Happy as pigs in muck !

I went to the workshop today, and walking along the track, I spotted two pigs wandering around.   They had been, and were still digging and rooting around and partly under this little mabati building ....

.... which would have been OK, except that the corrugated iron building is a long drop pit latrine !   I wonder what they were eating ..... ugh !

Kibuye Market

There were two new ladies in the dining room at lunch time ... from Montreal.   They had today come from Kakamega with a driver from a mission where they had been staying, and were going to stay here for a few days, distributing various 'aid' they had brought from Canada.

They expressed a wish to try and buy some of the plastic strip baskets, and maybe some others, to take back to Canada to sell in aid of their charity ... exactly what I wanted to do for HATW.   So I immediately suggested we all go to Kibuye Market which only operates on a Sunday ! 

So off we went .... and I showed them my trick of having my camera switched on, held at waist height, and just keep pressed the button.   Half the resulting pictures are no good, but lots are ....

 

Karia's .... for using as a wok, for washing clothes in, for use on a building site ...

 

 

Various dried beans, peas, anonymous pulses ...

 

 

Onions !!

 

 

The modern, clay lined kijiko, which uses much less wood for cooking that the old style jiko with no lining.

 

 

 

Recycled nails, bolts, washers, screws ....

 

 

And finally, we  managed to locate the baskets made out of (recycled) plastic strapping, and also the more traditional coarse grass and sisal baskets.   I seem to have bought about 18 or 19 of them !

 



Weavers weaving; rain raining and FGM

Yesterday morning I watched from my balcony four weaver birds stripping narrow pieces of leaf, about 15 inches long, from the palm trees outside my window.   They seem to cut a quarter way through the leaf with their beaks, and then holding the bit they have cut, fly away, and the cut in the leaf tears, and off they go, trailing a long thread of palm.   They fly over the house, and although I rushed out of my room to see where they went, I missed them every time !   I suspect the rain shower we had has prompted them to start nest making, for weavers usually time their nest making and egg laying so that there is maximum food available  for the chicks when they hatch.

Black headed weaver male

 

 

As my blog readers know, I'm fascinated by ants, and spend ages watching them on the balcony.   So I just noticed when it rains, even if its literally just a few spots, the ants have disappeared, even in daylight.  I suspect that a rain drop hitting an ant would be something like the shock of a fatal car crash ....  or something similar to us !   

 

And I also noticed that the ants which seem to be going into a small hole where two of the metal balcony rails join, frantically rush into the hole if I tap the metal rail with something like my scissors .... my tapping probably sounds like an express train in an underground tunnel !

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

I saw a poster in town which says 'Don't snip the clit' ... WOW !   That's blunt, and also brave to put on a poster in Africa, where FGM is so common, and for many tribal groups or religious reasons, a necessity for girls.   I checked on Google to see what the law is here; it has been illegal since 2011in Kenya .... but ....





Workshop, odds and ends, and RAIN !!!

Took myself off in a tuk-tuk to the workshop early this morning.   I get charged 150/- (about £1); the locals 20 or 30 !   Its what the fathers call 'skin-tax' because I'm white !  Is the tuk-tuk driving the wrong way down the (new) duel carriageway ?   I believe he is !!

I had a long talk with Paul about finances and personal matters, which I won't report here, but having emailed back and forth to HATW  HQ, I know more how things are and how we can best help.   I'm getting to understand much more the African, and especially the Luo attitude towards money.   Having read this helps !

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

Paul and I walked along to Nyamasaria market to try and find Lilian, who did our cooking when I came out here with HATW the first time; I've always visiting her and taken her clothes for her children.   We eventually found where she is now, except that she wasn't at home .... her young son Davis was unwell, and she'd taken him for medical treatment.  I suspect he has malaria, as the houses in Nyamasaria are surrounded by pools of filthy stagnant water, much beloved of mosquitos.

Then back to Mega City on a tuk-tuk with Paul (20/- as he was with me !)  I found a sort of 'teach yourself' pair of Luo CD's, which I'm going to try out.   My problem with getting going each time I come out with the language, is that I don't  hear  it at home, and so it takes me a couple of weeks to get my ear tuned in. 

These are nice growing outside Mega City ....

