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….