2019 coming to a close...

Hard to believe it is already December!!  The year has flown by.  I have one more week in Maralal before I start to head to the village for the Holidays and greet the New Year in the beauty of Ngurunit.  I have a plan to go through Nanyuki to attend a craft fair there on the 15^th Dec to sell baskets.  From there, straight up the eastern road and then turn off the tarmac road into Ngurunit.  A much easier way to get there than the slow, bumpy, muddy way from Maralal.  One consideration I will have to make though, is if the Milgas River is flowing at that time.  It can be and has been impassable a lot lately.  If it is flowing mid-month, I will have to find another way around into Ngurunit.  But I will cross that bridge, or lack of bridge, when I come to it..hahaha!  Kenya has been deluged with rain for the past month or more, especially in the last couple of weeks.  I was in Nairobi to pick up my son flying in from Canada on the 28^th November and stayed the weekend for attending some Rotary functions.  Saturday night trying to get to the Rotary Foundation dinner, the road through the middle of Nairobi was literally a river.  I drove through about a foot of water flowing along for about 5 km.  Amazing.  Scary.  Sunday we drove back to Maralal.  We had rain about half of the way, but by the time we reached the dirt roads, everything was mostly dry.  Not in Nairobi.  The flooding there got worse over last week.  Epic.  Our Rotary District Governor was supposed to come visit Maralal club on Wednesday 4^th Dec but we got a call to cancel his trip until January as they were not even able to get out of Nairobi safely and were afraid of the unpredictable weather along the way.  It started raining here in Maralal again Wednesday night so it was good the visitors had canceled and I didn’t have to worry about them slogging back to Nairobi through the mud.  Or being washed away in a river. 

Reuben just went to Ngurunit yesterday.  The rains let up over the weekend again so the roads aren’t so bad going that way.  I am waiting to hear the news from the village.  We have heard of massive rains and floods through town there.  Several houses have gone into the river and now our town property is in danger, right on the edge.  So much rain.  Crazy!!

Despite all the rain, the drilling rig we have been waiting for in Maralal has finally arrived!  It came late on Thursday night.  We showed them the site in Lare Oibor on Friday morning and they spent the whole day getting the machines in place due to the soft, wet ground that caused the big trucks to keep getting stuck.  Yesterday morning I got the message from the rig manager that they were just about to start the drilling.  I went with the Rotary Club president in the afternoon to see their progress only to find nothing done at all!  The compressor to drive the drill was acting up and they had spent the whole day trying to fix it to no avail.  Yikes!  As of writing this on Sunday afternoon, they are still no closer to getting the compressor fixed so they can start drilling.  They are waiting for someone to come from down country tomorrow to try to get everything in working order again.  So, for me, the well is so close yet so far.  At least the drilling rig made it this far.  Now keeping my fingers crossed they can get the work done before the end of the week before I leave.  Things seem to never go as planned around me.  Thus, the only firm plan I ever make is that my plans will change!  Haha.  I am still hopeful that the well will be completed for the community before Christmas.  Even though I won’t be here, some other members and our partner will be supervising the work to see it done up to installing the pump as soon as possible.  Then in January, we can finish the community trainings and have the Rotary District Governor come for his rescheduled visit and hand over the well to the community.  Such is my hope! I never give up hope!

In the meantime, I am working on ending the 2019 year as best as I can and starting my planning for 2020.  Though of course, those plans will change!  At least I will have a template to work with at the beginning.  This will probably be the last blog post of 2019.  So, to everyone who reads this, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!  See you in 2020!! 

Diary of a Water Project: Challenges and Successes (the last 6 months of life and work)

1^st April 2019

Water. Precious water.  Where I am sitting in my house in Ngurunit, I can here the engines of the water driller off in the distance by the river as they work to finish the borehole well that has been in process for over a week.  Within the second day we hit water, lots of it.  Excitement.  Despite this, it has taken another 6 to finally stabilize the hole with casings and get to the point where we can almost do a test pump.  The soil near the river proved to be full of lots of little rocks at the top of the drill and lots of loose sandy soil as they went down.  By Wednesday they had reached 62 meters deep.  Only to wake up Thursday morning and find it back to 11 meters.  So another method was employed to put temporary casing down to 18 meters to stabilize the sides so it could be cleared out again. As not enough steel had been brought, this meant a delay while it was fetched from far away.  Then another two days saw the fuel run out.  Another run for supplies.  By Sunday, finally, the well was behaving and the permanent casing were almost all in.  Today is the finishing touches on casings, packing sides with gravel and cleaning out the borehole before a test pump.  This project has been two years in the planning.  It feels so good to see it almost done.  Half done I should say.  This is just one of the two wells we have planned for our Rotary project.  This one in Ngurunit and one near Maralal.  That one still has a few steps to go before we can move in for the drilling.  Soon, but not quite. 

