Kitale and Mt. Elgon
Everyone I’m working with is doing “capacity training” in Bungoma right now and I have been left in the office to take care of things while the network is gone. Basically that has involved unloading and selling truckloads of fertilizer and maize seed. My Swahili is by no means fluent but now I can make small talk and sell to farmers without using any English at all. Pretty cool, eh? I’ll get back to my week - which included, among other things, electrocuting my head – in a minute but first a quick recap of the weekend.
So after running around everywhere for work and to visit other PCV’s I needed to take a breather this last weekend since I have so much travel coming up. Didn’t happen. Relaxing really isn’t my thing anyway. My Canadian friend Sarah, who is staying here for one more month before returning home, had a funeral to attend in Kitale on Saturday. Kitale is close to Mt. Elgon National Park and she wanted me join her in Kitale to go to the park with her. On the way to Kitale I passed the scenic town of Webuye, which features a large, stinky paper mill on the right hand side and a bubbling lake of raw sewage on the left hand side. It’s a nice place to visit and all but I wouldn’t want to live there. The ride to Kitale is beautiful though. We were making a beeline for Mt. Elgon, and it continued to grow larger and larger. I can see the mountain from my house and it seems that so close, but it is nearly three hours by matatu to reach it from my home.
I made it to Kitale and really enjoyed it there. I’ve said it seems that all mid-sized Kenyan towns are about the same but I’ve found my first exception. It was clean, the people were extremely friendly, and with Mt. Elgon looming in the background the scenery is spectacular as well. I’ve decided that if I join the Peace Corps in Kenya again I’ll definitely want to live in Kitale…or Mfangano Island; it’s a tough call.
So we left for Elgon bright and early and it’s a good thing we did. The sensible (and expensive) way to do Elgon is via car, which of course I don’t have and they charge an astronomical tourist price to take one (20,000 shillings for a 40km drive to the base of Mt. Elgon)
So anyway, here’s a quick example of what living in Kenya and knowing how things work can get you: Went to the village nearest the park via matatu (70 shillings) Found a boda bodas to take us about 15 kilometers down a bumpy but scenic dirt road towards the park (75 shillings). Then we walked the remaining distance to the park, about another 10 kilometers. (Free) It was straight uphill so a boda was out of the question but the scenery on the way to the park was almost as good as in the park itself. Of course this took half the day but the walk to the park was a lot of fun.
We made it to the gate to find that a day trip up 13,000+ ft. Mt Elgon was out of the question. It was about 30 miles away and involved a vehicle, which as I have said costs a bit too much. I’m currently scheming with the guard we took through the park to find a way to get to the mountain for less. Our residence cards got us into the park for a good price and we found a guard/guide to walk us around for 500 shillings. I was so excited about Mt. Elgon Park because it is supposedly full of elephants. Unfortunately when we got there the guide told us that had all migrated to the other side of the park, so I was out of luck on that, but it was a great trip anyway.
First we walked with the guide to the caves in the park, which are supposedly dug by elephants searching for salt. The caves were huge and deep and I’m extremely skeptical about the elephant-digging theory but they were beautiful regardless. The walls inside the cave were alive with millions of bats and pools of bright yellow algae grew on the ground near the mouth of the cave. We stopped there for lunch and offered our guide a cheese sandwich. I’m generalizing here but as far as I can tell most Kenyans hate cheese. I have not met one yet that will eat it. At least our guard tried a bit, possibly his first cheese experience ever, but then he opted for a blue band (the margarine-like staple condiment of Kenya) sandwich instead. Blue band is sketchy stuff. You could open a container of blue band, leave it sitting in the sun for a year, and, assuming you could keep the ants out of it (which isn’t possible here, even in my kitchen) it would still look and taste the same as it did the day it was opened. I don’t want to know how that is possible.
So we left the cave and I wanted to go somewhere with a view. Our guard (I’m calling him a guard instead of a guide because he didn’t know much about the wildlife in the park but he carried a big machine gun) decided that if we were willing to climb we could make it to a viewpoint in the park before we left. We took him up on it and climbed up to a huge ledge overlooking the surrounding area. It was absolutely breathtaking and I can’t wait to go back and see what it looks like from the peak of Elgon. Ridges in the distance were in Uganda, and below us were fantastic colors from thousands of different trees and plants and Buffalo standing in the clearings. At the edge of the park the landscape abruptly changed to red clay fields where farmers are waiting for the rains to come and crops to begin growing.
