Part Five: Tanzania

Sunday 12th July It was too cold to sleep after half six, but as no-one else was up apart from Agnes, we went outside to look at the sheep and goats. It seemed a very slow morning, eventually we had cocoa and bread. The thermos ran out whilst Elizabeth was pouring Bruce’s second cup, and she refilled the thermos with tea then topped up his cup with it - a strange concoction! We had cup of 'real' tea with Nicholas later.
John showed us the clothes that had been made for my parents: he made me put my mum’s on! I think dad’s shirt is too big, they thought he’d be big like Bruce! Pic: my parents wearing their beautiful Maasai garments in NZ.
We took some photos just after nine, prayed for each other, then left for airport. Nicholas was rather upset to be stopped by police, who fined him 500 Ksh for ‘carrying passengers in a dangerous manner’ – John, Joseph & Moses were standing on the deck. I’d been more worried about Maurice standing in the cab!
As only passengers are allowed to enter the departures' terminal, we said our goodbyes outside. You pass through security just inside the doors.
After filling out the departure cards, we weighed our bags on some old-fashioned scales, the attendant writing the weights on a card. Check-in was very quick, so we went upstairs and dozed a bit. We were surprised to hear our flight being called for boarding an hour early, at 11. It may have been because three different flights were due out of our gate within fifteen minutes of each other!
The plane left on time, and they quickly served chicken pie, cake + juice during the hour-long flight! We were the first off the plane, but not the first to get visas!
Part V - Tanzania
After filling in the forms, we took them over to an official near the offices. He took our passports, forms and money, telling us to wait with all the rest of the people there - what a VERY long wait! Unfortunately a group of Japanese tourists from our plane hadn’t got their visas at their embassy before leaving home, this caused quite a fuss! An American couple became quite frustrated with the delay, and weren't very amused when I quipped that the staff were just giving them their money’s worth, USD 50 must be worth some time - however, they told us they'd had to pay 100 each! Everyone else waited quietly, apart from one man who went to the offices himself instead of waiting, then when he was given change, he started to argue as they'd given him some old notes - a lot of places won’t accept USD from before the year 2000 or even later. He ended up being escorted away!
A whole hour later, we exited into the roped-off meet/greet area - no sign of Michael Kikumbo, the young man we'd worked with during our year in Bukoba. He'd become rather like a son to me so two years apart seemed far too long!
Oh, there he was - over by a group of taxi drivers, arranging transport! This rather abbreviated the greetings - no hugs possible, as we had to take our bags to the car. I was so pleased to see him, I didn’t take much notice of where we were going on the drive to our hotel, I was far too busy talking in the back seat! I did notice the big, busy soko (market) in Manzese on the way. Michael directed the driver across the dual carriageway, entering an alleyway and coming round by a back entrance to park beside a small guest house. However, Michael decided to take us to a larger place across the road, so we had pick up our bags and look for a good opportunity to cross, leaving the taxi driver to find his way out of the side street.
After being shown up to our room, Michael left to get the bus tickets for the next day, without saying when he’d be back. After having a shower, we slept till 4.30, then decided to wait for Michael, watching the little TV. By seven, he still hadn't appeared and as we were getting really hungry we went downstairs to the little restaurant. He arrived just after we’d ordered our food, but as he'd already eatern, he only wanted some juice. We only had an hour together, as we needed to be up at five to go to the bus station, the bus would leave at 6.30 & arrive in Same about 3 p.m. It was lovely to hear him trying out some English!

Back to Nairobi

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!

Visits to Ezekiel and John Nkalo, Inkoirienito church.

Friday 3rd July A sunny day, but a cool breeze.   Visited in the morning by Frank, in Standard Five aged 13, one of Raheli's sons.  He tried to speak a little English with us: “Will you come to the house of my mother?” 
More men came to visit and tell us their problems, including Ezekiel Nkalo who we’d met in Duka Moja.
Ezekiel had 300 sheep/goats and 200 cattle, he now has 50 sheep/goats + 30 cattle; 2 wives and 12 children (aged up to 12).
John Nkalo, his brother, had similar numbers of livestock, but has fewer cattle left now.  He has 4 wives and 20 children! He's the chairman of Enkiloriti School Board.
Pastor Daudi from Inkoirienito AIC only has 5 cattle left now.
Ezekiel has been saved five years, but already had 2 wives; the first is a Maasai chosen by his family; the second is a Kikuyu married for love!  He'd like to be a pastor but would have to forsake a wife.  Bruce says he can still be an evangelist. 
We walked to Luka's dam for human/stock water - nearly empty, it should be nearly full!  Then we walked to the maize/bean plantation (left). Eland & giraffe








had got over the boma in the night and eaten some of the plants that have survived.  Only a few look any good, they are in a damp spot where water/urine drains from the yard: some half dozen had tassels or silks, the rest were small & stunted.  We were told that maize crops grown near towns/villages are at risk of theft, people bring donkey carts to take the cobs to sell in Nairobi! Then we visited some of the sites where dead livestock (above right) that died near home were taken, but hyenas had pulled some down the hillside.  Most died on the mountains, too weak to cope with the 2+ hours' walk.  We saw no feed suitable for cattle, only a picking for a few sheep/goats.








