*****NOTICE*****

I have posted some pictures on Facebook and if you do not have access to Facebook you can use this direct link to see the pictures.

*****NOTICE*****

February 4, Friday: Same morning routine to get to KVC by 8:30. They were preparing for their worship, but those of us working on the site did not stay this morning. We got our tools and headed over. I wasn't sure what we would be working on since it seemed to me that the next step was beginning to work on the fence and none of the material for that was ready. But of course there were things to do. Several guys went to work on the stumps sticking out all over. Most of us set about raking and pulling all the loose material down into a pile near the bottom of the hill where the composting trench will end up. That also entailed going back through all that we had chopped down and cutting it into two categories: pieces that could be used for firewood and everything else to be composted. What began as a massive pile from the previous two days work was reduced greatly by this process. There was a lot of usable wood and the rest is much more compost friendly. We took our lunch break around 1 and then after a lot of discussion called it a day at 2pm. I went back to the center with Millie and the other girls. Part of the reason we stopped is that there is some dissension in the ranks about how much they are going to be making for their work. During most of the construction they are being considered 'apprentices' and will not make very much. I gather that the issue of the moment was that over the past few days we have been working on our own, without a leader from KVC and none of the guys think they need to 'apprentice' the use of a panga or slasher, as they have used them all their lives. They have a point there, but I do not know everything about the situation so I shouldn't say much more until I can talk to Wendy. I hung out in the office for an hour and then headed back to Wildebeest. After being dropped off at Yaya, I finally bought a cell phone, the most basic one there is. So now I have a usable local phone that will work in Uganda as well, and possibly Ethiopia. I almost stopped and bought some mangoes from a street vendor. I probably should have because they were better looking than the ones I have seen in the grocery stores. At Wildebeest I checked again on what I could find about SDA churches and decided I would walk over to the Newlife Church on 5^th Ngong. I'll visit the Lavington Church on a later date.

February 5, Sabbath: After a morning shower and breakfast, I began my walk to where I thought the church was located. It was a little further than I had remembered from my walk last Sunday, but I got there as everyone was dividing for lesson study at 8:45am. Church got out at 4:30pm. Of course there was a lunch break in there with some wonderful Kenyan food, including a porridge that tasted like quince paste. They had a guest speaker for the service and also the after lunch meeting: the newly elected president of the Central Kenya Conference (CKC), Mr. Frankline Wariba. One of the men that made sure I was well taken care of was Paul, who wants to take me to several places around Nairobi. During the lunch break the two of us had a long talk about many different things. There was a cute little girl of about 4, who marched right over to where I was in the second row and spent about 10 minutes stroking the hair on my arm in fascination. Eventually, she went back to her mother, but during lunch and again later, she waved when she saw me. After church was over, another church member, Rosa, dropped me off at the hostel

February 6, Sunday: Since there was a very large group leaving this morning, I stayed in bed until just after 8 when they were finally gone. As I was eating three bedraggled Americans came in and had breakfast too. They had just arrived on an over night bus from Kampala after climbing Kilimanjaro. We talked for a bit and then they went to get some more sleep since the bus ride had not been a good one. Aside from a trip to Uchumi to get some bananas, chips, and cookies, because the power was out at the hostel and therefore there was no food coming from the kitchen, I stayed on the grounds and read my current book, and did some of the puzzles in one of the Games magazines I brought along. In the afternoon, two of the guys from breakfast came out and we talked more about our respective trips and other things. They wanted to know a place to eat, so I went with them to Mesob, the Ethiopian place around the corner. And just like last time there was more food than any of us could eat. They did provide a take away container, which meant we could bring the remainder to their friend who had stayed behind sleeping. The other neat thing was that they had made half the restaurant ready for a wedding and that was just beginning before we left.

