Entering Another World

We checked out of Kim’s Breeze Hotel in Narok, our home for the past 10 days, and headed over to Alice’s place to drop off some stuff in the storage shed there.  Then it was back through Narok on our way to the Maasai Mara.  These horrible roads are old hat by now.  What seemed so long on the first day we drove to Alice’s place now seems rather short.  The road to Olosheki is much longer.

Travel time from Narok was about 2.5 hours on the only road that goes in that direction.  It is a paved road, thanks to Chinese investments in Africa.  The Chinese have invested heavily in African infrastructure, and now the various African countries owe the Chinese billions.  With that kind of debt, they will be under China’s thumb for a very long time.  I’m told that this road was really bad before the Chinese came along

We arrived here at the Sarova Mara Game Camp at just past noon.  This is a resort-style camp with just about everything imaginable, and it was like stepping into another world.  We’ve been in the African bush for a couple weeks now, where water is scarce, clean water is far scarcer, and the most prized possession is a few cows or sheep, and entered a place where we were greeted at the entrance with a hot washcloth with a menthol scent, we were given a glass of fresh orange juice or pineapple juice at the registration desk, and our accommodations are a “tent” which is really a large cabin containing a king size bed and a luxury bathroom.

It’s enough to take your breath away.

The pineapple juice was amazing.

We had lunch in the on-site restaurant, enjoying the buffet-style foods from all over the world and then took it easy for a couple hours.  Not much happens in the animal kingdom in the heat of the day, so the game drive was set for 3:30, giving us some down time.

I spent a lot of the time walking around the grounds.  There are 75 tents here, with about a dozen of them undergoing some sort of renovation.  This place has a pool, a lounge with a large fireplace, several game areas (billiards, table tennis, darts), and an organic garden which supplies the restaurant.  I walked into the garden and one of the workers showed me around for a bit.  Very impressive.  Nearly every vegetable and herb imaginable.

The worker even pointed out a tree hyrax, which I have never heard of.  This animal apparently can be quite noisy at night, with its loud shrieks and screams.  There were several of them in this area.  We’ll see if we hear any tonight.

I’ve been enjoying the different bird calls today, and now this evening we can hear the frogs peeping.  This is a far different sound than the roar of trucks and motorbikes in Narok, the televisions played way too loud, and the weekend parties that raged until the wee hours of the morning.  I could fall asleep to this!

At 3:30 we loaded into the Land Cruiser for a game drive.  It was perfect weather to pop the top up and stand up in the car nearly the entire time.  We saw lots of animals.  One of the highlights was coming up to a couple of cheetahs working on a fresh kill.  We stayed and watched them eat for a while.  I’ll let the pictures tell some of the story...

We were a little bit late coming out of the Mara.  Michael kept telling us “Time is not on our side”, and our return trip to the resort was done at speeds that would probably not be attainable on pitted dirt roads such as these, but we were able to catch a couple of lions, the elephants, and some ostriches during this time.  There are apparently some hefty fines for being on these roads after 6:30pm so Michael was understandably urgent in his desire to meet that goal.  We were only about ten minutes late.

Dinner was again a sumptuous buffet of tastes from all over the world.  They even had Kenyan ugali, which I passed over.  Been there, done that.  I did try the boiled goat.  I wondered if it was still chewy if the meat was actually done.  It was.

Getting A Little Behind

It has been a full day and I'm not sure I have the time to render a good description.  That may have to wait until tomorrow or when I have a little down time.  The very brief summary is:  We left Narok this morning and traveled to the Maasai Mara, arriving at the Sarova Mara Game Camp at just past noon.  This is an entirely different world than the one we have been living in for the last two weeks, in more ways than one.  This "camp", if you can call it such, is more of a rather posh resort with hot and cold running water and everything.  We had lunch here and went on a game drive this afternoon.  We saw a couple cheetahs at a kill, a few pairs of lions, elephants, giraffes, and a few other animals.  Coming back from this, we enjoyed a delicious buffet-style dinner and now, here we are, feeling a bit like these lions.  So I'm going to take their cue and lay down and write a more complete description later.

