31^st December 2021

The last day of the year 2021.  Wow.  What an amazing, crazy, disjointed, surprising, beautiful, challenging, joyful, adventure filled year.  I’ve been back in Kenya almost a month.  Spent the first 3 weeks in our town home of Maralal settling in and getting to know our new beautiful kittens, Puzzle and Cloud.  Puzzle is a beautiful little calico female who is the most amazing mouser, even at around only 4 or 5 months old!!  Cloud, her slightly older ‘brother’ is a lover boy who wants to cuddle on the closest lap.  He has also proven able to catch mice but in a more relaxed now and then way…hahaha.  Both kittens were found really young and lost on separate occasions in parking lots in Nairobi by my son and his now fiancée (the biggest news of the year!!).  They decided that I really needed cats to control the rodent explosion in our town home so they brought them up in November and got them settled in with the dogs before I arrived in December.  Best decision ever.  I’m definitely learning to listen to my kids, both young adults.  It is their time in the world now!!!

Anyway, I came to the village on the 22^nd Dec in time to enjoy Christmas here with family and friends.  It has been a lovely almost 10 days and now I’m on the edge of a New Year!!  My Christmas tree is still up.  It is a fun eclectic creation this year.  Every year is new and different when it comes to the type and shape of our x-mas trees.  Only the ornaments remain the same, with a few new ones added every year.  A tree of memories.  It will come down tomorrow on the first day of the New Year, 2022. 

This last month of 2021 has been a wild month, literally.  I’ve seen some really cool birds and wildlife in the last few weeks, in my gardens, on my various trips and taking walks along the river.  Two bird highlights were brown parrots in my town garden and a beautiful tiny owl in a tree here in my desert home.  The most fun wildlife was a beautiful male Greater Kudu with his amazing curled horns standing on the road as I was driving to Maralal and a huge warthog a bit further along.  

I didn’t manage to capture these well on my camera as they ran into the bush too fast, but they are etched in my memory.  On that same trip, I stopped and watched some rock hyraxes sunning happily up on a cliff.  Cute little things.  They sat long enough to do a photo shoot…haha. 

There has been some rain in Ngurunit village area finally.  Some.  Not a lot but enough to fill up the river higher up the mountain and make things a bit green.  I prayed for a green Christmas and we got one.  Very hot most days so a dip in the pools yesterday was lovely.
The monkeys let us know in no uncertain terms that we were invading their place! Ha. 

Today having a lazy day before staying up late tonight to greet in the New Year under the stars.  We’ll build a campfire and leap over it into 2022 at midnight.  A fun tradition we started a long time ago.  Making more memories as we head into the future.  What hopes and dreams will work themselves out into our lives in the coming months remains to be seen.  Flowing with the river of time.  Grateful for each new day and the experiences it brings.  Peace and Joy to all of you in the New Year!  See you in 2022.  

 

Snow.  Beautiful snow.  Beautiful to me snow.  I have managed to annoy several people already today with such gushing excitement about the first significant snowstorm of the winter season in Wisconsin.  It started snowing yesterday afternoon as I was walking around with my brother by the St Croix River on the Minnesota side.  I drove home in the snow.  Carefully.  I am a desert sand and rainy season mud driver these days in my Northern Kenyan home.  I don’t have much chance to practice my snowy road driving skills.  I am very happy to have the snow covering the ground and everything in its sparkling beauty today.  

Though the weather report says it will be well over freezing by Wednesday so this snow cover will be short lived.  Enjoying it while I can.  I have only two more weeks here in USA before heading back to Kenya the week after Thanksgiving.  Hard to believe I’ve already been here 1 ½ months.  Time flies.  I’m hoping to see a bit more snow before I leave.  Shhh, don’t say that too loud or a lot of people will get mad at me and might blame me if there is a blizzard in November.  Haha. 

I had a table of baskets and mats set up at church today where it was United Methodist Women’s Day.  The group was kind enough to let me sell the baskets for the women of Ngurunit Basket Weavers.  Most of the stock I’d brought with me is now sold out.  Good income for the weavers in Kenya.  They really need it too.  Drought still has a firm hold on most parts of Northern Kenya.  I have heard that not only the livestock and communities are suffering but the wildlife too.  So sad.  Praying hard for rain. 