February 7, Monday: Got up early, had a rushed breakfast, to get out before another large group of people descended on the dining room and made it to Yaya to catch a matatu that was waiting right when I arrived. Just being a few minutes earlier made a big difference as traffic was lighter and we made good time. The center had just opened up when I got there, and slowly over the next twenty minutes the work group showed up. Jacob led us to the work site at 8:30 and talked to me the whole way there, telling of some of the issues that had been poking their heads up over the last week. The group I am working with had all started working without having received a clear answer on what they would be paid each day. That still has not been resolved, but they think it will be lower than many of them want to work for. Then when we basically finished the work that had been estimated to take four days in two, there was a kind of vacuum where no one stepped up and clarified what should be done next. Once the land was cleared. The next obvious step is putting up a fence around the place, but we really need someone to mark the real corners of the plot before we start digging holes. Also, while the mix of tools we had to work with was adequate for the initial jobs, we now have a broken pick (out of two) and a broken shovel (out of two). And just from seeing how difficult it is to uproot the stumps of the brush we have removed, the remaining shovel and pick will not survive either. That really is not a function of the tools being abused, it is much more that the quality of the tools is not there. We also lost a rake because the tines are flimsy enough to bend and in the course of four days that flexed it to the point of breaking.

All that said the group of young people working on the site are quite up beat. They know that they are making some sacrifices for the better of the community that the center will represent and they are all hard workers. There is constant chatter among them as we work and they are laughing much of the time. But as the issues have been brought up with no real response from those further up the chain, they are beginning to be frustrated. They have told me they will do the work, they just want someone to give them a better idea of the order and purposes of some of the tasks.

Well for the actual work of the day, we cut down another swathe of brush along the top of the property that I am quite sure is beyond the property line, but which will work as a buffer. We also cut the east edge back some more. Then a couple guys rounded up a wooden cart and we loaded it with wood from the wood pile (which I had actually thought would be completely gone over the weekend, but it was still intact, while someone had burned the entire compost pile to the ground). They sorted the wood by type, apparently some of it really doesn't bring much money and they will just keep it on site. We had a long siesta under the shade tree, did a bit more clean up and then headed back to the center at 4:30. I stayed at the center until 6:30 reading a newspaper and talking to some of the staff. Then a uneventful matatu ride back to Yaya and a walk home. I checked in with Wendy, left her a voice mail, then called Paul to see about where we should meet on Wednesday. With that settled I got some dinner and a shower.

February 8 Tuesday: Normal morning, we continued working, but we are running out of things to work on, without direction from above or tools/materials to begin some of the other tasks that will have to be done. At lunch they announced we would be having a meeting back at the center to address some of the issues that had been raised. The meeting was good in that problems were put out in the open and steps were taken to address them and streamline the process for when other issues do come up.

February 9 Wednesday: I slept until 8 in the tent which was nice because it had more legroom than the dorm beds, got up had a shower and some breakfast, said bye to Mike, Ross, and Justin, then left to go to the Ethiopian Embassy. As soon as I cleared security and got inside, the woman at the counter asked one question: what Nationality? My response of American got the immediate reply “Only Visa on arrival.” I asked if there were any way to get a visa to go overland and the reply was the same. Well, that does make some decisions easier. I'll definitely have to fly into Addis Ababa, now I just need to see if I go directly from Uganda, or come back to Nairobi (and see how the project has progressed in the month I will be gone). As I left the embassy, I gave Paul a call and told him I was on my way to City Hall and would be there in a few minutes. He arrived just a couple minutes after me and we walked east to a larger bus terminal to catch the first of several legs. Our first stop was near the New Life church, where a security guard who is a friend of Paul's was selling mangoes. We each ate two of them and then headed back out to a larger road and caught a bus to Ngong. I was able to point out where I was staying to Paul. We passed through the town of Karen, where many of the upper class of Nairobi, including the politicians, live. The odd thing about that is that it looks no different from the rest of the city, but I have to assume that beyond the major roads are some larger and fancier houses.

In Ngong we got out and began a long upward climb into the Ngong Hills, a series of seven peaks that rise impressively above the plateau that makes up the rest of Nairobi. We came to a ranger station where we paid our park fee and received a warning about only venturing as far as a sign marked “Do not continue without armed escort”. There are apparently issues with bandits in these hills, but that would not be the case for us. As we continued climbing we encountered hordes of school children coming down the mountain and resting under the trees. There is a small wind turbine farm and several cell phone towers. At the top of the first hill we did run into the Do Not Continue sign, but of course we continued. There are many small herds of goats and sheep and the occasional cow. And where there are animals there are the Masai herdsmen. Most still wear their traditional garb, but some do wear western style clothing now. When we crested the second hill a group of four Masai, told us it was best not to continue. They had been moving their herds away from the next hill because they had been seeing leopards. Although it would be amazing to see one, we took their advice and started back down. If you came up to these hills after a good rainstorm the views would be outstanding, but it has not rained for a while and the haze is enough that you cannot see Nairobi. For that matter, I had not seen the hills from Nairobi either.