Have I mentioned the necessity of wearing flip-flops when you take a shower here ?   No ??  Well, it is advisable to prevent getting verruca's, which normally only occur in swimming pools in UK !   Most hotels and guest houses provide a pair in the shower, but I'm a bit picky, and always bring my own to use !   Then there's the hazard of jiggers, which are found in dry, dusty soil, so either wear shoes or sandals outdoors to prevent the jiggers burrowing in under your toes, or walk (bare foot) with the toes curled up !   I find myself doing just that out in the garden here !

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

Its always interesting meeting the various visiting priests and nuns who call in on their way to Nairobi.   Today we have a lady teacher from South Sudan whom I met last year, and a Vietnamese priest from Jinja (Uganda)  He was a 'boat person' many years ago and escaped Vietnam.   He ended up in Holland, became a Mill Hill Missionary, and was posted to Uganda.

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

I checked the BBC weather site today, and looked for Kisumu .... and rain was forecast from about 9 p.m. .... and they were right about the rain, but out by one hour !    So nice to have had a downpour, even a small one.   I love the smell of Africa after rain; the air has a fresh peppery smell to it, which you don't get at home.   I wish it were possible to bottle it !

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

Cholera in Siaya, about 30 or 40 miles away ....

 

Brooms and bra's

I always try to get out to do whatever I have to do in the morning, starting as early as possible, so I called Paul at the workshop to check he'd be there, before I got a tuk-tuk to Nyamasaria (a semi shanty area on the edge of town, where the workshop is).   There's a lot to discuss with him.   No answer !   I tried several times .... maybe he hasn't any money on his phone, or its switched off; anyway, I'll try again this evening for tomorrow.

So I decided to clean my room, change the sheets, etc, much to the slight horror of the house-maid !   But white ladies can do these things !   No vacuum cleaner, but a broom, dustpan and brush sufficed.   Its amazing just how much dust, grit and bits of leaves and twigs blows in through the open balcony door.

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

I got the three ladies who work here, cooking and cleaning, to come up to my room, and showed them my 106 bra's !   There were shrieks of laughter and pleasure, and a flurry of picking and choosing, and giggles from the bathroom where I suggested they might try them on.   Rachel is a large lady, with, as she said, her mothers big boobs, so had a bit of a job finding what she needed for fit, but she found two big enough, and the three of them were well pleased.   I'll take the rest to Pandipieri with the baby clothes, later in my visit.   So .... six down, one hundred to go !!  

 

 

Rachel.



Kuon for lunch, and fish eagles.

Quick walk into town this morning to buy some small bottles of water; not for the water but to get the bottles, as my original two which I fill each day from the fridge here, had got a bit smelly and needed replacing.   I quite like my almost daily walk to town; its about a mile, and the road is mostly tree lined, so nice and shady, as long as I go straight after breakfast before it gets too hot.

Today has been extremely hot and particularly humid; everyone gets a bit snappy and little problems become big ones when its so hot .... for e.g. the TV isn't working, and one of the fathers got a bit ratty with another, trying to find who to blame !   Yesterday, or during the night, the temperature dropped to 30C (there's a max/min thermometer here).   I lie starkers under my net at night, gently melting onto a towel, which creates interesting patterns on my face when I wake !

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

From the house here, I often hear fish eagles down by the lake.   They are such an African sound .... I found it on google ....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAvESaBt7r4

 

... and an old photo of my father-in-laws:-

 

 

 

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

Kuon for lunch ...... we were at Nyalenda again (you must know by now if you are a keen blog-follower !) that this in one of the shanty areas, for a Bible class, followed by lunch.   It was a sort of tomatoey scrambled egg mix, with finely shredded kale, and kuon .... which is a big solid lump of cooked maize meal; grey and unappetising, but its the equivalent of our bread or potatoes I suppose.   You wash hands before eating .... then break off a lump of kuon, knead it with your fingers, pushing your thumb into the centre to form a hollow, into which you grab a bit of whatever else there is .... in this case, egg and kale !   All done one handed of course .... Kuon sinks like lead into the base of the stomach, and a little goes a very long way !



Rumbling tum

I had a bad night, stomach churning, and when I got up on Tuesday, decided I ought not go too far from a loo, so stayed 'home' and wrote reports and read and had a long sleep in the middle of the day.   Felt much better by the evening.

So the blog today will be mostly photos !

Kisumu centre, with a lady in a full burqa ... not many seen in town, but there is a Somali quarter.

Flamboyant flowers; when I walk to and from town, I zig-zag across the road, keeping in the shade of various trees, and this is one of them.