Of course, the drilling part is just the first stage here in Ngurunit too.  We still have to put on the permanent pump.  We will put a hand pump for starters.  This also involves training of maintenance people in the community.  And later in the month, we will have a community sanitation and hygiene training.  But the first step was getting the water.  For that, it seems we were very successful.  Testing of the water still remains, but at first observations, it seems we have an abundance of fresh, clean water.  The stuff of life! 

23^rd April 2019

Water. Precious water.  We got the pump on the well and getting water out of it for community use.  Yay!!  The analysis of the water taken at the beginning of the month came back with good news in terms of being safe for human consumption.  So wonderful.  Though now we are discovering one side effect of the parameter for iron being on the high side.  It is not unsafe for people, but it is causing an issue with water clarity.  The water pumps out as clear as can be.  Then, within a half hour, the high iron content in the water reacts with the air, oxidizing into a reddish color to the water.  Cloudy red.  I will have to explore this phenomenon and see if we can do anything about it. 

27^th May 2019

What an amazing weekend I have had in all things water!  Rotary Maralal and our partners, The Samburu Project, held the Ngurunit Well Management Committee training for pump maintenance and the Community Sanitation and Hygiene Workshop on Saturday.  We had been having some issues with the pump and these were sorted out by Paul, the well technician of Samburu Project when teaching the committee how to fix and maintain the well in good condition.  Now the pump is so easy and so much water comes out.  Amazing.  It still turns red after a bit, but I have done a lot of research on this and find it is not a problem or dangerous.  I even know of another well in Ngurunit that did this.  The high iron content in the water is actually not a bad thing, I’ve been told, for especially the women and children.  We were able to discuss this in the community workshop and everyone is happy that the well is now working perfectly. 

Then on Sunday many members of The Rotary Club of Maralal and the Ngurunit community had a well handover ceremony and party.  The Samburu Project staff also attended.  There was a lot of singing and dancing by the women.  The elders blessed the well in the traditional way.  Walking around and around the well praying and pouring out a bit of milk as they went.  Then afterwards, everyone got together for tea and sitting together in community enjoying the fact that they had a new source of clean water.  So well number one is done.  Now we are starting to try to move forward on the second planned well for a community called Lare Oibor.  This one is near Maralal.  Already having a few issues on the permit to begin, but fingers crossed that we will get started soon.  On we go!!

11^th July, 2019

Wow, what adventures I have had the last month and a bit.  I left Ngurunit after the well handover ceremony and basically traveled continuously until I arrived in America on June 5^th.  As usual, a whirlwind visit of the USA.  My daughter was doing a summer class at university until the end of June, so I wandered around doing lots of things – work and play.  Enjoyed time with my parents.  My middle brother brought cake over just after I arrived so we could celebrate Mom’s end of May birthday.  I had just missed it so was nice to have the laid back party.  I then went canoeing on the Black River with my eldest brother.  Continued on down to Madison to move my son out of his apartment for the last time there as his life path is taking him to other parts of the world now.  Then back to Northern Wisconsin for a couple days with my best friend and her daughter visiting from California before I then headed to the WARP (Weave a Real Peace) conference being held in Washington DC where I was one of the keynote speakers as concerns my work with the Ngurunit Basket Weavers.  I also hauled along baskets and had a sales table set up.  Such an amazing weekend.  My son went with me for a couple nights to see DC with some other special friends of ours before I sent him off to Canada for work.  At the WARP conference I met so many wonderful people and got to spend a lot of time with my amazing friend Janice.  After a Sunday lunch with a group of friends living in DC who used to work in Kenya, I flew back to Wisconsin to pick up my daughter for her summer break and we continued on to Kenya. 

