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May 22, 2004
May 22, 2004
I’m back in Maralal again after a wonderful and interesting trip around the country. Sarah and I left Wednesday the 12th and headed to a place on the slopes of Mt. Kenya called Meru. We stayed with a Peace Corps Volunteer who works at a health center there. We walked for hours in the foothills of Mt. Kenya and had a really great time. Then off to Nairobi for a couple days and a visit to the Giraffe center. I love that place. The giraffes come up to the fence for treats so one can feed and pet them up close. Boy, those are big animals. And beautiful. I share the name Laura with one of them.
Then Sunday, we went to Naivasha and Nakuru to find some more wildlife. Saw one hippo in a 10 minute stop at Lake Naivasha. We made it to Nakuru and found some more Peace Corps Volunteers. A bunch of us went to the Nakuru National Park and had a great time. The flamingos, pelicans and storks on the lake edge were amazing. So many. And we were able to get out of the car and walk very near to them. We saw a lot of rhinoceros in the park too. And one very long, very black cobra crossing the road in front of the car. Huge! We had fun.
I took Sarah back to Nairobi in time for her plane on Tuesday. I was hard to say good-bye. I had a really good time having her around. I will miss our mornings sitting together with a cup of coffee chatting and gazing at the mountains of Ngurunit.
After a couple more days of sorting out things in Nairobi, I made my way back towards Maralal. I stopped one night at a dairy farm in Naivasha to meet one of Reuben’s and my classmates from our year at Edinburgh. He is manager of the farm and even though we all live in the same country, due to communication difficulties and distances, we hadn’t meet for 7 years. So, it was good to see him and catch up on the news. Then I stopped at the dairy farm of my friend Anne who was our technical expert on the milk and meat preservation project with my Ngurunit women’s group. After a good visit, I continued my journey and made it home in the evening to see some very happy children to see their mother finally home. The dogs were crazy with excitement to see me, too. So now, I hope to settle into Maralal and not go anywhere again for a while. Enough travels for a time.
May 11, 2004
May 11, 2004
Finally, the pipe problem in Namare has been sorted out. Reuben and Samwel had brought me the news in Ngurunit that the trader had agreed to exchange the pipes and send them in his transport. I just needed to go organize it all. So, I arrived in Maralal a week ago and started organizing. Difficult. But finally I have been successful. After a lot of complaining on the trader’s part about how the mistake wasn’t his fault and how much it was costing him to fix it, I was able to get the correct pipes and send them off on a lorry to Ngurunit yesterday. Yeah! I was also able to use the same lorry to send Reuben materials for the construction of the nursery school so he will be busy now and the kids will soon have a place to meet out of the sun and rain. We have already started the nursery classes under a big tree. One step at a time. Now I am preparing to leave with Sarah tomorrow to start towards Nairobi and her plane to the USA that leaves next Tuesday. We will leave the kids with a babysitter. We plan to go a round-about way to show Sarah a bit more of Kenya. It will be fun!
May 03, 2004
May 3, 2004
We are about to head back to Maralal. We plan to leave tomorrow morning. At least the kids and I. Sarah also. We will leave Reuben in Ngurunit to do some work. He is hoping to pursue a PhD and wants to do some preliminary research. Also, he needs to supervise the community starting to build the nursery school that is badly needed in the area. We have gotten some help from Mom and Dad’s church in Wisconsin. That support, together with the community contribution and a donation from one of the Ngurunit area women’s groups will be enough to build one classroom, an office and a storeroom.
Our last few days in Ngurunit have been very hectic. Reuben came back from Maralal the middle of Saturday night just in time for the beginning of our niece’s wedding on Sunday. Samwel showed up Sunday afternoon on our new project motorbike. We have had to sit down and organize his work for managing all the projects that we have going in preparation for me leaving. Keeping everything straight can be challenging.
Today, Monday, we were up at 5:30 in the morning to prepare for going to the main wedding activities. It rained all last night so I was worried the groom’s party would be stuck in town due to the flowing river. Fortunately the rain stopped about 6:00 am and by 7:00 am, the groom’s party showed up at my niece’s house with the bull and cows. It was such a beautiful and enchanted morning. Clouds drifting low over the mountains, people dressed in brightly colored sheets moving around doing the required ceremonial things, the children running around playing. It was all that I love about Ngurunit. Beauty, community and peace.
The wedding went on the entire day. I have tried to stay until the very end when the groom will take the bride from the mother’s house to the wedding house, but I was just too exhausted. After starting the day at 5:30 am, it is almost 11:00 pm and the wedding hadn’t finished yet. Long day. So, I gave the camera to Reuben to take the last few pitures of the procession and I have come home to write and then sleep. Long drive tomorrow back to Maralal. The end of a wonderful month. I don’t want to leave, but kids must go to school, Sarah is soon to leave Kenya, and I have a lot of office work to catch up on. Such is life.
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