The adventures continue over here. Emily and I went on a safari in Nakuru. But this wasn’t your
standard safari with a jeep and guide. We just rented a car and drove through
the park ourselves (driving on the right side of the car and left side of the
“road” mind you). Getting there
was an adventure of its own. You would think driving to the second most popular
tourist destination in Kenya, you would see at least 1 or 2 signs to direct you
to the park- but you would be wrong.
We ended up winding through these village areas and having to ask people
for directions. We were quite the spectacle. Finally we arrived to the park in the evening. We had decided to camp at the far end
of the park by a waterfall, so the drive in to camp the first night was
fairly long and mostly in the dark.
We couldn’t see much but we saw loads of buffalo, a hyena and a few other
animals. Then the beautifully epic
instrumental song, “This Land”,
from the Lion King came on- the perfect safari song. Not 15 seconds later, we
come over a hill and saw maybe 12 lionesses and 1 male lion hanging out in the
road right in front if us, not 7 feet from the car. We slow down, but keep
driving behind them as they walk down the road for a while. It was so majestic,
and just unreal. (The next day a
bus was all stopped taking pictures of 1 lioness just sitting under a tree, those
jokers).
But the night didn’t stop there. We made camp and shared a
fire with this cool couple that actually lives fairly near us in South
Lake. We are eating and having a
good time when the man tells us “look at that cat”. I still have lions on the
brain, so I freeze up thinking there is a huge lion right behind me. Emily says, no look 5 inches in front
of you, and sure enough there is a genet cat licking my leftovers, basically in
my lap. It was so cool!
The next morning we get up super early to go watch the
sunrise from this sight called Baboon Cliffs, only we never made it there. On the way we stopped off at a lookout
called “Out of Africa” because you have to stop at Out of Africa, and you can
bet I was saying “I once had a farm in Africa” a thousand times. Anyway I digress, the lookout was
wonderful but the roads were iffy and at one point totally blocked by a fallen
tree. So in our detours we never made it around to the Cliffs. After driving
down a ways and finding more dead-end roads, we wind up taking this crazy path
through the middle of the savanna area.
It was amazing! We hadn’t seen a car all day and we were just getting
lost in the middle of the bush. We were in a little old beat up car that we
lovingly named Kobe, for the upside-down Lakers sticker on the window. This is not the ideal safari car, and
it occur to us that we had no number to call if we got stuck anywhere, so we
just kept moving. We stopped for a
car-top picnic before moving through.
We eventually made it back to “real roads” (dirt paths) where
we saw a few other vehicles. The
detours continued but we saw tons of animals, the usual: zebra, buffalo,
giraffe, warthogs, 1 rhino, monkeys, birds, and some other random stuff. Not your typical safari, but it was
incredible.
Also as a side note, I knew I loved Emily and that we had a
lot in common, but I didn’t know just how similar and compatible we are. For those of you who don’t know her,
(I’m sorry) she is like me but amped up in every way. We both love travel, people, Jesus, the south, rugby, 90s
music, and so many other things. But we are now starting to dress alike and say
the same things at the same time. Good thing she cut off all her hair, so
people can tell us apart. We live
together, work together, and I’m still excited to go adventuring with her on the
weekends.
After we left the park, we met up with a British guy,
Nick, who is good friends with a Kenyan friend of ours. He took us up to this Menengai Crater,
the second largest crater in the world.
I expected a big touristy things, but there was no one there and it’s
not marked or guarded the way everything is in America. Some Kenyan guys that worked there
showed us around and showed us the “trail” they use to get up and down, although
no one lives in the crater floor. It
was really wonderful. Nick also
showed us the work his non-profit FAB (Food, Aid, Building) has been doing at a
school in the area. Then he
invited us to dinner with him and his Kenyan fiancé. They were lovely and it was great to see how he had adapted
to a Kenya life, instead of just transporting Europe to where he lives in
Kenya.
On the work end, the latrine is now fully constructed so we
will begin testing and experimenting with the concentrator and composting the
waste this week. It went up really
fast, and it’s always interesting to see what innovative techniques the workers
use. Not to mention all materials are
transported by donkey cart.
The other exciting thing these past two weeks has been
exploring other ideas and potential work opportunities. This week one of the Dutch guys from
rugby informed Emily and I that his flower farm is taking ideas for its fair trade
program. I have always understood fair-trade as good wages and working
environment and meeting certain other criteria. But the way this flower farm works, a certain percent of
their profits go into a fund for projects that are used to directly benefit the
workers and the community. The
workers get to vote on the projects according to need, cost, and a few other
factors. So Harry had us submit a
few of these ideas about solar cookers, solar showers, incinerators, and
composting ideas. The fair trade manager seemed to be really excited about the
solar cookers in particular. It’s
possible that if one of those ideas gets approved we could be working here a
bit longer. Naivasha is really an
ideal place to try out these ideas.
There are people in various living conditions, with different needs, and
so many people are willing to try the next thing. The couple we are building the latrine for/with is
incredible. They are so ready to
experiment and try new ideas; especially Nancy who we are building the latrine
with/for. Nancy is so
eager to try out these other experiments.
Cooking here is the biggest interest. Timber is hard to come by and
charcoal is expensive, so even though our solar concentrator is primarily meant
to treat human poop, the women here are really interested in its potential as a
solar cooker.
The possible extension I mentioned last time is a pilot
project that we would like to do here in Naivasha that would be small portable
in-home toilets made by a company called MoSan, and a collection and treatment
system that Sanivation would arrange.
In the pilot stage it would be a lot of social science (!) in finding
people, surveying them, and getting feed back about the whole experience. This idea is targeted more for the
disabled or elderly, as well as people living in slum condition; basically
people for whom using a pit isn’t very practical. As soon as we told Nancy about this project, she started
spreading the work and finding people who would be interested. I went around the village with her the
other day, meeting some of these people. It was really exciting and inspiring
to meet some of these people.
Having faces and stories in mind allows me better see how
the project would work and why it is so necessary.
For now I’m planning a little trip to Uganda in March to
visit some old friends, 1 from 8 years ago from my first trip to Uganda, and 1
recent friend fro my time at the Carter Center this fall.
It’s a good life here. I would like to stay longer so we will
see.
