So glad to report that a new Board of young people took over the project and it is now up and running.

 

See us at www.tribaltravel.info

Well, the website is all ready to go, hosting fixed – everything except the people involved.

Am so sad to report that the group formed seems to have broken down somehow – I sure wish I could go there and find out what the problem is and get it worked out.  Have had no response to any e-mails for about 3 months now, so I don’t even know for sure what the problem is.

I’ll keep the lines open and hope that we can get past this, as it’s something that the community really needs.  But meanwhile, I will still arrange for volunteer or cultural vacations there for anyone who wants to go, and it will still benefit the folks you stay with and work with, but won’t be quite the ‘whole community’ effort I had dreamed of.

 

 

I just have to report that things are still coming along slowly but steadily with the Maasai project.

The board of the CBO is meeting monthly and is sending me reports of what they have decided so that I can give thoughts or advice. They now have a fee structure in place and have identified some of the “extras” like the beading lessons or dancing lessons that we think volunteers would like to have a chance to see.

They have a bank account, and I am working on the web site for them, but have forgotten how to FTP properly so I’ve still got the code on my page. A friend will be running me through that tomorrow, so then I’ll have at least one page for them to see, I hope in time for their next board meeting.

I’ll let you all know when the web site is up and running, and I hope you will tell any friends who like to travel all about it.

Oh, and some of the women, three that I know of, have started a pilot project with the grey water recycling and container gardening, so I’m going to send some seeds for different tomato and greens varieties to see how they do.

Things are just perking along . . .

The Mungiki is a cult in Kenya which is trying to run a parallel or shadow government.  They appear to have some significant public support and according to a British journalist, have at least 40 government Ministers secretly supporting them.

Mungiki have been accused of being responsible for many murders and kidnappings, and there have been public and police retaliations for these.  The group has taken over quite a few of the matatu stages in Nairobi, and demands a ‘tax’ for getting someone on a bus, and from the drivers for letting the bus use the stage.  They have also blockaded some of the roads in the country and demand a tax of various amounts for people, cars and cattle passing through their checkpoints.

There was some reporting of the goings-on in the papers until it got to be tourist season, when miraculously, we were supposed to think that all this shooting and strife just stopped.  It didn’t.  I could hear the shooting going on many nights while I was safely tucked in my apartment.

These people were the main reason I didn’t get to do and see a lot of the things I would have liked to do as I kept being cautioned not to go out at night to many areas where I could have heard some music.

The Mungiki started their life as a ‘bring back African culture and religion’ group, but 5 years or so later the leaders decided that they would all become Muslim.  After some of the clerics and imams started giving them a hard time that sort of died down, and now 5 years after that, the most prominent leader has ‘seen the light’ and says he is now a Christian, and will convert all his followers.  Of course, this pronouncement and promise had nothing to do with his release from jail where he was sitting with 29 murder charges – no, no!

It’s easy to see why young people especially are lured into these groups.  No education, no jobs, no prospects for a future – anyone who promises them something can win their allegiance.  But if you look at their history you can see that they say what suits at the moment, and are doing nothing for these young folk except getting them killed.

The Mungiki was apparently the main mover behind the violence after the 2007 elections, and of course, it’s strange how the leaders happen to just have appear these huge lovely farms that they own.  BAH!

Jocey wins!

Though I’ve got to say I’m a little disappointed.  It seems no one was paying attention when I said that Nairobi was incredibly expensive, and even called it Nairobbery, which is its nickname.

The apartment I got was advertised on the net when I first saw it for $867 USD/mo, but when I got there was told that was the resident price, foreigners paid 99,000 shillings ($1,388.00 CDN).  They have since changed their website, but I tried many, many apartments, and they were equal or even more expensive.  And that’s not even in downtown Nairobi, or in one of the expensive suburbs like Westlands.

A hotel room in downtown Nairobi that is equivalent to say, The Royal York or King Eddy is over $500USD/night.  The Stanley, where I stayed for my last two days in town was cheaper by far, and I booked it through Hotels.com, which made it even cheaper than their list price.