Finishing Up At Olosheki

Last day at Olosheki today.  Last trip on those awful roads.  Last look at the scenery from this site.  The land here slopes gently down towards the river a couple miles to the northeast.  The slope of the land plus the sparse vegetation to the east creates a broad vista dotted by Maasai plots of land and mud houses.  It’s really quite beautiful.  Two weeks ago the only color in this landscape was the browns and grays of a drought-stricken land.  Now the recent and abundant rains have added a definite green color.  The animals are loving all the fresh new grass that contributes to most of this green color.

We arrived at the site without incident.  At one point, we passed a couple of mini-busses carrying a load of school children from Olototo (another Kenya Hope center) for games at another school. If you’ve ever seen a minibus, they are the tiniest vehicle imaginable, yet they will cram nine people in them.  They are all over Narok, usually full.  I would hazard a guess that one of these mini-busses had twice to three times that many kids crammed in it, judging from the sea of faces looking out the window at us.  It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but there was no spare room in that vehicle.

At the Olosheki site, we set about putting the last touches on the water tower: a ladder, a few missing cross braces, paint.  Others worked on the pipes going to other parts of the site.  Several Maasai boys spent quite a bit of time with their jembes, digging trenches or covering up trenches that now had pipes in them.

Before we got too busy, we all gathered at the water tower for a group picture.  It was a bit challenging, getting everyone to look in the same direction at the same time, but I think it turned out pretty well. This is the crew that dug trenches, built the tower, made meals, coordinated things, and contributed to the point where we were today.

The site was busier than usual today.  There were more women and children gathered around the tree where the cooking was done.  Off in the distance, next to another tree, two Maasai guys were dressing a goat that they had just killed.  This means some sort of ceremony or celebration.  The goat would be roasted over an open fire and carved up for eating.  I wandered over there and asked the boys how long the goat would be roasted over the fire.  “About 30 minutes,” one of them told me.  At 30 minutes, the meat will be very rare.  And this little goat didn’t look like it had a whole lot of meat on it.

For tea time, we had the bread that the women had baked over the fire yesterday.  That, along with a little acacia honey, was delicious.  Joy also cut up a few more mangoes.  Tea time was almost a full meal.

I had just finished the last of the welding when it was time for lunch.  As we were waiting for everything to be served, I took a few pictures of the activity.

A couple of the women, making lunch for the small army that was here today.

The Maasai are a very social people, and will often congregate around meals.

Couldn’t you just take this little guy home?

Duncan came over with most of the goat and began carving it up for us.  Since we were the guests of honor, we were served first.  As he sliced off chunks of meat, the center was quite rare, probably a bit too rare for Western tastes, but a delicacy to these Maasai.  We opted for the more done portions.

Goat meat, especially when undercooked like this, is very chewy.  So it is an exercise to actually eat it.  The Maasai like to eat it right off the bone, but Duncan cut off portions of meat for us mzungu. Once we had indicated that we had enough, the remainder of the meat was taken to the Maasai who ate it with relish.  That and their ugali made for a handsome meal for them.

It was fascinating to watch the Maasai interact with each other during this whole time.  They usually  were all grouped together, children included, and there was a constant babble of conversation that we could hear.  It would have been interesting to know what they were talking about.  Probably about us mzungu.

We were then asked to gather in a semicircle.  Several of the Maasai women gathered on a bench across from us and Alex, the area coordinator for Kenya Hope addressed us and the Maasai using a translator.  He spoke of their gratefulness for Kenya Hope in bringing schools and clinics to nearby communities, and of bringing fresh water here to this community.  Their source of water for a long time was the river, about a mile away, but a large sewage treatment plant was build next to the river and now the river is contaminated by continual flows of raw sewage into the river.  They’ve had to resort to earthen dams to collect rain water, which means they were sharing the water with the sheep and goats and wild animals.  He said that 90 percent of the problems they have to deal with are water related and now they have a source of clean water. So they are very appreciative of these efforts.

They presented us with gifts.  To Willie and I, a beaded belt, and to Dave and Joy, a shuka.  They also presented each of us with an Maasai arm band, made by Duncan’s wife.  With each belt and shuka, a different woman got up and put it on us, giving us a hug.

