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.