Pics: feed situation (left); the best feed (right): just a few square metres of 1 cm long grass!
Back at Luka's, they were helping an old man, walking with two sticks, onto a motorbike to take him home.  He’d come the night before, thinking we’d brought relief food with us, very disappointed that there was none. We had chapattis, chai and a wash before walking to Inkoirienito church. 








The large government-built reservoir has been fenced to keep out livestock, they are only allowed in in supervised groups.  The intake area needs altering to prevent erosion and silting, water has been entering below the concreted stone area. It has never had much water in it since it was built in 2007. Pics: left = 2007, Bruce is way down the far end! Right = water remaining 2009.
The church water tank built with funds from NZ shows a little seepage, it's nearly full, being conserved for John’s wedding!  Pic: 2007 after thanksgiving service.
A large area has been cleared near the church to use for a school or kindergarten.


We walked to Ezekiel’s house past more heaps of bones and the remains of his failed watermelon crop. On the way we'd passed close to the River Elina (right).  Steep gorges fill with rushing water from the mountains when it rains.  Many cattle are lost each dry season, falling down the banks trying to get to the grass in the river bed.  There were LOTS of flies there. 
His 4 year old son came to meet us, dancing for us with incredible skill!  He's said to be an excellent mimic & singer, and wants to be a pastor! 
We talked about the problems in the area and the need for sponsors/aid whilst we drank chai and ate rice and potatoes together. 
Enkiloriti Clinic started 3 years near the primary school but is unusable, as it has no roof. Going to Duka Moja for treatment is very expensive.
The Primary School doesn’t have enough teachers; no suitable teachers' houses; the parents can’t pay teachers’ salaries – non-government teachers rely on these, they have only passed Form 4.  To work for the government, you need a College diploma.
After walking round Ezekiel's shamba, we went to his brother's, but only his wives and some children were there.  They have also lost many stock on the mountain, but some died near the huts. 
The men were amused, as we sat on stools outside, by a boy uttering strange cries - I was embarrassed to be told that the first were those of girls before circumcision, the second those of boys! 
Pic: nice view of distant mountains, huts + donkey corral: the poor things only got let out at midday! 
Amusing sight: 2 little girls carrying shoes in lesos on their backs, each holding a jar of VERY dirty water – their ‘babies’ and ‘milk’!
Returning to Luka’s through the bush, one section was so slippery I was given Luka’s stick to help!  There was some kind of monkey in the trees, but I only caught a brief glimpse. 
We were visited by 2 girls in the evening: Shumbai and Dagili, + some women: Mary (just had her first baby), Maria & Susannah.  I was given 2 bracelets, both made by Shumbai: 1) Kenyan flag design from Shumbai; 2) “I love you” given to Bruce by Susannah, but too small - given to me instead!

