Every picture tells a story - literally

The gradual addition of pictures to the more recent blog posts has just become possible as an ADSL line was yesterday installed to Arocha's premises. No more trapezes for the neighbourhood Sykes' monkeys as the new cable was laid (FREE!!! for over half a mile along the drive from the road) underground. I am trying to set up a network within the field study centre before I leave in 4 days time, but sea atmosphere, rogue software installations and out-dated antivirus programmes are all mitigating against me. Added to that, my work zone yesterday evening was invaded by a tiny but very angry red snake, which, in turn, attracted more invaders in the form of the inquisitive guests staying here at present. Needless to say my limited IT skills were sorely tested with all these distractions. Eventually the reptile was installed in a huge bucket to await collection this morning, the bucket placed in my office area ... but this morning, I can't see the beast! I just hope it is hiding under a bit of wood in the bucket. I am sure that UK working condition regulations might be able to give me some advice as to whether I should report for duty today!

Globalization and Faith

It has felt quite lonely without the family around. I wish it could have been feasible for them to spend time with me here in Arocha. There has been quite a change in the neighbourhood since I left, with more tourists further up the beach in Watamu and Malindi, and as I write from the thatched–roofed, open-sided terrace overlooking the sea, there are two kite surfers and a snorkelling support boat out on the sea between the shore and the reef. Apparently three humped-backed whales were spotted just beyond the reef yesterday, so I am keeping my eyes open. There are also far fewer guests at Mwamba, and the centre managers Henry and Belinda have just left this morning for a well-earned two-week holiday up country. I have ostensibly been given temporary responsibility for the centre – but there are many other staff around. I am quickly learning that trying to run a business along basic western lines is not easy here – it has taken nearly 48 hours to download emails via the very expensive wire-less phone dial up connection, and as for setting up the centre network with the equipment the family brought over with them, all of the desktop computers have viruses, and the a /v software tends not to get updated because there is no reliable and reasonable internet link – for the time being. A trench has been dug the half mile or so to the road and broadband may be here …. soon!

The heavy rain showers we encountered on our beach holiday continued through the week until yesterday which was warm and sunny – as is today. There have been a couple of interesting guests to chat to over issues relevant to the study, but, odd as it may sound, I have almost absorbed too much information from various sources and haven’t really had quiet moments to process it, let alone take on much new. Even the Kenyan newspapers I occasionally glimpse are full of issues that could be taken on board. Earlier in the week, there was a CMS worker from Bangladesh who had done a couple of the CRES modules with the same tutor I have, and who kindly gave me some of his reflections to read. This chap – James - was in his element here, as he was a proper bird-watcher, with binoculars, notebook and reference guide, and I went with him and the excellent Albert into the Aruboko Sukoke forest to find the very rare Scops Owl.

We saw many other species, including the fabulous Paradise flycatcher with its very long tail, and others all at a distance, but nonetheless an interesting half day walk in the forest with someone who knew it so well. This morning, I had an interesting and brief early morning ( everything often kicks off at 6 a.m. around here, so no leisurely lie-ins) conversation with a Canadian involved in facilitating indigenous development not necessarily by throwing donor money at projects, but by getting local folk to work through the issues they are facing – in particular relating to farming and conflict. He was keen to see farmers move away from growing maize which consumes so much precious water and instead produce cassava or cow peas – which can apparently be just as nutritional, at much less environmental cost.

There isn’t really anywhere here conducive to individual study – it is certainly not a retreat centre – though it has the potential to become a wonderful one if funds were available and appropriately allocated, and the ambience of the facilities, equatorial daylight hours and nocturnal insect visitations can each provide reasons for not achieving much – or is it me?! Apart from Ocean Sports where I shall cycle to in order to watch tri-nations rugby later this afternoon, there are not many alternative facilities, so if you need a break from chatting to people – which is almost a pre-requisite at a place like this, there is only the basic bedroom. Having said that, last Thursday was so quiet, that Henry and Belinda set up the digital projector so that I could show our safari slides to them, two other members of staff and two female guests: Leslie from USA studying monkey behaviour in the Gede ruins, and Milja from Finland doing an art project filming and recording local school children imitating local bird sounds! They both needed to relax from their respective esoteric studies and enjoyed some of the glorious sights we saw a fortnight ago – and the big screen is a brilliant way of seeing holiday snaps of the big and impressive beasts we saw in such abundance. We really were truly blessed.

