Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 76

Sept 30 – Short and Sweet, Bittersweet

     Today’s post will be short and sweet – bittersweet, actually.  Monday morning, Sept 30, Denise and I packed our bags to head home. We took a quick trip to one of the malls to pick up a few last minute things. As we were on the highway riding there in an Uber, we were slowed down by a herd of cattle being herded through a tunnel. I’ll never stop being amazed by the things I see every time I’m in Kenya.
 We got back to the house, to wait for our ride to the airport. Took what we thought would be the last picture of our gracious hostess Marta.
 Just before we had to leave, Izzo returned home from his safari camp. We were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to say good-bye before we had to leave.
 On the drive to the airport, we were reminded again of the good, the bad  . . .
 And the ugly. But isn’t it the same thing every where in the world. No place is perfect and every place needs some work.
 Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has had a lot of improvements since I first started coming there in 2006, but still can use some work.
 The Zurich airport in Switzerland doesn’t need any improvements with views of the Alps on all sides. 
 But, anyway, on the journey home, through the crazy roads of Nairobi one last time, the Nairobi airport with its dark narrow corridors, the Zurich airport with its wide-open spaces and finally, O’Hare in Chicago. Through that long day way over 24 hours long, one thing became very clear to me.


 On all my other trips to Africa, I came home telling myself that this was my last trip, that I’m getting too old for these travels. This time, however, no matter how old I get, or how rough it will be to keep going some days, when I am tired and hungry and achy, I know that I’ll return to Kenya

Sept 28 - a sad day. Sept 29 - a little happier.

     Saturday morning, September 28, Denise and I were packed and ready to leave the safari camp by 6:30. No one had told us what time we were leaving, but because we are both a little bit OCD, we had our act together.  

 Just as our waiter called us over for breakfast, Dann started up the van. We ate a dozen or so bites of another amazing meal on our plates, even though we’d already eaten enough of the snacks we had in our room, not anticipating breakfast. We grabbed our bags and jumped back in the van.
 The ride back to the city was uneventful. As well as sad. It always is, leaving the wide-open spaces and serenity behind and returning to the noise, dust and chaos of Nairobi.
 Saying “good-bye” to Dann was the hardest part, the hardest part of the entire trip. Though he just turned twenty-two, he is wise beyond his years, reminding me that it wasn’t “good-bye”, it was really a “see you soon”.  We got back to the house by 12:30, unpacked, reorganized our stuff and visited with our host Marta.    Sunday was our last full day in Kenya! How very sad.
 We went with Marta and her two little boys to Karura Forest where we met up with one of her friends from Spain along with the friend’s husband and mother-in-law from Uganda. Yes, it was two Americans, two Spaniards and two Ugandans in Kenya that day, along with the two little Kenyan boys.
 Karura Forest is in a very upscale area of Nairobi, past the embassies and homes of the rich and famous. Actually, throughout our day at the park, I saw more people from other countries than from Kenya. Quite a few Asians and people speaking all kinds of languages other than Swahili.

 I wish I would have gotten pictures of Marta’s friend and her family, but it seemed a bit rude. Of course, a group picture would have been great, but I never thought of that.
 Instead, we spent the day visiting and getting to know each other, discussing everything from education to social wrongs to politics.
 Monkeys in the park. Always.

 Even a pond in the park.
 What little boy doesn't love a day in the park!
 Lastly, I was reminded that being a volunteer is so much more than the projects you work on. Perhaps the most important project is just getting to know the people you are working with.

Sept 25 thru 28 - Animal count

      Saturday, September 28, my friend Denise and I rode away from the Mara, the land of the Maasai, and back to Kikuyu town where we only had a few days remaining of our trip to Kenya. Before I share those last days, I thought I'd show you all the various animals we saw while out there. 
Lots of babies   Baby Goats . . .  And Baby Sheep   And Some Baby Friends  Some Winged Friends Too  This Guy Loved to Chatter  This Guy Liked Strutting Around  This is the Lilac-Breasted Roller, National Bird of Kenya  The Egyptian Goose   Doves  A Beauty with a Long Tail  And a Little Butterfly  Wildebeest  Gazelle  Wildebeest and Gazelle   A Few Newcomers that I've not seen on Previous Trips. The Tortoise    And, no, not Hare, but Mongoose (or Mongeese?)  And on the way back home. The Giraffe   And the Zebra What a beautiful country I've had the chance to visit six times! Can't wait for the next trip.