At the top of the overlook I saw a dog. At first I assumed it was a wild dog, because what would a domestic dog be doing in the park? The guard had an answer for that and I now know why he came with us. He claimed it was a hunting dog and poachers were nearby. The policy for poaching in Kenyan parks is “shoot-on-site” and our guard went chasing after the dog, supposedly to kill it followed by it’s owners. Sarah didn’t feel it was a good idea for the guide to go running off with a loaded machine gun and leave us alone, plus she was against the whole machine gun battle thing, so she called after him and insisted he stay. Therefore the poachers live on to poach another day.
On the way back to the gate we passed several animals, including a dik-dik which is like a miniature antelope and a water buck. I’ll attach a picture if the web will let me.
As we left the park a storm started to gather on the horizon and the contrast between the sunny blue sky against the dark grey clouds and curtain of falling rain reminded me of a storm I had seen on the plains of Nebraska. We made it back to a lodge exhausted after at least 20 miles of hiking and I slept like a baby.
The next morning I needed to be at work by 10 to pick up a shipment of fertilizer. Things looked like they would work great. We caught a boda at seven and hitched a ride into town in the back of a pickup truck. We were in a matatu headed for Kakamega by eight. The last trip to Kitale took two hours so I had no reason to think that the return trip wouldn’t be the same length of time. How wrong I was. This was the most overcrowded matatu I had been in since Kitui. It stopped for everyone on the road, even when it did not seem humanly possible to fit one additional person in the van. Yet somehow they managed to do it and between picking everyone up and dropping everyone off along the way it was a three and a half hour trek home. I made it to the office around noon worried sick that I had missed the shipment of fertilizer that was supposed to arrive in the morning. Lucky for me this is Kenya and a promised delivery of 10am actually means “sometime in the afternoon” which is when it arrived. So all in all it was a good weekend with a happy ending.
Now back to my week in the office. I was happily printing out information on farming as a business from the computer when the daily rains started. I had almost forgotten I live in what was once a rain forest, but now I am reminded because there will be a downpour almost everyday until December, which gives me something to look forward to. With these downpours come lightening and thunder, and while working on the computer and listening to music through headphones lightening stuck about twenty feet away outside. It sounded like a bomb went off and my whole head was jolted as electricity went through the phone line, into the computer, and apparently into one headphone, through my head, and out the other. My inner ears hurt the rest of the day and I couldn’t even walk straight for awhile afterwards. I staggered outside to see what had happened and the ground outside the office was smoking.
I was worried that having a lightening bolt go through a computer might not be good for it. It certainly wasn’t good for me. This proved true when the power came back on in the office two days later. The computer would not power up and I thought at best I had toasted a power supply, and at worst everything I had on the hard drive was lost. I took the computer apart and saw a large black char mark on the modem. After removing the modem and turning on the computer it would still not power up. I then noticed that the power cord was fused and, amazingly, by replacing the fuse, everything minus the modem was up and working again. I consider this a very lucky warning and will buy a surge protector and UPS as soon as possible.
So now onto the wheelchair project. I received a call from Benson Anjere saying the wheelchairs that are in Mombasa are accruing a 12,500 shilling a day storage fee since they are not being picked up. The clearing cost for the wheelchairs is 200,000 shillings (divide that by 75 to see what it is in dollars). Benson was able to get a grant to cover the wheelchairs being picked up, but will not receive the money for another week. He called me wanting to see if I could get the cash together now, and said he will pay me back once the grant money arrives. I’m a little confused about what to do here. Things here don’t always work out like they should in terms of being paid back, and taking the equivalent of 200,000 out of my personal account would be a significant chunk of my savings. On the other hand, I could afford it and it would help put 550 people in wheelchairs. However, by the time I would be able to get the money transferred to my checking account and send to Benson it would take a week anyway. I called Benson back and asked him if there was anyway he could work to get an extension on the 12,500/day storage costs. After all, these wheelchairs are being given for free to help people in Kenya. He told me he is looking into it and will let me know. I’m hopeful he has enough political influence to pull this off. In the meantime, an extra $150 a day or so will be required to get the wheelchairs if this does not work out. Nothing here is easy.