 

One of the ants on the balcony on a piece of shortbread biscuit !   The ants are actually about 3 mm, and always marching back and forth, day and night .......

 

 

 

 



Patrick, the Mill Hill gardener.   He doesn't have a spear growing out of his head; he was just sitting in front of  Fr.Hans Luo elders spear !    I must try and get a better picture of him, without it !

The workshop, meeting people, and be prepared to be shocked

Two postings in one day !   Whatever next - but I don't want to get behind in case we have days without internet, as we have in the past.

I went by tuk-tuk to Nyamasaria.   I love tuk-tuks ..... they are the weird three wheeled Piaggio vehicles used all over Africa, India and the far east as cheap transport.   I suppose they are so named for the 'tuk-a-tuk-a-tuk' noise they make .. there's one going past the house as I write this.   I very occasionally use boda-boda (bike taxi - you sit behind the man pedalling) but consider the piki-piki far too dangerous.      For definitions see:- http://luolaughter.blogspot.co.ke/2014/11/transports-of-delight.html

The piki-piki drivers have a strange way of wearing their crash helmet, if indeed they use one at all.     They tip them back, so that the piece of the helmet which normally covers the chin and mouth is up across the eye-brows.

I walked through to the workshop away from the new Chinese built main road, and met Paul; Bonaventure, Kennedy and Stephen that I knew from before.   They are all making up an order for 50 school desks, and repairing others.   Upstairs were a set of chairs made by Bonaventure which are awaiting upholstery

I forgot to take photos of the trees we planted when I came out with Wendy, but they are all doing well. 

I had a brief chat (via Paul interpreting) with Mary, the mother of Milly, the child we arranged to get special counselling for .... and she says Milly is doing well but at school.   I'll try and see Milly at some point.   She must be about 12 now.    Paul lost his phone, and had to get another, so doesn't have Lilians phone number .... but will try and contact her.   I could always walk from the workshop to where she was living and ask people.

I'll go to the workshop again later in the week to get more up-dates on how things are going for my report.   As one of the fathers told me last week, the JaLuo are an oral people; everything is spoken and writing reports, etc. like us Europeans want, just isn't within their mind-sets.

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

I stopped at Mega City on the way back to the house, and walked along to where the massive town rubbish dump was when we first came.   As there is so much building being done around Mega City, for some reason I thought the dump had been dealt with ... but no.
  

 

If anything, its doubled in size, both in spread and height.   That's the Kisumu version of Tesco's in the background.  The rubbish is continuously burning, the stench is dreadful, and the thick choking smoke blows across the road, straight onto a school for handicapped children .... goodness knows what toxins they are breathing in.

And for those who are new to my blog, this town rubbish dump is where street children scavenge for waste food among the filth, and where many of them live, and sleep at night, where the smouldering rubbish keeps them warm.   What sort of future do these kids have ?

Pondering things, and an evening of playing Dutch 'shove ha'penny' in the dark

Sunday was different to previous days; late breakfast, and then the Mill Hill chapel for Sunday service.   Sr. Bernadette came, and it was lovely to see her again.  

I've been pondering big thoughts during the afternoons when it is just too hot to move !   Its very obvious that the Catholic church is, and is continuing to be, very successful here in much of Africa; whereas the Anglican/Protestant church in the UK is dying on its feet.   Why the difference ?   From what I see here in Kisumu, (and I understand it to be the same in other parts of Kenya, and Uganda, Congo, Cameroon - where many of the priests I meet have served) .... its seems to me that the church is offering what the people want and need, and they respond to that.   I don't think that the church in the UK does that by any means .... it is far too self-serving, and not people centred like the R.C. church here.  

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

This is interesting, in the paper ...

After yet another afternoon zizz, I went for a short walk, but it was just too hot to go more than half a mile, so another shower and I read until it was time to go to Nyalenda.

Fr. Hans has a young man to drive him around now so we went and picked up Milly (the other poser !) and drove into the shanty area on appalling rutted and rocky tracks until we came to the centre where we did the art, and settled ourselves with several others into a meeting room; Hans brought out the SJOELBAK board, about 2 metres in length, and the round discs which are used to slide along it through 'gates' with different values .... here's a sample from Mr Google ....   http://www.sjoelbakshop.nl/    

Anyway, they explained it to me, everyone had one go, and then the light went out in a terrific storm !   But nothing stops for Sjoelbak, and we continued playing by the light of a couple of mobile phones and Hans head-lamp !   I excelled myself at this strange game, and came last, but it was good fun.   I never did get the hang of the scoring.

