Happy Labor Day! May 1^st in Kenya is a holiday.  As I am in Kenya, I should spell it Labour Day.  They use the British English spelling method here with all the extra letters! 😉.  Anyway, my husband Reuben and I have been enjoying our morning sitting on the veranda in Maralal bird watching and gazing at the lush garden and knee-high grass in our yard.  The rains have been non-stop for weeks now! We were commenting on how this rainy season is like it used to be back 15 / 20 years ago.  From 2004/5 there was a marked change in the rain fall patterns and amounts almost every year since.  The rain cycle is becoming so unpredictable.  But this year, it is raining just when it ‘should’.  Though I’m not sure if in the right amount.  It just seems so much!  And the floods.  Everywhere.  The river in Ngurunit, which hasn’t flown properly for over almost two years before the rains from end of March this year, is now a raging torrent at times.  It has taken out the bottom fence of Salato Tourist Camp and even changed course one day a few weeks ago to flow through the middle of Ngurunit town.  It mostly missed houses, but a few families had a stream through their living rooms before the river went back to its normal course around the edge of town.  In Arsim the torrent of water in the local river swept away a family that we have clan connections to.  Very sad.  Many a trip has also been delayed or made very difficult by mud and high rivers in the path.  I have been very lucky on my travels the last couple of months, which have been many.  I clocked over 4000 km (around 2500 miles) in the last month and a bit.  Wow.  In all the back and forth with rainstorms, mud and flowing rivers almost every day and everywhere, I managed to mostly hit the days where there was a break and the roads had dried out or the rivers were small and easily passable.  I hear stories from other people  a day before or after my travels about being stuck in the mud all night or having to turn back because of too much water in a river.  But I’ve always make it through in good time.  So far.  The rains are not over yet.  The sun is out now.  Thunderstorm forecast for the afternoon.  Rains throughout the evening.  Electricity going off around 7 pm, just as it is getting dark.  That has been the pattern all week.  Sometimes the power comes on after a bit.  Sometimes after a whole night.  The power outages can be rather annoying when I am trying to get things done.   I have one solar light in the living room and a carry around solar lantern.  Yesterday evening my lantern was running out of charge so left me cooking in basic darkness.  Quite challenging.  Reminds me of the Dr Seuss book ‘I can read with my eyes tight shut’.  I walk around the house in darkness doing what I can.  Amazing what one can get done without actually seeing it very well.

I got back to Maralal a week ago (one day later than planned from spending a night in Nyahururu to let the road to Maralal dry out a bit) after attending this year’s Rotary District 9212 conference in Naivasha.  It was a lovely time of fellowship, learning and fun.  I do enjoy the Rotary world of people dedicated to making the world a better place.  And having a lot of fun while doing it!  Next year the conference is on the Kenyan coast again – North Beach of Mombasa.  That will be fun.  Reuben and I are already signed up.  About the only thing I can plan so far ahead for.  Usually I just wake up in the morning and figure out what is happening that day.  At most, a week advance planning might happen.  Mainly because I have learned that in my life here, the only firm plan that I can have is that the plans WILL change.  Repeatedly.  So I remain flexible and take life as it comes.  Though one plan we have had for a while is quickly coming upon us.  And this one better not change!!  I will forge deep rivers and pull my car single handedly out of the mud to make sure this plan goes ahead!  Reuben and I are heading to the USA from the 11^th of this month to meet up with our kids and family/friends in Wisconsin!!  Yay!!  So excited.  It has been 9 months since I dropped Loiweti and Naiboku off in their various Wisconsin schools last year and while we have communicated a lot (technology and social media is amazing), it will be so wonderful to see them face to face again!!  And Naiboku is turning 18 on the 18^th May and graduating from high school the week after!  Wow.  I will be the mother of two adults now!  Time does fly!    A quote from my grandmother, which my mother now uses a lot and is so true; “I don’t mind getting older, but how can I have such old children?!!” So, I am getting older, but still get surprised by how grown up my children have become.  It will also be good to see everybody else that we can while in the USA.  Trips there are always busy and chaotic but full of fun and laughter.  We will be back in Kenya in June with the kids to keep us company for some time.  By then, rains should be settled down and travel a little less fraught with challenges.  But one can never be sure if things go as planned as we go about life in a place of unpredictable weather, bad roads, far distances and spotty communications.  Life in Kenya is an adventure and I love it.  Remember, the only firm plan that I ever have is that plans will change….