Leaving Kasigau for some R & R at the coast

Leaving Kasigau was even more sad and hectic this trip than it has been in the past. Interns finished up their teaching in Bungule, and a few days later the Jora group completed their orphan project.

Our work was done for this visit, but it is the people of Kasigau and the mountain itself that makes us feel so connected with the place.

In Bungule the caterpillar was broken and parked in the town center as a jungle gym for children when we were saying our good-byes and wishing for more time with close friends. This visit we were very sad to say good-bye, even as we were anxious to get to the coast for some R&R.

On our way out of Kasigau Ken and I stopped to visit Chris Klaus and

his wife Christine, on her birthday. They are a Kenyan couple who have a lovely plot of land near the base of Python Rock at the Kiteghe end of the mountain, and are building a very nice set of bandas for visitors of all sorts from corporate trainings to volunteers working in the area. As yet unfinished, the lodging needs a name, so any readers who want to make suggestions can do so in the comments here on the blog. Chris also has a very innovative operation for making interlocking bricks from the local red dirt but with a small measure of concrete. The structures built from the interlocking bricks need no mortar and are much more durable in the Kasigau weather than just red dirt alone.

In Jora there was a combination going away party

and birthday party for Macaela's birthday, and as you can see from the photo, half the town turned out to "give a push" to the group as they left for the coast.

A bit of rest and relaxation at the coast has been the perfect follow-up to the hard work schedules and sparse living conditions of Kasigau. Mombasa is a laid back city with a reputation as a party town. After being here for over a week, I'm thinking maybe it is just too hot during the day, so people come out at night and do nighttime things revolving around food, drink, music, and dancing as it cools off.

We have a roomy 4 bedroom house right on the Indian Ocean south of Mombasa, complete with constant and reliable phone signal, internet access, lights, a small refrigerator, running water, flush toilets, and two supermarkets within a few miles and a few minutes.

We are on the south end of Diani Beach in an older compound of 2-4 bedroom cottages amid mostly empty small, exclusive luxury accommodations, and private residences that are also very luxurious and seem empty. April is the month for renovation on the beach, because apparently all the sun-seeking tourists are going home to nicer spring weather. It is nice because there is a balance of tourists and local fisherman working on the beach.

It seems like an especially luxurious life after living the banda life in Kasigau. We kept the Toyota Probox for a few days, and then sent it back to Nairobi in favor of cheap local matatu transportation up and down the beach. Life is good at the beach, where the major activities have tended toward photography, making sand castles, playing cards and games, and early morning and late evening walks on the beach. It took some time for each of us to relax, but now everyone seems to have the hang of just hanging out.

Tara, Liesl, Katy and her family left for Nairobi and their journey home on the 26th. Keenan just left on the 2nd of March for a few days in Nairobi with a friend (everyone is asking where February went).

Jenny Mae and Macaela, Molly and Jake, and Sara are here with Ken and me until the 7th. Keenan and Sara are flying out that same evening, and the rest of us are staying until the middle of the month.

Interns have been compiling their performance data on the specific skills they taught in Kasigau and it is very impressive. Of course we have no way of telling how much permanent advantage the learning will support, but we can say for sure that many students in Kasigau learned many basic skills in math, reading, writing, and studying/test taking.

The weather is very warm and humid here, and some of us are getting used to sleeping without even a sheet cover. Drying time for laundry and hair is much longer than the speedy dry we were used to in Kasigau.

It is especially hot and sweaty in the early morning and late evening when the wind is still and changing from off shore to on shore or vice versa. The ocean is beautiful shades of turquoise and green, and there is constant movement of small fishing boats, sailing dhows, and wind surfers, and the infrequent pleasure craft.

Seafood and produce merchants come right to our door a few times each week, so we started out eating healthy with fish, fruits, veggies, and all manner of whole grains we brought from Kasigau. The produce includes fresh mangos, pineapple, carrots, onions, tomatoes, squash, and the like, all of which we have inadvertently shared with monkeys.

The fish seller takes orders and fillets the fresh fish right outside our door. He is much loved by the resident cats, as well as by those of us who can't ever get enough fish to eat.

As we discovered at Tiwi Beach to the north in December, this part of the coast is home to many, many monkeys. There are reserves along Diani for endangered Colobus monkeys, which are quite definitely fewer in number than the verve's around our house.

Entire families of vervets hit the metal roof en force as soon as the sun rises at 6am, and spend their days casing our house for momentary lapses in vigilance regarding food. So far we have lost a bag of pasta, two jars of peanut butter, a box of digestive biscuits, quite a few fruits and veggies in various successful forays by monkey bandits. At first we found them enchanting and engaging, but soon came to realize they were watching us more closely than we were watching them, which is an eerie feeling.

Lately we have strayed to treats of gelato, iced coffee, cold beer, and alcoholic beverages with ice. Sort of a theme to our vices, a combination of the heat, humidity, and lack of even a cool drink of water for 2 months in the bush.

We have a favorite local beach bar and a couple favorite tourist hang outs when we get tired of the water and the beach house.

We had a wonderful seafood dinner the night before the first group of interns left: lobster, crab, prawns, coconut rice, rosemary potatoes, salad, and of course Tusker. This small place is our favorite on the beach because the local fishermen's cooperative is right next door and the supply of fish is so fresh that sometimes we see our meal coming up from the beach.

One unsettling aspect here at the Kenyan coast is the fact that the ocean is to the east, so the sun rises over the water and sets over the land. Despite having grown up on the east side of the US, I never did get my directions straight on our last trip here. When we were in Lamu in 2010, I was amazed every day about where the sun and moon were in the sky.

Here it is the sunrises that light up the water in the morning, and look amazingly similar to the sunsets in Washington. One thing for sure is that whether going up or coming down, the sun is more dramatic over the water than behind the trees!

This is a nice time to be on the beach because there are no big crowds but still enough people keep the full range of places open to eat, drink, and shop for souvenirs. We have met very few, if any, Americans at this end of the beach. Our fellow travelers are mostly European and African, and the beach boys are impressive with their mastery of English, Italian, German, French, and of course Swahili. Being here at this time of year has changed my notion of Diani beach, because at any given time at this end of the beach there are as many locals, most of them fishermen, as there are tourists.

The beach is very interesting for just hanging out, with a variety of strange and exotic birds, constantly dynamic high and low tides, unusual and beautiful objects of all sizes and shapes for beach combing, people from half nude Europeans to Masai in full warrior dress (with shades), parasailers riding the waves on boards harnessed to colorful sails, paragliders jumping out of airplanes, camel rider, ice cream carts, and even dog walkers.

Everyone took advantage of the available tropical ocean trips. Liesl, Tara, and Katy with family took a 1/2 day glass bottom boat and snorkel trip, the high (or low) point of which was a sea snake sighting. Jenny & Macaela, Molly & Jake, Keenan, and Sara went on the full day trip to Wasini Island that Ken, Claire, and I took with David in December, snorkeled with beautiful fish, and saw dolphins.

Ken and I went south to Chale Island for a snorkeling day, with three awesome Kenyan sailors on a small boat carved from a mango tree, sort of a combination sailing dhow and double outrigger. It is very restful and stress free to be in really warm water, because even if you fall overboard or capsize, the saltwater is like a buoyant bath, just cool enough to take the edge off the heat.

The coast is the heartland of Swahili language and culture in Kenya, and few people know of Kasigau or recognize the Taita language we have become accustomed to using. Everything from stairways to houses is built from coral, much different from the dry red dirt of Kasigau. And it is as damp here as it was dry in Kasigau. Instead of drying quickly, it seems our clothes, hair, and skin never dry completely.

So we are all practicing Swahili again and becoming expert at fending off the beach boys that are selling everything from coconuts to jewelry to carvings to scuba tours. We have also been soaking up all the walking on the beach, swimming, snorkeling, reading, writing, and shopping we can manage, and generally living the restful beach life for the last few days.

Our last outing as a group at the beach was a visit to Kaya Kinondo, the sacred forest that was the traditional home for the Digo people when they first migrated to Kenya. There are sixty some Kayas in Kenya, each a sacred trust for the local people who have moved out of the forests to the villages. The Kayas are all that is left of the long stretch of forest that once covered the coast of East Africa, and Kaya Kinondo is one of the few designated as a World Heritage Site.

The strip of forest along the coast was once underwater, which is evident from the coral covering the earth and the resultant tree roots that snake along the ground for lack of dirt for rooting.

Our two wonderful Digo guides, Juma and Abdul, provided a wonderful history of the place and the people, including the practice of hugging ancient trees in the Kaya as a way of hugging their ancestors who were buried there. We all tried it and can attest to the fact that it does provide a measure of comfort, relief, and well-being.

