Toes !

The picture says it all, really .. .

The little girl in the pink dress in the previous posting, had her flip-flops on the wrong feet .... and her toes squashed wrongly around the thong !   But what pretty flip-flops !

Happy children

Children who have what we would consider to be no material possessions, and live very poor lives, can be incredibly happy.   What does this say about us and our western society ?    When I see all the 'stuff' in shops aimed at Christmas shoppers, and hear children making extravagant demands of their parents, I sometimes feel physically sick, and feel like telling the parents to teach their children the difference between 'wants' and 'needs' !!   (I'd probably get arrested !)    

Then I look around my home ... I'm no different !   I have food aplenty in my freezer and  fridge; I have some new shoes, and clothes; I buy books on the internet; I have just got a blender for making soup.     But are our 'western' children with computer devices and expensive toys any more happy than these children ?   When I see these children playing in puddles, with sticks, stones and mud, and looking after each other, I sometimes doubt it.

Maasai dancing !

One night at the Mara Serena, a group of Maasai dancers turned up; they paraded through the lodge dining room, singing and doing their grunting chants.   All semi-naked, with red cloths over their shoulders, and beads and clay plastered hair .... very authentic, even to the smell of animal fat and red ochre !

(The only slightly bizarre thing was that one of them wore glasses !)

My camera doesn't cope well with dimly lit indoor photography when people are moving, but I got a few shots !

 

This man was doing the Maasai traditional standing jumps .... its quite incredible to see how high they can jump from a still position ..... his head is almost hitting the lamps above him.

Impala Park

I had one day with nothing much to do and time to fill (Paul had closed the workshop and had gone to a family funeral) so I walked down to the lake and visited Impala Park again.   I chose a bad day .... there were boat races going on from the beach, and HUNDREDS and hundreds of visitors, and a band, and lots of dancing and general noise.

So I walked through the park (fortunately all the activity was quite near the entrance) to the far end, and had the place more or less to myself !  The zebra which last year we found near the entrance had disappeared with all the noise; the lonely giraffe which is in a large enclosure was there and obviously fascinated by all that was going on !

 

 

Such an intelligent look, and wonderful long eye-lashes.  

 

I managed to locate some impala, but they were very skittish, and I had to sit down on the track and keep quite still, until they got used to me and came a little closer.

 

 Such sleek animals, with glossy bodies; you want to stroke them, but the slightest movement, and they are off !

I also saw three hippo in the lake, but nothing like the one I saw in the Mara !   I sat on the track for a while in another place, and watched these dragon-flies .... hard to see the wings, but they have transparent wings, with dark brown  blobs near the end of each wing, so when they are in flight, you see the body, with what look like small insects flying along-side, until you realise its the blobs !

 

 

 

I gradually worked my way back through the park, until I could see in the distance some of the boat racing .... rather like gig racing in Cornwall and the Scillies ... and then I came upon the dancers and the noise !                                                                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 



And then ..... as I was thinking I had seen all I could see, I spotted a leopard fast asleep high up in a tree; difficult to see through the branches, but I managed to get one not very good picture of it !  I haven't seen a leopard in Africa for a very long time !





I'm back home now ..... but there's a lot to write about.

After 2nd December, there was another attack by terrorists in north eastern Kenya, on the border of Ethiopia and Somalia; about 36 killed.   And co-incidentally, the internet disappeared, so it was impossible to email or write any more blog.

I've got a lot to catch up on.    Four of the boys did their grade III trade exams - Kennedy, Stephen, David and Jared.   Its quite expensive to do the exams  - 2,500 K.sh booking fee, + 900 'centre' fee for each student, plus they have to provide a photo of themselves.   That's 3,400 each, which is about £24 per student.   They would never in their wildest dreams be able to find that sort of money themselves, so the workshop/HATW/sponsors pay.  

The exam is one hour of theory - questions like 'Name two ways of drying timber' and 'List safety rules when using a chisel'.   Not difficult, but for some of the boys who have had hardly any schooling, and whose English is extremely poor, quite a problem.    Then there is seven hours of practical .... making various joints in wood, measuring, planning, etc.  