Sept 26 & 27 - Miscellaneous Projects

     Yikes! For a month and a half now, I’ve been writing blog posts about my trip to Kenya earlier this fall. I was thinking the other day that it was time to wrap up this series, yet here I am, realizing there will be at least three more. Sorry to bore you, but that’s life.  When my kids were in Kenya last January, they started work on this building. It’s been pretty much finished in the last few months. 



  Initially, it was going to be the first segment of the community center for the Maasai women, but then it was decided that it would make a better chicken coop.

 Nice, huh?  
 But then they realized that these critters love chicken.
 So there needs to be some more work done to make it mongoose-proof before moving in the chicks.  Here’s another project in the works. I’ve heard of this before.
 Save enough water bottles, fill them with sand, stack them, and they become walls for your building.

 So many ideas, so much that needs to be done. How does one decide which project to focus on? Which ones are going to be the most helpful, yet most economical to get up and running?

Sept 27 - The Sand River

     The last Maasai village we were going to visit would require the use of the van. This village is close to six miles from the safari camp where we were staying and across two river beds. The nearest river to this village was the Sand River, hence the name of this post.
 We’d been told the day before that we wouldn’t go if it was raining out, because it might be too difficult to cross the river beds in the rain. I wanted to remind them that the van got us out there in that torrential rain which had us stuck in the mud for an hour, but I had to let it go. These people knew what they were talking about and I wasn’t going to question it.
 Just like I didn’t question it when it was sunny all day for two days straight and it only seemed to cloud up around four in the afternoon, yet they told us we could only go out to this village around four. I would at least discover the answer to that question.
 But for now, you just need to know that Thursday, our first full day at the Mara, when those clouds to the west were so threatening, we were told we wouldn’t make the drive to the Sand River.
 The next afternoon, Denise and I sat ready by 3:50 pm, watching the rain clouds once again gather to the west, thinking this drive to the Sand River wasn’t going to happen.
 About 4:30, the van came screeching into the compound. “Let’s go,” Dann shouted, jumping out of the van and sliding the door open for us. It felt a little surreal. For some reason I was reminded of the last scene in the Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, where the toys on the Island of Misfit Toys had given up on ever leaving the island, when suddenly Santa shows up, with Rudolph leading the way, and those toys get to complete their mission in life by being loved by a child on Christmas morning. (Where do I get these analogies from??)
 Anyway, we leaped into the van with Dann and two strangers and started the drive to the village, as it began to sprinkle out.    The whole reason behind this trip was to follow the road which the children from this village walk every day to school and back. On a good day, the hike can take up to two hours, one way. When it has been raining, it takes much longer and is dangerous to cross the two rivers along the way.
 Also, this route in places runs nearly along the border to the Masa Mara Game Park. There is no fence to keep the animals in the park; they are free to wander wherever they want, which at times is right through where the school children are walking. It’s hard to imagine any parent sending their sons and daughters off to school every morning with all this going against them.
 Our host Izzo wanted us to see this area to help him decide if it is worthwhile to build a school closer to the village so that these kids are getting the education they need.
 When we got to the river, we soon discovered why we had to wait until this time of day. The rain had let up on our drive, but as we got out of the van and started walking into the river bed, it began to sprinkle again.
 We were met by women coming into the river from the other direction, each carrying a jerrycan or two. This was the reason to wait until after four in the afternoon. Twice a day, morning and late afternoon, the women hiked here to acquire water for their homes.
 The Sand River, as many bodies of water in the area, does not flow regularly with water. And the water that is there is usually stagnant.
 But the women have discovered something. Remember being at the beach as a child and digging in the sand a few feet from shore. Soon the ocean water would come up into your hole. Same principle here, and the water is now fresh and clean due to being filtered by the sand.
 Twice a day, the women dig holes in the mostly dried up river bed, wait for them to fill, then dip their cups into the fresh water, cupful by cupful, filling their jugs.

