A long trek to Eldoret

Today we went “on holiday” to visit the Kenyan highlands. A very early start to be at the airport by 06:30, then an easy flight to Nairobi, picked up our hire car, and we were off – into the Nairobi traffic jam.

Even though I’m used to Nairobi, there’s nothing you can do when the police are managing the traffic except take pictures of Maribou storks on lampposts.

Soon after leaving the city limits, the road becomes a single carriageway, with processions and manic overtaking the order of the day. There were stunning purple jacaranda trees along the road.

The mix of traffic was extensive!

On the edge of the great Rift Valley, we stopped to take the view (and be pestered by curio sellers)

Mount Longonot

After lunch in Nakuru there were more jacaranda trees, and more interesting sights on the road.

For my colleagues in Highways, this picture has to be captioned “Hey baby, you ain’t seen ruttin’ yet”.

Eventually we reached Eldoret and, after a few navigational challenges (until I realised I could use Google maps on my phone). Lucy welcomed us with gallons of hot tangawizi chai (ginger tea)

 

And now, having checked into our hotel (£25 B&B for 2, with secure parking) we are in Lucy’s little home and she is cooking while we try to stay awake after our long day!

For those who’ve been complaining about the Mombasa heat (Maggy), we’re here in long trousers and sweaters!

Barnabas School Prizegiving

Today we joined Barnabas School for their end of school year Prize Giving.

Everyone gathered under the big mango tree

Parents were here early too

We seemed to be the guests of honour, Meld sitting with headteacher Harrison

Baby class line up to perform

KG

Class 3 staged a play

Class 1  think

Some boys learn martial arts

The staff

Guests of Honour giving out the prizes

Staff watching proceedings

The parents got a briefing afterwards on uniform etc

Kwaherini until 2014!

Fumathoka Prize Giving and Graduation

Today was last day of term for the children (and staff) at Fumathoka school (next door) where Meld has been volunteering. Each class performed – Standard 1 talked about what they had learnt (quite impressive for age 7).

Other classes sang songs

There were prizes for the top results, most improved, best disciplined, cleanest, and they made us hand out some of the prizes!

Trying to look like we belonged in the important seats (the staff were all dressed in their finery)

The parents were there – but lots came late and missed their children being rewarded. Pwani time!

The standard 3 children were graduating from Lower Primary to Upper Primary.

Manny looks proud of his results

Shule ya kupika: Pilau

Today Joyce and Mary were coming to teach us to cook pilau, Swahili style. But first, the pups needed a bigger enclosure.

Mary prepares the jiko, on which most cooking is done here (we have a gas cooker, but it’s more expensive to run than charcoal). And pilau, cooked properly, needs the jiko.

Joyce starts, pounding cumin, cinnamon and peppercorns with a pestle and mortar.

I was tasked to crush garlic to a paste with the pestle and mortar, adding tangawizi (ginger) too. Awesome smell = this is the way to prepare garlic!

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Meanwhile Mary chopped tomatoes and Imelda chopped onions, then Joyce grated carrots onto the tomatoes.

Out on the jiko, nyama ya ng’ombe (beef) was boiling.

Now to cook the pilau: put a big sufuria on the jiko and add cooking oil. When hot, add the onions and stir from long range. When the onions are almost cooked, add the garlic and ginger paste.

Add the spices and meat and cook up.

Meanwhile, Meld and Mary picked over the rice.

Joyce added the tomatoes and carrots to the sufuria, covered and cooked until the tomatoes broke down.

Then she added water to the pot and boiled it up.

The rice, now washed, was added in handfuls to the soup in the sufuria.

The mix was covered and cooked for a while, then removed from the heat. Now comes the black art! The pot is covered with newspaper and the lid replaced. The hot charcoal is transferred from the jiko to the lid, and the whole lot is transferred back onto the jiko.

Gloria wears mum’s leso

Some time later, the heat has had its effect: the pilau has a crunchy top which is removed and discarded, and below is the sweetest pilau.

The pilau is served with kachumbari – a salad of sliced tomatoes, onions, cucumber, grated carrot, pili pili chillis and lemon juice.

 

Jahazi Okoa visit

Eunice took us to meet the Jahazi Okoa support group, women (both HIV positive and negative)  who work together to support each other (and others in a similar situation). They make a number of products for sale both for themselves and as a group. Baskets from waste plastic bags (strong and malleable):

 

They meet under a tree at Kiembeni hospital, but have no premises from which to work communally.

Another product is Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO), which is produced from coconuts, but not even the water goes to waste.

 

Grinding Coconuts for oil

VCO has many uses and health benefits (see http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-amazing-health-benefits-of-virgin-coconut-oil.html)

 

The ground coconut is pressed then left in the sun to distil.

The meeting

A basket in action

Another products is Aloe Vera soap

Other products are washing up liquid and paper jewelry.

 

Araboku Sokoke Forest and Gede Ruins

An early (but not as early as planned!) start for a trip north to the coastal forest park of Araboku Sokoke. Various forest views…

Trees for seed stock

Butterflies on elephant dung

The road we followed looking for the tree house

Having failed to find the tree house we turned back, stopped at the swamp, and as we took this photo Meld saw the treehouse behind me!