A day in Nairobi

Wed July 1st It was a cold morning, grey and cloudy, but it got hot later when the sun came out. We were up at 7, I was feeling VERY tired and scratchy, which made reorganizing & repacking my bags very slow. Chatted afterwards with Agnes and her oldest child, Maurice (4), also with Emily, Agnes’ younger sister, who has very good English – although she doesn’t think so! She’s in Standard 7, so should finish Primary School next year.
After breakfast of bread & chai, we started towards the city centre by ute. Bruce drove at first, but they thought he was going too slowly on the dirt roads! The next problem was not giving him directions in time! Maa instructions were shouted by those on the deck to John who was sitting inside, so by the time he'd translated them into English it was too late to take the turning! We were very glad when one of them took over! We were dropped off at a petrol station to take a bus to Barclay Plaza to the Precision Air office.
The most wonderful lady, Sarah Wachira, helped us, she deserves a gold medal! What we’d thought would be a quick job turned out to take many hours! Each time she tried the on-line payment system: “Transaction declined”! The proble: a missing office code on our voucher which hadn't been issued by Precision Air after all but by the travel agent. She said it might be possible for us to give her the voucher + the balance of the fare to send Arusha: a ticket would be issued manually from there! Oh dear, we know the African postal system is rather dodgy! However, we agreed to go away for a few hours so she could get it all sorted.
After lunching in a cafe, we spent over an hour in a taxi trying to find the Amex office to report the loss of the travellers’ cheques. We'd been told to go to Upper Hill, and that it'd be easy to find the office there, but no-one knew where the office was when we got there!
Some fun encounters in the city: 3 guys in a truck gave Bruce a thumbs-up, totally delighted when he returned it. A motorcyclist gave him a big smile and was overjoyed to have it returned. A lady in a phone card shop was really excited when I greeted her in Kiswahili!
We were very surprised to only see a total of 6 Wazungu during our few days in Nairobi. On previous visits there have been lots! Perhaps they were all on safari or keeping away after last year’s fighting.
Public toilets are a bit different: you pay the outside attendant 10 or 20 Ksh (20 or 40 NZ cents) & get some toilet paper. After using the squat toilet, you flush it with a couple of dippers of water from a barrel outside the door. I was pleased there was also water for washing your hands too, sometimes outside.
As we arrived back at the Plaza we were thrilled to see Sarah just outside the main entrance – no need to leave Bruce’s passport at the desk this time in exchange for an ID tag! Back in the office, she gave us a huge smile, handed over our tickets and we paid the balance, which was much cheaper than the amount I’d been told on-line. So it was smiles and thank you’s all round! It was so good to get all that sorted out, we couldn’t leave it till our return to the city as it would be at a weekend, and no offices open. We cashed up the extra 100 USD, so we could buy supplies and pay for transport over the next week.
We were surprised to be taken to an up-market supermarket, but it was good to use some clean Western-style toilets. When Nicholas turned up, he treated us to huge lattés in the nearby cafe – I’ve never seen such stiff foam before! The severe headache I’d developed eased off a little.
Back in the Maasai shopping 'centre', we stopped to greet a pastor who has a church there called Harvest, he wanted us to visit him after tea.
Our tea was different: ‘Nescafe chai’! It was strange that it was still called 'chai' even though it was made from coffee, not tea!
I tried to phone Amex using John's cellphone, but got no reply. John was too tired to visit the pastor, so we stayed at home talking to a young teacher who had come to greet us. He teaches a class of 70 Standard 3-4 pupils!
We had more chai at 9, dinner at 10: cabbage, potatoes and chapattis, but couldn’t eat very much! I was a bit disturbed when John told me we would be discussing transport arrangements the next day, we'd thought it had already been sorted!
Had a few hours’ good sleep once the talking stopped, we'd been given 2 blankets this time!

Part Four: Kenya

Tuesday 30th June Descending into Dubai, 2 small children started vomiting, one was panicking, and her dad was rather brusque.  She coped much better when she sat by the window with her mother. 
What a hot place, 32° at 5.30 a.m.!
We had a rather frustrating time trying to get our homeward journey organised.  We wanted to use our Skywards points to upgrade to business class from Nairobi to Dubai, and also wanted to find out whether we would be able to get a shuttle to/from our hotel.
Everyone had a different idea as to where the Skywards desk was!  First we were told it’s at Gate 121 in the old terminal – nothing!  The information desk sent us upstairs, two sets of people directed us back through security to another desk where we were told to go upstairs to the Business lounge.  However, we couldn't get there from where we were, so had to go back to Transfers passing through security again!  Well, we were back where we started, halfway down Terminal Three! 
When we went upstairs, we were confronted by a large lady who asked if we were registered!  Only Silver and Gold customers can use the Skywards desks at the airport, so we'd have to use the internet or phone!
After walking around the airport for 1 1/2 hours, we were feeling rather tired!  After having orange juice and sundaes at McDonald’s, we put our feet up for 20 minutes before heading off the the boarding area.  We were very surprised to be upraded to Business class along with many others!  God has a real sense of humour!!It was good to be able to put our feet up on the plane, no swelling for once!  None of the other planes had had foot rests.  You certainly get a much larger variety of foods (including a glass pottle of jam!), larger servings of juice, a choice of teas & coffees, a bottle of water and good earphones!
Take-off was delayed by the paper war that ensued after a passenger didn’t board, also their baggage had to be offloaded, caused a paper war.  Further delays were caused by rescheduling the runway!  However, we were still on time in Nairobi!
Part IV – Kenya
It was humid, and warm, 21° at 3 p.m.  We were shocked by the brownness of the countryside, it should have been green.
After waiting in the queue for ½ hour for a visa, we found we needed another form!  That meant another ½ hour wait!  They were certainly taking swine flu' seriously, you were given a special form to fill in with a tear-off slip for a doctor in case you got sick.
We were met by 5 Maasai including our friend John Tino. They’d been there since lunchtime, although I'd told them not to be there before half 3!  Some had never seen planes before, so had been having lots of fun watching them take off and land.
Unfortunately I managed to lose some travellers’ cheques by accidentally replacing them between my money belt & skirt.  I was trying to be very careful as it's offensive for a woman to show her waist!
We went to the Kenya Airways office outside Departures hoping to pay for our tickets to Tanzania, but they wouldn’t accept our voucher although we’d been assured it would be OK.  That meant planning a trip to the Precision Air office in Nairobi the next day.
We all went in Nicholas Teeka's ute – one of John Tino’s half-brothers – to his house in a small Maasai settlement near the airport.  He and his wife Agnes live in a 3-room corrugated iron hut with their 2 children and one of his other wife’s children.  The other lives with its mother at his father’s manyatta.  Pictured from L to R: John, Nicholas, Agnes + child, Elizabeth (John's fiancée).The house is surrounded by netting fences - animals live on three sides in pens, the fourth has a gate.  A smaller hut contains the jiko (stove), a bed and cupboards.  Hens fly up to peck scraps off the dirty plates stacked in the wooden dish-stand in the yard.  Young animals stay around all day, older ones are taken out to grazing.  The bathroom is a tiny iron shed behind the 'house' with a branch for soap and wire for towel + clothes.  The toilet was a padlocked long-drop in the open space outside the fence.
The settlement has sll kinds of houses from traditional mud/thatch huts, through mud brick to iron.  Many are dilapidated or derelict.  It's approached on a dirt road that first passes between home-made dukas (shops) and kibandas (roofed stalls).  It's a noisy place to live, there are planes all day, (a Red Cross one at 4.30 p.m.), and at night: cow bells; animals snorting, coughing, & urinating; little children crying; people talking; even 2 birds that together sounded like a squeaky see-saw! 
We were only able to eat half the food offered as by the time we got to eat, it was so late at night! However, it was good to meet John’s fiancée, Elizabeth, who’d been staying with Nicholas and his family for a couple of weeks.  She finds the city hard to get used to as her home is out in the bush. 
We were quite shocked and very sad to hear, during the after-dinner discussion, that their wedding had been postponed.  The church leaders had decided this at a meeting on Friday: because John's house isn’t finished, and people can’t afford to bring gifts due to the drought.
It was hard to sleep too as it was so cold and we only had a bottom sheet – usually you supply your own, but we hadn’t packed one!  Everyone else had gone offto bed too, and we didn't want to disturb anyone, so we put on sweaters and socks, and huddled together under my dressing gown all night! 
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling very upset about losing the money, feeling such a fool! I'd only found out when we went to bed so couldn't do anything about it straight away.