We played for a couple of hours, in semi-darkness, and then had some supper of green-grams and chapatti's - eating with our fingers in the dark.   But this is what these residents of the slum do all the time; no-one thought anything was unusual.

Once back at Mill Hill House, we found the lights were on ...... we are just along the road from State House, which perhaps explains it.

 

~     ~     ~     ~     ~

 

And so to bed .............................

Bata boots, meeting a new friend, mango juice !

I wanted to see Paul and the workshop this morning, but when I phoned, he said he wouldn't be there today.   Hey-ho .... but this IS Africa and one has to get used to waiting .... and waiting ... and waiting.

So I walked into town straight after breakfast, (its about a mile) before it got too hot, to buy some boots !  My old boots .... (suede safari boots, chukka boots, 'The boots that say you know Africa') ... they have lots of names .... but the old ones I bought when I brought my two youngest here for a visit about 20 years ago ... have just about had it !   The new boots cost me K. Sh 2,600, under £18.

I went to the fabric market to see if I could find any cheesecloth to make thin shirts with, so suitable for a hot climate, but cheesecloth seems to have died with the death of the hippy era.   Wonderful fabrics in the market from Nigeria and Tanzania, but no cheesecloth.   I might try some of the back-street Asian or Somali owned shops next time I'm in town.  

This is a new one:-   

 

Pastor Ted offers YOU a whole twelve hours of bliss !!    Hmmmm ....

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

After my shopping trip, I was walking back through town, when I was greeted with much hand-shaking and a big hug by Mary, the lady who had her house blessed.   I suppose being virtually the only white lady in a busy street, I must stand out like a sore thumb, but it always startles me when I'm recognised and greeted like a long lost cousin !  

 

I needed a drink and a sit down to break my walk, so called in at the new mall again, and had a wonderful glass of fresh chilled mango juice at the Java café.   I forget what the drink of the gods is called, but that's it, in a glass !   (Ambrosia ?)  Just liquidised mango, no additives.  

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

Some people have emailed me to say they want to see where I'm staying, so this is Mill Hill House, which I'm sure I've posted a year or two ago on the blog, but then, no-one in their right senses would wade through all of it !

 

 



My room is on the first floor, in the corner behind that palm tree.   The large room upstairs with the curving windows is a large 'common' room, with TV, where we gather for 'drinkies' before supper !     My room is a large bedroom, with en suite, and the balcony you can see, which looks out towards the road. I have a bed with massive mozzie net, desk, three chairs, wardrobe and another chair on the balcony.  All anyone needs .... oh, and broadband and/or Wifi !!

Posing; and strange tea

Today I went to Nyalenda art school with Hans; the students there have a variety of people modelling for them, and I was posing for the boys life drawing class, with Milly (D.W. knows her.)  

The students are very good, and I heard that some of them have gone on to sell their work in the US and Europe.  You wouldn't think there would be an art school in a shanty town !

 

Right next to the art school is the Nyalenda church, which was burnt down just after Christmas 2014; the people put the fire out bucket by bucket of water from a well.  It was rebuilt within months, and then one of the ex students and Fr Hans designed and painted the stations of the cross, African style, to go on the walls.    They are amazing, and full of African details;  I have photographed them all  to show the people at Tintern church.  I'll do a whole blog entry about them later.

 

 

The last supper .... with two babies present;  fried chicken legs and chapatti's to eat !

 

 

We were given tea in the break .... the lad who made it filled the mugs half full with boiling water, topped them up to the brim with evaporated milk, added sugar .... and then realised he's forgotten tea ... so he got a tea strainer with some once used tea leaves in and poured the hot water/milk mix through the strainer into another mug with a great sense of triumph !   I drank it .... but it was pale grey with a few tea leaves floating on top ........ still, when in Rome .... or in this case, when in Africa, you drink whatever is offered.

 

Nothing much about the Uganda elections, except that the man opposing Museveni has been arrested ... no surprise there then.



A very busy day: blessing a house, moving furniture and sunset down by the lake.

 

Its the general election in Uganda today, and we haven't by this evening, heard anything about problems .... there were riots and trouble up to a day or two ago ....

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

After breakfast I went with Fr. Gerry to a very posh house in Milimani, as the lady owner felt it needed blessing.   It was a very simple ceremony/service; I read the gospel, Gerry did the actual blessing with water, and we all did the prayers.   What was most interesting to me was the obvious wealth .... having got very used to poor homes in Nyamasaria and Pandipieri, I was interested to see how 'the other half' live .... just half a mile from the slums.