We arrived beginning of July to meet up with our Australian buddy, Anna.  So fun.  This brings me back to the theme of Water!  The three of us traveled as quickly as we could North towards Ngurunit where my husband was awaiting us.  We had plans to meet our Samburu Project USA office partners from Los Angeles who wanted to see the new Ngurunit well.  After passing through Maralal to pick up all the dogs and some hard, fast travel, we made it to Ngurunit on evening of the 4^th.  A couple days rest and partner Linda and the Samburu Project team from L.A. and Kenya made it to our village on the 7^th July.  Visited the pump, took lots of promotion pictures and morning of the 8^th they headed out again.  One issue we discussed was the issue we were having with getting the second well in Lare Oibor started.  It was supposed to have been started while I was in USA, but once we got the permit, an issue of community well site came up.  The previously selected drilling spot was rejected by the community for the reason of someone claiming it as private land, so we had to start over a bit.  Still the same community, just needed a better spot that was communally accessible.  So, to that end, we had a community meeting planned with Rotary Club of Maralal, Samburu Project and the Lare Oibor community members along with the area leaders planned for 10^th July.  As Anna had to be to her airplane back to Australia by the 9^th in Nairobi,  she and I jumped into my car also on the 8th, leaving daughter, husband and the dogs in Ngurunit, to take a road cruise through Nanyuki, stay the night there, send Anna off for Nairobi bus morning of the 9^th and I continue back to Maralal in time for community meeting on 10^th.  Wow.  Quite the sentence.  Quite the trip.  Around 500 Km and 9 hours of driving in 2 days!! Fun fun.  I made it and had a good time doing it. 

Yesterday I managed to get everyone together for the community meeting to sort out the issues of placement for the well drilling.  We walked the area, made plans with Samburu Project for bringing the Hydrologist for re-survey within the month of July, and assured the community that we would get them a well done as soon as possible.  More challenges will be had, I am sure.  We will keep moving forward.  

23^rd July, 2019

The hydrologist came to Maralal.  Started the survey for finding the new drilling site for Lare Oibor.  Finished only two of the possible places and it started pouring rain!!  Not good for a water source survey.  That messed up all the readings.  So, in the end, we had to stop the exercise and postpone it until things dry up.  Most likely until the end of August as it seems the mid-year rain cycle has just started up.  This is the story of life here in Northern Kenya.  Flood or famine.  Too much water or not enough.  For the most part, it is not enough.  Such an irony that when we are trying to create more water sources, that water gets in the way of doing that.  Anyway, such is life at times.  We did have a nice visit with the Samburu Project team as they all came up to Maralal with the hopes of getting pictures of the survey process.  They were disappointed on that with having to cancel the survey.  We all had a nice lunch and parted ways.  I will be going to USA again mid-August so will miss when the hydrologist comes back, but other members of my Rotary club are also involved so all will be well.  (pun intended..hahaha). 

16^th November, 2019

I went to USA mid-August to beginning of September.  The most exciting part of that trip was attending my 35^th Highschool reunion.   Amazing.  Time does fly.  I also dropped my daughter, youngest child, at her second year of University.  That is amazing too.  Children grow up so fast.  Back in Kenya, I found that the survey was done the very end of August, with a bit of rain issues again, but got some results.  After that we started making plans for the drilling.  Unfortunately, time has been flying by with no success on that front!  One plan after the other keeps falling through.  Over two months back in Kenya and still no closer to starting the drilling at Lare Oibor than when I arrived.  In the Maralal area, it has never really stopped raining since the end of July.  Very weird weather.  I am still pushing.  Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we will get it started.  I really want to give the Lare Oibor community a well for Christmas. 

On the other hand, rain in Ngurunit was scarce for many months.  The long rains of May were almost non-existent.  By August the stream had completely dried up.  The new Rotary well was our main source of water, red or not. By the time I got back to Ngurunit in mid-September, it was almost the only source of water in the whole community.  It has been a great blessing.  People and livestock were depending on it.  I took car-loads of water containers to the well every couple days to supply our house and the goat camp.  When we left Ngurunit the beginning of October, drought was hitting hard.  Without the Rotary well, things would have been much worse.

Then, second week of October, the heavens opened.  It has been raining non-stop in Ngurunit since then.  Maralal also.  Most of Kenya really.  When I went back to Ngurunit on the 25^th October for my birthday, I found our compound a beautiful green lawn.  Amazing.  I have never seen so much grass there.  From dry, brown land to lush, green environment.  I will always be surprised by how quickly things can change.  The river is flowing.  Plenty of water for now.  Despite that, in a few quick months, everything can be dry again, so the Rotary Ngurunit well is still, and always will be, a blessing.  Now back in Maralal for a bit, my major work is to continue pushing for getting the Lare Oibor well done before the dry season sets in for them and people start to struggle for a source of water again.  Forward, step by step. 

