My Nakuru report was incomplete because I didn't mention our visit with Mollie's friends. Mollie lived in Nakuru for 3 years while she was going to college. We had lunch with her friends Judith and Judith, which made it easy for a social klutz (me) to remember their names. Each has a little daughter and one brought hers, named Staceline (Stacey), so I had a good time photographing her. The next day we went to the house of the Judith and Stacy and had a wonderful lunch. I swear, I've got a good thing going on with all of these lunches. Every Kenyan woman is a good cook and as a guest I get treated to marvelous meals. Judith served the potato, corn, and pumpkin leaf dish that I like so much, and Judith put in an additional ingredient too, but as it was several days ago and Mollie isn't here (don't ask), I have forgotten what it was. If we had gotten there in time I could have met Judith's husband but as we were late he had to go to work before we arrived.
At 4 years old, I think she is, Stacy doesn't understand English, but I had brought a copy of Dr. Suess' "The Sneeches and Other Stories" from the USA and thought that Stacy might like it. We sat on the couch and I read to her, running my finger under the words. By the second time through the book, she was pointing to each word as I read. What a smart girl! One, two, or three syllables, she knew when one word was over and it was time for the next.
The other news regarding Nakuru involves the riot that we skirted. The national news reported the next day that two rioters had been killed by the police, one of them a young father of two. Apparently when things get to the point that the police get called in, someone invariably gets killed by them. I don't know what to say about that. But it explains the gunshots, and maybe explains why the lookers-on weren't running -- perhaps they assumed that the shots were being fired by professionals and were not likely to be going off in random directions. And I'm still glad that I didn't make the same assumption. "Get away" is a good gun safety practice. Maybe the NRA teaches it.
Here in Kisumu Mollie got her hair plaited, and it looks fabulous. :) Plaiting takes hours and when I asked Mollie what she wanted for lunch, she ordered a burger for herself and one for the hairdresser. I went to a nice restaurant here and ordered two burgers to go -- "carry off" or "take-away" rather, "to go" is met with "huh?" The waiter took my order and then, Kenyan style, came back in 5 minutes to let me know that there was no beef today, so I ordered chicken sandwiches instead. Each chicken sandwich came tied in a small plastic bag, with the chipos in another. I delivered the food to the salon and retreated back to the coffee shop. Later Mollie told me that the lady that had been on her feet plaiting since 9:30, with a little help from another lady, broke her chicken sandwich into 3 pieces and shared it and the chipos with two others. She had been prepared to plait all day with no lunch. When she was finished, around 4:30 in the afternoon, the bill was KES 1500 -- $18. She gets 25%, so that's $4.50 for 7 hours of plaiting. Mollie said that Kenyans never tip, too. I love to tip here because any amount is gratefully received. We gave the hair lady a $3.60 tip, and she got a little bit of lunch, so it was a good day for her. She's raising 2 children with her hair job.
So many people here work so hard to scrape by. When you go to a big supermarket like Nakumatt, every 40-foot aisle has it's own attendant. All of the goods are perfectly arranged. If you take something off the shelf, the attendant soon scoots the remaining goods forward. Near closing time, dozens of attendants are diligently sweeping and mopping their aisle.
It's wonderful how different peoples' lives are. Mollie went to get her hair done, which is routine for her but for me it was an adventure, because salons are completely unfamiliar territory. Then the next day Mollie had an adventure, as we went to the movies -- the first time she had ever been. The second time was the day after. :)
The day after the hair adventure we went to visit Mollie's aunt Nancy. This is the same aunt that I got to meet in Uthiru. She's visiting with her parents in Kisumu, where she grew up. Nancy's parents live in a good spot, far enough from town to maintain their traditional lifestyle yet close enough to take advantage of any modern benefits that Kisumu may offer. I took many photos of their beautiful homestead, complete with goats (mbuzi in Kiswahili, diel I think it is in Luo), a few calves, chickens, a tiny pond with water plants and lots of green frogs, banana trees, and vegetable gardens. Nancy's parents do not speak English but they were clearly welcoming. Her Mom sat outside in the shade with a friend. Nancy had cooked an enormous and delicious lunch again, a rice pilau and stewed vegetables, and to my surprise it was just for me and Mollie. We sat in the dim cool main house and ate. I ate two big plates and Mollie ate well too, and then with half of the food left she told me that it was all just for me and that I should keep eating. Yeah right. But that's how it works here -- as a guest I am treated like a king.
Coming home from Nancy's parent's, we took a motorcycle taxi for a bit, along a dirt road. It's OK, not scary, as they putt along at a reasonable speed, possibly because of Mollie's instructions, and we only use them when there is little other option. This means that the roads we are traveling have almost no other traffic, other than bicycles and pedestrians and other motorcycle taxis -- virtually no cars or matatus. Herds of livestock crossing the road, or grazing alongside it, seem a little dangerous to be passing at first, but they are used to the motorcycle taxis and vice versa, so there isn't much risk of a collision.