When we got back down to Ngong, we took another matatu ride, through Masarai to Kiserian where Paul and his family live. Funny sighting in Masarai was a donkey walking out of a health clinic. In Kiserian we walked down the dirt path to Paul's house where we had a simple supper and a bible study, then Paul and his wife walked me back out to the main road and made sure I knew which matatus to take to get back home. It was already dark when I got to Ngong again and I had to walk a bit to where the right matatu would pick me up, so that was slightly uncomfortable, but I had no issues and made it home. Paul called to make sure I had gotten back safely.

February 10 Thursday: The morning was normal, but some combination of the sun, the manual labor, and possibly my Malaria meds, had me wiped out after lunch. I was beat and just survived until we finished for the day. Back at the center I just sat in the office for 45 minutes and had a Stoney Tangawizi. Then I got my ride back to Yaya and walked to Nakumatt, where I got another 5 liters of water, some Fanta, and an ice cream cone. Walked to the hostel and collapsed into bed, where I slept for three hours until about 9:30. All I could manage to do then was take a shower and go right back to bed.

January 27-28 The long travel day: George dropped me of at SFO at 7:30 am and I quickly found the United checkin area at the International terminal. That gave me the first surprise of the day. The first leg of the journey was not a direct SFO to Brussels flight as I had thought. I had to fly to Chicago first and that meant I had to check in at the domestic terminal. Well, not a big deal, I had plenty of time, so I made the walk to the other terminal and quickly got my boarding passes. Security was not difficult, they did make the world safer by confiscating my can of 7UP, without giving me an option to drink it. At the actual boarding area it became clear that they had overbooked several flights heading to Chicago which is their hub and to which they have flights every hour. They were offering a $400 credit to anyone willing to wait for the next plane, and in hindsight I could have done that easily, with my layover in Chicago, but since the whole Chicago stop was a surprise to me I kept the flights as is.

So, flight to Chicago was uneventful from my aisle seat. Then flight to Brussels I had the window seat next to a man from Minnesota, heading home to Liberia to visit family. There was quite a bit of turbulence, but nothing abnormal to me, although my new Liberian friend did not enjoy it. As we approached the United Kingdom, watching the sunrise over the clouds covering everything below us was beautiful. The layover was close to two hours and I spent part of that going through security twice, since I was misdirected out of the area I could have stayed. The twice part was because I had a little water in my Nalgene, which necessitated dumping it in a bathroom and going through line again. Another surprise came in that the Brussels to Nairobi part of the journey was also not direct. We would be making a stop in Entebbe, but would not have to disembark from the plane while they refueled. The sunset was just as beautiful as the sunrise had been, as we flew south across Africa. And after an hour on the tarmac in Entebbe we made the last short leg to Nairobi, arriving on time just before 11 pm local time. I got my Visa on arrival, grabbed my bag, and met my driver outside the baggage area. He brought me directly to the Wildebeest Hostel and I got settled in and went almost directly to bed.

Back a few years ago when I visited South Africa, I watched 8 movies on the way over. This time the movie selections on all the legs were not worth watching and I ended up seeing only “Unstoppable” and about half of “The Town”. Neither one was that interesting. Luckily I did have a book with me and I read 250 pages between naps, plane transfers, etc.

January 29 Sabbath I awoke when my alarm went off at 7 am, but stayed in bed for another hour. There is breakfast included at the hostel, so I had a fruit salad with yoghurt and a few slices of bread. I planned on trying to find a church, but after eating I was hit by a need for more sleep and only woke up again close to noon. After that I did take a walk around the neighborhood of the hostel. There is a shopping mall a 10 minute walk away that has just about everything I could need, so I'll go there again tomorrow and probably buy a cheap local cell phone. It was nice to hear the familiar sounds of “Jambo” as people greeted each other in the street. Back at the hostel, I lounged in the garden under a shade structure and read for several hours. There are a host of different birds that seem to make their home in the garden and their songs are varied from sharp squawks to some beautiful tones. Nairobi appears to be quite flat, it did from the air and it certainly feels that way walking around. I've gathered some info from people here at the hostel about things to do and places to see, so once I have made contact with Wendy and get a better schedule of what I can contribute at NextAid, I'll make some short side trips to parks and other sites. There are plenty of mosquitoes and the netting in the dorm came in handy last night. I could hear the buzzing, but was safe. The staff said that because of the elevation, Nairobi does not have a malaria problem, but most other parts of the country you need to be careful. I started my meds anyway, since I have enough to make it until I'm in the Middle East.

