Saturday July 11th It was a somewhat cool night disturbed by hyenas, and was cloudy when we got up at 6.15, but cleared up later, and was very hot in Nairobi! After an early chai, there were lots more farewells. We left at quarter to 8 to walk to Ezekiel’s where we had some more chai before walking to the school. The taxi driver had refused to return to Luka’s, saying it was too far and too expensive – TOO TRUE! - but he wouldn’t drop his fee for the shorter trip – GRR! There were lots of passengers this time: us, John, Ezekiel + Joseph (one of the Enkiloriti teachers). Daniel accompanied us to the car to see us off.
It only took 40 minutes to get to Duka Moja this time. On this better road/track, it was possible to drive at 20 kph! Ezekiel farewelled us there, having business to attend to, but Joseph came all the way to Nairobi with us to get some exam papers for the school.
I had a private giggle in the taxi: the radio announcer was talking about various celebrities who were sharing a 'bath day'!!!!!
We reached Nairobi soon after 11, it was a good trip, but we were shocked at the condition of the cattle we passed, and of course the maize was in an even worse state.
At the internet, I still couldn’t access Xnet mail, but was pleased to have an email from my parents on Yahoo saying they’d successfully contacted Amex on our behalf. We changed some USD into Ksh to cover our last expenses in Kenya, also giving John his wedding present.
After a cheap lunch, and even cheaper public toilets (10 Ksh for two), we took a bus back to near Nicholas’ – but during the slow journey bin heavy traffic, it caught the edge of a matatu whilst on lane-changing manoeuvres. They just swerve from lane to lane without indicating or checking that the way is clear, it's amazing there aren't more collisions. Quite a kerfuffle ensued, each driver accusing the other of causing the damage, some of the passengers got involved too! I was praying it wouldn't become physical!
As our bus had ended up diagonally across 1 ½ lanes in a 3-lane carriageway, vehicles on our left had to veer onto the footpath to get past! Some of the passengers started to complain vociferously about the long delay, some even got off the bus and started walking to find another.
Eventually a police van passed us, without slowing down or showing any sign they’d observed the problem, but it must have stopped at the next roundabout & told one of those on point-duty to attend to it, as soon afterwards, a policeman was seen striding purposefully towards us. After a quick word to both drivers, both vehicles started up & drew into the nearby petrol station. Another brief discussion, then we were on our way again – don’t know if any money changed hands or not, couldn’t see.
When we reached our stop, Joseph accompanied our bags on a motorbike taxi back to the ‘shopping centre’ whilst we walked! Poor Bruce wrenched his back again stumbling on a stone. We were saddened to see a dead cow in a patch of grass on the way.
After backpacking our bags from the centre to Nicholas', arriving at about 2.30 to a quiet house, we were greeted by Elizabeth, Emily + the little ones. We wennt to bed to rest whilst John & Joseph returned to town to find the exam papers. We got up a couple of hours later when some children started playing noisily outside. After repacking our bags, we sat in the living room waiting for someone to turn up.
I walked round looking at all the pictures and calendars festooning the wall. One calendar (from a Pentecostal church) had ‘miraculous’ stories – one situation was frankly impossible: a woman gave birth after being pregnant for three years! Another one really made me laugh: “a woman conceived and gave birth to a boy after being in bareness for 4 years!”
After John & Joseph returned at 6.30, we were offered ‘cocoa chai’!!! John was very surprised to hear we hadn’t been offered anything earlier on - so were we! He told us Yasintha is also drinking cocoa instead of tea, they believe it’s bad for mother & baby. She’ll also have LOTS of uji, like the Wahaya in the Bukoba region – they get really fed up with it in the end!
John got Michael on the phone unexpectedly. He was so excited to hear me speak, his voice sprang up an octave, but we didn’t have much time for more than greetings, as John's phone ran out of credit. Michael didn’t ring back but we'd be meeting the next day anyway!
We talked about visiting the local pastor again, but again John was too tired. We watched the TV news & weather, surprised to see the maximum temperature was only 22 deg, it seemed much hotter! We spent the rest of the evening chatting with Nicholas, who'd come to Nairobi 17 years ago to be closer to good grazing. They are used to having the kiangazi (drought/dry season), but it’s the worst he’s known.
Our supper was very late, at ten, but was very delicious: cabbage (a vege at last!) + chapattis, followed by pieces of orange & banana – YUM! Poor Maurice had gone to sleep on a chair, but could only eat just a mouthful or two before slipping back into sleep again, nearly in his plate! It seems cruel to expect little kids (he's only 4!) to stay up so late, I don’t think they realise how much sleep they need.