 

 

This is a 'mock' practical test Paul gave the boys; it involves carefully measuring, planing and then making a simple mortise and tenon joint, and finally the complicated joint in the centre.

 

 

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I went to the Nakumatt arcade to get some more money from the ATM to pay Alois for my final few days.   I noticed Santa has come to visit, and has left santa hats with the check out staff ! 

 

 

 

 



 





The poor check out men were so hot in the woolly hats !    AND, they have hit Kisumu in a big way - the piki-piki drivers are also wearing them, in lieu of a hard hat !

 

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HATW is 21 years old next year, and we are planning celebrations; we are going to have a big exhibition showing the work we do in each country, and we have been asked to bring back a flag from wherever we are working.    But do you think I could find a Kenyan flag for sale anywhere ?   No !    So I asked Paul if he could find me one somewhere, and he did !   But it cost over £10. 

 

 

The colours represent the black people of Kenya, the red is their blood shed in the independence fight, and the green is the green landscape; with a Maasai shield and spears over all.



 

Lots more to come .....



Its a very small world ....

Having met someone on the flight over who knows many of my old Kenyan friends, and whose surname I still can't remember, today I had a big shock !    Into Mill Hill House walked a lady I trained with about ten or more years ago, and who attends Ty Mawr Convent, and lives near Abergavenny !    She didn't complete the training, but remembers me, although until we spoke, I confess I didn't remember her.   She's gone in a completely different direction to me; she travels and evangelises in places like Morocco and Libya; brave ?   or crazy ??    Anyway, she's come here to work in an orphanage until February. I've just sent her into town to buy some anti-malarials as she's recently been in Kitale which is higher and malaria free, but she definitely needs them here.

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This morning I went to Pandipieri, one of the slum areas, and took more baby and childrens clothes, and ladies bra's !    I had a long talk to Sister. B. about HIV treatment.   The health centre aims to prevent MTCT by testing pregnant mothers and then giving them various drugs at delivery.   They are also encouraging mothers of boy babies to have them circumcised, as its now thought this can also help .... far fewer circumcised men get HIV than the non-circumcised.   I don't think its really understood why .... 

HIV infection stands at about 18 or 19% in this area; a shocking statistic.  Every fifth person is HIV positive .... 

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A few more pictures from the Mara ...

Swala tommi, or Thomsons gazelle.   A tasty meal for a cheetah !   

Ahh !    One of my favourites.   Such graceful, majestic animals, despite their size and weight.  

Sunset over the Mara

Transports of delight ??

Several people have asked me the difference between tuk-tuk's, piki-piki's and boda-boda's !!

Here they are ....  (pictures taken from my balcony).

A boda-boda is a pedal bike with a seat at the back for one passenger ... but I've seen them with a child in front of the mother who is on the back seat, with a baby tied to her back ........

This is a piki-piki; a motor-bike with a seat at the back.   This one has only two passengers .... but I've seen them with a child in front of the driver, a child behind the driver, and mother at the back, again with tied on baby,   i.e. five on one motor bike ........ and not a helmet to be seen.   There are often awful accidents involving piki-piki.

The tuk-tuk's have licenses for three passengers plus the driver.   They are a three wheeled body built onto a scooter base (Italian Piaggio), and I think the name comes from the chugging sound they make .... a sort of tukka-tuk-tuk-tukka-tuk as they go along !    I've been in one containing nine people .... in Africa, remember, there is ALWAYS room for one more !!  Whether its in a vehicle, on a pew in church, or spaces on a bus.

I have been on boda-boda and piki-piki ..... but normally only go in tuk-tuk's.

A long walk, Mama Pat and a new laid egg !

I greatly enjoy being here if only for the humour of Father Hans !   ( E.g. his Protestant chickens story ?)  So this morning at breakfast when asked how he was today, he replied "Very well indeed; like a new laid egg in fact !"

Remember -  if you are an avid blog follower .... (are there any, I ask myself ?) ... Mama Pat, that I first met in 2011 ?     Refresh your memory here :-    http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2011/03/visit-to-covenant-orphanageschool-at.html

I decided to visit her this morning, so after phoning her and knowing she lived in Aga Khan Road, I walked.   It was about a mile and a half , but I took my time, and despite it being extremely hot, I got there !  (And back again later !)   She was delighted to see me, and over cold drinks she told me what had happened to her Covenant school.   It has basically been taken over by another evangelical group who have access to a lot more money and clout than she had, and in her opinion, it's gone rapidly downhill, with staff leaving or being sacked, and the children not cared for and loved, like she used to.  

