It took us an extra day to get here, but get here we did.
We left the Biblical Conference Center at just after 8am, looking like tourists on safari. We were packed into a big land cruiser with the removable top. We nosed our way out into the heavy traffic (which indicated back to normal after the unrest of yesterday) and headed out through the streets of Nairobi.
It was about 3.5 hours before we arrived at Kim’s Breeze hotel in Narok. This is not because of the distance but because of the speed. This road is the only route and is clogged with all manner of cars, trucks, and motorbikes. It hugs the side of an escarpment for quite a ways and the sharp turns and narrowness of the road make for some interesting driving. Particularly here where drivers will pass on the right or the left, even with oncoming traffic. There are often broken down vehicles in the driving lane, forcing drivers to make additional lanes by driving off the tarmac beside the road and then darting back into traffic.
One interesting sight along this route is the baboons. People will by the roasted corn that is peddled along the road, and then throw the cob out the window. The baboons have learned that this busy road is a food source and will line the road in large numbers, waiting for the next morsel to be thrown at them.
Roasted corn was just as I remembered from our last foray into Africa over 3 decades ago. Dry, not much taste. It’s actually field corn, normally used for cattle feed here in the US.
Narok is a typical larger city in Kenya. Busy, noisy, crowded, and lots of interesting things to see. Like what they pile on motorbikes.
We dropped the luggage off at the hotel, then drove down an absolutely awful pitted and puddled dirt road to Alice’s house in Kimelok, the site of one of the first wells. Alice is one of the graduates of the widow’s program and has become like family to Dave and Joy. We stopped there to pick up some tools and supplies and to meet Alice and several of her eight children. The widow’s training program is run here in a metal building, where women learn to sew as a source of income. Also on this compound is a “forest”--several dozen trees planted in a fenced area, a large garden sporting several vegetable varieties and a stand of corn, and some pens which house animals.
The Widow's Center
Alice's house
The Forest
The Garden
We couldn’t leave without having tea, so we sat for a while in plastic lawn chairs and shared chai tea. This is tradition in Kenya, and part of being hospitable, so we will probably be having a lot of tea over the next couple weeks.
More very bad roads to the current well site, still considered Kimelok, where the well is in and the solar panels are up. Today’s task, start assembling the tower on which the water tank will be placed. Since the well only runs when the sun shines, some storage is needed to allow water to flow when the sun isn’t shining. By placing a large storage tank on a tower, everything is gravity flow.
Dave already had the steel pillars and angle-iron crossmembers cut, so we had to put them together. Two opposite sides were assembled on the ground, welded together, then both were stood up and crossmembers were welded in place to form the four sides of the tower. This was a new skill for me. It’s the first time I have used a stick-welder.
A rainstorm interrupted work for a half hour or so, so we retreated into Irene’s house next to the well site until the rain stopped. This area has been under severe drought for four years, however there has been significant rain during the last few days, so things are starting to green up a bit from the parched landscape of the last few years. The forecast calls for more rain over the next few days, so it is looking a little less drought-stricken, other than some seriously skinny cows that are roaming around.
Once the rain stopped we resumed work on the tower, quitting at about 5:30pm to make the bumpy ride back to the hotel.
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