 We watched the women work for a while. I was willing to give it a try, but didn’t want to mess up their system and contaminant this precious water for them. They talked and laughed as they worked, mostly laughing at Denise and me, I believe. And the cold rain continued to fall.
 There is nothing, absolutely nothing, which will ever convince me that there is anything you do in your day to day chores which even comes close to this. This is why I keep going back to Africa. If there is just one tiny little thing, I can do which can make their lives easier, I want to find out what it is and do it for them.

Sept 27 - the Maasai people

     The Maasai people had been pastoralists and wanderers for centuries, following their great herds of cattle throughout eastern Africa. When the British began colonizing Kenya in the early nineteen-hundreds, many of the Maasai were forced to give up their lands. As safari hunts gained in popularity, the land of the Maasai shrunk further. Then with the advent of game parks, the fate of the Maasai seemed to be sealed – the thousands of pasturelands which used to be free for their use had been all but taken away.       With their great herds now a fracture of the size, they had to resort to other ways to sustain their families. One such way was to take advantage of the very source of their troubles – tourists.
 The women had long been known to create beaded jewelry for themselves and their families. It didn’t take them long to begin pressuring sightseers heading out on safari to buy a few items.  As the safari vans stop at the gate to go into the game park, the passengers are easy prey for the budding entrepreneurs knocking on the van windows and holding up their intricately made wares. Having been a tourist on the receiving end, I didn’t enjoy this type of shopping. My question for the women was what they thought of it.
 In the afternoon of our second day out at the Mara, our Maasai guide Dann, took Denise and I to the village which lies closest to the Oloolaimutia Gate. The women who live there seem to stalk the gate waiting for their next victim.  How did they like doing that? Were they making any money that way? Would they be willing to try something else?
 The resounding response was that they did not enjoy this at all and they did not feel it was effective. They just knew of no other way to reach their customers.
  When we told them that our friend Izzo was trying to build a gift shop on his land just across the road, they smiled and nodded their heads. Dann did not have to interrupt at that point – the women were in.
 And then, they told us to wait a moment, as they had a gift for us. Note our necklaces.       Everywhere I’ve gone during my six trips to Kenya, all of the people I have met have been kind, gracious, and understanding of this American woman who they must see as a little bit crazy. All of the children steal my heart. But it is the hardworking Maasai women who live in my heart.   

Sept 27 - Running Water

    Friday morning dawned as beautiful as all mornings do out in the wilds of Kenya.
 On any earlier post, I had mentioned that we had access to 30,000 gallons of fresh spring water while we were at the safari camp.  A while back, Izzo, our friend and business partner for this trip, was looking up into the hill past where he wanted to build his camp. A stream ran along the western edge of his piece of property and he wondered if he could find its origin. So he started walking, just like Denise, our guide Dann and I did that Friday morning.
 Before we went too far, however, we stopped at the spot where the women from Dann’s village had been getting their water. Not much of a stream, huh?
 We kept walking, though, following the river upstream.
 Enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

 And crossing the river.   
 And walking just a little bit more.
 Until we arrived at a lush, wooded thicket. And the origins of Izzo’s spring, which, with his engineering degree . . .
 . . . he was able to capture so that the precious water could be transported to where it could benefit the most people. 

Sept 26 – School and Clinic

     After we visited with the Maasai women at Nkoirero village, we toured Oloolaimutia Primary School, which is practically next door.
 I love all the inspirational signs they have throughout the school grounds.

 The school has around one thousand students and is open to children from throughout the area in kindergarten through eighth grade. The same as when we were at St Dorcas school earlier in the week, the eighth graders were studying for the national exams to see which secondary schools they could get in to. Whether or not they go on depends on if their families can afford it and also how far they might have to go. There are no high schools within walking distance, so all students furthering their education go to boarding school.  
 In fact because this primary school serves such a wide area, 300 of these students board at the school. When Denise and I had toured the school in 2015, this is one of the rooms where the students slept who lived too far away to walk home every day.  Luckily, in the last year or two, they were able to build two dorms, one for the girls on the north side of the school and one for the boys on the south side. This is the boys’.    Here’s the girls’ dorm.  The school also offers a hot meal to the kids at lunch time.
 That’s about the time we hit the school.
 When we left the school, we walked across town to the medical clinic.  It had just been built around three years ago, I think.
 It was clean, organized and smelled sterile.
 
