23 October 2016

Here I am again, though not typing live in terms of on the web directly, but rather sitting in Ngurunit far from web connections and putting down my thoughts of the last couple weeks so that I can post as soon as I am back in Maralal and connected to the world.  Which is funny really when you think about the modern idea of being connected as being able to access internet and all the various things that entails.  In actuality, I always feel more connected to life when I am here in Ngurunit.  The real nitty gritty of living.  Meeting people and animals face to face.  Not just cute videos on Facebook.  Talking to the basket weavers as I distribute the latest payment for sales in Nairobi.  Watching the school kids sing at the class eight party and prayer day as they prepare for the upcoming exams next week.  Hauling stones with my neighbor for the renovation of my house.  Watching my dogs trying to catch the lizards that scramble away into the rock pile or the squirrels that run into their holes.  Laughing as Bruce Bruin the Almighty (Bruin or Bruce for short..) tries clumsily to dig them out while my little dog, Mouse, stands by barking commands like a supervisor on a construction contract.  One can tell, I guess, that I am not one of the ‘millennium generation’ by the fact that I don’t feel compelled to video and photograph all of these interactions to post somewhere where everyone can see my life unfold one frame at a time.  Not that I don’t take photographs.  According to my friends and family members, I take entirely too many pictures, but so few of them end up for public consumption.  On some levels, I am trying to change that.  Social media is the new communication and development without publication (advertisement??...) will never make the big statements in the world that are needed for advancement and expansion of world good!  That is the message I have been getting lately from so many places.  It seems nothing matters if it isn’t recorded somewhere on a website or Facebook or Twitter or any number of the other places the world can see it at a click of a button.  Thinking about all this is getting me down somehow.  I need to go really connect with life again for a while before I go on with this line of thinking.  I am going to go carry some water and bake some bread….

Commitment....that is what I realize I am going to need to make this blog a regular thing.  4 posts in as many years is not a blog make....so I am going to work hard to change that.  I am going to do this because I have decided that it is important to have this space to talk about life and development in Northern Kenya.  And not just Northern Kenya, but in the world as a whole.  Life is so connected on so many levels now that it is important to glean as much information as one can from corners of the world and subjects of all matters that we never thought mattered before.  Maybe before so much that wasn't right at our fingertips or right outside our front (and back) doors didn't matter because it had no real direct impact on us.  But now is not before, it is now.  Now, what I do or say or make here in Maralal, Samburu County, Northern Kenya can affect a person's life instantly on the other side of the world, not just my next door neighbor.   What is dumped in an ocean can have direct impact on my climate here in the desert.  What we eat can make a difference.  What we think can make a difference.  What we do and buy can make a difference.  For better or worse.  Not just to ourselves and those we live next to, but to every single being on this planet.  So, with this post, I am making a commitment to sharing experiences, insights and ideas through this page on a regular basis.  I won't make any promises yet on what 'regular' means.  Definitely will try for a lot more than once or twice a year!!  :-).   Not less than once a month.   Maybe more.  I will take the opportunity whenever it presents itself to add a post of whatever happens in my life and organizational experiences, monumental or mundane, which might add to the understanding of the connections of this world for the benefit of us all.  That I do promise!