Ran out of power on my computer yesterday before I could
post. So today I’m at my electricity point
at the Salato Tourist Camp. We have hope
of getting main electricity at our house. Working on it. Then we’ll be able to have a luxury like a refrigerator too. Presently we use the freezer at the camp and
pick up cold stuff and keep in a cooler at our house. Daily cooler cold pack changes. Also the regular device charging trips. We have solar power at our house but only enough
for lights and the occasional phone charge.
Computer power consumption is just too much for our system. Anyway, here is my post which I wrote
yesterday! Enjoy!!
27th May 2022
Here I am again.
After a 3 month hiatus since the last time I put thoughts into words
here in this space. My 2022 resolution
to be a more regular blog writer seems to have gone for vacation, unless
regular means once a quarter…hahaha.
Anyway, today is a day to write.
Not much else I feel like doing today here in Ngurunit as it is as hot
as an oven here. Thankfully, a bit more
humid than usual as the area did get some heavy rains for a couple days the
beginning of this month. Was over a
month late for the long rains, but at least we have gotten something. Praying for more. The heat of the last few days seems to be
building up to more rain. I can only
hope as I sweat in the heat and stay in the shade. We do not have the luxury of air conditioning
here. Unless, of course, I start up the
car and sit inside with the air blasting for a while to cool off. I have been known to do that in the
past…haha.
I am not sure where even to begin on what has been happening
in my life and work the last 3 months.
I
traveled the country (Kenya-from North to the Coast) several times and I’ve
traveled the world (was in USA all of April and beginning May)!
I will start with today and go
backwards.
My daughter is visiting home
in Kenya during her summer break from university in Wisconsin.
She has been hanging out this morning on the
verandah trying to beat the heat.
She
yelled for me to come look and then pointed out a huge Monitor lizard making
its way up our driveway towards us.
Wow.
Scary really.
These things are big!
It was heading towards where my goat Ruma was
nursing her 1 month old kid.
We made
noise and the Monitor lizard turned around and headed down towards the empty
goat pens.
Probably looking for a chick
dinner since we thwarted its idea of tender goat.
We’ve been having something eating our
chicks, and now and then an adult chicken.
We do have wild cats around, but looking up Monitor Lizard on google, I
found that they do eat meat, including birds, and the bigger ones can even eat
gazelles.
Their saliva is somewhat
venomous to smaller animals, including small dogs, so we were careful to keep
all the dogs away from it.
The dogs did
see the Monitor Lizard as it was walking into the bush, but they seemed to have
some sense of danger and stayed away from it.
This lizard wasn’t the biggest I have seen here in Kenya, but definitely
larger than my dog Mouse!!
Backing up a couple weeks ago saw my husband, my daughter
and myself on the Kenyan coast beaches attending our District 9212 Rotary
Conference just after my daughter and I got back from USA.
Fabulous trip with a full moon over the
ocean, lovely resort environment and lots of fun with Rotarians from around the
District and the World.
While at the
coast, my daughter and I visited a primate rehabilitation center in Diani.
Colobus Conservation is a very interesting
organization that works towards helping primates that get injured and orphaned
along the busy road of the tourist destinations along the South Coast of
Kenya.
It works with all species of
primate found in the area, not just the black and white Colobus monkeys.
The day we visited we saw lots of Vervet and
Sykes monkeys.
Some pens were full of
orphans that are being raised until they can be returned to the wild and
several wild troops of
Vervet and Sykes monkeys came by to visit them while we
were there.
Fascinating to watch the
interactions.
One cool innovation the
center has done is construct monkey ladder bridges over the roads in the area to
reduce primate injuries and deaths from being hit by cars.
This is the sort of wildlife conservation and
rehabilitation work my daughter might want to get into when she finishes her
degree.
The end of June, we hope to go
visit an orphan elephant and wildlife rehabilitation center located on the East
side of our Samburu County.
Another step back in time into April. I spent the month in Wisconsin. The thing of note in terms of work that
happened while I was there related to my past Peace Corps Volunteer
connections. Last year I joined the
Madison chapter of the National Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
Associations. In April they had one of
their bi-annual Gift Away meetings to give grants to projects from funds they
raise through annual calendar sales.
This time I put in a proposal for starting a Cybercafe in Ngurunit and
was granted $2500 to get it started. So
excited about this. With network and
electricity available now in Ngurunit, things are opening up and potential
growing in this small remote town of Northern Kenya. Over the next months I will be working to
rehabilitate some available buildings and get a space for community to access
internet services and computer skills learning opportunities. It is located right next to the Salato
Primary School so ideally located. Watch
this space….
Another important connection I made while in USA was finding
a new publisher to help me get my children’s book published by June…more on
that later once it is out in the world.
This has been a long time coming and I’m excited to see it finally coming
into fruition. Again, watch this space!
Last, but definitely not least, back up into March 2022 and
I became the mother of a commercial pilot when my son got his Commercial Pilot
License in Nairobi!! Yay! I also became
a Mother-in-Law when he got married to my now daughter-in-law! Life is full of joys and beauty!!
With that back to front update on key points in my life and
work in Northern Kenya (and the world) I will leave it here in the heat of
Ngurunit.
Clouds seem to be building up,
but will they produce rain and cool us off?
That is the big question I will sit and ponder now as I swelter the
afternoon away as I hang out with my goat Ruma and her young doe kid (born April 21st) to keep her safe from Monitor lizards.
2022 is flying
away.
5 months almost gone already.
Wow.
I
plan to be back to this space sooner than this last gap.
In the meantime, enjoy life and find
adventures wherever you are!
Joy and
Peace to you all.
Till next time…