She was heart-broken, but being determined, she now has a house full of ex students who left Covenant, and are now in training, colleges, higher school classes or university, and need a home .... which she provides for them until they are through with education and can support themselves.   Pat is still using her own resources, and donations from well-wishers in the UK ... and her recently discovered pension pot (!) to feed about 20 youngsters and provide a home.  As she says, God never sleeps and always somehow provides.

Pat is now 76, and stays almost permanently in Kisumu; she is classed as a 'permanent resident' having decided not to try for Kenyan citizenship, which she wouldn't have got as she speaks neither Swahili or a local dialect.   She thinks that in another five years, her 'boys' will no longer need her, so she'll retire then and 'write the book' !!

An amazing lady.

Sunset over Lake Victoria from my balcony.

Bonaventure

This young man is doing well; he's one of the students sponsored by my daughter, so I thought she'd like to see how he is getting on.   He passed his grade III trade exam at the end of 2013, and is now promoted to working 'upstairs' under Pauls supervision on paid work.   At present he is working on making mahogany dining chairs.   Paul wants him to do the grade II exams, along with Evans, at the end of next year.   Paul is going to get the two boys to tender for and make a door each for the upstairs rooms at the workshop; he will pay them, but deduct for bad work !!

Bonaventure planing

Today Paul was giving the boys about to take their tests a final grilling on theory.   Questions involved how to store timber, different types of tools, adhesives, joints used for different purposes, etc.   This afternoon they have to check all their tools are sharpened and ready for the practical on Monday, and wash their overalls so they look smart.

The children who live near the workshop were having a wonderful time playing in a large muddy puddle !  

Goodness knows what their mothers will say when they see their muddy clothes and soaking wet shoes !

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After dinner and a snooze (it had got VERY hot and humid before a storm) I watched the ants again, this time they were demolishing a dead mantis I had found !  

Some more animals from the safari

Spotted hyaena .... nasty mannered scavengers which we heard 'yip-yipping' and growling at nights.

This is normally the only view of hippo that we see .... they like to doze in the mud in the Mara River during the day, and come up for air, snort and grunt, and gently sink again.   But they are very dangerous animals if met on foot especially if one gets between them and water.     The size of the tusks in the photo below suggest just what they can do to a human if they attack.

And the day we left, we were lucky to find a hippo actually out of the water, wandering back to the river.   Hippos weigh about one and a half  to two tons, and despite their apparent plodding sluggishness, they can outrun a human, so very dangerous.

And finally, from the large to the small ... a buffalo which if I was one of the old colonial hunters, I would say has 'a fine head' and shoot it to mount it on a wall .......

... to another of my favourite 'small things' .... some sort of long horn beetle I think.  

Purple washing day !!

I went early to the workshop ... I'm getting used to flagging down tuk-tuks and travelling by myself ... and haggling over the price.   I'm told the fare should be 100 K Sh, but because I'm white, they try and charge me much more .... what Hans calls 'skin-tax' !!  I usually pay 150 sh, and occasionally 200, which seems OK to me for the distance, so I pay it.

This is Milly's house, and its obviously the day for purple washing !   It looked like sheets and chair covers and table-cloths.   

I walked along to see Lilian again, pleased with myself that I could find her new house; I have memorised several land marks along the way .... left fork along the lane, pass the water tanks, another left and immediately right, through Nyamasaria market, right at the meat stall, straight, look out for blue loo's and then left at a new building of rough red bricks ......... all the time being chatted to by people who want to know where I'm going, and little children running up and shouting 'Wazungu !   'ow are you ?'  to which the reply is 'I'm fine !'  I think they are taught this in school.   It wouldn't be right at home to shout 'Black man !   How are you ?' but that's more or less the opposite of what the children shout.

Lilian was at home, sewing, and delight of delights, she's given me a big bag of scraps of African materials for patchwork !!  