So the apartment was a bit of a disaster.  The grout in the shower all gone, so who knows what was growing behind the tile?  The pass through into the kitchen had the cupboards hanging out so that until I learned not only to face the stove going through, but to bend over, I kept scraping my back.  Constant noise, laundry first thing in the morning, great raucous goings-on in the office upstairs many mornings, people clonking up and down the metal stairs to the office all day, and many nights as well – and if they didn’t see the sign pointing out that the office was upstairs, they’d walk into my apartment!  The sewer gas backed up into the apartment at night so badly that it was sometimes like sleeping inside a beer-and-pickled-egg fart.  And the shower pipe was broken, so a good deal of the water just ran down the wall instead of out the shower head.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  Nairobi must think it’s New York or something.  And as much as I looked, I couldn’t find anything cheaper and equivalent or better and still affordable.  Heck, this wasn’t affordable, but I had to live somewhere.

This is about what you'll see on the web. The other buildings don't seem as bad as where I was, and other than a very strange assortment of mattresses, no two the same even in the same aprtment, it looks much more liveable.

Here is the contest I wrote you about earlier.

I will post pictures here of the apartment I had in Nairobi, in the Kilimani District, and there will be a small prize for the person who come closest to the monthly cost.

1)  You MUST state what currency you are quoting in

2) You can choose Kenyan Shillings, USD or Can Dollars only.

3) Your guess MUST be posted in the comments section of this post.

4) Contest closes at midnight, Saturday December 12th, 2009.

P.S. You can click on the thumbnail pictures to get larger pictures.

Kitchen

Bathroom

Closet

Bedroom

Dining Room

Patio

Patio 2

Shower

View from bed

Two of the Three Moochin' Pooches that came with the apartment.

Flew into Amsterdam for an 8 hr layover before continuing to Toronto.

I had made plans to get together with a girlfriend I hadn’t seen in over 20 years, and she was going to take me on the canal tour.  Unfortunately she became ill, and couldn’t make it, so I had to figure out what to do on my own.  I sure didn’t want to sit in the airport for 8 hours!

I took the train to Centraal Station and went outside.  It was only about 6:30 in the morning, as we landed at 5 a.m. I asked three young ladies (who were studying hotel management and tourism) if they had any ideas about what I could see in just a couple of hours, and they suggested that I take the #5 tram, which passes through the museum district and the shopping district on its way out of town, then turns around and comes back partly by a different route.

I did just that, and really lucked out with the tram driver, Elizabeth, who had me stand right up front near her and she pointed out all the sites to me as we went by.

Amsterdam is lovely.  Clean, ordered, and so well thought out it’s amazing.  Most streets have sidewalks, then a small boulevard, then a wide bike lane, another boulevard, then the car lanes, then the tram rails.  All separate.  Bikes galore in this city.  No trucks allowed in the City centre except between 6 a.m. and noon.  Many streets, no vehicle traffic allowed at all.

But the public transit is so excellent you really don’t need a vehicle at all.  The trams, underground and light rail trains take you everywhere from the next block to the next country quickly and efficiently.

I really have to go back to this city one day soon.  I’ve put it on my list.

Bike, pedestrian, vehicle and tram lanes. Clean and neat!

Entrance to famous Flower Market

Can't be a clock, not enough 'numbers'. What is it?

Houseboats on a canal.

I could live here . . .

Downtown Amsterdam wakes up

Beautiful, but can't recall what it is. And check out the unusual two on the far left

Saturday I left the boma for the last time, for good.

The kids danced for me, and Pauline said a blessing for my trip home.  Many final pictures were taken, and hugs given all around.

As I drove through Ngong, I took some final pictures there.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3851371/ngong_town_kenya/

Also took some video of Ngong Road in Nairobi, where all the furniture craftsmen have their stalls.  Some really beautiful stuff there.  I’d sure like to see some in my rooms, but shipping it would probably triple the cost and it’s not cheap to begin with.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3843278/ngong_road_nairobi_furniture_artisans_row/

Nothing is cheap in Nairobi – or in Kenya.  I guess you can get less expensive stuff if you go to local markets and haggle, but I’m just so bad at that, I don’t get much of a break.

I’m staying at the Stanley – the oldest hotel in Nairobi – for the two days until I fly out.  Tried to see some music, but that flopped again, but I did find some to buy anyway.  Had to meet with the lawyer one last time too.

Not much happened – just last minute organising for the project, and packing.

Room at Stanley

Wednesday there was a huge awful wind all day long, and it was COLD!  Lots of firewood is being collected right now, and I’m not clear about the reason it should be done now, rather than any other time.

Thursday I visited the local dam, which was built in order to help lessen the effects of the drought for the local people.  The water behind the dam is mostly gone, the level is down so far that storks can stand on the bottom right out in the middle.  I don’t know what these people are going to do if the water all goes.