The moon and life

Wow.  What an amazing last few weeks.  I'm back in Maralal today after spending a week down country in Nairobi.  On the drive back yesterday, I was chasing time to reach home before the sun set and the last super moon of 2019 would rise so I could get some pictures.  That was the idea at least.  As usual, distractions delayed me.  Though good distractions.  I stopped along the way to take some lovely pictures of giraffe, eland, ostrich and zebra that I saw along the way.  So the sunset caught me about 18 km from Maralal.  I was going directly North with the sun setting on my left and I kept looking right towards the East to see if I could spot the moon rising.  Driving fast, avoiding stones and big bumps, glancing right, driving fast, watching the sun go down in a blaze of red glory, driving fast, glancing right to look for the moon, dodging a rock, swerving around a hole.  Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw it…a huge pale globe emerging from behind the hills to my right.  I slammed on the breaks and grabbed my camera.  Bummer!  Power lines in the way.  A quick drive off the road across the fields until I had a good spot with just the hills and the amazing moon rising before me.  Out of the car and snapping pictures of the Worm Moon.  The last super moon of 2019.  The March moon at the equinox.  So cool.  It is called the worm moon because of the advent of spring and the warming earth (in the Northern Hemisphere) and thus gardening and worms and all such greenness.  I also turned around and took some pictures of the setting sun.  In Kenya on the equator, we have a sort of equinox all year around.  12 hour days and 12 hour nights.  So on every full moon, the sun is setting as the moon is rising.  But this moon was special.  So after just a couple shots of the sunset, I turned back around to snap a large number of the super moon rising.  So beautiful.  A fitting end to a lovely Nairobi trip.

What took me to Nairobi last Thursday were several things.  One was to meet some New Richmond friends, Beth and Tom, who were traveling in Kenya for a 2 week vacation.   They were leaving Friday and I hadn’t yet managed to get my schedule to coincide with their travels.  So down to Nairobi on Thursday to take them out for Ethiopian food and hear about their time in Kenya.  It was wonderful to meet them.  People from my old home town in my adopted home of Kenya.   So fun to see them.

Friday and Saturday were spent getting my car fixed…again!!  Uggh.  Third time in as many months that I had to get my shocks repaired.  The roads in Northern Kenya are so bad that lately, only one trip and the new shocks are destroyed.  So this time we took drastic measures and used the most heavy duty shocks that can be found for a Pajero as well as changing the coil springs.  Then Sunday and Monday I got to give the car some good road tests when I went with friends to see Nairobi National Park.  That was cool.  We saw so many animals.  I got so many good pictures.  I have a funny story too.  The second trip around the park on Monday it was just two of us.  We were determined to find lions in the wild as we had just been in the Animal Orphanage found at the gate to the park and seen lots of lions close up in the pens, but really wanted to see some free.  We also really wanted to see a leopard and hyenas in the wild.  That was our mission.  To find lions, leopards and hyenas in the park.  We were very intent on this mission and drove around a few hours looking on every rock, in every tree and under every bush.  It wasn’t to be.  We saw a lot, but no predators.  That night, I downloaded all the photos I took.  I had a lot of buffalo photos from a cool valley we had found while following a tip on possible lion sightings, but no luck on lions.  Lots of buffalo only.  So we thought.  As I flipped through the pictures, I suddenly saw a white shape in the picture background up the hill behind the buffalo.  I zoomed in and imagine my surprise when I recognized an incredibly clear shot of a huge rhino standing there on the hillside.  We had been so close, even unknowingly taking a picture of it, to a black rhino.  Yet we had both been so focused on looking for lions under all the bushes, we never looked up and around to see the rhino watching us.  Wow.  Talk about being oblivious.  I took it as a spiritual lesson.  In life, God (the Universe, Spirit, The One, The Force – whatever you want to call it or whatever name you have for God) has every good and amazing thing for us if we just open our eyes to see it.  But we often become so focused on the one idea we have that we think we want or need, that we are blind to all else around us.  If we would just stop and look around with clear spiritual senses and an open heart, we would see all the amazing things that God has there for us just waiting for us to see and accept it into our lives.  Back to the rhino.  I may have not seen it with my eyes at that moment, but it was in our presence, and we in its, and I have a picture of it, so I am counting it as one of the animals I have ‘seen’ in the park that day.  😊

All the time spent in the park and the animal orphanage was for the purpose of getting some more good pictures for possible use in my children’s book.  Tuesday I had a good meeting with the creative director and editor of my publisher discussing the final needs and illustration ideas for getting the book ready for printing.  Fingers crossed that it will be printed the end of April.  One step closer to realizing my dream of getting this book published.  After the meeting, my work in Nairobi was done.  A few more meals with friends in the afternoon and evening.  One more night.  Then up yesterday to pack the car, finish shopping and race North to catch the super moon as it rose majestically over the Samburu hills.  Life is such an adventure.  I love the chaotic beauty of it all!!!