Birds around the swamp

Up the tree house

More dug, more butterflies

 

After lunch we went to Gede Ruins, and were greeted by monkeys

The ruins of the Swahili town are impressive. A fig tree grows through one of the mosques

Sahajanand Special School

Ed and I visited Sahajanand Special School in Mtwapa. They have almost 500 students with varying disabilities (physical, mental, autistic, epilepsy).

They are building a new school nearby, to accommodate 1,000 disabled children. This is the toilet block, running along behind the new dormitories, spacious and easy to clean (and well finished)

It’s huge!

Ed with one of the board who is supervising construction

The first building of the special school

Plates stacked in the kitchen wall

 

Lunch queue

Kids dancing to music videos, and posing

A German volunteer, Lena

Back home, Jacob’s friend, Angela, showing us how to grate coconut

Meld’s turn

 

The coconut was used to make coconut milk,then to flavour coconut rice, to accompany my chicken stew.

 

A Trip to Town – and back to Barnabas

We went into town with Joe and Jacob, and visited Bertina at the Lwanga Communications office – and even got a picture of her this time.

We had a long chat, well overdue, before Joe picked us again and we went to Pizza Inn for lunch. We then went round to the railway station to book our tickets back from Nairobi. It’s sadly rather decrepit (both the station and the railway, which is why it takes so long – the buses are much faster and reliable, but the railway is an experience!)

In the afternoon, Meld and I went up to Barnabas school again. The children were outside playing, and the headteacher lined them all up under a huge mango tree.

Meld found another girl called Imelda! (in uniform)

Teachers discussing problem children!

The school caters particularly for the poorer children, and has a great ambience, but seeing a few desks, broken plastic chairs, etc, their funding issues are apparent.

 

Nguuni Nature Sanctuary

Today we went to Nguuni Nature Sanctuary near Bamburi, the trip we’d postponed because of rain yesterday.

It had rained heavily overnight, but we were optimistic.

There were pretty little flowers.

But the overnight rain had made the path treacherous.

Imelda was regretting her choice of flip flops 🙁

The reward was a close encounter with twiga (giraffes). On the basis that you can’t have too many giraffe pictures (Katherine, Wendy) here we go. Sadly the rain returned and the distant giraffes were a bit shrouded in mist.

A little wagtail – one of the few birds braving the rain.

Waterbuck

Sitting by the lake

with this view

Hello ducky

The lake house

Nick felt the need for a crown of thorns

A little hedgehog on the path.

Visiting the Family

We had a quiet morning at home, during which Shariff found the puppies of one of the dogs, and moved them close to the house.(Meld then bought dog food for the mum – an expensive luxury!)

Late morning we went next door to visit the school where Meld will help, and met the headteacher Mr Muli.

After an exciting trip to Tusky’s for food shopping and lunch with Joe, we visited Joe’s brother Samuel’s house in Shanzu. Joe’s niece Mary holds great-niece Gloria (they are 1st cousins once removed – the two brothers, their children and grandchildren were all around!)

Selina Bahati, the wife of another brother (Martin) makes bags to sell. Maggy loved the change to model them!

Martin models a “man bag”

Maggy with two more ladies’s bags.

The laptop bag is awesome (this is mine!) modelled by Jacob. (About £7 each)

 

 

If you fancy a bag, place your orders!

Walking back to the house, the sun hd set and the stars were emerging.

At 13 months, Gloria wants to be a photographer!

We made it!

Whether you consider our flight from London to Addis Ababa “good” probably depends on your ability to cat-nap. 8 hour flight; drinks served after 1 hour (over Germany), dinner after 3 (over Greece), lights on for breakfast 90 minutes before an early arrival (over Sudan). I was fine, but Meld felt deprived of sleep. As we did the last stint over Ethiopia, the sun rose to our East, out towards the Red Sea.

Bole airport at Addis was OK: bus between terminals gave us any chance to see our transport up close.

The airport was clean if not exciting, and a chance to catch up on sleep. Our next flight was not too late. We flew over Ethiopia, which looked interesting through the clouds, then alongside Lake Turkana.

Then on past Nairobi to Kilimanjaro –but we were on the wrong side to see the great mountain. From there to Mombasa where Joe and Jacob met us and drove us to our home for the next 3 months, Joe’s house at Majaoni. After lunch Joe’s brother Martin and friend Lucky took us for a walk to view the creek.

Newly-built fish pond, with mangrove planted for reinforcement.

The mangrove nursery.

A little crab with a big claw.

A panorama over the creek.

Sun sets over the mangroves

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Back at the house.

 

View a Map of our Route

The journey begins

It always seems to take longer and be more stressful to pack than it shOuld be, but we were on the road almost on time, stop to say farewell to mum, Martin and RosIe and Mary, and another to leave flowers with Eveline and Desmond, then…. M25 🙁 Mary stayed calm at the controls as we crawled along.  and so to Heathrow.

Check in Meant a long wait, but all bags accepted and we can have a coffee,  go through security, buy some duty free, and head to the gate. Now on board, it’s a 767, so we get window and aisle, so both happy.

See you in Addis Ababa!