Natasha was playing a game today where she pretended to take my fingernails off and put them on herself.  No one here grows their fingernails, so they’re a big novelty.

I went out of the boma a small ways tonight to just look at the hills and sky, because I knew I would miss it when I left.  When I came back inside the fence, the dogs, which had always been friendly to me, attacked.  They growled and jumped on me, biting my clothes and tearing at them, and clawing at me.  They didn’t actually bite me – my skin – but it was kind of nerve-wracking anyway.  I have no idea what possessed them, as they never seemed to mind who walked where – lots of people come to visit after dark, and they should have been used to my smell by then, so I’m at a loss.  Simon said he’d not seen them behave like that before.  Pauline came running out and chased them, so that was good.

Sunset from my living room door

We had another meeting with the board members, and it has been decided that we do need to register a separate CBO.  Also Barclay’s Bank has a special rate for CBOs, so I hope they will go with that when they vote.  In order to register the new CBO we have to submit 3 names, in case one or two are already taken. That means that the name of the project might change again.  Not really a problem since we don’t have anything set yet.

Friday night was more singing.  The kids had been singing for me and dancing in the kitchen one night too, and it was just too cute.

ttyl,

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3833482/saying_goodbye/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3833606/goodbye_blessing/

The dam's waters used to cover to way behind me and across to the trees.

One of Ruth's many friends

I told you about the dolls I got for Natasha and Naini – whom I’ve been calling Diana (Diana is the next biggest one), well, they were very well received.  In fact the kids were ecstatic, and the Three Musketeers, Natasha, Naini and Sironka sang and danced for me.  It was a hoot!

Later – their mom had gone to get wood – I thought it had been way too quiet for way too long and was going out to see what they were up to, and Monica, the major small-child carer in the boma came running to say that the three had disappeared!  We went outside the fence to look around as the kids sometimes played there, but no luck.  So here I was looking at miles and miles of dessert scrubland and wondering where three missing kiddies were.  Monica thought about it for a while and decided that they’d probably gone to their friends’ house to show off the dolls and trucks.  We walked (and walked) to the ‘neighbour’s’ house and sure enough, there were the kids playing with their friends.  They got shooed home and I confiscated the trucks and dolls for 24 hours as a consequence. ‘Bout had a heart attack though, little rascals!

I don’t know what it is about this landscape – I’d never have thought I could fall in love with sandy scrubland, but I have, both here and in South Africa.  There is something so stark and beautiful, and kind of an endless, end-of-the-world feeling, and I could just walk through it or look at it for hours on end.

Clouds over the Ngong Hills

Sunny day on the hills

Oh, and I forgot to mention – little boys will be boys, where ever you are in the world.  The first thing Sironka did when he got his hands on the girls’ dolls was to look and see if they had panties on, then giggle.

Dolls and Trucks

My path to school

- Tuesday -

The little kiosks are abandoned, I guess because the traffic going past them to school is over for the holidays.  Tipoi told me that the town council had been trying to develop that area as a “commercial centre”, but all that had evolved was these few little kiosks, maybe 10 or 12 feet square, made of corrugated tin, and selling bits and pieces of sweets and so on.

And I almost got lost again today.  All the landmarks I had marked out on my first extended stay here look entirely different in context of what has grown or greened around them with the small bit of rain that has fallen.  and to make matters more complicated, the main path to the school, power plant and clinic apparently ran across someone’s land, and they have now plowed it all up in order to plant maize, so I had to walk around, then try to pick up the right path on the other side.  As usual there was someone around herding the goats home who came over to make sure I was on the right path to my destination.  Actually I’m sure (as was the case in the country where I grew up) that no-one can even sneeze without everyone in a 20 mile radius knowing about it.  The country – any country – is definitely NOT the place to be if you want privacy!

ttyl,

All dressed for school. The pink backpack is especially prized.

Two of the little kiosks on the 'path' to school

Today have to pack up everything, all the souvenirs, clothes, music and so on and get ready to go to Kajaido tomorrow.

I just realised that my batteryless flashlight has a BIG magnet in it – it powers it self by magnetic induction, I think – so I’ll have to remember to keep it well away from other electronics and music discs.  Since I’ve never thought about that before on other trips, it’s a miracle I managed to get through with no wiped discs anywhere.

It’s hot, hot, hot here, so am not rushing around anywhere much.

Will likely have no computer access until next weekend, so will try to update then.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3857121/secretary_bird_running_from_plovers/

Shopping centre for a small settlement on the way to Maasai Mara Park

A part of that small settlement