We also got to swing on a natural swing, and learned a bit about traditional medicine from the forest plants, and current rituals that are still practiced within the forest when there are personal or community problems that warrant intervention of the ancestors.

Kaya Kinondo was full of life of all sorts, rare and ancient trees, medicinal plants, owls and many other strange and wonderful birds, snakes, small antelope, and of course people from different parts of the world. It was a wonderful morning as we finished up our visit to the Kenyan coast.

Interns in Kasigau Weeks 6 & 7

I am trying a new format this week for combining photos and text, in the hopes that it will be more efficient for posting. The photos seem to take forever to post and the formatting has been making me frustrated and cranky. I did manage today to add a few photos to the Weeks 4 & 5 page. The font and size of type seem to change in random fashion and I'm lost on editing it!

It has been cool in Kasigau this past week, with clouds rolling in over the mountain in the evening and burning off the next morning. We have been waking to cloud cover and a nice breeze, making the walk to school in Bungule cooler, and delaying major sweating until later in the day.

The nights are cool and breezy, also, making it easier to sleep and sometimes even requiring heavier covers than sheets. The locals are complaining of the cold, and at night wearing jackets and caps to stay warm. There is now a tent set up at the banda, to protect the askaris from the night weather.

Two weeks ago we had the brilliant idea to stay in Voi overnight on Friday instead of making the market shopping trip in one long day on Saturday. We left Kasigau Friday after school with Liesl, Sara, and Tara and met Katy, Mark, and the girls, who took a matatu earlier in the day.

We stayed at a very relaxing hotel called Galaxy on the road between Voi and Tsavo East, enjoying the bar, restaurant, and swimming pool for many hours on Friday afternoon and evening. Here you see Ken and the Hicks family poolside; Katy is talking on the phone to our friend Keith.

We also met some very nice college guys from Jomo Kenyatta University in Voi who had come to swim for a birthday celebration. It was nice for all of us to get away for the evening, talk politics and share a meal/drinks with Kenyans, and be home earlier than usual from our weekly shopping trip.

Galaxy is out of town with a nice view over the surrounding area near Tsavo East National Park, and has some spectacular birds. There are very few other guests staying the night, which makes for a very calm and relaxing break from school schedules.

We returned the next week-end with Jenny, Macaela, Molly, & Jake earlier in the day with Sara and Tara joining us later. (Katy and family with Liesl were on a week-end jaunt to Taita Hills.)

There were men and women Kenyan university students swimming this weekend, and you can tell from the photos that it was a very fun afternoon for everyone. We love our homes in Kasigau, but it is nice to experience power, signal, french fries, and cold drinks now and again.

1. Sara, Tara, Ken and I visited the male students from Jomo Kenyatta University and had a tour of the campus, their room, and the student center. They have a fourth roommate whose real name seemed to escape them because they call him Obama...everyone here seems to love Obama and it makes us happy to be Americans.

I forgot to mention last week (or was too sick of writing to post) that Ken and Mark took a drive out into the bush to Galla Camp, the tent camp where I stayed when I first came to Kenya in 2002. They took some snacks to a young man who is assisting on a wildlife feature movie being shot at the site.

Ken and I visited the family compound of Gibson Mwanjala, one of our askaris, enjoyed tea and amazingly good conversation considering we don’t really speak each other’s languages. This is a family that smiles all the time, just a kick to be around.

The interns are in the second and final week of teaching at their third and final placement, the school in Bungule village. This group of interns has been up with the sun and on the trail to school shortly after 7 every morning. Tara worked in the preschool last week and is with the very large group of primary school students referred for remedial work this week.

Since we are now living in the same village (Bungule) where school placements are, we have been walking a lot more, which I like and has always been part of the Kasigau experience for me. It is about a 30 minute walk from the banda where we stay to the school at a leisurely pace, pleasant in the morning and bordering on brutal on the hottest afternoons. It seems every one of us has been sunburned, heat stroked, or both.

My most successful strategy for staying cool enough is to wrap a wet leso around myself for mobile air conditioning as I walk in the sun, stopping at every water source to renew the wetness.

The interns are all great teachers, as we can tell from nightly planning sessions here at the banda, reports of Keenan’s planning from Jora banda, feedback from students and teachers at the schools, and from the lessons we see in action when we go to observe. It is also nice for us to see them in the community having lunch, watching soccer practice, and tutoring.

Next week we will be offering inservice training sessions to each of the five schools, to share the sorts of teaching materials and methods that the Katy and the other interns have been using. Katy is going back to Rukanga a few times a week to work on a sight word project with one of the teachers there.

Here you see Keenan's classroom in the church adjacent to the school. Separation of church and state is a very foreign concept here in Kenya where one of the examinable subjects is Christian Religious Education (CRE). Keenan and his students was sharing his first space at the community library with bats, and bat guano, not conducive to teaching and learning. Keenan is still living in Jora, so walks earlier, farther, and later than the rest of us, and still manages to just nail his lessons.

Each school has its own character, evidenced from the children to the teachers to the village itself. The Bungule school is somewhat less formal than the other villages, with jokes and laughter at morning assembly. It is obvious from Sara's face the joy she takes in teaching, and the attentive students attest to her effectiveness in solving instructional problems.

The schedule for teaching also seems somewhat casual, and students can be quite rambunctious. Liesl's quiet command of content serves her well with upper level students, who may enter in a rowdy fashion, but soon quiet and turn their attention to learning.

The big local news in Bungule is the giant caterpillar back hoe shovel that is allegedly repairing and widening the road. So far it has dug massive ditches of dirt, rock, bushes, and trees from the sides of the road, from the top of the hill right into the center of the village and beyond. The whole mess, rocks and bushes included, is then “smoothed” over the road to cover the rocks the locals say have been growing up out of the soil. (We think maybe the rains and wind have eroded the dirt, but are keeping mum on the subject of rock growth.) The industrious locals are out in force claiming firewood in town and rocks for construction from the top of the hill. (I have no clue why the font for this picture is so large; maybe to match the tractor?)

Until recently we driven very slowly down the hill into Bungule village, steering around as many rocks and holes as possible and scraping over the remainder. For the last few days, the road through town has been blocked by the shovel, and we had have to drive through the school yard to get out of town.

The car would have been a distraction at school, except all the students and most of their teachers are out on the road watching the shovel. The road up the hill now consists of deep, soft sand and dirt with rocks and bushes scattered throughout, impossible to miss with the car.

“Welcome to Kasigau” where water and roads are the foundation of everything else from commerce to health care to communication and transportation. The photo to the right is a large water tank on the bed of an even larger truck, having come to Bungule for water from the most reliable source around the mountain.

This week Ken and I took a hike up to the Bungule Banda where I stayed with Becky in 2006, and beyond to the spring that provides water to Bungule village. We had a great day with a combination of hot and sweaty exertion and reminiscing about past times here in Kenya and at home.

The village banda is in disrepair, which is difficult to see and seems a waste because (as you can see from the photo) when Becky and I were here it was the most beautiful place in all of Kasigau, with an awe inspiring view.

We also took a drive out an unfamiliar road into the bush and got as thoroughly lost as is possible when there is a huge mountain to orient to. Whenever we were driving toward the mountain we felt optimistic, but whenever we could only see it in the rear view mirror we were discussing the relative risks of walking toward what we thought was Bungule or sleeping in the car. After much examination of tire tracks in the sand we finally retraced our steps.

I am including some photos of life at the banda so you can see where your loved ones are sleeping and eating. Sara, Tara, and Liesl share a bedroom, although Liesl was at network rock when I took the photo so Katy’s daughter Odessa is holding down Liesl’s bed near the door.

The Hicks family room is so full of fabric and other souvenirs, kids’ stuff, and Katy’s school work that there is hardly room for them. It has been great having children in our group this trip, and has added a lot to the domestic scene. Katy’s husband Mark is responsible for a new wall in the community library, and he and Ken have been exploring different versions of evaporative coolers this past week.

Ken and I share a smaller room in a separate structure with the kitchen, Grace (cook), and Abs (host).

There is a very large rock in front of the banda where people hang out, sun bathe, listen to music, read books, look at stars, and sometimes mix a few drinks.

Lately the bush has shown definite signs of drying out, with green turning grey and damp spots going hard and dry. But strangely, we have been waking to clouds and even quasi rain recent mornings. Maize that was not yet ripe when we arrived has been harvested, and is now being dried, cleaned from the cob and ground into flour for ugali, the staple food in the region.

We make weak efforts to eat ugali but none of us are huge fans. I've heard quite a few food fantasies lately, everything from ice cream to cereal. It has been a long trip and we are all starting to miss home, even as we become more comfortable in the community here. Keep us in your thoughts as you are in ours.

Kris