Up very early after a night of fighting mosquitos.  Uggh. Anyway, a new day and a new adventure awaits Naiboku and I this weekend.  Thus I want to share the last writing I did in Ngurunit last week. Then will be back to real time writing for a while.  Probably.  So enjoy Ngurunit again for a bit as I get moving and go pick up my daughter.  Plan to go to Artcafe for a nice breakfast.  Or maybe Java House...hard to choose.  Then on to our adventure.  That you will hear about in the coming week....for now, here is the windings down of my February epic journey!

24^th February 2017 - Friday

My time in Ngurunit this last week has been a wonderful mix of joyous fun with friends followed by peaceful contemplation and rest with a bit of interesting work thrown in here and there.  The best kind of life.  Saturday and Sunday nights were spent having lovely meals, chatting, playing guitar and singing with my friends under the beautiful stars.  Oh the stars!  No light pollution in Ngurunit so the stars are many and so vivid it is as if you could just reach up and touch them.  We watched Orion march across the sky after Taurus the Bull as now and then one of us would gasp and shout “shooting star” and the rest would miss it and then watch more closely for the next one.  Monday morning saw the packing up of the Land Rover as Sue, Colin and Candace prepared to head back towards Nairobi.  Candace and I took one more early morning walk to my favorite magic spot behind ‘my’ mountain which looks north across a sea of trees with fantastic hills dotted here and there across the flat plain.  Amazing view!  The dogs, Mouse and Bruin, ran circles around us trying to catch squirrels and lizards as we made our way back for a breakfast of sour dough bread that Sue had taught me to make.  Delicious and lovely under the shade of an Acacia tree with amazing views of the sun rising on the Ndotos and Mt Poi.  Such peace and joy amongst friends. 

Marandi and I went along in my car as far as Laisamis on the main highway to make sure the Land Rover made it to the nearest fuel station.  Hugs all around and we parted ways with my friends as they headed South and we, after a bit of shopping, headed back to Ngurunit.  The next couple of days had me catching up on reading and creative projects.  It is so hot in Ngurunit in February that in the afternoons with the sun beating down mercilessly, the best thing to do is stay in the shade and be quiet.  Yesterday, I found some motivation to walk over to the camp with the dogs to continue with Marandi on our roofing project.  It was fun figuring out how best to put the makuti roof mats we had acquired in Loiyangilani onto the dining shade roof.  First, working out how to get the carpenter up on the roof with no ladder.  I always prefer using table and chair stacks.  One gets good at improvising when one lives 200 km from the nearest convenient hardware store.  Then sweeping all the debris and tree branches off the plastic under layer.  After that, the application and layering of mats one row at a time.  It is so cool to see the work progress and make such a beautiful change to the character of the building.  Moving from looking tatty and badly kept to rustic and lovely in the matter of just a few hours.  While roofing, we also managed to have the water pipe system looked at and fixed.  The water guys found some blockages and after clearing it all and reconnecting, the shower tank was filled up and made ready for visitors.  It is so satisfying to see Salato camp looking so nice again.  One step at a time it is getting better and better.  Next job is a coat of fresh paint inside all the rooms.  I’m waiting for Reuben to come from Maralal sometime this evening with some fresh supplies, a container of paint being one.  Spending this one more weekend in Ngurunit, then the coming Monday back to Maralal and ‘civilization’.  Will miss the peace of this beautiful place.