Here we are, at the end of 2024.  The last couple months of this year have been day by day living with little bursts of events and quick trips to liven things up a bit.  I did three there and back again trips to deliver baskets as weavers finished sections of their October orders. First was the beginning of November to Maralal to send  two boxes to Nairobi via Wells Fargo (a courier business). 

  Then The beginning of December I did a quick trip all the way to Nairobi to send off the orders for customers in USA and Sweden.  The last trip was just before Christmas to Maralal to send off the last batch of baskets from this year’s orders.  Felt good to have them all done and off to the customers before the end of the year.  2025 will start a new marketing push to get more orders.  In the meantime, the weavers got some payment just in time for the holiday season. 

The most exciting thing that happened on those trips was during the last Maralal trip.  I was taking my Maralal dog Wilfred for a ride in the car around town the second evening I was there and on the way from the post office, I saw a baby heron in the road being chased by street kids and almost being run over by cars!!  Poor thing.  It had fallen out of the tall trees in which these black headed herons nest and it was limping a bit from hurting its leg.  It couldn’t fly and was trying to hide in the ditch and under parked cars.  I called the street boys to catch it and bring it to me.  The little heron crouched down in my lap and just stayed there as I drove home.  

I kept it in my bathtub nursing it back to health, trying to feed it and looking for a conservation rehab facility to get it to.  I was in in Maralal for only a couple days and it was very impractical for me to take it back to the village.  All went so well.  By day three it had recovered enough to stand and eat by itself.  Some conservation people from Mugie Ranch, about 50 km away, came Saturday morning to pick it up to care for it.  I’m so happy I was able to save that beautiful life.   

The biggest life news is the birth of 4 beautiful kittens on 24^th November 2024.  The sweetest little bundles of fur.  Turned 5 weeks old today. 

Caeser dog is so good with them.  Moonshadow doesn’t mind him playing with her children.  I think she likes it when Uncle Caeser is kitten sitting. Haha.  Almost literally sitting on the kittens sometimes.  He is so big and the kittens so little.  Amazing how gentle he is. 

Now the year 2024 is over and we will bring in the new year in just 2 days from now.  I have lots of hopes, dreams and ideas for 2025.  Water projects.  Interns.  Camp development.  Writing.  Visits.  Trips.  Starting new activities both in my personal life and with the community.  I will try for routine and flow in all I do and hope to accomplish.  For now, wishing you all rest and renewal in this holiday season and a joyous New Year!!  May 2025 bring you all as much joy as my dog Wilfred gets riding around in the car.  May beauty find you wherever you are.  Peace to you all!!

Happy Halloween! 6 months I have disappeared from the blog world. The real world became a bit of a rollercoaster ride these last months so too dizzy to sit down and write I guess. Haha. So, as the end of the year is fast approaching, I thought I should emerge from the void and start sending out posts again. This will be a catch up post and after this, I will try to be a bit more present in this space. Ramping up again on work and life in Northern Kenya. 

To start with the most important subject: pets!! I have two new beautiful beings living with me and my menagerie. Moonshadow, a kitten the universe gifted me and Giorgio (he was really missing Mouse so the kitten was for him to have a friend) came into our life in mid April 2024 just after my last post. She is so amazing. At present, despite being only about 8 months old, she is expecting kittens any day now. With my travels lately, she managed to follow her call of nature and urge to produce new life. Not from Giorgio as he is not intact. Oh well, such is life. It will win out in so many ways. I’m hanging around Ngurunit this next couple of weeks waiting for the big event. 

The other exciting addition is Brutus Maximus Caesar, my Great Dane puppy that I got beginning of August 2024 at 10 weeks old. He goes by the name of Caesar. He is so fun. Such a silly character. Turned 5 months old last week and is already huge.

The size of a big goat. He will be the size of a small cow by the time he is full grown. Haha. He is so good natured. The cats have accepted him in all his puppy slobby exuberance, and everyone are friends. I say that Mouse and Bruin left such big holes in my heart that I needed a very big dog to start to fill even a small part of it. Thus a Great Dane is the biggest dog available. He is definitely a gift of the universe. He has a few mutations such as a compacted stubby tail and some double claws and too many teat nibs. That brought down his monetary value which made it possible for me to get him, but has raised his adorableness value which makes him so special to me. Such a sweet big boy. 