Chanel, Shaila, Lilian and baby Davis in their house, which is one very crowded room about 12 ft by 10 ft.   Lilians husband is a boda-boda driver, and I suspect one of the workers on the 'dollar a day' poverty level often mentioned in UN and EU reports on African poverty levels.   Lilian adds to their income by taking in sewing and occasionally cooking for people giving parties.   Her children look well fed and clothed, and they go to school, so they manage.   I heard from Paul that many of the children who are usually around the workshop (its the school holidays here) are at 'tu-shon' classes .... or tuition.   The teachers hold these for kids in the holidays, and parents have to pay for their children to be taught what should really have been covered in normal school time.

Paul was giving the students who will take the trade exam on Monday, a sort of very tough 'mock' test, so that the piece they are asked to make will, he thinks, be easier.  

Stephine, Kennedy and Jared

Kennedy planing

Paul on the right explaining the task

Kenyan security

I haven't written anything about this tricky subject so far, but as I've had several emails and skypes about the massacre last weekend at Mandera, I thought I had better.

Firstly, Mandera is about four or five days drive from Kisumu, the last half over desert roads.  Mandera is right in the north-eastern corner of Kenya, tucked into a point of land between Ethiopia and Somalia.   Many people, even here, hardly know where it is, as this cartoon in todays Daily Nation shows:-

The characters comment about it sounding like the Middle East is just what its like .... Al Shabaab (and ISiL in Iraq and Syria) want everyone to be their sort of Moslems, but the Islam they preach isn't true Islam, which is a peaceable religion.   

BUT, the incidence of such events, like the massacre at the Westlands supermarket mall last year, and other attacks in Nairobi have more or less killed off the tourist industry here; also some international businesses are starting to wonder about things.   HOWEVER, I would say that if Serena Mara is anything to go by, its very safe, and many tourists fly in, and fly out again.... hardly the way to see the real Kenya, but at least some do come.  

The local newspapers are having a field day about internal security, and there are protests from the wananchi in Nairobi about the general lack of security in the country.    But here in Kisumu, in the west, it feels fine.

A walk to town, and a birthday party .... and safari (4)

I decided to start writing reports today, instead of going to the workshop.   If I make too many rough notes and never get them typed up, I'll be in a right muddle !   But my good intentions collapsed at breakfast time, when Fr. Alois said it was Fr. Jerry's birthday !   I decided I'd better see if I could at the least get him a birthday card.   Of course, that bit of shopping necessitated walking past the University bookshop .... and I can never resist a bookshop, particularly that one, where in the past I've found some books about the history of the Joluo, their language and myths.

This is the result .....

... three more histories about this region to add to my dozens of others at home !   Still, three books for KSh 1000, isn't bad .... about £7 UK.

Next to the Nakumatt arcade to search for a suitable birthday card .... what sort do you get for a (retired) RC priest ?   Couldn't find anything at all that wasn't glittery or gushing, and then remembered I have brought some HATW calendars with me ... one of those will do !!   

I spotted an ATM machine in the arcade with two hefty ladies outside armed with AK47's guarding it, and decided to take out some more money while it looked safe.  As a lone woman, I'm very wary of taking out large sums of money from an ATM when I'm by myself, but the two ladies reassured me.   I've paid for my first weeks stay here, and am trying to get together enough for the next weeks ... which is tricky as the machines only allow a relatively small amount to be withdraw at any one time.   Its 12,100 to stay here for a week, which is very cheap.    (About £12 per day, full board).

Then to the Kisumu Hotel for a cuppa before I walked home; this is where in the late 1960's we used to be able to get a seven course lunch for Sh 7.50 .... at a time when the exchange rate was Sh 17 to the £1.  The good old days !    The hotel is now part of the University of Maseno (in Kisumu !) but there is a small cafe on the ground floor.  I see the old colonial style British Council library building is now being built over and dwarfed by new build wrapping round it to add to the university campus.    It was a jolly good library; we used to take out loads of books and LP records.

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And some more safari pictures ...

... we briefly crossed over into the Serengeti in Tanzania; this is the boundary post, but no border post or fence.  So I stood in Tanzania to take this picture !   Animals know no boundaries and wander at will back and forth. 