Sun n’Sands (with more than a dash of rain!)

The third phase of our family holiday began with an evening rush hour drive from the airport and through Mombasa to the beach resort about 30 km north. A 40-seater tour company coach occupied by the four of us and a couple of staff was a very secure place from which to observe the cacophony and apparent mayhem of international trucks bound for the port, matatus bent on out-doing the Blackpool illuminations for sheer dazzle whilst causing a few heart-stopping moments along the way, and what appeared to be very romantic candle-lit street-side eating places. Had the journey been during daylight hours, I guess the raw reality of a busy, over-populated and often impoverished urban centre would have been far more obvious.
As it was we arrived at 8.45 p.m. at the Club Sun n’ Sands where an orange wrist band was secured on each of us apart from James – who even though he had celebrated his 17th birthday a week earlier, was not supposed to (!!!) have access to the more potent of brews concocted by the ever-eager bar staff. By the end of our five days, he had probably been the most dedicated customer of theirs out of the four of us, though Peter, having struggled with a very sore throat for most of the holiday, also found some relief in an occasional high-strength rum and coke! We were all too tired to really take much of the very rushed welcome briefing in, and headed off for late supper.

Then followed some glorious days of relaxing by and in the pools – complete with organized water sports, opportunities for the forging of new friendships by the boys, and more than a few chapters read for pleasure. The final two days of the stay were pock-marked by deluges, but with the insights of the previous parts of our holiday, we couldn’t but be glad for Kenya, (or at least, the coastal part of this vast and beautiful and desperate country) as opposed to sad for the mostly hugely over-weight all-inclusive holidaymakers, mainly from the UK. I dread to imagine what the inside of an average Airtours or Cosmos ‘plane from Manchester or Glasgow looks or feels like, when filled with individuals occupying a seat and a half each – and that is before they have over-indulged with the three extensive buffet meals and additional substantial snacks on offer during the course of a fortnight’s stay at a place like Sun n’Sands. And I am in no position to exclude myself from criticism: the anticipated weight loss I had hoped for as a consequence of frugal Kenyan fare has not happened yet. Perhaps the return to Arocha’s more simple provisoon of maize, beans and the Ugali which defies definition will help in this respect!

The general contrast between the condition and attitudes of many of the hotel guests, and the ever-attentive, courteous and gracious staff has been one of the great sadnesses for me so far on my African Odyssey. The superb kitchen staff who were rightly proud of their culinary skills, wonderfully friendly waiters like James, Judy and Musilla, and the efficient, helpful and attractive Business Centre Manager Eveline made the stay at this place so special, as did the presence of groups of Kenyan holiday makers and pan-African conference delegates. 20 years ago, when, as a day guest with Colin and Irene, I visited a few of the hotels on the north and south coasts of Mombasa, it was very rare to see Africans other than as staff members, or hovering beyond the perimeters as “beach boys”. This time around, it was just wonderful to be “scragged” by some whilst playing water polo, or to watch the effervescent enthusiasm of a group of delegates going through some creative team-building exercises. I couldn’t help but feel ashamed that such easy and open friendships would not be the normal fare offered in the United Kingdom to any visitors from Kenya.

The resort was hosting a very prestigious pan-African conference formulating a continental policy on Science and Technology, and I would have just loved to have had some time chatting to some of the delegates. As it is, I will have to look up the website www.aptsnet.org to read up more about it. From the brief conversation I had with one delegate from Madagascar, and another with a Kenyan photographing the event, I suspect there would have been lots of insights for me in the next of my Certificate in Christian Rural and Environmental Studies module, entitled Globalization and Faith.