Part Two: Belgium

Sunday 21st Changeable weather, fine then colder, windy and cloudy.  I got up too early, making the dog rather excited when I went downstairs, she wanted to go outside - but I missed one deadbolt so she had to wait a bit longer!Managed to bypass the Baptist church due to talking too much, realising once we reached the Catholic one that we'd gone to far.  We ended up about 15 minutes late but enjoyed the service plus chatting to some of the friendly congregation and pastor afterwards.  They help an African church in Nairobi by sending teams to teach pastors and Sunday School teachers.
We went to Heathrow by bus after lunch. British Midlands seemed very efficient, but there was a long delay on the tarmac before we were cleared for take off, so the pilot made a big joke out of it.  However, we made up half an hour in flight time due to tail winds!
Part II - Belgium
Our first glimpses of Belgium were interesting: lots of tiny fields, some looking like mediaeval strip-farms, entwined within a cobweb of roads that sprouted clusters of houses along their lengths.  There seemed to be few trees apart from a large area near the city, but there were quite a lot of canals and other waterways. 
At first airport formalities seemed pretty scanty with no arrival forms to fill in.  However, two out of the three queues for non-EU passport-holders were stationary or almost so, so people started moving to the only one that was proceeding quickly.  We decided to do the same.
The charming official only wanted to know whether we were there for business or not, so was interested to hear that we were going to visit our daughter in Belgium, and that we were from NZ, saying, “Old Zeeland is very close!”
It was a little hard to find the right platform for the train, but it was a quick trip to the Midi.  It seems young Belgians love covering things with graffiti, even the train carriages! 
It was also hard to find the right exit out of the Midi station, we thought we’d come out on the other side, so we went in the wrong direction down the street looking for our hotel.  There seemed to be few street signs + my street map was confusing, even the bus stop one didn’t help, so we went back to the station to ask directions.  I also asked at a few places on the way, trying out some French! 
The hotel was a bit grotty, and our room only had a shared toilet, with no bathroom, so we paid a bit more to get a room with a shower.
Dinner was interesting, we went to the next-door Greek restaurant.  It was hard to work out which dish was which + the staff only spoke French - but a kindly Asian girl helped us.  The chef complimented her on her excellent French and it was quite funny how quickly they became a little flirtatious, although he was twice her age! It was a cheap filling meal, so we slept well afterwards, although it was amazingly light outside after 10 p.m.