First order of business on Tuesday (Valentine’s Day) was to ask Grace if I could take the metal folding bed from the sitting room of the apartment where I stay to my newly created space in Ilkiloret. She said yes, so the first part of the plan was a success. She told me later that I had to take care of that bed because it was the bed she took with her to college!
The second order of business was to get said bed to Ilkiloret. There are public vehicles that travel daily to and from Ilkiloret. They come from Ilkiloret in the mornings and return at night. So my only option was to take the bed down Tuesday night. I went to Ngong and looked around for a vehicle, the first driver I found was conman, so I said I would wait until afternoon and go to the stage where the vehicles wait for customers and see if I could persuade one of them to come to Grace’s house to pick up the bed.
As I was walking to the cyber café to make some copies for literacy class on Wednesday morning I ran into my friend Richard and stopped to talk to him and Moses, one of my learners from Ilkiloret came up to say hi. Which consisted of him holding my hand for a long time but not say much. I asked him through Richard if he knew a driver who would help me get my bed to Ilkiloret that evening. He told Richard that James, my host in Ilkiloret, was in Ngong, and he would meet me in the cyber and help me find a driver.
James showed up a little while later. Dennis, who runs the cyber told James about my predicament in Swahili and James said I should meet him back at the cyber at 3 pm and he would find a vehicle for me. Nice. Problem solved. God is at work in such wonderful little ways... running into Moses was a small miracle!
The next order of business was to buy two big heart-shaped marble cakes and two bottles of pineapple juice mix to take to Janet and Rebeka’s families in Ilkioret for Valentine’s Day. I didn’t think much of the gesture. But you would have thought I’d won the lottery and brought them the money! They were so excited! But more about that later.
I met James at 3pm and went to the stage where he found a conductor and a driver, Simon, who I happened to know. The four of us went to my house and picked the folding bed, the mattress and the big bag of food that I normally bring to Janet and Rebeka on the back of the piki piki.
We got back to the stage and the vehicle began to fill. James crawled out of the front of the pickup and an old man got in next to me. After a while he got out again, making a big production about it. It seems another one of my learners, Leah, had injured herself (a long jagged gash above her knee and was on her way home from the hospital. She got in. I asked Simon if I should get in the back of the pick-up but he dismissed me. So as long as I wasn’t told to get out, I stayed put. I know what riding in the back of a pick-up on this road is like having done it once or twice before and it is SO hard on my back. It’s not much easier in the cab, but at least your not inhaling dust.
The old man was not very pleasant and when he got out I saw more of him than I wished too... many of the older Maasai men don't wear anything under their shukas. Shukas are blankets wrapped around the body and held in place with belt. Most of the younger generation wear shorts.
After the accidental flashing incident, the ride was fairly uneventful until we got to the second hill. The bottom of the hill is very steep so most of the men got out and walked up the hill. At the top of the hill we came up behind the vehicle that had passed us at the bottom of the hill and a herd of livestock coming at us head-on. We sat patiently while the dust swirled and the cattle passed. Then all the men got back in the vehicle and we were on our way again.
Just before the small town of Sakeri (where electricity and phone network end), there is a dry river bed, past it someone had dug a trench for something that was just wide enough to trap our rear tires. Once again everyone piled out. Even me this time. A bit of conversation occurred and then the pick-up was pushed out of the trench.
By this time the sun is even with the horizon and seeing out the dust covered windshield is a problem. But Sakeri is only minutes away and we will stop there to unload and reload. The trip to Ilkiloret in a private car or on a motorcycle takes between an hour and fifteen minutes and an hour and a half. We are getting close to the two hour mark and we still have at least 20 minutes to go.
After dark and two and a half hours on the road we arrive in Ilkiloret. I’m charged 600 Kenyan shillings for the journey, about $8. Not bad.
My Maasai family appeared out of the dark and ferried my belongings to the house. The floor of the addition has not yet been cemented so my bed is put next to Rebeka’s on the cement floor. I made my bed. Brought groceries and cake to Janet’s home (I remembered my headlamp so the journey was easy), and came back to our crowded little manyatta for dinner. We had ugali and greens and beens for dinner and then made juice and toasted the best family and the best Valentine’s Day ever. It was quite spectacular if I do say so myself!
Yeah there were flies and wood fire smoke and I was dusty and sweaty from the journey in the pick-up. But the flies go away at night and the dirt can be removed with a wet-wipe bath and heart-shaped cake and pineapple juice are all the sweeter when surrounded by family.
Happy Valentines Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment