Joy Joy on the Range!

31 January 2011

I forget how huge the sky is here. Francis and I left on a beautiful morning, today. It was dry and just about the perfect temperature. Once we wangled out of the city traffic the sky and clouds spread before us for miles. We climbed the rift and down into Masaai territory where I always stop to pick something up.  Francis tries to warn the hawkers that this is a Kenyan muzungu, no regular white girl. They don’t believe it until we start to bargain and then they know. And we leave, all of us satisfied, but it was a struggle.

Now that the verdant tea farms stretch before me, the baboons on the side of the road, followed by the cattle, my heart begins to soar. I am home, I am home.  You cannot know, dear reader, what this feels like. It is like melting into the vastness of the country and being part of it. What others find shocking I find the norm. I can honestly say some things have changed. The road from Kakamega can be traveled. There was a time when Francis wouldn’t drive me through the Rift and surely not at night. I smile as I see men herding cattle with sticks at the side of the road as they have done for thousands of years. But I am in an air-conditioned car and all of it feels right.

The peeing thing continues to be a problem for women traveling long distances. At one point Francis got out to “dampen the dust” as they say here. We had been on the road for 5 hours. Alas there was no place for me to do the same and it was a long hour and a half till we got to KMET.

The real joy started the moment I saw my Dada (sister). We talked of what we wanted to accomplish this trip. I told her how happy I was to be able to work with the little ones and train their teachers. Ah how I love little ones and their sense of wonder. I can scarcely wait to show everyone what that looks like. Here obedience is valued above creativity. But I told Monica if they don’t start encouraging creativity, they will not get the future problem solvers they are going to need to envision a new Kenya.

I handed over the 2 full suitcases of medications and realized that it literally doubled the capacity of the clinic. Amazing! And then Monica encouraged me to go to my hotel and rest. She thought I must be tired, she still has a bit to learn about me.

Francis and I made a beeline to the Nakumatt where I picked up the required coffee that I bring back, but most of all for me to get supplies for the new nursery school I would start tomorrow. I went through the shelves imagining what they could do with each item. I have a commitment from Monica that the carpenter will build a sand table and I got a huge plastic container that will serve as the water table. Tomorrow you can see the photos; I suspect they will be enough for you to see.

So now I sit on the terrace of the Savanna. The Oman has finished the evening prayers somewhere in the distance and best best of all; I got in touch with Daniel. I have known Daniel for 10 years. I have watched him grow to manhood, though even as a young college student he had the wisdom of men 3 times his age. I have missed him. I love talking current events with him. He is bureau chief of the Nation, but he is in town for a couple of days. If ever there was someone to give me a good evaluation of what the Egypt up rise will mean here in East Africa it is Daniel.  My mind wanders back about 6 or 7 years ago when Daniel tried to get an Internet Newspaper linking schools in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.  At that time Internet was too new here and social media had not started. You can imagine how much I await Daniel’s coming and listening to all he has to say.

I am so alive here. And I am so glad to be alive. So for me right now, it’s all good.