Next time I write here I should be back in Kenya if all goes as planned.  Of course, my adage in life is that the only firm plans that I make are that plans will change.  I go with the flow and remain as flexible as I can in this unpredictable, challenging, fascinating and adventuresome world.  Enjoying the snow.  Looking forward to the return to the desert.  Peace to you all whatever the season and the weather!!

 

I have been in USA for 20 days now.  It feels like just a week and also months both at the same time.  I always find it weird when time seems to stop and speed up at the same time.  Living here in my childhood home makes life seem sort of timeless.  Yet I know the days are flying by so trying to stay focused on what I want to get done while I’m here.  I’m enjoying the changing seasons as summer
slides into fall with the leaves turning and trees becoming bare.  This autumn isn’t as uniform and spectacular as last year when I was here the beginning of October, but it is still amazing and beautiful.

We had a touch of winter last week with suddenly dropping temperatures and a covering of frost on the grass when I woke up the other morning.  Living in Kenya near the equator as I do, I miss the distinct seasons of the Northern temperate zones.  In the past, I was visiting Wisconsin most often in the winter and sometimes in the summer.  This year I have gotten to experience both spring in May and now autumn in October and this coming November.  I am enjoying it. 

Another thing I am enjoying is the different mix of birds here at the bird feeder.  No parrots, that’s for sure!  Instead I get to watch amazing pileated woodpeckers and wild turkeys among a wide variety of other types of birds:  different woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, nuthatches and more.  Can’t forget to mention the squirrels and deer also.  I have not yet seen a fox this trip, but they are there living in the woods over the hill and now and then one wanders through the back yard. 

Despite being in USA for a time, my Kenyan work is not far away, especially with this technical age.  I brought a suitcase full of baskets with me to sell at the various places I find around me.  I have been very fortunate to find another outlet by connecting on zoom with another member of WARP (Weave a Real Peace).  I am excited to have found a possible regular outlet for the general variety baskets that the weavers of Ngurunit Basket Weavers make.  I’m packing those up and mailing them off this week.  More news on that venture once things are up and running. 

With this, I will sign off for this post.  Not much in terms of excitement, but I wanted to share a bit of my life here also.  One more month in Wisconsin before traveling back to Kenya after Thanksgiving the end of November.  Halloween is coming fast now in October.  My daughter and I carved pumpkins together.  Fun fun.  Enjoy the treats!!!

The Long Way Around

I am traveling again.  Just can’t seem to stay in one place for very long lately. That’s okay.  I like to move.  I always see interesting things and have great adventures.  This trip was no exception.  First of all, I started the trip yesterday going the totally opposite direction from where I actually wanted to end up.  Various reasons, mostly to do with road conditions and shopping.  So instead of the normal 200 km in 5 hours trip, I went 500 km in 2 days.  I left the village about midday and travelled though the desert to hit the main tarmac road and then to Nanyuki at the foot of Mt Kenya for the night.  It took me about 4 ½ hours driving.   

Along the way I passed Bayo mountain which was especially beautiful and mysterious in the intense midday light.  It looks so much like some sort of crashed spaceship from a million years ago.  I even see inscriptions on it that look like stylized alien heads to me.  Haha.  Fun to let my imagination run wild as I drive for hours at a time.  Yesterday I also saw a couple female ostriches as I drove by Bayo which added to the mystery.  So cool. 

Then in a town called Timau not far from Nanyuki, I got a kick out of the motorbike guy carrying a sofa on the back of his bike.  This is done a lot in Kenya.  So crazy.  One time my daughter and I even saw another person actually sitting in the sofa that was being carried on the back of a motorcycle being driven by another person.  Crazy. Crazy.  Yesterday’s sofa on the motorbike was just a sofa.  With one person driving and no other passengers.  Very mundane.  Haha.