We had selected this resort as the beach extension to our safari holiday, because it had publicised on its website a certain level of Corporate Social Responsibility. The Sun n’ Sands trust, managed by Eveline, had financed the provision of a number classrooms ( to reduce class sizes to 70!) and an IT suite for one local school, but as usual in this country of contrasts, there is always much more that needs to be done. I did suggest that the hotel could help itself and the local community a bit by: capturing and storing rain water – of which there was plenty during our stay; installing a wind turbine to power the stand-by generator – which was used on numerous occasions whilst we were there; and maybe more contentiously, only providing two self-service buffet meals a day as inclusive for the guests. There was also so much wasted food – left on the plates after the diners had picked through the bits they liked, or left relatively untouched on the serving platters – that some consideration should be given to dealing with it in ways which would benefit the local community far better than it being taken away by refuse collectors. I wonder how long it will be before hotels like this also become courageous enough to introduce a Tourists Corporate Social Responsibility Guide, which would serve to make us more aware of the real Kenya and its needs: economic, environmental, educational and provisional, and maybe send us back from our holidays with a heightened global social conscience, and the resolve to learn something about quality relationships from others than those we are familiar with.

After five days, Jenny, Peter and James headed south whilst I headed north along the coast. The family arrived safely back in Preston after their long journey home, whilst I had got back to Arocha, Mwamba before they even flew out of Mombasa. I brought Peter’s sore throat back with me; I wonder what they each will have taken back in the form of lasting impressions from their own African Odyssey?

Machakos -off the tourist trail.

Machakos was originally considered by the colonizing Brits to become the capital city for the “Protectorate of Kenya”, but when they found that Nairobi had potentially better water resources, Machakos was left to become a regional centre. It comprises a compact business area with banks and shops, and the once glorious Garden Hotel. Bernard Matolo, a former colleague from theological college in Bristol is now the Bishop for the African Episcopalian Church in Machakos, and has responsibility for 22 congregations covering a vast area, including parts of Tanzania and the Embu region of Kenya near Mount Kenya.

He gave up three days of his time to host us, and using a hired car, drove us from Nairobi to Machakos and then around on some long and eye-opening trips. We met some truly wonderful people, including his wife Josephine who we knew from Bristol, and two of their sons Jonathan and Danny boarders at separate secondary schools, and their daughter Patience, still at primary school near to their three room rented home. No fine Bishop’s palace or office for Bernard. No support staff either, and at the time of our visit, not even a functioning car.

Nevertheless we were treated regally and had wonderful meals served for us all along the way, which took us up hill and down dale, into parts of the world where there hasn’t been rainfall for 5 YEARS, and where subsistence farming is the norm. I will write further about Machakos in the near future, but for the time being, for the thoughts and prayers of anyone following this blog, four potential action points:


• The Cathedral has just been built and has no electricity, nor a house for the pastor in charge. It is also in need of seating and musical instruments. This could be something St. Cuthbert’s would give consideration to.









• The Girls secondary school at Kayata is operating out of rented shacks which serve as dormitory and teaching room, but has just had a dynamic young head teacher appointed: Mrs Margaret Muli. She has brought water onto the site and would love to connect to the electricity system which has only just arrived at the nearby village. This could be something that schools in Fulwood might like to consider supporting.

• Bernard is keen to encourage wise use of the environment where each of his churches are planted, and depending on research I am to make at the end of my visit to Kenya, would really value some kind of bursary support system being set up that would enable him to send individuals from his congregations to learn how to farm with appropriate care for the environment. More on this later, but this could become something the Halliwell / Paton Philip family might like to consider.

• Bernard’s lay pastor in Machakos, Stephen Kisulu is a full time science teacher at the prestigious Nairobi school for boys, and some kind of dialogue with the science department at Archbishop Temple School, Fulwood, might lead to a international relationship of considerable quality and mutual benefit – and this initially does not have any financial implication, only a desire to foster a global community link between educational establishments.