We didn't get much of that, it was a VERY noisy night: barking dogs outside till early in the morning, then a rooster clapped its wings together & started to crow well before dawn!
Showing posts with label bringing up children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bringing up children. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Another casualty, Yasintha's baby, Shumbai's leg, water scheme
Thursday 9th July After sleeping soundly, I suddenly woke up, feeling queasy, so couldn’t get back to sleep. Unfortunately I vomited just before daybreak, oh dear, shouldn’t have kissed Bruce Tuesday night!
John came early with the news that Yasintha had a little girl at 2 a.m. but we hadn’t heard a sound! Apparently they don’t usually cry out, perhaps because the babies are so small/fine-boned? All the children get sugar to celebrate.
I felt too ill to do anything, so Bruce went out with John. His mum came to keep me company for a while, then I had a little rice and black tea at lunchtime, before going to sleep.
After being woken for chai mid-afternoon, I felt a lot better and went outside, joining a group of mamas who’d been beading. Esther’s lips were still sore, but her baby was better. Shumbai came up to me when I went back to our hut, asking for medicine and showing me a slightly swollen cut on her leg: she’d cut it with a panga that morning. After applying TCP & a bandage, I prayed it’d get better.
After Bruce came back with John, we went to Susannah’s hut, then to Yasintha’s to see the tiny new baby – I kept well clear. We were shown the candles, matches & fat that pregnant women save up. They also save up to 1 kg of sugar for the children. The fat is smeared on the newborn’s lips after its first feed; from then on it will get it every day!!!! No wonder Esther’s baby had a crook tummy! If the mother doesn’t have enough milk or dies, cow’s milk is heated & allowed to cool. The cream is taken off & cooked until the oil comes off, which is given to the baby.
From 3-4 months, it’ll have a mixture of ¼ cow’s milk: ¾ herb tea. The herb is supposed to prevent diarrhoea. At 1 year, the baby starts to get uji made with milk, mashed potatoes, & pieces of meat to suck. If a mother has plenty of milk, she’ll feed her child until it’s 2-3 years old, unless she has another baby too soon.
During our tea of rice + beans, Bruce told me about his day. First they’d visited a Seventh Day Adventist who’s been building dams to store water. He has planted 3 rows of trees – cypress, blue gum and another kind - around the dams to prevent silt washing in. He wants to build a hotel with 4 ensuite rooms over a large water tank, filled from the dams by foot pump.
They also visited a widow who looks after goats, her 10-year old son earns 2,000Ksh/month doing jobs for people.
The last visit was to an elderly man, Saruni ole Reson, an elder in the community. Part of his role is keeping the peace; he assured Bruce he wouldn’t allow anyone to bother us over any matter at all! He’s put 7 of his 49 children through university: one is now a doctor, another an accountant, etc! He’s the only one we’ve met who’s sold cattle to educate his children. Unfortunately the drought has only left him with 43 cows our of 283. He’s keen to let people use his shamba as a demonstration farm.
They returned via John’s house: the choo walls were finished, it was nice to see the fundi had actually done some work – we met him a couple of times going to work on his bicycle at 2 p.m. always with some excuse or other; some days he never even showed up at all!
Unfortunately poor Bruce had hurt his back bending down to demonstrate something near the dams, so was feeling rather sore and spent a bit of time lying on the bed to rest it over the next few days.
John came early with the news that Yasintha had a little girl at 2 a.m. but we hadn’t heard a sound! Apparently they don’t usually cry out, perhaps because the babies are so small/fine-boned? All the children get sugar to celebrate.
I felt too ill to do anything, so Bruce went out with John. His mum came to keep me company for a while, then I had a little rice and black tea at lunchtime, before going to sleep.
After being woken for chai mid-afternoon, I felt a lot better and went outside, joining a group of mamas who’d been beading. Esther’s lips were still sore, but her baby was better. Shumbai came up to me when I went back to our hut, asking for medicine and showing me a slightly swollen cut on her leg: she’d cut it with a panga that morning. After applying TCP & a bandage, I prayed it’d get better.
After Bruce came back with John, we went to Susannah’s hut, then to Yasintha’s to see the tiny new baby – I kept well clear. We were shown the candles, matches & fat that pregnant women save up. They also save up to 1 kg of sugar for the children. The fat is smeared on the newborn’s lips after its first feed; from then on it will get it every day!!!! No wonder Esther’s baby had a crook tummy! If the mother doesn’t have enough milk or dies, cow’s milk is heated & allowed to cool. The cream is taken off & cooked until the oil comes off, which is given to the baby.