Once again, I was touched by the gesture.  They have so little, yet feel they have to present us with gifts.

The amusing thing is, they don’t realize just how big a Dutchman is.  The belt was barely long enough to reach around my waist, and the woman was having difficulty with the clasp.  She finally put it above my waist, where there was a little more give (ha ha).

The wrist bands were even more amusing.  Willie was called up first.  They greased his hand first with dish soap, and then a couple guys worked it onto his wrist with considerable difficulty.

I was next.  I told Alex that this would be perfect for my wife and that it would not fit on my hand.  “We’ll get it,” he told me confidently.  With that, they soaped up my hand and got started.

Three of them worked at it for a while.  With a lot of effort and no small amount of pain, they finally managed to get it onto my wrist.  I didn’t think it was possible.

When we were back at the hotel, we tried to take it off in the same way it went on: with dish soap and a lot of effort.  We failed. The only way this thing is coming off is to cut it off.  Kind of a shame since it was a sincere gift from the community.

We packed up the tools and whatever we had brought and drove back to the hotel.  Tonight is the last night at Kim’s Breeze Hotel in Narok.  Tomorrow we go to Alice’s place to offload some of the tools and extra supplies in the storage building there and then it’s off to the Maasai Mara for a couple of days.  Should be an entirely different experience from what we’ve had so far.

Ever have one of those days where you feel like you’ve lived a lifetime in a day?  I have had nearly two solid weeks of those kinds of days. What I’ve described here is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Most Dangerous Place in Africa

Taking a shower here in the hotel is a less-than-optimal experience. First of all, the bathrooms are a “wet bath”, where the shower shares space with the other fixtures.  Take a shower and the entire floor is wet because the water flows to a floor drain on the opposite side of the sink.

Second, there is no hot water plumbing in the hotel rooms.  The shower head has its own heater which heats the water as it passes through it.  You regulate how hot you like the water by simply increasing or reducing the flow using the single water knob on the wall.  Simple in design, terrible in execution. 

The worst part about it is you have high voltage and water occupying the same space.  And you are standing in water with a high voltage source and more water right above your head.  This is a deadly mix and I wonder how many people have gotten killed while taking a shower.   I have learned what not to touch while the shower is running.  Touch the knob to regulate the water and it’s OK.  Touch the flange around the knob and you will get a little poke.

I would feel slightly better about this arrangement if the wiring going to the shower head was a little less janky.  What could go wrong?

Third, because of the mineral content of the water, the little holes on the shower head are mostly plugged up.  As a result, there are a few jets of water that shoot off in random directions, very few of them towards the person standing under the shower head.  You almost have to run around to get wet.  And with water on a slippery tile floor, slipping is a real danger.  

After a couple of days of only one or two little jets of water actually hitting me when taking a shower, I cast about for something to improve the situation.  Sharp objects are frowned upon when boarding airplanes so I had nothing small enough.  I finally remembered I had taken the little SIM card ejector tool for when I swapped SIM cards in my cell phone. The little pokey end was just the right size to ream out a couple rows of holes in the shower head (I made sure the wall switch was off before touching it).  Now most of the water falls straight down instead of at crazy angles and it actually increased the flow.  I can actually get wet without running around.

You wouldn’t think that, coming to Africa, the most dangerous place to be is in the shower.  The risks are many: electrocution, broken bones, lacerations, concussion...  Oh, yeah, and if you actually drink any of this water that comes out of the tap: food poisoning.

Looking at how this hotel was built, I had surmised it was built somewhere in the 1950’s or 1960’s.  I was surprised to learn that this building was put up in 2016.

Some of our building codes in the US border on the ridiculous, but I would think that things that would allow electrocution in the shower would be universally frowned on by those that write the building codes.  Yet these are used all over the place.  And the wiring seems universally janky.  Connections and wiring all held in place by black tape.  If they are held in place at all.

And this is a higher-end hotel.