(Sorry, poor photo) - this is the secretary bird we watched catch and eat a snake; they are named for the Victorian secretaries who used to carry a bunch of quill pens tucked over their ears, and this fellows head feathers are visible drooping down his neck.

Zebras (of which there must have been literally millions in the Mara) often stand like this, head to tail, so that the tail of one flicks the flies off the others face. 

More about the birthday party when it has happened !

Later:-

So we went in two cars; the three fathers from here, myself, a Ugandan lady and Elvis, who is not the King reincarnated, but a young priest from Cameroon who is staying here and working locally for a while.   Kiboko Bay is along the lake shore from here, and the water hyacinth has been cleared so that the water laps at the shore, and there are trees around with weavers nests; and plenty of other birds that live around the shore .... fish eagles, hadada, egrets and so on.   There was a storm brewing up to the south, and we watched the sun go down over the lake as the black clouds and lightning increased and the wind got up.  By that time we had had our drinks and 'nibbles' which were chicken wings grilled in some sort of thick black honey, delicious !   Then back here for supper, where there was a new arrival ... a German man with an English wife born in Zambia and brought up in Botswana, now living in Norway but previously here in Kisumu !   Their children are tri-lingual.  

And did I get those reports started ?      W-e-l-l ....... tomorrow !! 

The workshop students; Protestant chickens; Carmelite nuns ... and a bit more safari.

Today I went to the workshop for the morning after seeing off D. and A. to the airport for their flights home, D. to Thailand and A. to UK.   Its been good catching up on the past with D.   I gave him lots of photos of Maseno and Kisumu in the 'old days' .... I think now we almost qualify as old colonials types !

There were six students working at the workshop, and I observed Paul teaching three newer students about joints, and he set them a task to make a sample piece of certain size.   They had a rough piece of wood which they first had to plane and cut to the correct dimensions .... and tomorrow I hope to see the finished work.   Two students (Bonaventure and Evans) who passed their exams last year are now working upstairs in the workshop making mahogany chairs, as supervised but paid work.

Then back on a tuk-tuk for lunch; two lovely Carmelite nuns had arrived for lunch from Kisii.   They wore brown habits and scapulars and the baggy brown check aprons women of a certain age often wear here.   Father Hans related one of his stories from his past over lunch .... he had picked someone up on the road after an accident and taken him to the hospital.    The patient was very grateful, and his family thanked Hans with a couple of chickens (live, of course !)   But his fellow priests were horrified when he put  them in with their chickens at the priests house; they were Protestant chickens, not Catholics .... so the other priests banished them to roost in a tree.     In the night the Catholic chickens were killed by a mongoose, but the Protestant chickens in the tree were safe !   Hans thought there was a moral there somewhere ....

Safari continued:-

The park allows 'game drives' in the early mornings, and late afternoon, but we persuaded our new driver that as we had missed one drive the last night, maybe we ought to fit it a third drive during the day, which we did.   So we left at 6 a.m., and drove around for two hours, and found lots of lovely animals to watch.

The various tour drivers have in-car radio's so they are talking to each other the whole time, advising where they have seen various animals, and so directed our driver to this lion guarding the remains of its zebra dinner.   He was one of two male lions there; probably young adult brothers; neither had the scratched faces and torn ears seen on older, solitary males.

Below are topi; strange antelopes, the males of which often stand up on termite mounds to see if any strange females have entered their territory, with whom they might be able to mate.   They have a charcoal coloured mark down their thighs, which on their sleek and shiny coats, looks like a sweat stain !   The young topi do not have this same colouring.

Then, the highlight of the drive was a pair of mating lions.   Our driver spotted a male and a female lying near to each other and we stopped, hoping something would happen .... and after a while, the male got up and nudged the female, as if to say 'Come on, shall we ?' .... and they did.   He growled open-mouthed as he climaxed, but she only gave a small grunt ... 

In nearly fifty years of living in and returning several times to Africa, I have never before seen copulating lions, so I was well pleased !

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Later:-

I am reliably informed by a friend that male lions have barbs on their penis, and that is why the female grunts or growls and snarls as he withdraws !!    There .... you didn't know that, did you ?!    My blog is nothing if not educational !!