January 30, Sunday: Getting back into the flow of being a traveler. I got up at 7:45, washed up, and left five sleeping roommates behind to get breakfast. Then armed with a $4 map of greater Nairobi I headed toward the city center. Once I hit a cross road I was watching for I veered north and tracked down the Ethiopian embassy. Two armed guards came out and asked me some questions about my beard and I got information on the embassy hours for when I return to get a visa, which I'll need if I am able to make the overland trek between Kenya and Ethiopia. Then a little backtracking to get on a major road and following it northeast until I could get to the National Museum, with a short break in Central Park, where I read a couple chapters in one of my books while a group of people sang hymns in their native language under some shade trees nearby. The National Museum is not huge, but has a nice collection of artifacts and art, photo records, and stuffed animal specimens, including a very extensive collection of birds. They also have a room dedicated to the various 'missing” links that have been discovered in East Africa. One disappointing thing was that the lighting in the rooms with the stuffed animal specimens was not good enough for taking pictures and since flash was not allowed I did not get many pics, several of which I really would have like. The animals were so unusual looking and unlike anything I had seen before. I did get a picture of the Golden-rumped elephant shrew. On the grounds around the museum are several sculptures and a separate snake farm/museum that reviews had lead me to believe was not worth the price. After that I headed further east and then south until I reached the CBD (Central Business District) where all the civic buildings are located. The High Court and City Hall are there, as well as the Kenyatta International Conference Center. The guidebooks say that the best views of the city are from the top of the KICC, but I may wait until there has been a rain to knock down some of the air pollution before ponying up the money to do that.

As I continued my walk back towards the hostel, I passed through Uhuru Park, which was full of people lounging in the shade of trees, using paddle boats in the two lakes, overwhelming the playground equipment, and so on. Some enterprising individuals has Powerwheels and were giving small children rides for a fee. Climbing up the hillside, I came to where there was a large crowd along the edge of a parking lot. They were watching a bunch of skateboarders jumping a four foot gap in the concrete. About half of them were white and had a filming crew with them (including a dolly and track). The crowd seemed to be intrigued by the whole thing, even though the entire time I watched only a couple of the boarders cleared the jump and those were not doing any 'tricks' besides landing the jump. I continued walking back and it being Sunday I frequently passed buildings where you could hear sermons being preached. Between that and the calls for worship at the Muslim mosques I don't know who wins for loudest display of honoring God.

Cute anecdote: There were two little British boys at the buffet for dinner tonight, neither one is older than four and they are not related. One boy saw only one thing on the buffet line and plaintively cried “Pasta Pasta Pasta”, until his father got him a plate with pasta on it. The second boy started babbling as soon as he got near the table and after a few seconds I could make out what he was saying. “Somadis, somadis, somadis, somadis”. He wanted some of this from each dish available. And when his father left off the green beans, he switched to “Beans, beans, beans”. That's the right attitude!

January 31, Monday: After breakfast, I read for a bit and then started looking through the safari options available through the hostel connections. Expensive!!! Wow. Nothing even close to my daily budget, with most costing $150+/per day (which on a “one day safari” translates to about 4 hours). At least the multi-day trips include accommodations. I will keeps looking because it would be a shame to miss a few of the places around here (Serengeti, Masai Mara, Great Rift Valley). I had made contact with Wendy yesterday and since she had meetings for most of today, we agreed I would come on Tuesday to see the Kawangware Vision Center. At lunch I had a decent vege burger. A lot of people showed up this afternoon, so the place is quite full and the conversation was lively. There was a group of friends from the UK/Switzerland/Australia that had just come back from a multi day safari and are headed tomorrow to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas. There was another Australian guy, an America currently living in Ghana, and an Indian guy from Bangalore on a break from grad school in Davis. Everyone has stories of the places they have been and things they have done.

