Also, click HERE to watch a video of our visit.
It's been 12 months since we last visited the community where our successful 300 foot deep clean water well was drilled back in June 2010. The well has been producing clean water since then and this year the sponsors' project completed a project with tractor and water bowser to distribute the water from the well to each of the 6 schools in the community and to the community greenhouse. Today we are visiting the community and the schools. We were awake before 4am after getting to bed at 1:30am! We were excited to be going back and see the results and take along some more computers and communications equipment.
Opening at 6am the breakfast buffet at the TRIBE was splendid - fresh fruits, cereals and pastries; cheeses and cold meats, and everything you would want for a hot breakfast: eggs to cooked to order, lamb and pork sausage, onion potato wedges, garlic spinach, coconut rice, stewed tomatoes, bacon, red bean stew and fresh juices, tea and wonderful Kenyan coffee. By 7am we were ready and waiting for Duncan (our Project Manager) and George, our taxi driver for the last many years who has spent many nights sleeping in his van in Ndandini while we slept in our tent.
By 730am our ride had arrived and we had packed our supplies for the day (water and cookies) and the supplies for the village. The traffic through Nairobi was very busy but nothing compared to the horrendously busy traffic heading into downtown. It was quite the ride for Jackie and Neil since they had arrived at sunset the previous night - the roads here are not for the faint of heart. By 8:45 we reached the Machakos turn off (on the Nairobi to Mombasa road) and took a 5 minute stop at the Quik Stop gas station to stretch our legs and straddle the holes in the floor, but the toilets were quite clean and well maintained. It was quite cloudy which was good for us since as soon as the sun started burning off the clouds, the temperatures rose rapidly!
The scenery gets very pretty here as you drive through the Chula hills - beautiful rock formations, and lots of stone everywhere with men sitting by the sides of the road with a hammer breaking the tones into smaller stones. Trucks come by to purchase the slabs of rocks and pebbles - in fact this is where our drilling rig stopped two years ago on the way to Ndandini to purchase sacks of gravel to pack around the drill casing. Much of the hillsides are terraced to retain the soil and grow produce.
KAMBA CARVINGS |
This was our last stop before turning off the highway at KwaVonza (before Kitui) for the last 45 minute drive on the red dirt dusty road past Kusiani town into Kyaithani and the 5 primary schools that are part of our project. This just felt like coming home for Terry and I - we have been here so often now and notice any changes which are usually not many! Jackie and Neil were excited and so anticipating seeing and meeting the children and adults - but I'm not sure they expected the greeting that they would receive at our first stop which was the Nthilani Secondary School. The parents and children were lined up at the school gates waiting for us - just overwhelming and spectacular. They sang and danced as they welcomed us into the school yard. First let me tell you that the Kenya School Teachers who are on strike for better salaries - they earn about $179 per month (15,000 Kenya shillings)- so there have been no classes for the last 2 1/2 weeks. Because we were coming to visit, the school kids all put their school uniforms on, the parents put on their Sunday finest to come and meet us, and the teachers were also dressed in their best to meet us - it was so overwhelming and so special. Please do put a visit to our wonderful community on your bucket list for travel - we simply can't put words to the experience and the welcome that you will receive.
NTHILANI PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS |
MUUSINI SCHOOL - LOADING WATER TANK |
JAN & TERRY GO TO SCHOOL! |
Just days ago Kimali's younger brother collapsed and passed away unexpectedly but Kimali spent the day with us today, with smiles and words of encouragement for every child and parent - and us! The burial is this coming weekend, and we were honoured to spend a short time with Kimali's family (mother, sister in law, children) and pay our respects as the community gathers around and supports the grieving family while the grave is being dug on their familial lands.
We also visited the well site by the dry riverbed - Neil said "is that the river?" - it is a massive sand bed perhaps 200 feet wide, not a drop of water in sight, that has seen one night of rain this year - the drought has lasted for over 15 years now. The deep well facilities are fenced and utilised every day by the driver of the tractor and bowser water trailer (the Rotary project completed this year) to deliver water to the water tanks installed this year at each of the 6 schools in the cluster. Horror of horrors, 11 days ago the wheel hub (the flange around the bearing) disintegrated and no water could be delivered to the schools. This was fixed by CMC in Nairobi and today the tractor and water bowser were very busy filling the tanks at the schools which have been emptied over the last 11 days. (I could tell you how the Kyaithani Secondary School took photos of the damage, emailed them to us in Canada, we contacted our Project Manager Duncan in Nairobi and he looked after the inspection and repairs by CMC) - this is almost like science fiction in this environment - and all made possible by the camera, and internet-enabled computer donated last year by sponsors to Kyaithani Secondary School and their great teachers working so hard to help the kids progress and have a chance at a better future.
NDANDINI COMMUNITY GARDENS & GREENHOUSE |
Anyway - it was very busy! The Secondary school kids finished the afternoon with singing and dancing, a funny skit which they loved to act, and huge cheers when we confirmed that tomorrow they, all 135 of them plus teachers, would be going by bus into Nairobi - where they have never been before - to visit the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, the Giraffe Centre, and the Nairobi Natural History Museum. They will leave school on 3 sixty passenger buses at 5am, and we will meet up with them at the Sheldick Elephant Orphanage. They have never seen the wildlife that Kenya is so famous for - just imagine what a day this will be for them!
We finally left Kyaithani at 830pm and George drove us the 3 hours back to Nairobi to the wonderful TRIBE hotel. It's now 2:00am Thursday morning - we must get some sleep since in the morning we are responsible for ensuring every one of those kids gets a box lunch when they arrive at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust at 1100am!!
Jan & Terry Umbach
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