But I have to keep things in perspective.  While I may be used to buildings with hot and cold indoor plumbing and complain about a hotel that has only cold indoor plumbing, out in the bush where we have been working, the standard is no plumbing.  Just having clean water is a luxury.  Many people around here create earthen dams on their land to catch the rainwater runoff.  The murky water contained behind these dams is used for their daily water needs and is shared with any animals that happen to be in the area.

When we were testing the water flow yesterday, a young Maasai woman came over to where the water was flowing out of the end of the pipe and used it to wash her sandals and her feet.  I’m sure that was the closest she has ever gotten to what we would consider a shower.

So having to clean out a shower head with a SIM card tool is more of a first-world problem.

At least the Maasai don’t have to worry about electrocution.

The Water Is Running

We got a bit of a late start this morning.  First of all, we had to pick up some petrol for the generator and some fittings for the pipes from the irrigation store. Then it was the hour-long trek on rain-soaked roads into Olosheki.  More rain last night meant more muddy roads this morning.  As we entered the property, we noticed that our second vehicle, which was right behind us, was no longer behind us.  From the base of the water tower, we could see the Land Cruiser, sideways on the road.  They had slid into one of the many deep puddles and had buried the rear wheel.

All the Maasai guys that were working for us gathered around and tried to push the vehicle out, but to no avail.  So Dave went back there with the truck and managed to pull the Land Cruiser out.  With the roads as bad as they are, I’m a little surprised this hasn’t happened more often.

First order of business was to tip the tank upright.  Not so easy since it is at the top of a 20-foot tower. It took six guys to do this task.  At one point a couple guys were pushing from one side and another was pushing from another side and they were pushing against each other.  You can hear Joy in the video yelling at Alex to come out because he was pushing against everyone else.  The tank finally fell into place with a satisfying thump and no one fell off the tower.

We’ve kept our guardian angels busy the last few days.

One the tank was upright, then we could proceed with running all the plumbing and taking care of some details on the tower.  Once the inlet plumbing was connected, we again heard the sound of water falling into the bottom of the tank.  A most satisfying sound.

The Maasai boys have been digging trenches the last couple days to run the water to various points in the property.  We connected pipes to lay in those trenches and did a pressure test at one point.  And there it was.  Running clean water. Something very scarce in these parts.

A couple of Maasai women were hired to prepare lunch for all the Maasai boys that were working here.  It was interesting to watch this all happen.  Several women and a bunch of kids were gathered under a small tree for most of the day, doing the meal preparation and washing the dishes afterwards.  The cooking is done over a small hole dug in the ground.  Foraged sticks are the fuel for the fire and the pan sits right on the ground over the fire pit.

We’ve had bread baked this way a couple of times. They will bake bread by putting the dough in the pot in a little bit of oil and then heaping coals on the lid.  I managed to take a picture just as Mary was removing the lid to check on the bread.  We will be having this bread at tea time tomorrow.

We had our first customers shortly after turning the water on.  A couple of Maasai women came by with large water jugs and filled them up with the water flowing from the well.  We pray that a lot more in this area will benefit from this clean water.

We’ll probably finish here tomorrow.  The tower needs an actual ladder, the tank needs a means of shutting off the flow of water when it is full, pipe needs to be laid, and we may even be hanging an entrance gate.  We’ve worked under the watchful eye of a flock of sheep for the last couple of days and this property is one of the growing number of properties in this area marked off by a fence.  The days of nomadic animal herding are numbered and we will often see herds of cattle being driven between the fence rows or down the street, or even right through the middle of Narok.  There’s less and less space for them to roam.

A few more pictures from today:

Two of the Maasai workers, proudly wearing their t-shirts that were gifted to them.  That’s not a top hat, that’s the water tank that just happened to jump into the picture.

One of the kids hanging out here today.

Other Maasai guys hanging out in the shade.

On Top Of It All

We started out this morning loading a hired truck to take the food supplies we packed last night to Olosheki.  That and several bags of cement.  As long as a truck was going out there, may as well fill it up.

We took off for the hour-long trip to Olosheki.  I could almost drive the route myself now as we have taken it twice a day for the last few days, however, the frequent rain erases yesterday’s tracks and replaces them with ever deeper ruts and puddles, and part of the road wanders across several open areas with no apparent plan or direction, so perhaps I would get lost anyway.