Speaking of matatus, I'm proud to say that Mollie and I set a new personal best the other day. We rode in the usual 14-passenger matatu, which is already configured to be a bit of a squeeze, with 23 adults and a baby. Four people had to stand on the edge of the sliding door and hang on to various seats and struts inside. After a couple of people got off so that it got down to only 2 people hanging on, the conductor -- each matatu has one, to collect fares and organize things -- was able to slide the door, not shut but slid over to at least provide some backside support for himself and the passenger that didn't have a seat. Each row of 3 seats had 4 people in it, which is the limit for adults (more for children) before the matatu operators will cry uncle and stop loading more -- except of course for the ass-to-the-wind hangers on.
Kisumu is the capital of Nyanza Province. Kenya has 4 big provinces by area, three small ones, and a tiny one (Nairobi). Nyanza is one of the small ones and is the home of the Luo, with Luyia and Kisii people living there too.
From Kisumu, Mollie and I went to her family farm, just north of Lake Kanyaboli. It's a lovely place. We took a shuttle van to Siaya and then a cab to the farm. The cab had to take the long way because the road over the hill was too muddy to travel. At the farm I met Mama Twis, Mollie's aunt, who's about 80 and still farming. She's great! We had fun greeting each other, each in our own language. I also met Dennis and Lawrence, sons of Mollie's cousins, who live on the farm as well. The Luo way is that the head of household builds a house facing the compound entry path, and then the sons build houses to the right and left in locations proscribed by birth order.
Farming in the area is mainly done with hoes and thin bars of metal known as slashers which are used to cut weeds. Walking along the road, we met two old friends of Mollie's family plowing with four cattle. The cattle are small with a hump on their shoulders, with good endurance and disease resistance. Come to think of it the dogs are of a practical breed too, no poodly stuff. The farmers let me try plowing which was good for a laugh all around. A plow sure beats a hoe for turning over the soil but how one trains the cattle I can only guess.
Mollie's dad built house in the compound which now belongs to Mollie's brothers although she's the main occupant. I slept a different house with Lawrence and Dennis, under a new insecticide-treated mosquito net -- I'm a bit poodly myself. Mollie cooked with her jiko (charcoal stove) and did the wash by hand. I helped a bit to show my empathy with the women's movement but mainly took photos and read. The neighbor's children played in the compound field, sometimes stopping to stare at me. I had brought a solar water bag to heat shower water -- the poodly thing again -- and overall life was wonderfully relaxing and pleasant. There's a conflict with the neighbor though, as he grazes his cattle all over the family farm and dismisses Mollies complaints as she's a woman. All of Mollie's brothers are away at school so there isn't any patriarch yet to re-establish the boundaries. Mollie did a load of wash by hand, God bless her, which I guess would have been 2 loads in my washing machine, and we hung it on a line. In preparation for our arrival, Dennis had been collecting rainwater from the gutters, so we did not have to haul from a water source.
Mollie's cell phone was inexorably running out of charge so we had to say goodby to the farm and head back to Kisumu. On the way we stopped and visited Mollie's younger brother Bruno at his school. I like Mollie's family and wish that I could have met her parents. Waiting for a matatu at the road near Bruno's school a Lexus crossover (LX-300? GX? The crossover based on the Camry) stopped and offered us a ride so we got in. A minute later another fellow got in and went to the next town and when he got out he gave the driver KES 50, which was about the matatu price. So when we got out in Kisumu I gave the fellows KES 300 and chatted a bit to find that they sold medical supplies. So I think that the two fellows had use of a company car for a business trip, and took advantage of the opportunity to make a few shillings on the side by carrying passengers. That's the Kenyan way, work the angles to move ahead. It was nice to ride in the Lexus but of course as a non-materialist I would have been more happy to walk barefoot. :) Mollie had never seen power windows and to her credit she only lowered the window halfway and then back up a bit. Just once!
From Kisumu we took the bus overnight to Mombassa, travelling the entire width of Kenya. It was a big diesel bus and it bullied it's way along the potholed two-lane (of course the lanes aren't marked) road from Kisumu to Nakuru. The driver wasn't especially aggressive by Kenay standards, but he had to pass trucks going 25 mph and in such a circumstance there just isn't room for bicycles or, once, a motorcycle, who are on constant alert for such things and ready to brake and get off the road if necessary. This isn't to say that the bus ignored them -- it wouldn't pass, usually, if it saw such traffic up ahead -- but especially at night it isn't always possible for the driver to see the whole situation. The main traffic everywhere is pedestrians walking alongside the road. Since we took the night bus we couldn't see anything on the Nairobi-Mombassa leg, but it goes through a national park and one can see wildlife during the day.
Here in Malindi we're staying at an interesting place, have met some interesting people, and are seeing some coastal beauty. But I had better wait on that so that I can post this, finally. Hugs!