From 3-4 months, it’ll have a mixture of ¼ cow’s milk: ¾ herb tea. The herb is supposed to prevent diarrhoea. At 1 year, the baby starts to get uji made with milk, mashed potatoes, & pieces of meat to suck. If a mother has plenty of milk, she’ll feed her child until it’s 2-3 years old, unless she has another baby too soon.
During our tea of rice + beans, Bruce told me about his day. First they’d visited a Seventh Day Adventist who’s been building dams to store water. He has planted 3 rows of trees – cypress, blue gum and another kind - around the dams to prevent silt washing in. He wants to build a hotel with 4 ensuite rooms over a large water tank, filled from the dams by foot pump.They also visited a widow who looks after goats, her 10-year old son earns 2,000Ksh/month doing jobs for people.
The last visit was to an elderly man, Saruni ole Reson, an elder in the community. Part of his role is keeping the peace; he assured Bruce he wouldn’t allow anyone to bother us over any matter at all! He’s put 7 of his 49 children through university: one is now a doctor, another an accountant, etc! He’s the only one we’ve met who’s sold cattle to educate his children. Unfortunately the drought has only left him with 43 cows our of 283. He’s keen to let people use his shamba as a demonstration farm.
They returned via John’s house: the choo walls were finished, it was nice to see the fundi had actually done some work – we met him a couple of times going to work on his bicycle at 2 p.m. always with some excuse or other; some days he never even showed up at all!
Unfortunately poor Bruce had hurt his back bending down to demonstrate something near the dams, so was feeling rather sore and spent a bit of time lying on the bed to rest it over the next few days.
Interesting plants on Mt Suswa
Wednesday July 8th Cloudy & COLD today! Bruce woke up feeling much better but had come out in a big rash on his arms, legs, back & neck. I had nothing, so it wasn’t insects in the bed! John was away before dawn to go to Narok so it was a quiet morning. Bruce sat with Luka outside his hut, whilst John’s mother visited me in ours, then Susanna + another mama came, with a little bare-bottomed girl who wet our doorstep! They run round like this till they learn to control themselves - not really sure how they get trained!
After uji at ten, I visited Raheli and some of her five children, before being called back to our hut for plain rice/black chai at midday, when Ezekiel arrived. After going off with Pastor Petro to pray for mama Esther, we all went for a walk on the lower slopes of Mt Suswa.
In one ravine, the rocky river bed has deep (up to 10 metres!) water-filled fissures in the hard impervious rock, which can be used for building tanks & houses. The rocks downstream are soft and porous. There are so many kinds of volcanic rocks around Mt Suswa, including lava, pumice and scoria.
The men stopped from time to time to show us different plants/trees, telling us about their uses: the red roots of one are used for a healthy soup; the sap of another for poison arrows – a drop or 2 will kill an elephant! trees just grown for shade; olive twigs used as toothbrushes; a soft-leaved tree (no tnorns for once!) used for brooms and to clean hands.
On our return, we visited Pastor's small boma. He only has 13 left of his 60 sheep/goats: a billy goat he wants to kill for fat, two ewes each with a lamb, four does each with a kid. He has been given 30 acres (a standard plot) higher up the mountain, and will move there once his house is ready. We drank chai in the boma!
We had tea early – 8 p.m.! John back later, so we only had a brief chat before going to bed.
After uji at ten, I visited Raheli and some of her five children, before being called back to our hut for plain rice/black chai at midday, when Ezekiel arrived. After going off with Pastor Petro to pray for mama Esther, we all went for a walk on the lower slopes of Mt Suswa.
In one ravine, the rocky river bed has deep (up to 10 metres!) water-filled fissures in the hard impervious rock, which can be used for building tanks & houses. The rocks downstream are soft and porous. There are so many kinds of volcanic rocks around Mt Suswa, including lava, pumice and scoria.
The men stopped from time to time to show us different plants/trees, telling us about their uses: the red roots of one are used for a healthy soup; the sap of another for poison arrows – a drop or 2 will kill an elephant! trees just grown for shade; olive twigs used as toothbrushes; a soft-leaved tree (no tnorns for once!) used for brooms and to clean hands.
On our return, we visited Pastor's small boma. He only has 13 left of his 60 sheep/goats: a billy goat he wants to kill for fat, two ewes each with a lamb, four does each with a kid. He has been given 30 acres (a standard plot) higher up the mountain, and will move there once his house is ready. We drank chai in the boma!We had tea early – 8 p.m.! John back later, so we only had a brief chat before going to bed.
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