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January 30, 2005
January 30, 2005
Two weeks have passed already since sitting down to write. I get so amazed on how fast time goes. It only seems like a few days ago that I returned from Nairobi and wrote about the first half of January. Now January is already about to end. The first week after getting back from Nairobi was spent in Maralal basically revolving around office work and the visitors from Wales. We are in the final stages of getting the planning in place for the Rotary water project. Phill, as a member of a Rotary Club in Wales, has managed to get two fire engines donated in Wales and got them put on a ship aimed for Mombassa on the Kenyan coast. They are due to arrive the first week of February (next week, wow) and then a team of fire fighters from Wales are coming to Maralal by the 14th February to train everyone involved in the project on various aspects of water system maintenance, fire fighting and vehicle upkeep. We, as the aspiring Rotary Club of Maralal, are also due to receive our official Rotary International Charter sometime in the next three weeks. We are just waiting to hear from the District Governor of our areas as to the exact date. So February is a big month for our upcoming Rotary Club of Maralal. It is so neat to see a dream of mine becoming a reality.
Phill took off from Maralal last weekend to go to Nairobi and Mombassa to make sure everything was all ready for the arrival of all the elements of the project. So, after he left, the remaining Wales visitors and I took off for Ngurunit on Sunday. I wanted to take Peter there so he could see the area that the Wales charity would be helping. Along with his son Nathan and friends Nas and Christine, we had a very full and fun three days there. With the remoteness, the heat and all the amazing sites in Ngurunit, they all said that they finally felt as if they had found ‘real’ Africa. Maralal is nice but very sort of modern. Ngurunit has an indescribable and incredible feel to it. Nas and Christine had quite the adventure trying to get used to all the bugs and other crawling stuff. Nathan managed to do an amazing climb up one of the mountains. I was really impressed with his endurance in the heat. All of us enjoyed hanging out at the rock pools, water slides and waterfall.
Peter met the first selected women’s group, Nyejuk, who will be the recipients of the livestock provided by for by funds from the Wales charity. This gives him a clearer picture of exactly who they are assisting. We bought the first two animals and gave them to a widow who really has to struggle to find food for her family. She was so happy. All she could say upon receiving one goat and one pregnant sheep was ‘I am a livestock owner. Look, I am now a livestock owner. I have my own livestock now.” She couldn’t believe it. Not only does she now own livestock, she has the power to in turn be a gift giver to other needy families as each woman in the group has said they will give out one baby from every animal received to someone else in need. The whole project is about empowering the participants, not just giving handouts. That is the key to success.
I was able to pay the Ngurunit women their basket money. Some of the women were in the process of trying to find secondary school fees for their children to the point of despairing they would ever succeed. The look of joy on their faces when I was able to hand them a significant amount of money that was theirs to use made all the trouble I had in Nairobi sorting and packing the baskets worth the hard work.
We all returned to Maralal Wednesday night, exhausted but happy with all we saw and accomplished in Ngurunit. Peter, and the three with him are leaving Maralal on Tuesday to catch their return flight to Wales on Wednesday. I will miss them. It was so fun showing them around my home in Ngurunit. Phill will be coming up from Mombassa with the fire engines next week and come back to Maralal to stay in Kenya with the Wales fire fighting team until after the training is over end of February. Busy, busy, busy but so exciting. January has gone fast, but February will be just as full and go just as fast, I am sure. Wow.
January 16, 2005
January 16, 2005
Got back from Nairobi today. I have had a very sort of disjointed and busy week and a half since getting back from Ngurunit. The day after struggling into Maralal, I managed to organize to send the mechanic to rescue Reuben in Ngurunit with our one working vehicle. The next day the mechanic returned with the two cars that had broken down. Reuben had stayed an extra day again in Ngurunit with the ‘good’ car. Friday morning Reuben called me from Baragoi saying he had reached the half way point to Maralal, and would arrive home by the evening. He never arrived that night. As I was contemplating whether or not to go look for him Saturday morning, he arrived about 11:00 am. He had experienced some difficulties on the way and had to sleep in the car for the night. He was then able to get some assistance and sorted out the problem enough to just make it to Maralal with the car in a few pieces. Whenever we have vehicle episodes like that week, I think about just selling them all and buying a few donkeys or camels for our transport!