Another big event of the last 6 months was a visit to Wisconsin to see family and friends and do some moving activities between properties as life after parents gets sorted out. My place in Wisconsin is now officially the Wisconsin North woods. Was so nice to get settled in there and spend some peaceful days there in the beauty. Also had some fun times visiting my kids in Madison and friends and family in between. While it was a nice June in Wisconsin, I missed Kenya and was happy to be back since July. 

 The big activity of the last few months has centered around basket marketing for the Ngurunit Basket Weaver’s Association. The basket business is taking off again after a slowdown since 2020 (won’t mention the why of that..uggh). I was invited to participate in my first Artisan Trade Show ever in Nairobi the beginning of October. I had so much fun and made so many connections. I secured a lot of new orders for the Weavers and now we are in process of filling them. I also found a new Nairobi outlet that we are trying. So now available in African Living Hub as well as Spinner’s Web. 

 PEAR Innovations is the umbrella under which this basket marketing activity happens. Working in partnership with the Basket weaving group. Hoping to take it to a new level. I jumped out of my comfort zone and opened an Instagram account! Still have no idea how to use it. I think it can be found as @nomadicbaskets. Anyway, new adventures around basket marketing. Exciting. 

Life going on day by day. Praying for the short rains to start here in Ngurunit. Spending most of our time caring for the goats. My favorite, Ruma, had triplets in August. One didn’t make it, one big boy she accepted and a tiny girl she rejected. I took this cute little goat on and she lived in the house for a bit. Then we managed to find a foster Mom for her. I named her Tiny Tina and she is the cutest little goat ever. She’s doing well and living her best goat life now with her kid friends. Will leave it at that for now and get on with the day. Two months of 2024 left. Will try to be more present in this space. Peace to all in this last season of the year. Until next time….

Hello.  Sad news since my last post in February.  My little Mouse dog got too ill to continue in this world so passed over the rainbow bridge on March 11^th, 2024.  My sweet Mouse.  I miss her.  It has been almost a month now and I still find myself saving little tidbits for her before I remember that she’s not here anymore with me.  She lives in my heart forever.  I had 12 ½ years of loving her and her loving me.  I have been so blessed by that little Being in my life. 

The rains have started last week.  That is a blessing as things were starting to dry
up and we had been waiting all of March for significant rain and it would only come in teasing sprinkles, then get so sunny and hot that everything would melt in the heat.  I was finding it so hard in the village desert home.  Close to 100 F every day for weeks.  The rains came.  It has cooled off.  Things are starting to grow again.  I have come to our town home last week and finding it actually cold here (60 F, which I know doesn’t count as cold many places in the world but here it is freezing, haha).

I promised to post the link to my video clip on the FAO site for the year of the Camelid once it was put up.  It has been posted since mid-March so finally getting around to keeping my promise.  Very short but informative about the importance of the camel in Ngurunit and for pastoralist lives and a bit about my part in helping many women get a camel of their own.  Here is the link to the FAO site video

https://youtu.be/M7QYbqbWA2U

A bit of an update on my published children’s book, Why Hyena Limps.  One of the websites I’m connected to as an author conducted a written interview of me to post on their website.  It covers a lot of ground in my life and travels.  If interested to read it, find the link here. 

Interview link: https://allauthor.com/interview/lauralemunyete/

I am still taking each day as it comes.  Mapping out my path for the future.  A lot of ideas are cooking up in my head and time will tell which way I will follow.  In the meantime, I enjoy my life, my animals and the beauty that I find along the way.  Peace and Joy to you all….

 

I’m back!  Wow.  It is a New Year!!  I sort of got lost in the activities of life it seems.  Or the non-activities of life.  I guess you could say I stepped out for a bit and decided to stop and gaze at the mountains.  Watch the birds.  Hang out with the goats.  Walk around in nature with my dogs.  Just Be.  Just Breathe.  Even doing that, a lot of things have happened in a sort of low key way since last posting almost 6 months ago. 