 

Having done the blessing, we then had to sit down for 'lunch' ... at 9.45 in the morning !   But you can never visit an African home without food being offered, even if its just a few bananas or a bowl of roasted ground nuts.  'Lunch' was tea (made with hot milk .. ugh !) and cheese and tomato sandwiches, and cake.   But the kindly hospitality was just the same as it would have been in a poor slum home.   I find myself comparing the hospitality offered to strangers coming to our homes in the UK.  

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

Lunch at Mill Hill, a quick zizz, a shower, and then an hour or so helping Fr. Hans move from his second floor apartment in  the priests house, to a ground floor flat next to the kitchens in the main house.  

 

 

You can find out more about this amazing man by watching the video quoted at the top, and also by reading back through previous years blogging (if you have the stamina !) to find his stories about Protestant chickens, and so on !!

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

To round off the day, I went with Fr. Gerry to visit another Fr. Gerry at Nanga Church .... see  http://luolaughter.blogspot.co.ke/2013/10/day-13-and-14-28th-29th-october.html , and then we went to Kiboko Bay to have cold drinks and watch the sun going down over the lake.

 

 

 

And to end todays instalment a bit more 'wildlife' - this dragonfly kept flitting onto a stick outside my balcony.

 

 

 

(Just to save you searching ...  here is the post about the Protestant chickens !)

 

http://luolaughter.blogspot.co.ke/2014/11/the-workshop-students-protestant.html

  

Wildlife .... and what on earth is mexina ?

My first full day in Kisumu.   I decided I'd better go to town to get the phone SIM card and put some money on it, before it got too hot, so left straight after breakfast about 8.

 

 

This beautiful bird was going 'wee-ooo' at me from a row of bushes as I went along the road - its a black headed gonolek (photo from Google).  I see there's a new mall called 'Tuffmall' which was just building site a year ago on the edge of town.   Goodness, but Kisumu is expanding.   Any small business that is standing on a useful plot here is purchased, knocked down and a 15 storey buildings put up.   A shock when I got to Nakumatt .... the garden in the centre of it (complete with metal life-sized elephant !) has gone ...it used to be a pleasant surprise when you went in off the busy noisy street, but now its another building site for yet another tall office block.

 

 



All the lamp-posts have adverts stuck on them - this one is new to me !   "Specialist in jobs, diseases, love affairs with mexina ..."   but never fear, within 48 hours, Dr. Hamisi can cure you of mexina !  

I'm glad to see the balcony ants are still there .... I fed them with some cake crumbs and a small piece of mango. 
 

 

Very industrious and fascinating animals to watch.   Last year they were carrying crumbs about 20 yards, down to the ground level and along the side of the building; this year they have discovered a small hole where a flake of paint has come off the (hollow) metal rails around the balcony, and everything is being carried into it. 

 

The latest joke from Fr. Hans ... 'What connects toast, and a caterpillar ?   They both make the butterfly.'    (I think his jokes are getting worse !)

 

Paul called in briefly to say hello, and I've arranged to go to the workshop on Friday.  He is very pleased with his students and says the latest exam results will be available in about ten days.  More of that another day.

 

 

 

 

Pied crow outside my room.   Very noisy !



I'm here, safe and sound in what has become a second home !

I was going to post yesterday, but I had a nasty virus ... or rather, the laptop did, and I couldn't connect to the web, or download photos, or send emails except for one home as soon as I arrived.  I suspect it came in on broadband; I had to get rid of the virus by running two virus checkers, and then did a system restore, and except for Skype behaving queerly, everything seems OK.

So .... I arrived in Nairobi on a 'Dreamliner' which has leg room !!   Wonderful.   They also have a choice of about 30 films, old and new, so I watched the old Bogart 'African Queen' and then 'Bridges of Madison County' with an extremely young Meryl Streep !  Four hour wait for the connecting flight up-country to Kisumu, and from which I got good views of the Rift Valley.  

What looks like a massive hole in the landscape is actually Mount Longonot, an almost extinct volcano.   When we went up it in 1970 (I was pregnant at the time !)  there were smoking fumerols down in the crater, and some fairly fresh lava flows to one side (probably fresh in the sense of maybe 100 years ?)   Its odd, the angle seen from the plane puts the shadows of the crater rim in the 'wrong' place, so it looks like a hole.  

