Safari

Safari is a Ki Swahili word meaning to drive/travel around. On our way back home, still in Kenya near Nkuru, we passed these animals who were along the road.





In addition there were warthogs, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera. On the way into Kenya, one of our party spotted elephants at a distance. I snapped a quick photo, but didn't see them. Only with the photo really expanded did the rough, pixelated shaped of elephants appear.

all of the bird photos I took will have to wait for posting for another time. Sorry:(

Kenya Part 6 Odds and Ends

Language picked up (Ki Swahili and Kikuyu?)

A san ti thank you
a san ti san a thank you very much
kar ib bu welcome
en ney ok
a re te what! You don't say!
jam bo hello
mis su li fine

Already we want to make plans to return, maybe to see Mombassa and Fort Jesus?

The only gift I gave to our hosts was the mending of some 8 year old couch doilies that were coming unraveled. They did not know these could be mended and were well pleased with having them repaired. Little enough for all the hospitality shown.

Hope to have visits from Joseph and Sophia, our Kenyan hosts, and maybe from James and Margaret, our links,too??

Kenya Culture Today Part 5

Current Practices
Dowry payment happens when possible, even after 3 kids. Attended a celebration where the groom's parents were away getting medical care in the states and the grandfather stood in for them. Over 200 people at the event to witness the cutting of the shoulder (of a leg of goat), an act that made the marriage finally, completely legal.


Smog, traffic jams morning and night, highway expansion, traffic control...signs and symptoms of big city life anywhere. True too of Nairobi, the capitol, which is clean with beautiful buildings in center, and has a game preserve within city limits

House construction evolved from building with mud and sticks, to wood planks, then iron sheets. Now commonly cut stone, usually one story with fireplace, or multistory with fire place, floor plan often English style. Roof lines on older homes much like in Uganda, roof in one plane, raised at the front to drain to the back. As in many places in the world, owners build in stages, often beginning with the foundation, stock-piling materials for the next push a bit at a time.



People are buried in cemeteries when they don't have their own land. All bodies are taken to the mortuary in the local hospital with burial about a week after death so people/family can come. Long car procession=well known and liked.

Children named: first boy after paternal father, second boy after mother's father, 3rd boy after paternal oldest brother, 4th boy after mother's oldest brother. Girls in same sequence, first girl after maternal mother, etc.

face me taxi : bench. Seats 10 (legally) in back of small pickup, bell system used to let driver know when to stop and go Matatus like the ones in Kampala are small vans that legally seat 14 passengers and a driver (often with more than that)



Traveling for over 10 hours with christian music on mp3 player hooked to the car sound system, no repeat music and all in English (day trip to Nairobi). This made being caught in evening commute traffic for 3 hours bearable.

Traveled miles in the back of a pickup seeing the country side and towns around

Kenya Part 4

Where we stayed


Large house with 2 bedrooms, 3 inside storage rooms, large living room, a cleaning/cooking room, mud room, outside cookhouse, with storage on the back side. Chicken houses, 4 holding 500 each, plus cow pens, bull pen, shower/bath house. Compound also contains gardens, 2 other houses, another cattle pen with 4 cows. pit toilet next to shower room and cows. They have electricity and water from a tap (faucet) and from a cistern (when there is rain)

On the same property in other houses live one of Joseph and Sophia's sons, with his wife and 3 kids; in another live the 2 men hired to help with all the work. Joseph was born and raised on this land. His mother is buried here as well.

Neighbors on two sides are separated by hedge fences and also house mutiple generations in close proximity.

Kenya Part 3 People

Learnings/Thoughts/Reflections Sept '09 Kenya trip to land of Kikuyu in Rift Valley

The People

Friendliness of all the people: 4-7 visitors a day, many brought food gifts to share. They weren't shy even with no English language and me with no Kikuyu or Ki Swahili. Frequently they stopped by on their way to work or shop.


grandkids all around playing, running and yelling joined by neighbor kids who wanted to see the visitors.

Sophia, our hostess, cooking all the time! And making my bed when I wasn't looking.



Politics dominates from 5:30 am to late at night, by radio and TV source of much conversation among educated people.

Kenya is struggling to weather multiple problems – drought, famine, impending El Nino, - and long parlimentary sessions attempting to find out if the President can reappointment a special investigator without going through the required processes.

Power off only on Wednesday mornings.Water off occasionally due to line breaks.

Poverty level in this area, Thika and Nairobi, seems much better than in Uganda, even Kampala. Kids look well fed, well dressed by comparison. Kenyans seem productively energetic, with good initiative for multiple businesses and practical education.

Kenya Part 2 The land

The Land

5 water towers create the rivers and streams that make water for Kenya. Drought of 2 years is dwindling the water supply. Most of the country is dry, herds in many areas dying, no forage, little feed to be bought. Water level is very low in all rivers, streams barely running. Large dammed lake is only half full to serve Nairobi and environs.

Dust/dirt is mostly red. Found lots of lava rock, and obsidian near 14 falls. Kenya has lots of stone, which is mostly used for building, even 3 and 4 story houses, buildings, etc. Some soil is yellowish red.

Many wild forests, and some planted ones in the area near to us. The Amadeus is grand, has some resident elephants whose sign we saw, but not them. The signs were poop along the road and bark shredded from trees by the tusks of the elephants. The "God Help Me" forest, so named because if one has a car break down or other problem there, the available help is little and rare. Only God can help. The forest had a real name, but this is what the locals called it.

Volcanic signs all over, and the escarpment and Great Rift Valley: what a wonder-filled place to take a geology class! Even saw boulders of obsidian near one place, just lying by the road.

Kenya Part 1

Learnings/Thoughts/Reflections Sept '09 Kenya trip to land of Kikuyu in Rift Valley

Agriculture
tea and coffee planations

100's of acres of coffee picked bean by bean, outer husk removed; bean washed, graded, dried, covering removed, roasted, marketed.


tea - 2 leaves and a bud picked, into large sacks taken and dried. lots of fire wood used

intense farming: 3000 chickens, large rooms of 500, eggs collected 3xday, 7 days a week, watering on automatic systems; all sweepings taken up and sold for manure;


cows fed corn stalks, matooke trees, cut by panga or machine ( hand operated or electric)
Freisan cows for milk are common. Most are black and white, some brown.

Other cash crops: avacados, macadamea nuts, while cabbages, greens, maize are common crops for home

recycling manure into coffee fields robusta likes shade and arabaca likes sun. Large old plantations near Thika now sold and converted into fancy houses and subdivisions