The most important thing it seems is that I got a new cat!!! Haha.  Giorgio Purrari appeared in my life the end of September 2023 as my rodent control helper for our village home.  It had gotten almost unbearable and unlivable due to the rodent infestation and I was not having any luck with traps and I will not use poison.  Giorgio was a kitten in Nairobi that almost died from having ingested a piece of broken  ballon, but after he finally vomited it out, much to the surprise of his rescuers who had thought he was dying, he survived and thrived.  I brought him home to Ngurunit on October 1^st and he had taken to village life like he was meant to be here.  The house was cleared of rodents down to a livable level within a month and cleaned up spic and span before Christmas and the New Year!!

2024 started with visitors, fun and lots of time at the rock slides and pools up the mountain.  This was possible because from the end of October 2023 the drought finally ended with lots and lots and lots of rain.  Yay!!  As all things in great quantities, the rain has also had it’s down side.  Our latrine sunk into the waterlogged soil, prompting us to have to build a new one in December.  Many roads have been damaged making traveling slightly more challenging.  Those are manageable issues next to the huge benefits of lots of pasture and a river that has been flowing down past the town for months now.  It is so beautiful.  Just the other day I had visitors at our tourist camp and we spent a day up at the rock pools having a wonderful time cooling off from the February heat.  The river is still flowing strong!!! Yay!!

2024 is the FAO declared year of the camelid.  I haven’t seen much happening yet, but my video is on the last approval stage.  Once it gets through that, it will be uploaded to the FAO YouTube channel.  Watch this space for the link. 

As far as project activities are concerned, things are still at a go-slow period.  I’m feeling my way forward for new projects and activities.  It is good to take the time to assess where I have been in life and where I want to go.  Exploring possibilities and finding the best way forward.  Environmental concerns seem to be something that is grabbing my attention.  Income generation for women groups is still important.  I’m looking at new strategies for improvement and increasing markets.  Water is an ever-present concern.  A new borehole water well is in my sights.  The ever-present question of where to get the funding is also front and center at the moment. 

So, I take each day at a time.  Step by step on my life path.  Breathing.  Being.  Watching for the best
way forward as things unfold as they will.  I’m enjoying life.  Lots of new lambs and kids (baby goats) at the moment.  Taking care of Mouse dog, my little old lady these days (over 12 years old and a few health issues to deal with).  Sunrises and sunsets.  The moon waxing and waning.  The rhythms of life around me.  Peace to you all.  Until next time….

 

This last month has been all about wildlife!  With a bit (actually a lot) of work fit in between the trips (from work place to work place) where I have been seeing all this wildlife.  One of my great loves of Kenya is that one can be just driving along public roads and see the most amazing things in the bush.  If one makes an effort to actually visit one of the many fabulous National Wildlife Reserves and National Parks in Kenya, the effort is well rewarded by so many amazing wildlife sightings.  I see elephant, gazelle, ostriches and zebra on a regular basis on the roads I normally travel, with the occasional giraffe and other cool birds thrown in.  Since the beginning of August, I have had the lucky sightings of so many rhino along one public road that happens to boarder a rhino conservancy.  They are such amazing animals.  I had my niece with me as we were traveling from Ngurunit to Maralal the long way around and she had never seen a rhino in real life before.  We stopped several times so we could get a good look at these prehistoric looking animals.  

That same day, we also saw a really huge elephant

grazing right long the road.  We stopped and watched him a very long time.  He had a young elephant friend join him and there was such peace just hanging out with them.  A bit further along the way we saw a herd of mama elephants with their cute babies.  Amazing how small an elephant is at the start of its life!

Then, last week, on the way back to Ngurunit the long way around, we saw a hippo!!!  I had always heard that there is a hippo in one of the water dams we
pass often on our regular route, but I have never seen it as they tend to stay under the water during the day and only come out to graze at night.  Well, this trip, just as we were passing the dam in the middle of the day, the hippopotamus got hungry and decided to come out to graze giving us a great thrill and some good pictures.  So cool.  Then, the next day along our route to the village, we came across an ostrich family crossing the road.  Three little chicks and some very nervous parents.  The mother was fierce in her protection of her young from the evil cars passing, so they all got across safe and followed the father into the bush.  Again, it is amazing how small ostrich chicks are compared to how big they will grow into adulthood.  So cute. 