Reuben had less than 24 hours in Maralal and then had to rush off to Nairobi for an orientation for his new job. He is now the field liaison for the PARIMA (Pastoralist Risk Management) research project done cooperatively by several Universities from the USA. His position is an attempt to get the research findings down to the grass-root levels of the communities and those organizations that actually work with them. I think this is really important because so many times I have seen so many research activities take place in the pastoralist communities and the finding and results just disappear into the researchers portfolio and the people who provided the information never see any sort of benefit from it. I followed Reuben to Nairobi with Naiboku a few days later. I needed to finish up my latest consultant job, deliver a very important basket order and get Naiboku’s tooth looked at. We also wanted to welcome our Rotary contact, Phill, from Wales who was arriving to work with our Maralal Rotary Club on the school water project. With him was going to be Peter from Celtic Culture Exchange. We knew them both from a visit they made to us in Maralal last July.
As usual, Nairobi was absolutely crazy. Too busy to breath. The first night we met with Phill, Peter and their travel companions (Peter’s son and a couple of family friends) who were coming to experience Kenya, specifically Samburu. We did some initial planning on what they would be doing with us in Kenya and then they went ahead of us to Maralal on their own. Thursday I juggled getting Naiboku to the dentist and meeting my colleague with whom I had to finish a information database on Kenyan development donors and resource organizations that was our consultancy. The rest of the time, I also worked on getting the baskets sorted and packed. That was more work than I imagined it could be. I stayed at my friend Janice’s house for two nights, staying up to all hours of the night sorting, writing and filling boxes. She was so incredibly helpful despite being so busy herself. I would have never finished the work without the help of her, her husband and several other houseguests that she had. Reuben also stayed one night and helped till the early hours of the morning. This was our first big export order that we had to deal with ourselves so it was a learning experience. We packed almost 200 baskets. I was given cash payment by the customer that ordered them even though she won’t actually see them until April or so because of the shipping time. The women will be so happy and encouraged when I go to Ngurunit the end of this month and am able to pay them. But I will definitely be putting in a code system for identifying baskets, weavers, price and other needed information so the next orders will be easier to deal with.
Reuben, Naiboku and I left Nairobi yesterday a bit later than planned, what with basket packing taking so long and the car also developing a few problems that had to be looked at Saturday morning before leaving. We had hoped to reach Maralal anyway, even if it would have been the middle of the night, but by the time we got half way, Naiboku and I were so tired we convinced Reuben to stop at a nice lodge for the night. So, after a relaxing evening in front of the room fire and a nice sleep, we traveled slowly up to Maralal today. On the way, we stopped at a ranch to arrange for the purchase of some camels that we need for one of our miscellaneous projects. We get donations from various people in from various places in the world that want to buy camels for families that don’t have many resources for their lives. Giving them a camel is a good way to get them started on building their food security and economic base so they can become more self- reliant. Through Peter, one of the friends from Wales, we have also connected with a charity called Celtic Culture Exchange to give a few camels and many goats to families in Ngurunit. So, now I am in Maralal planning the next couple of weeks that will include a visit with the Wales visitors to Ngurunit. It is good to be home, even if only for a week or so before going off again. Time to rest a bit before Monday morning comes tomorrow and life continues charging in all directions.
January 04, 2005
January 4, 2005
Well, my plans certainly did change this trip. The kids, dogs, several passengers and I left as scheduled yesterday morning about 9:00 am. That was the last thing in the plan that went as planned. We got off to a good start but soon had overheating problems. That was a manageable problem as we just had to stop more often, let the car cool, add more water when needed and then continue on our way. So we went along at a leisurely pace and were approaching Baragoi, the half way point, in good time only a little behind the normal length. Suddenly, an unmanageable problem developed. The right engine mounting broke causing the engine to fall out of alignment and in the process break all of the oil fixtures such as the oil filter and oil pipe to the alternator. That meant all of the oil in the engine was instantly on the ground. Fortunately I noticed right away due to the gear shift stick going crooked. We checked and saw the oil out so were able to turn off the engine before it seized. Another good thing was that within minutes, a lorry (big truck) came up behind us and agreed to tow us into Baragoi town about 3 kilometers away.