Another cultural boundary crossed

After so many new experiences, it was good to sit in the domestic departure lounge at Nairobi Airport for a few hours to wait for our flights to the coast for the final part of our family holiday. Kenya Airways had deleted me from their passenger list because I was a no-show on the flight they had changed to be a taxi ride and flight! So after a frantic call in the morning – I am so grateful for Megan having given me a spare local phone company sim card for my mobile – I was given a seat on a flight out one hour earlier than the rest of the family, but we eventually all met up together again, and reached the Sun n’sands resort at Kilimani, north of Mombasa at 9 p.m. Time for rest and recreation – surrounded by package tour Brits….. but also many more interesting folk. Watch this space.

Safari

The Samburu Safari

Despite having re-arranged my internal flight with Kenya Airways

to avoid the long drive to Mombasa from Watamu, I arrived at Malindi Airport at the suspiciously long 2 hour pre-flight check-in to be told that I was to be driven to Mombasa. I had suspected as much when I arrived at the airport and reps from a rival airline Flight 540 tried to encourage me to get on board their plane that was just leaving. When the unfortunate KA official, Philip, arrived, 5 minutes after the opposition had flown, he told me that whilst they had been intending to fly from Malindi from July 1st, they still hadn’t got their act together. More about KA later! I spent a happy three hours with him in his small office before the next well-organised flight 540 departure to Nairobi. Again a wonderful and unexpected opportunity to hear from a Kenyan about their hopes for the future, and their awareness of all their problems, not least regarding the environment and lack of rainfall. He arranged for coffee and cake on the house, and got a message to the rest of the family and the Somak tour rep who was to meet me at Nairobi informing me of my late arrival.

At 4 p.m. I arrived at the Holiday Inn, Nairobi, and waited for a short while whilst Jenny, Peter and James, who had caught up on a bit of sleep after their over-night flight from Manchester via London, together with Megan from St. Cuthbert’s, finished their trip round the national museum, just around the corner. After quickly rectifying a mistake by the UK travel agent (using wi-fi internet access at KES 400 per hour), we had a good time with Megan, beside the (coldish!) pool, and then a lovely fish buffet supper and early to bed to catch up and get ready for safari-time!

Wagons roll!

With Ahmed, (known as “Major” to his fellow safari drivers and many others along the way, because he once was a major in the Kenyan army), and our mini-van companions for the duration of the week-long safari Chris and Sue, a honeymoon couple from Bristol, we set off north east through the foothills of Mt. Kenya and along the still-being-constructed transnational Cape Town – Cairo road. It is going to be a few years before anything other than a well-sprung 4-wheel drive can make the journey along that part of the road we travelled, but north of the town of Isiolo, and to the point where we left to go into the Samburu national park, the Chinese had funded and built the road, enticed by the prospects of oil in north and east Kenya, and the very real possibility of a new port being built at Lamu. If sea levels rise as predicted by global warming scientists, then the port of Mombasa will be badly affected, and a second major gateway into East Africa would be absolutely vital. However, there are environmental considerations that would affect the Lamu area that have not yet been given serious thought.

After four hours and a couple of official stops and a few others as Sue was poorly, we arrived at the Samburu Lodge – an oasis in a very dry landscape. And it was even drier than usual, as there had been no heavy seasonal rains this year, and the river Ewaso Nyro was bone dry. The crocodiles had migrated to nearby Buffalo Springs, and whilst the water table was quite near the surface here, it was sad to see locals having to dig into the river bed in order to help the animals which bring the tourists, who in turn are their only livelihood , survive. We had a couple of nights here, and Jenny and I had a very interesting conversation with Oscar, a safari driver for another tour company, about the problems Kenya face at the moment: environmental and political. But, again, there was a real sense of hope and confidence in the younger generations.

As for the animals, we saw elephants, monkeys, gerenuk, giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, and a leopard kill stashed in a tree. As often happened, Ahmed spotted it first, and had we stuck around and looked a bit closer, we would have seen the leopard’s tail in an adjacent bush. We returned later to get a better view by which time it had moved to a distant tree. More about leopards later!

