18 October 2018
October. My favorite
month of the year. It has been one of
the best months in every place I’ve lived in my life. In the USA I love the deep autumn, Halloween
and my birthday at the end of the month.
The coming winter would excite me as I love snow and everything
related. In Nepal, October was at the
end of Monsoon season and one could dry out and start to breath. The climate in the mountains cooled and many
fun Nepali holidays came along. Here in
Kenya, October is the start of the short rainy season. The long dry season of June to September
comes to an end everything starts to green up in time for Christmas. Only this
year, with the heavy and long rainy season stretching from April to August
really, there was only about 1 month of short intense dry season in
September. Crazy weather year for
sure. Though it was drying out really
fast and we have been looking for rains to come. We got our first showers of
the season yesterday. Today it is cloudy
and cool. Such a refreshing change from
the first part of the week which was intense sun and so so hot. I felt like I was melting. Now I enjoy standing outside with the cool
drops hitting down. It isn’t much yet,
but it is a start.
It has been quite the ride of life the last several
months. I feel like I have lived several
lives and touched down in many different worlds. Mid-August, after a bit over
two lovely months with my daughter hanging out with me here in Kenya, we
traveled to the USA to prepare for the new school year starting and to meet up
with my son in Wisconsin. On the way
there, Naiboku and I stopped in Washington DC for a week to visit family and
friends there. Quite a world change from
Kenya! What an amazing time we had. Of course, we had to tour the monuments and
the museums. Which we enjoyed within
the context of my daughter saying, “I don’t do past”. Sort of an overview of everything done at top
speed! It was visiting the family and
friends that took up most of our time.
From DC we took a 2 day side trip to Philadelphia to visit my Returned
Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) friend and her daughter. We had been together in Nepal over 25 years
ago and she and daughter had visited us in Kenya in 2016. It was so good to see them in their home
environment. One exciting thing is that
we got to see my past. I discovered that
the Howell Living History Farm in Titusville New Jersey, where I had done an
internship 30 years ago the summer of 1988 was only a 50-minute drive away from
Philadelphia. So, on a Wednesday
afternoon we all went on a road cruise into my history. Even if Naiboku doesn’t do past, I had to show
her a piece of mine. It was so fun. The RPCV that had started this internship
over 30 years ago was still there! I was
so excited to see Pete again and how much the farm had developed as a tourist
attraction for turn of the 20th century farming. I had gone to learn how to train oxen for
plowing and such. Pete introduced me to
the farm manager who was also a RPCV. He
had been in Kenya as a volunteer the year I was at the farm as an intern in
1988! He started the next year in 1989
at the farm and had pictures of the oxen, Lion and Giant, that I had trained
the summer I was there. They had gone on
to be plowing champions. So fun to
reconnect to all that. My formation
years…Getting ready to go out into the world and become a Peace Corps Volunteer
myself. Which eventually led me on my
path through Scotland where I met my husband and on to Kenya where I have made
my life. Such an amazing path.
Anyway, from the East Coast adventure, my daughter and I
flew to Wisconsin just in time for Grandpa’s 90th birthday
party. A completely different world from
DC! The next day an old friend from
Canada, Lindsay, who I had met in Maralal, Kenya way back in 2005/6, 2007 and
2008 when she would come to volunteer at the children’s home across from my
house there, came to visit us for a week in Wisconsin. We had so much fun and she was so helpful in
getting Naiboku ready for her first year at university in River Falls. The 3 of us took a Northern Wisconsin road
trip to our cabin at Telemark and up to Lake Superior. We drove through one of the worst rain storms
I have ever driven through. Awesome and
scary. We had a fascinating time along
the Lake. In Herbster, a small town on the shores of
Lake Superior, we met an amazing jewelry maker that my friend, who used to live
there, said I must meet. The artist
makes things from glass, pottery and stones washed up on the beach of Lake
Superior and rubbed into amazing smooth shapes by the wave action. I used to go horse camping in the area years
ago with my high school friend so bought a few necklaces as mementos when I was
going to see her. The cabin at Telemark
is one of my cherished childhood places.
Another place which is part of who I am and what I have become. It was so nice to stay there a couple nights
and share with my daughter. We got back
to New Richmond from the cabin just in time to pick up my son coming from his
summer job in Vancouver as a YMCA camp counsellor. The next day we all went to UW-River Falls
for Naiboku’s orientation day. Wow. My baby is now in University. We dropped her off at her dormitory on Saturday. Lindsay flew home on Sunday after a morning
with Loiweti and I at the Mall of America carnival rides. Fun fun.
Monday Loiweti and I headed South to Madison to get him into his new
apartment for his 3rd year of University at UW-Madison.
I spent the week in Madison helping Loiweti get settled,
meeting up with friends, going horseback riding and joining the party for my
Aunt and Uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. Wow.
Crazy busy fun week. Back up to
New Richmond for a few days. Visiting Naiboku
at university to make sure she was settling in well. Delicious Mexican food goodbye meal with Mom
and Dad after a tour of campus with them and Naiboku to show them where she
was. Then off to California to stay with
my sister friend from high school at her house in Castro Valley and visit my
niece at her new place of work in San Jose after finishing university last
December in Minnesota. Another world
away from Wisconsin. My friend and I had
a few fabulous days of Champaign brunches, walks on the beach, mining town
exploration adventures complete with cemeteries and covered bridges, delicious
food like bacon waffles, beef roasts and Jamaican food (yum), haunted house
tours, rose garden visits and hours and hours of lovely chats. Then on to an amazingly long plane ride back
to Kenya the third week of September.
Wow. Back to the world I
know.
I’ve been back exactly one month now. Yet it seems a year ago since USA and all
those adventures. Though it was so good
to get back home again. I arrived to the
opening eyes of 7 puppies that my dog Acacia had while I was away. 3 weeks of cuteness starting to explore the
world around them. It has been a busy
month. I made a rush to the village to
pay the basket weavers for the order I had shipped out the day I left in
August. Then down to Naibobi last week
to explore a publishing contract! That
is my latest excitement and adventure. I
am working to publish a children’s book.
Fingers crossed on that one. I
have been in Ngurunit this week working on illustration ideas for it. This is a long time coming as I originally
wrote the story 10 years ago, but life has a way of bringing distractions. Finally I am going forward on this. Yay!!
While I work on the book here, I
am also getting 2 of the puppies, Aladdin and Jasmine, settled here in
Ngurunit. They will be our village
dogs. Living with the goats and staying
with the watchman. So fun to watch them
grow and play. Bruin dog loves to play
with them. He can fit one in his mouth,
but is so gentle. Uncle Bruin. Teaching the young pups all they need to
know!
So that brings me to date. Almost.
At network tree Tuesday I got the wonderful news that our Rotary Global
Grant application that we have been working on for 1 ½ years has finally been
approved. It is for drilling 2 bore hole
hand pump wells. One here in Ngurunit
and one in Lare Oibor, a town near Maralal.
Once I get back to Maralal this Sunday, getting the well project started
will be my priority for a while. Along
with the book. Life is exciting! Doors opening. Projects beginning! What an amazing life I have!!! 