Because I was supposed to arrive that day in Maralal in order to send a mechanic to help Rueben fix the broken car in Ngurunit, I decided to find a vehicle to hire to get us the rest of the way to Maralal by Monday night. Anyway, it was basically impossible to fix my vehicle in Baragoi as no parts needed were available. So, I found a Land Rover, we loaded up the luggage, kids, dogs and various passengers and set off about 5:00 pm planning to arrive in Maralal about 4 hours later. The plan that plans can change set in again and the Land Rover developed a problem that caused it to run out of petrol about one hour away from Maralal in quite a remote spot. It is very dark at 8:00 pm in the bush far from any town and no moon. But the stars were incredible. As we had no hope of rescue, I set out with the kids walking to a place about 3 Km away that I hoped we could find a bed and possible some food. On this point our luck held out and we were kindly allowed to sleep in a watchman’s house, 7 people and two dogs to three small mattresses, and given a bit of left over bean and corn stew from the watchman’s dinner. In the morning (this morning) two of our party walked to the nearest town one hour away by foot while the kids, dogs and I wandered back to the car to see how the driver and his helper had fared sleeping there the night. It was a wonderful walk with lots of berry bushes along the road from which we foraged our breakfast. We hung out around the Land Rover until about 11:00 am when an army vehicle came by and agreed to carry the kids and I to Maralal to make sure rescue for the Land Rover was on the way. As we left, the people we had sent to look for help came back with the message that a vehicle was on its way from Maralal with petrol which we passed on the way in the army vehicle. So, the kids and I arrived in Maralal about noon and our luggage, dogs and passengers arrived a couple hours later. What a trip. Talk about changed plans. It took almost 30 hours just to get from Ngurunit to Maralal.
But now we are back and I am trying to get into the swing on work again. I sent a mechanic to rescue Reuben and the other vehicle in Baragoi in our one remaining working vehicle. I hope it makes it. I am not having much confidence in vehicles in general at the moment. If no one arrives by Friday, I will have to send out a search party. I will pray it doesn’t come to that. At least, starting the New Year this way, I can think things can only improve. It can’t get much worse. But all in all, we had a good time in the adventure and we made it safely home. Except for Reuben of course but I do expect him to arrive with no more problems either tomorrow or Friday. Such is life in Northern Kenya with bad roads and poor communication. Life certainly never is boring. That’s for sure.
January 02, 2005
January 2, 2005
Happy New Year! We went to camp New Year’s Eve at the place that we keep our goats, about 6 Km away from our house. This has become a tradition for us. And this time, it was so wonderful (though actually, every year there is wonderful). We set up the tent and sleeping net right in the middle of the Samburu house enclosure with the animals just able to wander around us. I had my guitar and we had the World Space Satellite radio to listen to the Kenya president’s New Year speech. Though by that time we didn’t really listen because we were having too much fun chatting, eating roast goat, and toasting each other and the New Year with the wine and local brew. The moon was a bit past full so came up about 10:30 pm. It was so beautiful. Big and red at the horizon. And even less than full, it gave so much light it was almost like daylight. The mountains hung above us on one side and the moon shone out over the plains on the other. The goats, sheep, cows, camels and donkeys made their night noises, settling down to sleep in their enclosures and chewing their cud, with now and then their neck bells ringing as they moved around. Voices came from the round houses as tea was prepared, food cooked and children fed and put to bed. We sat under the moonlight singing songs, talking or just enjoying the beauty of the night. I can think of no better way to greet the New Year than close to the earth and enveloped by peace in the natural surroundings.
Yesterday, we came back from the camping and spent the day celebrating Loiweti’s birthday. His real birthday isn’t until the 15th of this month, but he wanted to have his party in Ngurunit rather than in Maralal. He has more friends here, most of them cousins, and he also didn’t want to have to wait two weeks to open his presents. We had a blast playing the games of my childhood; musical chairs (though we had to use cushions) and pin the tail on the donkey (even had the ‘real’ store bought version for this party. Usually I have to draw my own and am creative with innovations like ‘pin the tail (or hump) on the camel’ and ‘pin the tail (or ears) on the rabbit).
Now today, I am preparing to return with everyone to Maralal. That is, with the kids and dogs. Reuben has to stay here to wait for me to send a mechanic to try to revive my vehicle. The visitors I was expecting still haven’t showed up. I have stayed one extra day in hopes they will appear. It is evening now and still no sign of them, but they may still make it tonight. No matter what, I have to leave for Maralal tomorrow. Reuben will be here a few more days in case they get here. That is one of the problems of no communication here in Ngurunit. They may have had to cancel but no way to tell us until I get to Maralal and a telephone. Oh well. I will be able to contact them tomorrow night after I arrive in Maralal to see what happened. One certainly learns to be patient and take things as they come. Again and again I am reminded that the only plan one can make in Kenya, is that plans will change.
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