In Nanyuki I managed to get all my needed errands done by 7 just as it was getting dark, except find a place to stay for the night!! All my Airbnb requests were going unanswered saying host had 24 hours to answer – which as I needed a place within the hour, wasn’t much help to me!  I finally gave up on that route and did google search for a hotel.  The one I liked ended up being completely booked, but the manager gave me a number of a person who booked homestays.  Networking, I love it.  Best way to survive.  I found her and in the end went to California!!  Haha.  That was the name of the apartment building I stayed in.  A very lovely one bedroom place. 

Waking up in the morning, I had the most amazing view of Mt Kenya.  So pretty.  And so clear.  The mountain followed me out of town for a long way on the next leg of my journey.  So cool to see it in all its majesty. 

Another 3 ½ hour drive brought me finally to our home in Maralal.  The amazing part of this drive was that it has rained on this side of the country.  So weird to see it so green when I had left the village dry and brown still struggling with drought conditions.  I arrived home to green grass and trees all in bloom.  So vibrant and growing.  Colder too.  The higher altitude here definitely makes a difference.  Still hoping that it will rain soon in the village.  It usually starts raining further south and then moves north.  So the fact there is rain here, gives me hope it will continue north to water the desert a bit. 

I’m ultimately on my way to USA for a couple months.  Fly next week from Nairobi so here in Maralal to pack my cold weather clothes and get prepared.  Next time I post, should be from Wisconsin.  I’m looking forward to the autumn colors.  I do miss the distinct 4 seasons of the Northern hemisphere.  The short days long nights will be weird.  Here on the equator, I have equinox all year round!!  12 hour days.  12 hour nights.  Speaking of which, it is quite late here.  Time to sleep.  Busy day packing tomorrow.  More adventures to come….

 All about water.

Water.  Such an important ingredient for life.  It seems that the last couple of months of my life have been dominated by thinking about water.  Fixing the community well.  Watering my trees and garden.  Struggling to get my water tanks filled.  Thinking about how to improve the well to get water to the community in a more convenient way.  Today I have hopes that some of those worries will be relieved for a little while.  Hopes, not certainties, but hope is enough for me at the moment. 

As for the well fixing, after some struggle I finally managed to get a technician to arrive very early on a Saturday morning to help us figure out how to fix the community well.  Fortunately, he managed to fish out the illusive part that had broken off into the bottom of it.  That meant a much easier and quicker fix than we had anticipated.  It required a bit of search for a welder in town and a few spots of welding on the bolt so it will not break again for a while.  That part at least.  Who knows what other things can go wrong.  Just to be sure, I again sourced some spares in Nairobi last week when I had a quick there and back again dash for some business and meetings.  If one can call a 1300 km round trip a dash.  Ha.  Anyway, the community well is in use again for now.  I have hope it will work a long time again.

In relation to community wells and hope, there is another wonderful development over this past week.  In July a certain project had come to drill another big community well with plans to put in an electric pump, a big tank and distribute water far and wide to parts of the underserved community areas around Ngurunit.  We were very happy and anticipating being able to improve the water system at the tourist camp also.  After reaching a depth of 150 meters and finding a lot of water, they suddenly stopped, pulled out all the pipes and left!  I asked why and was told that the prescribed depth was 160 meters and they had hit rock too hard to go deeper at 150, but that wasn’t deep enough as per their instructions so told to stop.  What craziness.  I thought 10 meters makes no difference if the water is there already.  Other people thought that way too and the matter was taken to the project management.   In the end, it was decided that 150 meters would work.  So last week the drilling rig returned and the hole is being redone and pipes returned.  Hope has returned that this big community well project will be a reality soon. 

Amidst all this worry of wells and finding water, on Saturday it finally rained significantly for the first time in months!!! Wow.  It was a beautiful sight.  I sat on the verandah for hours watching the rain roll in across the valley.  It rained steady all afternoon and through the night.  A gentle soaking rain.  It is a beginning.  It cleared up on Sunday but I still have hope of more rain.  The heat is building up and today clouds too are starting to form over the mountains again.  Praying this is the start of the short rainy season – early and hopefully for longer than usual, with more rain.  With the failure of the long rains this year, we could really use a good prolific rainy season now.  Let is rain.  Let it rain!!  Hope abounds….