 Even if some of the supplies and equipment were fairly old and worn.  We got back to the Camp in time for a late lunch. Then took another walk around the Camp.  It was another full day and the next day was sure to be just as busy. 

Sept 26 – Finally starting our work

     Denise and I woke up Thursday morning at the safari camp at the Mara, ready to finally get to work. Yes, we’d done a few things on the trip so far to help out, but here at the Mara was where we wanted to focus our time, attention, and hopefully, finances.
 We had two days to do all of this: 1) meet with the women from Dann’s village to do a census 2) visit the school next to their village 3) tour the medical clinic in the town 4) walk to the origin of Izzo’s spring 5) meet with the women from the village across the road 6) drive to the Maasai village across the Sand River. All of these visits were so that we could write reports about the needs of the area to present to potential investors. I’ll be honest, it was daunting. I am basically shy and introverted and talking to so many people was stressful. I had my dear friend Denise for support and Dann as our wonderful guide. I would get through the next couple days.
 Our first morning there, Dann took us to his village, Nkoirero. This little Maasai village is about three-quarters of a mile from Izzo’s safari camp.   I’d visited this village twice before. The first time was for the tourist tour when Denise and I were there in 2015 and went on safari. Last year Nick and I were there to each meet with the men and the women respectively to get a general idea of their lifestyle and their needs. This time, we were to complete more a census – writing down exactly how many women there were, how many kids, how many in school, etc.

 Did I already say this was going to be daunting?

 We did the best job we could to get the statistics we needed, Dann interpreting for us, as only one of the women knew English.
 The women were good-natured, patient, and amiable. The children were all just ridiculously friendly and so happy. Every time I meet with the Maasai, I am more humbled.


 Our amazing guide for our two days of work, with his brother Dennys.
 One task down, five more to go.

Sept 25, Again - Finally to Camp

     Finally, by mid-afternoon, we arrived at our friend Izzo’s safari camp. We weren’t sure what to expect. The last time I was there, in May of 2018, the camp was only a series of foundations and somewhat random walls. When my kids were there this past January, there hadn’t been a lot of progress.
 This trip, however, we were greeted with a young Kenyan woman carrying a tray of glasses of fresh pineapple juice for everyone. As well as three nearly completed bungalows.  The configuration is that each building will have three units in it – two larger rooms for families or groups and a smaller upper unit for couples.
 Of course each unit will have its own en suite bathroom, with as much hot water as needed, thanks to the 30,000 gallons of water these tanks hold (more on that on a future post).
 The upper story is the couple’s suite. They have amazing views into the Masa Mara.  The remaining three bungalows waiting for funds to be finished.  Our room.
 Plenty of space to spread out and fresh, clean linens. Comfy beds too.
 Our bathroom.
 The current dining room for guests.  Eventually it will be turned into one of the family units, after the dining hall is finished.
 If you use your imagination you can see this as an amazing dining room, can’t you?
 The current outside dining space when weather permits.   Our breakfast one morning. Nothing fancy, but tasted great and filled us up.  In case you wonder what other safari camps in the area have to offer, I thought I’d share pictures from a few of the others I’ve been to.
 This is Fig Tree Camp, where we stayed the first time, I was in Kenya in 2006. It was very nice, I thought, almost too nice. Like, it didn’t feel like I was in Africa, far from any cities or towns.  Manyatta Camp where I stayed the last two times I was at the Mara. A little run down and rough around the edges.
 But now, here is really rough. An abandoned camp we walked passed one day. Seems like such a waste.
 Our last afternoon at the Mara, we toured another luxury camp, Explore Nature Masa Lodge. Way too nice.
 All I need is a clean bed and to wake up to this view in the morning.  Next time, I’ll finally start sharing the stories of the many people we met while out there.