I am so excited to see where all this takes us. If we can organize all these connections, and get the women to come together into a basket weaving association of some kind, a real opportunity will open up for so many to have a regular income that never had any chance of such before. This is the key to development and self-reliance. People in Kenya, and Africa as a whole, have so much potential to bring themselves up in life, if the chances are given to them. They don’t need handouts, they just need opportunities.
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