Everything that can go wrong will, but as this is Africa... usually everything comes out how it was supposed to anyway... not sure why that is... it just is.
So without going into great detail lets just say, life is never dull. I asked the safari company repeatedly (the guy is a friend of mine) to send a bigger vehicle. He sent an 8 passenger safari van for 6 people and their lugguage... which normally would be fine. But when you put the Give Us Wings rep and me and Grace in the van and all the supplies that need to go to Ilkiloret and I had to transport 7 fundies (construction workers) down also... Well it equals two trips.
The volunteers arrived in Ngong around lunch time and at my favorite Halal restaurant. The driver took them to Kimuga Farm where they would spend the night and then came back for the fundies and me and two wheelbarrows we had to have repaired. Well after much discussion it was decided that the wheelbarrows wouldn't fit in the safari van and a motorcycle should be called to transport them.
The poor man may never be able to have children after this ride! We follow him down to make sure he is able to complete the journey. With only one bad wobble he reaches his destination. Now at this point I have sms'd Janet, who is our liaison there to tell her I'm coming and to ask her to find a place for me to sleep, but I have no idea if she's gotten the message, as there is no cell coverage there. Ah, but there is a certain tree by the road where if you sit under it you can find network. I'm serious. They sprinkled a little network and it grew into a nice shade tree cum phone booth. I will take a photo of said tree the next time I'm in Ilkiloret.
So we arrive and I find out that I will be sleeping at Rebecca and James' home which is just next to where we are building our classroom. I have forgotten my watch and I turned my cell phone off to conserve the battery, so I have no idea what time it is for about 15 hours. Janet and I make a program for the volunteers for the following day. Then I head over and hang out at Rebecca's house. She speaks only a few words of English and a bit more Swahili, so we mix what little we know in common and get by just fine. She makes tea and I dig out the cashews I bought just before we left Ngong. She and I and her two children (I'm not sure even now exactly how many she has, but these two are the little ones - Ezekial and Eliza), and one of Grace's orphans Laton, enjoy them while Rebecca prepares dinner. I'm not sure what to expect for dinner. The Maasai have recently started to grow crops with drip irrigation but it is dry season and there is nothing in the fields.
While dinner is cooking, Rebecca brings me her and James' school books. They are studying in the adult education program. They study math and Kiswahili and a little bit of English. I am planning to teach English there one day a week and then Janet will help me with Kiswahili in the afternoon. I will spend the night and get the early vehicle to Kimuga where I can meet with Grace and play with the kids when they get home from school, spend the night at Kimuga and head back to Ngong. Not sure when said plan will start, but I'm actually looking forward to it.
When dinner comes it is ugali (hard porridge) and milk. And by milk I mean fresh from the cow, I mean squeezed right from the teet into my cup(kikombe). Kikombe means cup... which is one useful word that I will not forget from my time in Ilkiloret. It was delicious. The best milk I've had in a long time.
I sleep on a sleeping mat in a sleeping bag on the floor of Rebecca's home. It's seriously uncomfortable and I don't actually fall asleep until dawn. But I tell Rebecca that I slept well and thank her profusely for letting me stay in her home.
The American Give Us Wings volunteers arrive and find us in class learning math, they join us for about an hour and then we all go to a community meeting. The main thrust of this volunteer trip is to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. But they have also all fund raised to build a permanent classroom/community room in Ilkiloret. The fundies have built the foundation. The volunteers will help start the walling.
The idea is a nice one, but ridiculously expensive due to the transport costs of moving materials over such bad roads. So we had money to build through the volunteer's participation. But I haven't heard yet when construction will resume. I get calls from the fundies and material suppliers daily... "when do you need my services," but all I can tell them is that we have to wait.
So the community meeting goes well, we sing, we introduce ourselves, we give reports about the hegoat and shop projects in Ilkiloret and the volunteers talk about raising funds for the building and then we talk about how it will be used.
And then we break for a lunch of pb&j sandwichs, bananas, oranges and cookies. Then each volunteer is paired with an interpreter and a host family for a day-in-the-life experience. Which is only a few hours but it gives them some one-on-one contact with community members.
Then they come back for a traditional Maasai goat roast with ugali and sukuma (greens). The Americans barely eat anything. Okay, so I understand that they are about to climb a mountain and need there guts intact... but it still makes me a bit, I don't know... I, of course over indulge and love every bite.
We sit out under the stars (which are second to none in the Rift Valley), until it gets too windy and then climb into tents for a better but still not a good nights sleep.
The next day the volunteers build the classroom in the morning and I run around and work on logistics, clean up the area we used for cooking and storing our food, make sure fundies are paid, etc. The Maasai women bring their jewelery and have a small market before the volunteers leave to go back to Kimuga and then on to Nairobi.
Rebecca and her family have worked tirelessly to help us cook and clean. I owe her big time. I buy a small beaded basket from her and tell Janet I will bring her food when I come to stay with her.
Then we wait until 3 pm for the safari van to come back and pick us and take us to Ngong. We are dirty and tired. When I finally reach home I find out that our electricity has been shut off because we didn't pay the bill. I guess it got overlooked in all the holiday happenings. Now electricity is not so necessary when you cook on a gas cylinder. I heated water and took a bucket bath...which is how I bath everyday... and then heated up some leftover rice and beans. By 7:30 pm it was too dark to see my hand in from of my face, so I went to bed and slept for 12 hours. Guess I had some catching up to do...
On Friday I got up, did laundry and went to town to figure out how to pay the electric bill - not that this is my job... just that it happened that I was the most available person around. David, Grace's son, told me how to get the balance via SMS. Which I did. Then he said that he had a friend at the electric company who if I MPesa'd him the money (+ the reconnection fee) could pay our bill. I'll tell you about MPesa later - it's really quite awesome. Anyway, I figured out all that. Paid the bill and Saturday around 1 p.m. they finally turned our electricity back on.
That's all I have to say for now because I've spent the last almost 3 hours at the cyber and this chair was not made for marathon cyber sessions.
Peace!
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