February 1, Tuesday: Since I only had to meet Wendy at 9:30 I had a leisurely breakfast before heading out. I walked a slightly circuitous route, but eventually found the YaYa Center where our meeting point was. Wendy was a little late due to traffic, and the traffic is amazing. It is stop and go for hours upon hours. And walking along the roads is tremendously healthy for the lungs. Anyway, just outside the YaYa Center we hopped on the 46 matatu and it eventually dropped us off less than a hundred meters from the KVC. Kawangware is a slum, like many others around the world, and it still is hard for me sometimes to see how people are forced to live. The last few kilometers are on dirt roads, power lines are haphazard and power is hard to count on. People are living in shipping containers and some of the other places I have seen are one room concrete block spaces that remind me very much of the brothels I stayed in in Papua New Guinea. Water comes from the river and it is brown from upstream runoff. I'm already used to hearing 'Mazungu' (white man) as I walk around and most of the school age kids shout out “How are you?” and then giggle shyly when I answer and ask them the same thing.

We got a quite tour of the KVC space and met most of the people working there. They were working on a batch of bags for Land Rover that were due tomorrow. We met Anastacia who cooks food everyday for all of the people there. Morris and Agasto are the two founders and they introduced me to Joel, who is the accountant and Kiragu, who is the architect for the new facility. Then we had a short meeting with the four of them and a number of the young people. Kiragu led out and did some diagrams on the chalkboard of what the general plan was and a rough timeline until the 18^th when the launch is scheduled. Afterwards we had a quick lunch and then Wendy left. I stayed for another hour or so and installed Quickbooks on one of the computers in the lab. Then I headed home, when a couple of the people from the center left to go purchase tools for our work tomorrow.

February 2, Wednesday: I had an early breakfast and walked to the Yaya Center to catch a mutatu at just after 8am, arriving at the center at 8:45. There was nothing for me to do at the center and the group clearing the land had already left for the site. Martin walked with me up to the site and they were just beginning to work from the flat at the bottom of the property closest to the river. At the meeting yesterday afternoon, they had budgeted 4 days to clear the land, and seeing the site made me wonder if that was too ambitious, but the group is fast and efficient. We had five pangas (machetes), two slashers (machetes with bends in them almost like golf clubs), two djembes (shovels), two rakes, and two mattocks. By lunchtime it was quite clear that we would be done with the bulk of the clearing in two days at most and then would be looking for the next facets to work on. The tile and brick making machines are not scheduled to arrive until Saturday. Lunch came close to 2 pm and afterwards we had a bit of a siesta. After a couple more hours of work, we called it a day and walked back to the center with all the tools. I left soon after and when I made it back to the hostel, I took a nap. I was tired, but happy at the progress that had been made. I got up again briefly, but went to bed early and sleep soundly.

February 3, Thursday: Again, an early breakfast of bread, peanut butter, jam and a spanish omelet, and walking to the Yaya Center. This time after waiting a few minutes I jumped on the 56 bus, since I knew it also went by the center. It turns out it only costs half as much, too: 10Ksh versus 20Ksh. Not sure why because the bus is much more spacious. The route might be slightly different, because this time we passed another SDA church at the Lavington Plantation, so I'll try visiting this one before I leave. Anyway, I made it to the center in time to join in on their morning worship, which consisted of an opening prayer in Kiswahili, then with drum accompaniment a nonstop 20 minutes of singing, merging one hymn with another, before a closing prayer. We also were clapping for the whole 20 minutes. The singing was very nice, but my hands are going to be sore from the clapping. Then those of us working at the new site grabbed all the tools and walked over. Still lots of people staring, but I've been told within a few days, everyone will know who I am. That is not hard to believe since I have only seen two other white people so far and they were on the main road not the inner slum. Kiswahili word of the day: Maji = water.

This evening I went to dinner at the Ethiopian place with Jenn, an Asian girl from New York, and Vivek, an Indian guy doing grad work at UC Davis. The food was awesome and cheaper than at the hostel and of large enough quantities that none of us was able to finish ours. They know each other from undergrad school and Vivek was visiting her on his way back to the US from a research project studying elephants in India. She is doing a project studying animals at a sanctuary in western Kenya. His research relates to sound studies to find out what noises would make elephants change their courses so as to keep them from destroying villages in parts of rural India.