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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.