Only one sour note that spoilt our stay at the first of a succession of top-end lodges: the waiter at lunch offered us a fruit drink, and didn’t mention that it was not “on the house” The cost of that severely dented the funds we had set aside for tips. This was a whole new kind of holiday experience for we who are accustomed to visiting friends and staying in self-catered accommodation, and we rapidly had to get into the habit of changing big KES notes to smaller ones to keep waiters, porters and domestics tipped up. Many of the staff we met along the way had travelled from far and wide across Kenya to get work, and would only get back to their home villages for maybe a week every 2 – 3 months. Technology, in the form of mobile phones being used to communicate the transfer of funds right across the country was proving a real benefit, as was an innovative bank called Equity, which was providing loans without land or house being required as security. This was helping many of the poorer start small-scale businesses, and the more we spoke with Kenyans – and read their daily papers when available - the greater we sensed that there were many of the rapidly growing population who were not content to just sit back and do nothing all day.

Our second day at Samburu saw us “tick off” lions, warthog and buffalo on our must see list, and many, many other wonderful and exotic ( to British eyes) species of animal and bird.

The next day we were off early. Every morning was an early start, either to go on a game drive or to move on to the next location. In all we covered about 1800 kilometers from Samburu in the north through the Aberdares, Lake Nakuru and then the long haul down to the Masai Mara before returning to Nairobi after one week of real excitement and adventure.

Treetops
Back south down the dusty road, passing an exquisite little church in the middle of nowhere that stood out from the dry and dusty landscape because of the exuberant frangipani, and through some chaotic and busy settlements, we entered another world: the world of the former colonial power in the Aberdare. A much more lush landscape and coffee and tea plantations. We had lunch at the Outspan hotel, where the founder of the scout movement had one lived, and were then transferred to the famous Treetops game lodge, where, once again the impact of the drought was immediately evident, with very few animals coming down to the salt lick. James was the first to note the arrival of ah hyena, which merited 1 ring on the bell system which notified the overnight residents of anything of interest. The bell was not invoked for the rest of the stay there. However, we did enjoy a wonderful sit-down, served meal in the narrow dining room, which gave us opportunity to get to know some of the other people from the tour, who we kept spotting in different mini-vans whilst out on game drives. In particular it was a real delight to meet Thomas and Kristine from Denmark, but shortly moving to Sydney, and Carol and her daughter Victoria from Toronto as well as Ken and Margaret from Northern Ireland. Who knows if these people might get a visit from Peter and or James should they travel the world in the future!

A short hop

The next day we headed north, west and south and in the process crossed or drove parallel to the equator a few times, without the hassle that the obligatory stop on the first journey south brought with it. All the places we stopped for formal breaks in the long journeys necessitated dodging sellers of curios or traders interested in anything they could get. A pair of Jenny Wren exclusive hand-crafted earrings found their way into the hands of one trans-equatorial entrepreneur, in exchange for a measly couple of tatty cardboard bookmarks. This despite the advice and lessons on avoidance given by the other members of her family and travelling companions!

We visited the beautiful Thomson waterfalls and then arrived in the Lake Nakuru national Park, where the journey through to the splendid lodge gave us sight of black and white rhinos, flamingos, storks and baboons. This was my favourite overnight stop, with small chalets with individual solar panel water heaters that worked. I discovered that they had been removed from the next place we stayed because tourists complained their water wasn’t warm enough. Lake Nakuru National park had three distinct vegetation zones – savannah, forest and the lake which was receding at an alarming rate, and was 1.5 – 2 meters lower than it had been 5 years ago. Deforestation of the near by Mau forest – motivate by politicians giving land to their supporters, was also having a knock-on effect, as Ahmed told me. In the pat it used to rain for about one hour every afternoon in Lake Nakuru region, and that helped keep the water level of this lake high. Sadly this is no longer the case.