This is what it looked like in 1970 .... my mother-in-law and me very carefully descending the steep crater rim path - the surface was slidey lava, and we decided it was too dangerous to walk down !

I was met from the second plane in Kisumu by Father Gerry; such a nice kindly man.   He was staggered by the weight of all the bra's, sports kit, baby clothes ....

Back at Mill Hill House, I had the very necessary shower, drank two pints of water, and squelched into the dining room for lunch ..... tilapia and various veg, and the inevitable fresh fruit salad.

Then a couple of hours nap !

Packing .... 106 !!

As my faithful followers know, I usually put out a request before I go to Kenya each year for baby and toddler clothes, and bra's !   I have no idea when I ask how much or many I might get ....... but I never in my wildest dreams thought that this visit I'd be packing 106 bra's !!   What ARE the ladies of this village wearing under their winter clothes, I wonder ?  Best not to ask !  

The baby clothes and bra's all go to Pandipieri  Catholic Centre (in the slum area) to Sr. B., who distributes them as she thinks fit to women who really need them. 

I have also got so many baby/toddler/small child sized clothes that I can't take them all, so as soon as I get back, I'll have another sort out and see if there is a charity that wants them; HATW recently sent a lot of winter coats to a charity caring for Syrian refugees. 

Into my bags have also gone a Christmas pud for the Fathers; photos of family to show my Kenya friends, some shortbread and other goodies, and a sports kit/clothes enough for a whole football team !    I'm glad we get a large baggage allowance ... 2 x 23 kg, plus a carry on of no more than 4 kg.  When I consider I spent 8 weeks travelling in Canada some years ago, with only 8 kg in a rucksack .... I had decided if I couldn't carry it, I couldn't take it !

This evening I'm doing all those fiddley things like photocopying passport and bank cards, putting all tickets and necessary paper work into one folder, sorting out my pills and packing those in a medical bag in my rucksack ... must remember to start my anti-malarials Sunday breakfast time.  

Kisumu centre, 1970

I've been looking through old pictures I took 45 years ago and found this one of the Kisumu clock tower ....

 

 



... and this one taken in 2012

 

 

 

I wonder what the square thing is on top of the clock tower ?    Obviously I must go and look !   One change in the town is the coming of massive advertising hoardings everywhere, in gaudy colours, advertising banks, deodorants and breast feeding ! 

 

In the top picture, behind the clock tower, was Kisumu Grocers, where we shopped about once every three weeks.   When I was in Canada about 15 years ago, I travelled across the central part by train, and got talking to a young Indian lady visiting family in Vancouver; it turned out she had been brought up in Kisumu Grocers which her family owned !   She must have been one of the little Indian girls playing around in the shop in the 70's !!     Small world ......

 



Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell ......

An email from my Thailand friend has located Piccadilly  (see entry/photo for 2nd Feb).    He said:   "Piccadilly was in the (mid-thirties) Kakamega goldfield. I should think that sign became firewood decades ago!"

Now knowing that, I did what I ought to have done; consulted Mr Google !   That threw up this from an Australian newspaper .... http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/58694419

I think mining Kenyan gold was a short lived project; there proved to be a lot less gold than had been hoped.   I remember on one trip we made into dry bush country in that area, maybe it  was near the Cherangani's - where we stopped with the children by a river and panned for gold !   We found one or two specks, each about the size of a full stop !  

Maybe I'll find time to take a bus trip to Kakamega and have a look around the town again.  It's only a couple of hours from Kisumu.

Easy Fund Raising

Did I mention that I bought my air tickets via Easy Fund Raising ?   (The link is mentioned on the right hand side).

I bought the tickets via one of the booking companies listed;  Hands Around the World received 6% of my ticket price.   It cost me nothing, and I use Easy Fund Raising for all my online shopping.  

Try it ! 

    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

The friend who now lives in Thailand that I met up with in Kisumu last year sent me a wonderful present at Christmas .... a memory card containing about 300 or so photos from the late 60's, early 70's, when we were both in Kenya at the same school.   I realised later that the photos he had must have been on 35mm slides ... so he obviously scanned them all for me.  What an amazing gift !  

 

I'm sure he won't mind me posting this picture, a little faded after nearly 50 years, but it intrigued me.  I must spend a spare day while I'm there trying to find this place !    I have already asked one of the Mill Hill fathers if he knows where it is, but no luck !