(Authors note: Benson proved himself corrupt and dishonest.)
So that’s about all I have time for now. I’ll write again soon.
So after running around everywhere for work and to visit other PCV’s I needed to take a breather this last weekend since I have so much travel coming up. Didn’t happen. Relaxing really isn’t my thing anyway. My Canadian friend Sarah, who is staying here for one more month before returning home, had a funeral to attend in Kitale on Saturday. Kitale is close to Mt. Elgon National Park and she wanted me join her in Kitale to go to the park with her. On the way to Kitale I passed the scenic town of Webuye, which features a large, stinky paper mill on the right hand side and a bubbling lake of raw sewage on the left hand side. It’s a nice place to visit and all but I wouldn’t want to live there. The ride to Kitale is beautiful though. We were making a beeline for Mt. Elgon, and it continued to grow larger and larger. I can see the mountain from my house and it seems that so close, but it is nearly three hours by matatu to reach it from my home.
I made it to Kitale and really enjoyed it there. I’ve said it seems that all mid-sized Kenyan towns are about the same but I’ve found my first exception. It was clean, the people were extremely friendly, and with Mt. Elgon looming in the background the scenery is spectacular as well. I’ve decided that if I join the Peace Corps in Kenya again I’ll definitely want to live in Kitale…or Mfangano Island; it’s a tough call.
So we left for Elgon bright and early and it’s a good thing we did. The sensible (and expensive) way to do Elgon is via car, which of course I don’t have and they charge an astronomical tourist price to take one (20,000 shillings for a 40km drive to the base of Mt. Elgon)
So anyway, here’s a quick example of what living in Kenya and knowing how things work can get you: Went to the village nearest the park via matatu (70 shillings) Found a boda bodas to take us about 15 kilometers down a bumpy but scenic dirt road towards the park (75 shillings). Then we walked the remaining distance to the park, about another 10 kilometers. (Free) It was straight uphill so a boda was out of the question but the scenery on the way to the park was almost as good as in the park itself. Of course this took half the day but the walk to the park was a lot of fun.
We made it to the gate to find that a day trip up 13,000+ ft. Mt Elgon was out of the question. It was about 30 miles away and involved a vehicle, which as I have said costs a bit too much. I’m currently scheming with the guard we took through the park to find a way to get to the mountain for less. Our residence cards got us into the park for a good price and we found a guard/guide to walk us around for 500 shillings. I was so excited about Mt. Elgon Park because it is supposedly full of elephants. Unfortunately when we got there the guide told us that had all migrated to the other side of the park, so I was out of luck on that, but it was a great trip anyway.
First we walked with the guide to the caves in the park, which are supposedly dug by elephants searching for salt. The caves were huge and deep and I’m extremely skeptical about the elephant-digging theory but they were beautiful regardless. The walls inside the cave were alive with millions of bats and pools of bright yellow algae grew on the ground near the mouth of the cave. We stopped there for lunch and offered our guide a cheese sandwich. I’m generalizing here but as far as I can tell most Kenyans hate cheese. I have not met one yet that will eat it. At least our guard tried a bit, possibly his first cheese experience ever, but then he opted for a blue band (the margarine-like staple condiment of Kenya) sandwich instead. Blue band is sketchy stuff. You could open a container of blue band, leave it sitting in the sun for a year, and, assuming you could keep the ants out of it (which isn’t possible here, even in my kitchen) it would still look and taste the same as it did the day it was opened. I don’t want to know how that is possible.
So we left the cave and I wanted to go somewhere with a view. Our guard (I’m calling him a guard instead of a guide because he didn’t know much about the wildlife in the park but he carried a big machine gun) decided that if we were willing to climb we could make it to a viewpoint in the park before we left. We took him up on it and climbed up to a huge ledge overlooking the surrounding area. It was absolutely breathtaking and I can’t wait to go back and see what it looks like from the peak of Elgon. Ridges in the distance were in Uganda, and below us were fantastic colors from thousands of different trees and plants and Buffalo standing in the clearings. At the edge of the park the landscape abruptly changed to red clay fields where farmers are waiting for the rains to come and crops to begin growing.