The long and winding ( and very bumpy ) road

Nearly 400 km drive south west brought us eventually into the Masai Mara National Park for the final two night of our safari. Again a beautiful lodge in an oasis, but for how much longer? The mighty Mara river was a trickle of its former self, and the landscape much paler than it should have been for the time of year. That did work to our benefit as we saw some wonderful wildlife, including a cheetah family, a leopard having its supper and two different lion prides having breakfast in full surround-sound glory. Our encounter with the leopard also brought us into a close and not altogether pleasant encounter with the park wardens on their early evening patrol, and our driver had the “pleasure” of their company for a few hours after we returned to the lodge.

Consequently the following day was much more relaxed, and the huge expanses and horizons of classic East Africa was allowed to soak into our being. We actually had a couple of short rain showers during the stay in the Mara, but it was stored water that provided the right environment for the hippo family to stay near the lodge.

After our final self-service buffet meal – we really did do very well on safari, and I kept thinking of the excesses of tourists and the amount of wasted food, but the stark contrast with real Kenyan life was yet to come, as the next stage of our journey records.

Bird-survey on the Sabaki River estuary

After catching up on sleep, Saturday morning saw me up early with Colin Jackson, Albert and Andrew to join 5 members of the Sabaki Wildlife trust for a four hour survey of the birds present at the mouth of the river we had seen on our trip to Malanga. Here evidence of the effect of soil erosion upstream was in no doubt – 15 year ago, the river had been three to four times as wide as it now was. Nevertheless there were still loads of exotic – well exotic if you are from the UK – birds to see, plus the added frisson of fresh hippo tracks leading to and from the places on the river bed where we now stood to count the birds. I am not an ornithologist in the true sense of the word, I couldn’t dedicate a Saturday morning to counting terns, but it was wonderful to be out in the stiff wind, with mud up to my knees on one occasion and just learning.

After the bird-spot, we stopped off for tea and some kind of doughy cake in Malindi before heading back on the road which was becoming more familiar to me through Gedi. Saturday afternoon was taken up with catching up on Skype and emails at Ocean Sports before settling down to watch the Lions v South African rugby. An evening watching the Lion King cartoon on DVD with some of the German guests brought yet another interest-filled day to an end.

On Sunday it rained for longer than at any time since my arrival, but that was much laer than was usual. I tried my first ride in a matatu – complete with dvd playing – screen up front, speakers at the back – 18 people crammed in where there were seats for 15! And then a twenty minute walk with some of the guests and volunteers south down the beach to swim (splash about in my case) in the heavy surf.
And on Monday I travelled to meet the family in Nairobi – but that is a whole new chapter in this blog, the details of which will follow in a week or so. (In brief: they arrived tired but safe – and much earlier than I did, and managed to meet up with Megan Wood from St Cuthbert’s as well)

Meals on legs…..

Sorry for this, but it was only when lunch was delayed by a couple of hours that I put two and two together. One of the pastors had arrived for the workshop pulling a goat, which was tied to a tree in the school assembly yard. It had disappeared by the time the children gathered for whole school assembly, and a few choice words from the head teacher about working hard for exams, only to re-appear on a bed of rice…

The workshop for the pastors seemed to go well, they were given a powerpoint presentation of the climate problems that Kenya faces, and I added some images that brought a global perspective before leading a Bible study using the excellent Hope for Planet Earth materials. After lunch, more of a question and answer “where do we go from here” session, where planting trees definitely came out on top, though economic gain was probably a greater motivation than conservation.

Then we struck camp and headed back the two hours to Mwamba – with two more passengers for company – and a chicken that had been presented to Jonathan – ostensibly for egg-laying purposes!

To Malanga and back

The ASSETTS – Aruboko-Sukoke Schools Eco-Tourism Training

Scheme – is set up to provide bursaries to children who cannot afford higher education in return for a commitment to helping protect the natural world they live in. A number of schools have signed up to this initiative, and at the end of my second

week in Kenya, I was invited with three of the Arocha staff – Tsofa, Jonathan

, Alex, and another volunteer Jeff to visit a school in Malanga to help a presentation to the Primary School (age 4 – 16) wild-life club, and then hold a seminar for local pastors on challenges to the environment. This would involve an overnight stay – for which the pick-up was required, so yours truly and two others from the party ended up riding shot gun on top of mattresses, diesel generator, and food supplies – for a journey of 2 hours.