The top of the tower needed to be finished before the water tank was hoisted up there, which involved a lot of welding.  So I spent nearly the entire day perched on top of the tower, first installing steel floor joists, then the floor itself, then the safety railings around the top.

We have spent the last few days puzzling over just how to get a 10,000 liter tank to the top of this tower once it is ready.  Today we fashioned a crane or derrick of sorts out of pieces of the scaffolding that was used to raise the tower.  The plan was to extend out over the side and use a block and tackle to raise the tank high enough to swing over onto the tower.

Pretty cool design, however the parts just weren’t up to the task.  It took a while to get all the clamps and pipes in place and to figure out how to attach the whole business to the tower.  When the time finally came to test it, we began pulling on the rope.  The tank didn’t budge, but the boom of the crane bent significantly.  It just was not going to handle the weight of the tank.

Dave had considered hiring a crane, but it was doubtful whether something that size would make it down the muddy roads to this location.  So, on to plan B.

The last tower we put up was 10 feet tall.  We raised the tank by laying it on its side and wrapping two ropes around it.  By pulling on one end of each rope, we rolled it up to the top.  This tower is 20 feet tall, which means it takes four times the rope and we have to raise it twice as high.  Worth a try.

Joy took a video of the process.  It worked well, but it was quite a pull, especially for those of us on top of the tower.  Once it reached the edge of the platform, I was starting to doubt whether we could pull it over the edge but with two of us on each rope on top, and more pulling the tail ends of the rope on the back side, we were successful.  

While all this was going on, George and the local pastor passed out the food that we had loaded on the truck.  I could see lots of colorful shukas from the tower, and the bags of food were soon distributed to some very thankful families.

Once the tank was on top of the tower, it was already 5:30pm and time to go back to the hotel.  We could hear thunder in the distance and could see some rainfall in the distance.  We’ll save setting the tank upright for tomorrow.

I launched the drone and took some pictures of the progress so far, garnering some interest from some of the local guys that Duncan had hired to help out.

Raising the Second Tower

I’m tired.  It’s been a little over a week and I am exhausted.  It doesn’t help that the last few nights have not been the greatest for sleeping.  And the long day today probably contributed to that feeling.  I’ll be going to bed immediately after finishing this.

It rained quite a bit last night.  Not good news for the roads, which were a muddy mess.  So we sloshed and slid our way into Olosheki, taking about an hour to get there.  This is right at the edge of where it’s practical to drive in from town each day.  Any longer and just camping out in tents at the site would probably be more expedient.  It would beat navigating these awful roads twice a day.

The sun was high in the sky by the time we arrived.  Time to raise and assemble the water tower.  It took a little prep work but soon we had the two halves of the tower in position. These were tipped up with ropes and a lot of help.

The two sections were tied together with a few cross-members that we had pre-drilled, and then I set to welding all the remaining cross braces in place. This tower is twice as tall as the tower we just finished at Kimelok as there is a rise in elevation towards one corner and the entire property needs to benefit from gravity-flow.

Duncan had a crew of six guys and they set about digging a trench towards the other side of the property to lay a pipe.  For a ten-acre piece of land, that’s a long trench to dig. Especially by hand.

The remainder of the day was spent assembling pieces on the tower.  I welded all the cross braces, then Dave started on the deck supports at the top, with Willie’s help.  By the time 5pm rolled around, several deck support beams were in place.  There were some very threatening clouds rolling in, and we wanted to get back to the hotel before dark, so we packed up and took off at just after 5pm.

About halfway back to the hotel, we were deluged with rain.  The sides of the roads became rivers and water was running everywhere.  By the time we reached the hotel, the rain had stopped.

We came in and spent some time dividing up the food supplies in the conference rooms into 30 bags to be delivered tomorrow.  Tomorrow will probably be another busy day.

I know this doesn’t sound like much but I can feel the fatigue.  I was really wondering how these missionaries do it, keeping up a busy pace like this, but Joy mentioned at dinner that she was also tired. 

Now I don’t feel so bad.