This last few days has been very busy; we are getting invitations to go here and there, visit peoples homes, and do a bit of sight seeing … as well as the work continuing.
Work-wise, the workshop is almost completed .. we are just waiting for the doors to arrive to go on the front of the building, and for the electrician fundi to bring the junction boxes; all the windows are in and the ceilings have all been plastered and 'textured'. Internal doors are going to be made by Paul later. Walls are plastered, and the outside of the building has been rendered.
This last Sunday was particularly full. We went to church in the morning …. St Josephs Catholic Church. The congregation wears their best clothes, and one lady was absolutely gorgeous … she had a long orange and red dress on, with a massive head-dress of the same material; she shimmied down the aisle and looked magnificent. Small children are quiet and very well-behaved; I can't see children at home sitting so quietly through an hours service. We are objects of great interest in the church, where there are only about ten white people in total. People come up and shake our hands, and say 'How are you ?' The usual answer to this is 'I'm fine' ! Even as we walk along the roads, children call out to us:- 'Wazungu … how are you ?' If we greet children they always answer 'I'm fine' !!
After church, we walked to the bus station, where we caught the Acacia bus to Yala, about 30 miles out of town, and a little beyond Maseno, where I once lived. There we met one of Pauls friends, and walked with him to the station to await the one and only train … three times a week. The train was about an hour later than expected, but this is Africa ! It rattled and squeaked its way into the station, which was a waiting room and no platform. You just walk up to the track (which people use as a footpath anyway) and climb up the vertical rungs onto the train.
What a train ! It was already half full of people who had boarded nearer to the Uganda border, plus their bulging sacks of produce … sacks and sacks of avacado's, green vegetables, oranges, stems of bananas, clay pots, and other things too. Everyone was happy and chatted, and showed us their babies. Several groups of women had brought sacks of a green vegetable I didn't recognise, and tipped it all out onto the floor, and then proceeded to tie it into bunches, ready for sale in Kisumu or even Nairobi markets. The floor of the train was covered in banana peel, vegetable leaves, mango peel and stones, and other rubbish.
When the train stopped at halts or stations, dozens of people came and sold their wares on the train, and offered produce outside the windows, catching the shillings as people tossed them out into the waiting hands. More banana peel ! At one station, a lady boarded with several sacks of pots, all packed with banana leaves, and one massive pot. Nigel and Dan helped haul aboard the sacks; the loo was stacked high with bundles and sacks. Children running along the track shouted and waved as the train passed … and we often heard fading shouts of 'Wazungu !'
It was a wonderful two hour journey, full of colour, laughter, and sheer fun ! And all for 105 Kenya shillings … about 90p in UK !
Another evening, we took a boat out on Lake Victoria from Kiboko Point (Hippo Point) with Paul and Lucy and their family. The lake was quite rough as it was windy, and the boat tossed around. But the owner was very skilful at ploughing through the thick band of water hyacinths into open water, and took us around to Dunga, the fishing village, where we could see the fishing boats, people folding nets, washing themselves in the lake, and masses of birds in the reeds and on the rocks. Two massive canoes were loaded with charcoal from Uganda, which reminded us that the lake is still a route from Uganda into Kenya. We didn't see any hippos, for it was just too rough for them to surface, so had to content ourselves with the distant views of them we had a couple of weeks ago.
Time for us here is fast running out; our final day on the site is Wednesday, when we dont expect to work, but we are organising a little party with doughnuts and soda's for the workmen ! Thursday morning we leave Kisumu on a bus for Nairobi, stay in a hotel for the night, then early on Friday we hope to be able to visit the national park for a game drive before we leave for the airport later to fly home !
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