I had planned to catch a matatu into town (Nairobi) at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Veronica - one of Grace's many "children," who is my age and a "house mother" at the SOS Children's Home in Eldoret, is on leave and staying at Grace's house in Ngong - was also going to Nairobi and said would go together but first... a doctor friend of her's was coming to check an infection in her nephews eye... the doctor was late and then two other people appeared with eye problems... including the young man bringing 10 jeri cans of water... amazing! Everyone was checked out and the doctor was good enough to give us a ride to Karen where we caught a matatu to town. \
I was nearly an hour late! My friend Ken was waiting and we picked a shuttle to Meru. A matatu is different from a shuttle in that a matatu stops every two feet and a shuttle is direct! Matatus also overload the vehicle. So a vehicle that is licensed to carry 14 - may carry as many as 22 or more - with luggage!
The first part of the journey is on Thikka Road which is under construction... the journey that usually takes an hour took two. In five hours, I'd arrived in Nkubu, about a half hour before Meru, where I was to meet with Geofrey, a man I met in Chogoria that has a micro finance NGO.
He really wants me to work with him... doing public relations, marketing, etc... he also wants to partner with other organizations. I told him that I was committed to working with Grace, and that once we got her organization straightened out she might be able to partner with him.
After my meeting with Geofrey, I went back down the mountain (Meru is in the foothills of Mt. Kenya), backtracking an hour or so to Katharaka, to the home of Mercy Nyaga, the headmistress of Judie's primary school and my very good friend. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights with her.
I took a piki piki (motorbike taxi) 6 km to her home. Her husband died in September. We had a really good talk the first night. She is one of my closest friends in Kenya.
I got up early the next morning and the Ntumu Primary School Van took me to Embu an hour further down the mountain, to meet my friend Paul, who works with a US-based non-profit who has established an orphanage outside Embu. When I last visited him in Feb of this year the orphanage was still under construction. Now there are 18 children living there. A 71-year-old women from Massachusetts runs the orphanage. She's truly amazing. I had a wonderful time!Left there at 5p.m. and was back up the mountain to Katharaka by about 7:10 p.m. - picked another piki piki and went back to Mercy's.
On Thursday, Thanksgivig, I once again got in the school van to head up to the main road... this time with a peace corps volunteer named Clare. She was on her way to Maua to celebrate Thanksgiving with some other volunteers. I was on my way to Ruiga Girls Secondary School, to pick Judie, my daughter, up from school. Kamau, the best cab driver and my good friend, from Meru met me at the Equator (literally, my daughters school is on the equator), to give me a lift down to her school. We had to wait a ridiculously long time for her to get cleared by all her teachers as I'm going to find her a different high school closer to Ngong.
In the meantime I called her auntie and asked them to come to Meru town (from Nkabune) where they live, because it had rained the night before and the road to Nkabune is horrible after it rains. We picked a box of Judie's belongings that Ken had kept for her in Meru and then I took Auntie Jane, Jojo (grandma), Judie and Kamau and I out for lunch for $17.50 and we ATE! Roasted Goat and Chicken - yum! The place is called Zulu, if you ever need a dining recommendation in Meru.
We dropped Auntie and Jojo at the stage to Nkabune and then Kamau took us to the stage where we picked a shuttle back to Nairobi. We left Meru around 2 p.m. and arrived in Nairobi around 6:30 p.m. Then we had to take a taxi to Ngong because we had Judie's box (trunk) from school. My friend David had arranged for a taxi driver to meet us. They carried Judie's box about 10 blocks to the taxi because the stage is too congested!
When at last we arrived home around 8:15 (lots of jams on Ngong Road)... I paid the taxi driver 1400 Kenyan shillings... which was the all the money I had left in my wallet and happened to be the exact fare!
Was completely exhausted by the time we arrived in Ngong but stayed up a few more hours to call home for Thanksgiving!
I'm so thankful for my beautiful daughter, for the opportunity to be here with her and the opportunity to work with Grace. My heart is SO full!
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