In between those two trips of there and back again, I had to make a long trip to a place called Narok for some Rotary club meetings with the District leaders.  As a reward for making that long trip, I decided to stay in the area an extra night and go to the nearby Maasai Mara National Reserve with my two Rotary club friends that had come with me from Maralal.  I wanted to see lions!!  We were not disappointed.  As it is high season for wildlife viewing in that park, there were so many tourist vehicles that it was a bit too much almost.  So, I tended to see where everyone else was going and find a road going the opposite direction.  That paid off with our first lion sighting being of a lone female walking directly towards my car and passing right by my driver’s door.  Wow.   No other cars nearby.  So beautiful.  The next group of lions that we found had already been found by about 20 other tour drivers.  Chaos.  We took a turn to get into position to be able to see the pride of lions resting in a stream gully

with full bellies after a heavy meal. Then I got hemmed in by about 8 other cars so had to just sit and watch the lions sleep for quite a while.  They were so lazy.  What had drawn us towards that place, besides the herd of tourist cars (haha), was a bunch of vultures feeding on the leftovers of the lion kill.  They were just as amazing for me as the lions. Squabbling and scrambling for a bite, covered in blood and gore.  Fighting and flapping their huge wings. 

Another cool thing we saw was a drama between a warthog and two hyenas.  The warthog appeared to be protecting the remains of his dead friend.  The two hyenas came running out of the trees and the warthog stood his ground for a moment confronting them nose to nose.  Two against one was too much for him so the warthog ran off and the hyenas dug into their meal.  One moved off and lay down to rest a little ways away while the other continued eating.  The warthog came running back by the resting hyena and then went up to confront the other one still eating.  The warthog was ignored and the meal continued.  

The main amazing thing to this encounter was how huge the living warthog was.  As big as the hyenas and not appearing much afraid of them.  I have no idea what killed the other warthog.  It was already dead by the time we saw the hyenas running towards it.  Nature is amazing.  One must pay attention and one is never disappointed by the scenes one finds.  Even a beautiful sunset or a storm rolling in can elicit awe if one just observes. 

We saw many other wildlife species also in the park.  Elephant, giraffe, topi, zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, Cape buffalo with oxpecker birds on their backs and heads, ostrich, a weird bird called the Southern Ground Hornbill and so much more.  We left the park around noon and still had a long, long drive back to Maralal that afternoon.  With lunch and shopping stops along the way, I finally made it home around 10 pm exhausted from that whirlwind trip.  It was worth it though. 

I’m now back in the village working on a video project for next year’s FAO “The Year of the Camelid”.  I am documenting the impact of camel adoption by the Ngurunit community, largely in response to the PEAR Innovation camel projects we have implemented over the last almost 25 years.  It is a challenge to capture this story well and interesting to try my hand at taking video footage that will be used to make a short clip about the importance of camels to families here for nutrition and income generation, especially during drought.  Climate change issues have made the camel a very important livestock animal here.  More on that in posts to come.  Until next time, keep your eyes open for the beauty of nature around you, be it a squirrel, an elephant or a beautiful sunrise.  Peace…

 
The world has shifted.  At least, my world has shifted.  I spent longer than a month in the USA.  Exactly 2 months actually.  During my time there, my world took on a whole new shape and gravity.  I got to Wisconsin on April 20^th and had a good 2 weeks with my Dad creating an environment of peace to help him across the threshold to his next journey.  He passed on beyond the veil on May 4^th.  I am so grateful I could be there with him and my brothers during this time of immense change as our worlds shifted.  I stayed another 6 weeks in the USA to help take care of all that needs taking care of when both parents are gone beyond.  It was a good 6 weeks.  Not all business.  We had a joint celebration of the lives of both my parents and it was beautiful.  A proper send off.  I also managed to make several trips.  Went up north to our cabin with my friend.  Communed with the local turkeys.  Spent Mother’s Day with my kids in Madison.  

