Finally back to writing my blog!!!!
The 13 days spent in the UK was a good thing to see the family, but I am glad to back in Kenya on my mission, what quite that mission is I am unsure, but it feels right to be back.
I arrived in Kenya on New Year’s Eve, back in Kisumu. Seeing friends and being back at the Duke of Breeze was good, we sat down to a lovely meal (although it didn’t beat my mums cooking or all the cheese I ate in the UK) and then managed to consume a lot of the jagermeister that evening that I bought Berend in the airport on the way here.
Getting back to rural Kochia was nice, however the first afternoon I was here I witness murderous chickens. Not one, or two, but three chickens in 2 minutes walked past me each carrying baby birds that had fallen from their nests. I expect this behaviour from the dogs, but the chickens?!!
I have been doing manual labour in the form of digging dirt to be placed in the classrooms at ABBA. (the school connected with Free Kenya) This had to be done to stop the classrooms flooding as in the rainy season they were continuously flooding. It was back breaking work and I was glad after the morning’s work that we were finished for the day!
It is so different here since I got back now the season has changed from rainy to dry… it is much much hotter and the land looks much much drier and not as green. However the family of the compound we live on have had good luck and have had baby chicks, 3 goats and 2 calves, a good start to the New Year!
I have been getting on with my designs for the taka taka 2 pesa project and have made two bags out of fish leather and am currently making a third. They are working progress but I do see the potential in what I am making and they are not hard to make so that teaching others will be easy, just need to find some makers with attention to detail so they can be sold back in the western world. Now I understand why so many companies get China to make things… labour here is less than £2 a day, so instead of £200 of labour that I would want to charge in UK, it is only £2!
I went back to Kisumu to buy more fish leather and had to barter hard with the man selling it. He also wanted me to teach him how to make leather designs. So I had some fun with him by saying yes for a $1000 (he had previously asked for $1000 off FreeKenya to train people to process leather). Also in Kisumu I had 2 new skirts made from African material, one of which is a little big and the other will motivate me to lose a little weigh from all the cheese I ate in the UK!
Berend and I went to Thimlich Ohinga, which is a ruin from the 15th Century, absolutely massive and quite interesting, however I wish that the guide’s information was a little more convincing, more than just made up stories. As we were walking around Berend was picking up ancient pottery from the path which the guide had no interest in and they were using a burning method to clear the grass from the ruins, even though the archaeologists had specifically told them not to do this… typically African. We had decided to get there by using our own motorbike, which was fine, however there are absolutely no road signs or directions in Kenya, so we found ourselves looking at lake Victoria again, and knew we had driven ALONG way in the wrong direction.
On the trip itself I found two amazing signs which made me laugh. 1) Strive for succes (written on a school building) 2) Wiki Leeks Grocers
I have also had my first Piki Piki lesson (motorbike) which to say the least was very scary. The footbrake was the most confusing thing, the gears fine and the most worrying thing was the small children watching and being in the way. Needless to say after an hour I was cautiously driving around! Bring on lesson 2! :)
So the rabbit breeding program that I built the enclosure for is progressing faster than expected... The male bunny jumped over the fence to the females the other day so I think that we will have baby bunnies sooner than planned! but this just means that sooner we can eat more rabbit, which is the nicest and tenderest meat we can get out here.
So I’m thinking of going to Uganda in February to have a look around, would still love to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo but since recent elections and other issues I think they may be on the brink of another civil war (not that the last was ever over really). After that I am planning maybe to come back in March to work for FreeKenya again. Right now my ideas about going back to University in September seem like something far far away that I’m not sure I really want to do. I’m really starting to fall in love with this continent, its way of life and the people. I feel happy here. Much more thinking has to be done! I still want to see much more.
So my next blog I hope will be about my travels rather than my work… watch this space!