At the top of the overlook I saw a dog. At first I assumed it was a wild dog, because what would a domestic dog be doing in the park? The guard had an answer for that and I now know why he came with us. He claimed it was a hunting dog and poachers were nearby. The policy for poaching in Kenyan parks is “shoot-on-site” and our guard went chasing after the dog, supposedly to kill it followed by it’s owners. Sarah didn’t feel it was a good idea for the guide to go running off with a loaded machine gun and leave us alone, plus she was against the whole machine gun battle thing, so she called after him and insisted he stay. Therefore the poachers live on to poach another day.
On the way back to the gate we passed several animals, including a dik-dik which is like a miniature antelope and a water buck. I’ll attach a picture if the web will let me.
As we left the park a storm started to gather on the horizon and the contrast between the sunny blue sky against the dark grey clouds and curtain of falling rain reminded me of a storm I had seen on the plains of Nebraska. We made it back to a lodge exhausted after at least 20 miles of hiking and I slept like a baby.
The next morning I needed to be at work by 10 to pick up a shipment of fertilizer. Things looked like they would work great. We caught a boda at seven and hitched a ride into town in the back of a pickup truck. We were in a matatu headed for Kakamega by eight. The last trip to Kitale took two hours so I had no reason to think that the return trip wouldn’t be the same length of time. How wrong I was. This was the most overcrowded matatu I had been in since Kitui. It stopped for everyone on the road, even when it did not seem humanly possible to fit one additional person in the van. Yet somehow they managed to do it and between picking everyone up and dropping everyone off along the way it was a three and a half hour trek home. I made it to the office around noon worried sick that I had missed the shipment of fertilizer that was supposed to arrive in the morning. Lucky for me this is Kenya and a promised delivery of 10am actually means “sometime in the afternoon” which is when it arrived. So all in all it was a good weekend with a happy ending.
Now back to my week in the office. I was happily printing out information on farming as a business from the computer when the daily rains started. I had almost forgotten I live in what was once a rain forest, but now I am reminded because there will be a downpour almost everyday until December, which gives me something to look forward to. With these downpours come lightening and thunder, and while working on the computer and listening to music through headphones lightening stuck about twenty feet away outside. It sounded like a bomb went off and my whole head was jolted as electricity went through the phone line, into the computer, and apparently into one headphone, through my head, and out the other. My inner ears hurt the rest of the day and I couldn’t even walk straight for awhile afterwards. I staggered outside to see what had happened and the ground outside the office was smoking.
I was worried that having a lightening bolt go through a computer might not be good for it. It certainly wasn’t good for me. This proved true when the power came back on in the office two days later. The computer would not power up and I thought at best I had toasted a power supply, and at worst everything I had on the hard drive was lost. I took the computer apart and saw a large black char mark on the modem. After removing the modem and turning on the computer it would still not power up. I then noticed that the power cord was fused and, amazingly, by replacing the fuse, everything minus the modem was up and working again. I consider this a very lucky warning and will buy a surge protector and UPS as soon as possible.
So now onto the wheelchair project. I received a call from Benson Anjere saying the wheelchairs that are in Mombasa are accruing a 12,500 shilling a day storage fee since they are not being picked up. The clearing cost for the wheelchairs is 200,000 shillings (divide that by 75 to see what it is in dollars). Benson was able to get a grant to cover the wheelchairs being picked up, but will not receive the money for another week. He called me wanting to see if I could get the cash together now, and said he will pay me back once the grant money arrives. I’m a little confused about what to do here. Things here don’t always work out like they should in terms of being paid back, and taking the equivalent of 200,000 out of my personal account would be a significant chunk of my savings. On the other hand, I could afford it and it would help put 550 people in wheelchairs. However, by the time I would be able to get the money transferred to my checking account and send to Benson it would take a week anyway. I called Benson back and asked him if there was anyway he could work to get an extension on the 12,500/day storage costs. After all, these wheelchairs are being given for free to help people in Kenya. He told me he is looking into it and will let me know. I’m hopeful he has enough political influence to pull this off. In the meantime, an extra $150 a day or so will be required to get the wheelchairs if this does not work out. Nothing here is easy.
(Authors note: Benson proved himself corrupt and dishonest.)
So that’s about all I have time for now. I’ll write again soon.
posted by KenyaJoe at 7:49 AM
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