Visited friends and relatives in southern Minnesota with my brother.  And the trip of trips this year, Vancouver and surrounding areas in British Columbia, Canada with my son, daughter-in-law and my daughter.  Amazing good time!  We saw a whale. Seals.  Seabirds. Beautiful mountains.  Fun beaches.  Cool museums.  Yummy places to eat.  Long ago friends.  Fun movies.  A trip packed to the brim with amazing adventures and fun!!!

So that little synopsis brings me back to Kenya where I am sitting now.  I left USA on June 19^th, so have been here over a month already.  Most of it spent resting and getting myself balanced again after the ups and downs and spinning arounds of the 2 months away.  Where to start? 

I’ve enjoyed being back in the wild, seeing interesting animals along the roads, like rock hyrax, ostrich, and other cool stuff.  The main big project that has just started is the approval of our Rotary Club of Maralal Global Grant with our two partners, Rotary Club of Peekskill, New York, USA and Too Young to Wed, an international organization with on the ground projects in Kenya as well as around the world.  The project we are doing together is called The Butterfly Project and is aimed at empowering girls through literacy and life skills.  We are just starting to get it going with a joint launch planned in the village where it is based happening this coming Saturday.  More on this project in the months to come.

The other big thing in my life at the moment is a round of goat birthing season.  The goat kids are so cute!  The first one that started this group off was born a bit early so too weak to nurse on his own.  He was born the night before I arrived back in the village, so I took on his care and helped him get up and nurse 4 or 5 times a day.  Within about 5 days he had found his feet and was up and about on his own playing and being sassy.  In the weeks that have followed, another 12 kids have been born with a few more expectant does in our herd still waiting.  I spend my days watching the babies as their mothers go out grazing.  The kids are so playful.  Jumping on everything they can and racing around.  So cute.  They do bring joy to my world.  As does my little dog Mouse, too.  

Life moves forward moment by moment.  Day by day.  I can do nothing more than move with it.  So, time to move.  In the middle of a Nairobi trip.  Travel seems to be the constant in my life.  Up, down and all around.  I plan to be back in the village in less than a week, then will see what August will bring to my life.  Most likely Maralal and back for Rotary work.  Until then, peace to all….

 

Here I am sitting at the Nairobi airport waiting to board a plain to Wisconsin again.  I’ve been in Kenya for 6 weeks and a couple days.  Shorter stay than planned, but as I always say, the only firm plan I make is that plans will change.  So here I am, leaving on a jet plane.

These last 6 weeks have been packed.  The highlight of the whole time was that I have finally gotten the PEAR Cyber Café up and running in Ngurunit.  Still in its beginning stages, but the potential for growth is there.  There will definitely be a steep learning curve in terms of using the computers and the internet to the full potential.  The first week I spent upgrading the available computers from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10.  It was fun pretending I was a computer expert.  Haha.  The monkeys were definitely fascinated with the goings on in the cyber café.  Every once in a while a little face would per in the window for a moment.  I caught them hanging out in the trees watching the building.  I think they were more fascinated by my dogs than the computers.  Ha!  In town when I went to give out some basket sales money to the manager of the basket weaver’s group, there was one monkey on the roof of her shop that could not stop staring into the car at the dogs sleeping in the back seat.  Fascinating to me to watch the monkeys watching the dogs.

Anyway, the other awesome thing that has happened in my time here in Kenya is rain!!  It has finally rained plenty.  And still raining.  Beautiful.  Everything is green and fresh around both Ngurunit and Maralal.  Though still passed through some dry areas between the two places.  Raining well generally, but a bit spotty on coverage.

Not much else to report.  Lots of goat kids being born.  So cute.  I love watching them play.  They roam around the compound like little gangs.  Finding stones and chairs to jump on and off of.  Running and jumping and butting heads.  So little and sweet. 

I’m off to USA for just a month.  Will meet the Spring I expect.  Though just saw a picture of new snow in Madison yesterday.  Melting fast.  I left deep winter the last day of February coming this way.  Now flying into the Spring going back.  Will see what I will see.  And again miss my dogs, cats and goats for a bit.  Can’t wait till someone invents an instantaneous portal so I can just pop back and forth between my two loved places in an instant.  Spend every other day in each place.  Wouldn’t that be fabulous.  Well, soon to board.  Until next time, joy and peace to all….