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16, 23rd Feb. Back to
Nairobi.
Up betimes to complete
my packing; then the
last service in the
little chapel, Alois presiding. This joining
the catholic fathers has
made this trip so
special.
Morris
was due at 8.15;
he came at 8.30
which panicked me slightly,
as I had no
shillingi
left, and needed to
go to the ATM
to get some money
to pay Morris and
give him a tip. We made
the bus in good
time, and Paul was
there to say a
final goodbye.
The
bus left late, after
a long discussion about
a spare tyre with
a large area of
wire showing through the
rubber. However, they
decided it was better
than nothing … so I
hoped they wouldn't have
to use it !
Trip
was the same as
coming, only in reverse. Very dusty
and dry everywhere. We stopped in
Kericho for ten minutes,
then went via Kabianga
and Bomet to Narok. I remembered
our trip from Kabianga
when it was a
bumpy murram road, back
to Kericho with Lizzie
aged about 4 or
5, with a broken
collar bone, and then
when we got to
the Tea Hospital, how
she thought they were
going to chop her
hair off, because in
order to put her
in a figure of
8 strapping, the nurse had
to lift up her
pigtails out of the
way !
Twenty
minute stop in Narok. Just time
for the 10 bob
high-type, surprisingly clean, but I
still gave it the
baby wipe treatment.
Going
across the Maasai plains
again, the wheat had
all been harvested, and
I noticed that vast
areas have been ploughed,
where once was dry
bush. With it
being so dry and
windy, I wonder if
the powers that be,
the agricultural experts, have remembered
what happened in the
US in the 1930's,
when dry, windy weather
blew away millions of
tons of topsoil, creating
the dust-bowl ?
Lots of spiralling columns
of dust are going up
and up into the
sky, some carrying plastic
rubbish several hundred feet
into the sky. Plastic bags and
plastic bottles are everywhere,
especially in and near
the towns; if only
Kenya had continued to
use paper bags, and
newspaper to wrap things,
and glass bottles to
collect liquids like milk,
which is now sold
in thin plastic bags. The mobile
phone has transformed Kenya;
the plastic bag is
destroying it.
A few animals once
past the farm area;
impala and Grants gazelles,
lots of baboons and
a solitary zebra. I suspect in
a few years, even
these will disappear.
Into
the outskirts of Nairobi, once
climbed up the escarpment
and the wonderful views
across the Rift Valley,
but with a brown
haze of dust. Rush hour, and
the bus driver had
to reverse the bus
and try to find
a way to Fire
Station Lane (bus depot
off River Road) as
several roads were being
repaired and rebuilt, causing
chaos and traffic jams. Nairobi has
over 4,000,000 people living in
it; and most of
them seem to be
moving around the congested
city in rush hour. One day,
everything will come to
a standstill !
Peterson
met me from the
bus, and took me
back to the ASK
guest house, where I
had a really grotty
room this time. They need to
upgrade seriously. No lamp-shades, no
bed side lamp, cold
shower, a bathroom that
needed the door opening
outwards so one could
sit on the loo
with the door shut,
and as for the
loo … it had been
installed tipping backwards, so
what one did, didn't
drop into the water
…
Food
was OK; I enjoyed
myself Swede watching … a
group of ten Swedish
pensioners, all over-weight with
bum-bags perched on their
spare tyres (I can
talk !), and who
had obviously been to the
Mara, for several of
them were wearing Maasai
necklaces which dangled in
the soup.
Another Archbishop here, and an
English ex-vicar from Worcester
who had come for
a three year stint
to start a training
centre and retreat house
at Limuru.
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