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12, 19th Feb.
Sunday
morning, so as breakfast
is at 8 today, instead
of 7.30, I set
the alarm for later,
and enjoyed in sleep
my extra half an
hour under the net.
I think Paul is
going to collect me
to take me to
his church (St Josephs,
which I attended with
him last year). I wonder if
the lady with the
hippo full of fire
on her head will
be there ? (She wasn't).
Later
we are going to
visit Kit-mikayi rocks …
… which we did. Paul was still driving his friends egg
yellow pick-up, and I was squashed on the front seat with his son Graham, who
is about 11. Kit-mikayi is an area of
enormous rocks on the road towards Bondo.
I seem to remember this area from when we travelled the road regularly
to Maranda School back in the late 1960's.
Goodness, Kisumu has developed … we drove out on the road west which is
lined with scarlet flowering flamboyant trees.
I'm glad they haven't been cut down in the name of progress ! They are just stunning. Past the international airport … it used to
be just for small two seaters, landing on a rough runway, but now takes huge
jet planes several times a day from Eldoret, Nairobi, Mombasa, and from Uganda
and Tanzania.
Then through Otongolo Market … I
remember this place. 'Otongolo' is the
Dholuo word for 10 cents, which were the large bronze coins with a hole in the
middle, back in the days when a bunch of bananas did cost an 'otongolo'. No more cents in Kenya now … just shillingi
… I suppose there are places in England
where the meaning of the name of the village or town has long been lost, and so
it will be with Otongolo Market in a hundred years time.
Turn left along a tarmac road towards
Bondo … this road used to be murram, and it often took a couple of hours to get
from the school to town, what with punctures, and the mud on the road in the
wet season.
Kit-mikayi reached, we parked and
walked through the bush towards the enormous mounds of rocks. The Luo have a story that once the rocks were
elephants; the lake rose and rose, and the whole area was flooded for
years. When the waters fell, then they
found the elephants had turned into the rocks we see around us.
When I say the rocks are enormous, I
mean enormous … like whole blocks of flats stacked on top of each other. The main rock heap is known as 'first wife',
but whether this refers to its shape or size, I don't know.
There is an entrance gate in a fence,
for this place is now protected as a sacred site; 500 Ksh gave us benediction and admitted us to
it. A lady escorted us up through
the cracks in the rocks (memo to self: if I should ever come this way again,
wear shoes, not sandals !) It was quite
a scramble, over and under boulders that had fallen in the past. It put me in mind slightly of some of the
narrow, rocky paths at Petra, though here, the rock is grey, with slight
intrusions of lime ? Perhaps this place
has been under water, or has had water running through it in the geological
past ?
As we climbed up what seems like the
inner-body cavity of the rocks, we could hear a weird and eerie singing. A bit more of a climb, and we came to a
dimly candle lit cave, where there was a woman at a sort of altar, praying in
song. I don't think she liked being
disturbed, so we left her and climbed a little more, until we came into the
open again, and what a view ! The lady
who accompanied us wanted us to climb further, but I said no, for my sandals
just weren't adequate. Photos, then the
reverse journey back through the belly of the first wife, until we came to the
start again. Through the trees, and on some open ground,
two ladies were waiting for us (unkind thoughts made me suspect for some more mzungu
money !) They danced … and so I joined
them, with much shoulder and breast waggling, and arm waving. They were in fits of laughter, we all were,
and all thought of money had gone. I
gave them both big hugs and many hand shakes, and I think they were almost
sorry to see us go.
Later … supper at Pauls, and I showed
Graham the photos I had taken during the morning. The power went off ...so we ate our supper
by the light of my laptop and torch.
Travellers to Kenya, please note !
Take a wind up torch with you !
And always carry it from dusk to dawn.
One of Pauls twin boys was ill; he had
a fever and Lucy thought he might have malaria, so after supper, Lucy and the
child and Paul and I squeezed into the cab of the pick-up (always room for one
more) … and after they dropped me back at the guest house, they were going to
take the child to the Russian hospital where Lucy is a nurse.
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