 10 September 2021

I’m feeling sad.  A long-time tree friend was felled by a strong gust of wind today.  A tree that I have spent long hours over countless years sitting with in the mornings and evenings watching the sun or the moon rise through its branches.  Watching the weaver birds build their nests and raise their babies in the protective arms of this tree.  The parrots that live around me liked to hang out in that tree too.  Such a sad day to see it toppled over into our garden.  It was also a great producer of pods that the goats and sheep like to eat.  Whenever a gust of wind came, one could hear the pods hitting the ground.  The goats and sheep would come running to snap them up, crunching away in bliss.  Well, today the gust of wind was too strong and the whole big trunk twisted and cracked and down fell the biggest part of the tree with all its pods scattering across the ground.  Feast time for the sheep and goats.  I opened the garden gate to let them in to scramble around munching on the many pods knocked off the tree as it hit the ground.  

Amazingly the tree fell in such a way that the main part of the truck is held over the top of the fence which was left mostly in tack. The trunk that fell was actually sort of half of the main tree, though the bigger half.  So part of the tree is still standing strong with its roots firming in the ground.  Though one side is eroding away in the wash off riverbed, which is what probably weakened the trunk that finally gave up, twisted and cracked. .

I went to check the weaverbird nests that had come down with the tree.  One fortunate discovery is that most of the nests that I would watch everyday are actually on a branch of the trunk that didn’t fall.  So they are safe, if a bit more exposed against the sky as the thicker branches were on the trunk that fell.  On the down tree, I found only two nests.  One was completely empty and bare.  The other was full of feathers and nicely lined and ready to hold a family.  But I found neither eggs or baby birds.  So, seems it was just made ready but not yet filled.  Some couple will come home and find their ready house gone.  Time to weave another one.  Another fortunate discovery was that the tree had just missed the whole line of tree seedlings that we’d planted there almost 2 years ago.  So they are saved.  One of my flower bushes is under the tree completely so not sure how that will fare.  But the other flower patch was also missed. 

I’m going to miss that tree.   For a while I will have to sadly see it laying in my garden as it is very big and removing it will take some time and effort.  The wind has been blowing quite a lot this last week.  Harbinger of rain we hope.  It has been cloudy since yesterday when we even got a few drops of rain.  Praying it is building up to a proper rainy season.

I went out just now as the sun was setting to find a commotion in the bird world.  The weaver birds had come as a big group to inspect the damage.  They checked out the downed nest and took a few feathers out of it.  They flew in and out of the nests still hanging up on the standing part of the tree.  Huge chattering conversation and acrobatics in the air all around.  A couple go-away-birds came by to kwak at the damage.  A whole flock of golden breasted starlings came and perched at the very tops of the trees around looking down at the fallen giant.  I have never seen them gather like that before.  Though I do suspect that they would sometimes perch in that big tree at night.  They all swooped away as a group leaving the weaver birds to their concern about their nests.  A real conference of birds!!

The sun is down now.  Quiet has descended in the trees.  A sad evening for those who loved, used and lived in that mighty tree.  Life moves on.  Things change.  Tomorrow is another day.  So it is…

 6^th September 2021

I sat down to write and while contemplating where to start, I heard a commotion in my kitchen.  Going to check, I found my goat Ruma looking for more snacks.  She has an insatiable appetite.  It doesn’t matter that she has been out grazing all day and is given as much hay and supplemental leaves as she can eat.  She must check my kitchen every morning and evening for delicacies.  She loves fruit salad, potato and carrot peelings and cabbage.  Wheatabix cereal and the cooked soya-based dog food are also on her menu of choice.  Earlier this evening she had hit the jackpot of a plate of banana peels that I had saved for her from my afternoon activity of baking banana bread.  I had sent her off to hang out and do goat things with the other goats, but she had different ideas.  I found her climbing up on the stove to get a couple bites of the cooling dog food.  So, she is now chased off again and the door is closed.  Makes the house a bit hot but it is the only way to concentrate with her in munchy mood.  