What a brilliant way to see the countryside: the rich red sandstone abruptly changing to a paler sandstone and back; clusters of shambas (farmsteads) with goats and occasionally cattle and often small children running around. On the way there was plenty of evidence of the type of farming that has gone on for generation, but which is becoming less and less productive: tress and bushes are cut down and burnt to make charcoal for fuel and for additional income. The maize or cassava that is planted on the cleared ground grows well for the first couple of years as the ash provides nutrients, but soon, the lack of rain and light texture of the sand soil combine to make harvests less and less successful, and even worse, hasten erosion. This year the rains, even near the coast, have been so sporadic that the usual rhythm of planting of crops in April and May with a harvest in July has been upset.

En route to Malanga, we visited a primary school where some of

the desks had been paid for by the church that Jeff, training as a URC minister, had come from in Heswall, Mersey

side. The staff room was worth taking a picture of, in order to put into perspective teaching conditions back home.

We then continued to Malanga Primary School, where we arrived

late, but that wasn’t a problem. The children start school at 6.30 a.m. and lessons finish formally at 3.30, when club activities take over About 120 children filled the library for the Arocha presentation led by Tsofa- which only got off the ground because the two UK volunteers put their churchy skills to work to make up a new power cable for the video projector. We’d left the correct one back Mwamba! The DVD presentation was a Kenyan-produced film to put across the “Don’t eat bushmeat” message. Apparently 3 out of 10 Kenyans are involved in one way or another with the tourist industry. Tourists visit to see the wild animals, but there is an increasing demand for meat by the rapidly increasing Kenyan population (which is growing by 900,000 each year at present – that is the size of a Mombasa every year), and wild animals are becoming an increasing target for meat merchants. It was interesting to watch, and to see how the actors expressions more than the words seemed to generate a response from the gathered students.

Then, just before dusk, we set up our overnight camp in the library where the presentation was held. Mattresses, mosquito nets, bedding etc were all unloaded and set up in the fading light, after which we were driven by a rookie pick-up driver a mile or so down a narrow road to the bustling metropolis of Malanga – no light pollution here – no electricity! We missed the café on our first pass through the village, but that was probably because there was no sign to indicate the mud shack served any particular purpose. Nevertheless a wonderful chicken stew and chapatti meal was enjoyed in the gloom, and then back for an hour so of chat round a fire lit in the school compound – no health and safety police around here! – before the dreaded hour for bed arrived.

8 exceedingly long hours and no sleep later, ( noisy rats were attracted to the maize that was stored on shelves where in a library one would normally expect to find books!) And then there was the visit to the ablutions block…….

Life as a volunteer at Arocha, Kenya

The first few days were spent just getting used to the new routines – toast for breakfast, lunch and suppers shared with staff members and other guests and volunteers. There is accommodation for 18 guests in buildings that have walls, windows and a roof, but by the end of the second week a party of German high school students arrived at the same time as two of the larger guest rooms were out of commission – so there were tents everywhere.

Volunteer duties to date have included washing up in the simple kitchen area, and there is an almost never-ending list of DIY and repair jobs to do. This place really does need at least one car that works consistently by the end of the second week, the pick-up truck – more of which later – was the only thing working, and it too is in need of a decent battery. The saloon car had a broken drive shaft and a small Land-Cruiser and Suzuki both have been immobile for months. The Centre is located by the beach, but a good 5 miles from the main Malindi – Mombasa road, and the journey, even though on a kind of tarmac surface, through Gedi and Timboni to Watamu is punctuated with bumps, pot-holes and sleeping policemen, and as the roads are just about wide enough for to cars to pass, when cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and the ubiquitous matatu at speed converge, there is plenty of cause for an adrenalin rush for passenger and serious strain on the mechanical workings of vehicles.

In addition to leading the start a couple of staff meetings with some scripture reflections and prayer, I have also spent time preparing for a trip out into the rural area the other side of the Aruboko-Sukoke forest.

Of which more, and the pick-up next time.