Amazing start to 2019!

Happy New Year!!  I guess I am a little delayed on that statement.  But not late.  I’m never late.  Maybe on a different time schedule than others around me, but never late!  Just as I am never lost either.  I may not be on the exact course or in the exact place I had expected to be at a given moment, but I am not lost.  Just temporarily on an alternate way.  I will eventually get to my end point, and in the meantime, might find some amazing new road, or meet some amazing new people or see some amazing new sight that I hadn’t even imagined or thought about.  I do have a general plan of timing and path in my life and work, but if it gets a little altered, oh well, I go with the flow. 

So, here I am flowing almost two months into 2019 and find myself at the computer writing my Happy 2019 post!  Exciting.  The way of my life.  This last two months has been so full of life, I don’t even know where to begin to tell it all.  Several words can sum it up maybe.  Exhilarating:  doing zip-lines over deep valleys; coming face to face with a very big elephant at my tent; meeting a cobra while I was alone at the Ngurunit swimming pool; climbing on sky walks between trees and over a pond with crocodiles in it. Awestruck:  watching the sun and moon rise and set in beautiful surroundings; gazing at stars so bright they press one down to the earth while lifting one up to the heavens; seeing lions, elephants, oryx, gerenuk, ostriches, giraffe, Grevy zebra, Fish Eagles, hippos, hyena and so many more birds and wildlife on my many trips around Kenya with friends and my family; feeling the peace of nature in my soul.  Grateful: for time spent with my kids visiting from USA for the holidays; for meeting up with so many good friends from Kenya and other countries on their visits to Kenya; for health and healing of myself and others; for projects that are going forward and the chances I have to help communities.  Enjoyment:  from Christmas and New Year's celebrations and a birthday party; from singing and joy around campfires, by pools and on the veranda; from eating good food with friends and family on so many occasions including Ethiopian at Habesha and Abyssinia in Nairobi, fish at Trout Tree and local Kenyan at Bantu Lodge near Nanyuki, Swahili style at Lion King Bush Camp at Samburu Reserve and cooking for ourselves anytime and anyplace; by visiting places I love like Lake Turkana and Lake Naivasha; going to other fun places like bowling, visiting a flower farm, meeting a weaver’s group, visiting animal orphanages and hanging out at a primary school.  Exhausting:  As much fun as I have had, it has definitely been very tiring.  In two months, I’ve traveled, driving most of the time myself, over 5000 km (almost 3000 miles I think).  Going from Maralal to Ngurunit.  Going from Ngurunit to Nairobi and back again picking up kids for holidays. Then to Maralal after the New Year and from there to Nairobi and back for holiday errands.  Then back to Ngurunit.  Then back to Nairobi.  On some trips I got some help from my son or my daughter taking the wheel.  Then a return to Maralal.  Then friends arriving to visit so back I go to Nairobi.  A long wonderful round-trip with them weaving around the country seeing the wonderful sites.  And I can’t forget all the side trips.  To Lake Turkana with the kids.  Driving around Nairobi to see fun stuff.  Zigzagging off the main road to see the sights and meet people at Naivasha, Njabini and Gilgil.  Hours of game drives looking for wildlife in Samburu Reserve.  Besides the driving there was the late nights and early mornings.  Talking, singing, hiking, swimming and having a fabulous time.  And I can’t forget that at times I had to slip in a bit of work.  Staying up late to finish a proposal.  Having meetings on projects.  Shopping and buying materials and beads.   It has been very exhausting, but completely worth it.

That brings me to now.  Today I am in Maralal.  Stationary for a week and working on some important activities.  Our Rotary borehole well project is approved and going forward.  I’m trying to get all the bits and pieces coordinated and in order so that we can start drilling.  I have several new basket orders for the Ngurunit Basket Weavers.  I’ve been sending beads and receiving baskets to work out how to ship.  I also have several new Rotary projects that I’m working on.  Getting proposals into shape.  Teacher Resource Centers for Marsabit and Samburu Counties.  I’ve also been working on getting my children’s book ready for publishing.  Hopefully it can be ready for the end of March printing.  I have so many good pictures I have taken over the last couple of months.  I want to use those in different ways.   

It has been an amazing start to 2019.  I am looking forward to what the next months will bring.  I am starting to feel rested up again and am grateful for that.  I am excited for more awe-inspiring exhilarating experiences to enjoy as the future unfolds before me in my life as this new year continues!  Until next time peace, joy and love to you all!