I got back to my village in the North a few days ago from a week-long trip to Nairobi for various work and life activities.  Though only 520 kilometers separate the two places, they are like different worlds.  The day I arrived in Nairobi it rained and the whole area is quite lush and green.  On the way back I passed near Mt Kenya with its high altitude and cool weather.  I also got rained on there as I was shopping for the trip home.  Here in Ngurunit it is so hot during the day yet quite cool in the mornings.  We are praying for rain as drought like conditions are setting in.  The long rains of March to June mostly failed.  The short rains aren’t expected till mid-October.  Yet we have some hope that the rains might come early.  If they don’t come soon, things are going to get very hard.  So far there is still some pasture for grazing, and leaves and certain roots can be gathered for supplementary feeding of the livestock.  Most herds are off at distant grazing camps and following the spotty rain pattern.  But that life is hard and dangerous with risk of raids and fighting over the scarce resources.  Also, moving weak animals is difficult.  Coming from Maralal a couple weeks ago, herds of cattle were being moved towards greener climes up the mountain and I passed several dead calves left in the ditch as they couldn’t take the stress.  Very sad.  Climate change is a daily reality here in Northern Kenya. 

One major issue I’m dealing with is the Rotary community hand pump well in Ngurunit.  It isn’t working.  This well is one of the few good water sources in the area, so it is imperative to get it fixed.   One of my errands in Nairobi was to buy rubbers for the well pumping system so the first thing I did after getting back was to go fix it with the new parts.  Unfortunately, we discovered there was a bigger problem than just the rubbers.  So now I am organizing, trying to organize with some difficulty, some assistance on getting the job done.  Technicians are few and far between and transport is not easy.  Parts too.  Fingers crossed we will have the know-how and way to fix the pump within the next few days.  All will be well.  (pun noticed after the fact…haha). 

Darkness is descending as I type.  Things are quieting as everything settles down in the evening twilight.  The heat of the day is radiating off the ground and out of the walls of my house as it starts to cool down.  I have been able to open the doors for a breeze as Ruma is off to her pen for the night.  I will go out to gaze at the sky in all its beauty.  I will rest in the Peace of the moment.  Till next time…enjoy!

 25 August 2021

I'm back.  I'm back, though I've never really been away.  I can make all sorts of excuses and blame all sorts of personal and world events as to why I stopped writing here, but none of that really matters.  1 year and 8 months after my last post, here I am again, showing up at the page.  Quite a lot has changed, yet in some ways, nothing has changed at all.  I am still living and working in Northern Kenya.  I am still traveling around a lot.  I am still enjoying the life of working with community, having livestock and enjoying the wildlife of Kenya whereever I find myself.  

Today I want to talk about parrots.  Yes, parrots.  African orange bellied parrots.  This last year has been full of joyful encounters with this beautiful bird.  I had seen them now a then in a fleeting way around Ngurunit.  In January of 2021, they took up residence very close to my village home.  Since then, I have spent long hours watching them eat the fruits of the tree outside my kitchen doors, flying around in the big acacia trees in the dry river bed that passes behind my house and hearing their whistles and hoots outside my window as I work in the living room.  I have amazing pictures and videos of both the resident male and his several female friends.  I am convinced they have been nesting up in a crook of the biggest acacia tree, but it is so thick that I haven't gotten a good view to know for sure.  

Another parrot encounter is with a flock at Salato Tourist Camp in Ngurunit that PEAR Innovations has been managing on behalf of the community.  They come into the tops of the tall trees along the riverbed in the evening, whistling and doing acrobatics high up in the canopy.  I have been inspired by these parrots and other bird species and wildlife to use them as the subjects of camp buildings beautification.  I spent most of July painting murals around the camp and fixing up the living spaces so the camp can be running again after over a year of being mostly dormant.  New manager.  New artwork.  New lighting system.  The camp is looking beautiful and open for business.  In fact, I am sitting here at the camp using the electricity outlet writing as I wait for our latest customer to arrive.  Fun fun.  

With this humble restart to my writing about life and work in Northern Kenya, I will leave it here for today with a few pictures.  Be well.  Stay safe.  Till next time.