Nairobi to Kijabe

We’ve left the luxury of Nairobi wireless internet and have entered the land of Safaricom.Which means sometimes slow and always unpredictable access (unless you happen to be a Maasai goatherd, the lot of whom always seem to have perfectly functioning cell phones. Speaking of which (to digress for a moment) Kristin read yesterday that tens of millions more people on earth have access to cell phones than to clean water. Think about that one for a moment, and then text that fun fact to a friend on your iPhone.

Anyway, we said a temporary goodbye to the Ochieng clan this a.m. Gideon graciously drove us out to Kijabe and cheerfully braved the now almost impassible steeply descending, twisted road from the highway down to Kijabe Station. Seriously, that road can hardly be called a road anymore and I for one cannot imagine the torture a matatu crash victim with multiple fractures must endure to be transported to or from the hospital. Seriously, it is beyond inhumane.

But now, here we are in Kijabe and it is SO AWESOME to be here! It’s the first time in all these years that I’ve been to Kijabe when it’s actually sunny and warm (which I’m sure is poor comfort to all you snowed-in Seattleites. Though I do have to admit, Kristin and I are really, really bummed we’re missing the big dump. We’re so bummed, we don’t even want to hear aboutit.) But I digress again.

This afternoon was gorgeous—clear blue sky, the forest up the mountain thick and lush and green, green, green with the end of the recent ‘short rains.’ The fuchsia bougainvillea, the red dirt; the magnificent expanse of the Rift Valley all shades of green and gold and full-on violet as the sun set. Kijabe is a lovely, lovely place on earth and this landscape is very dear to my heart.

We met up with John Njane and had a long talk with him, sitting in the WARM SUN. We got caught up on the fire that destroyed his rental house, the progress on the construction of his own new house (isn’t done yet; living with 5 street boys, 2 daughters, his wife and his wife’s niece on the property his house is being built on,) caught up on all the widows we know (Veronica,whose house we finished, has AIDS and is probably soon to die—thankfully she now has a roof over her head and can lie in a bed instead of squat in a rice bag tent--please pray for her comfort) and mapped out the projects that he and Kristin will work on when she returns from Siyiapei (more detail on that later, but John has it all very well thought out and is already responsibly budgeting the money.)

Oh, and BTW. Veronica’s water donkey that Kristin and Brenna raised the money to buy? Well, it seems said donkey had a little tryst in the maize shamba behind Veronica’s house and the big hee-haw just had a baby! John’s plan is to let Veronica’s mother-donkey raise it, then he’s going to either give it to Virginia (the widow who takes care of 8 children, half of whom were abandoned by Virginia’s own sister, the other half AIDS orphans) or, if Virginia doesn’t need a donkey, he’s going to help Virginia sell it so that Virginia will have a good sum of money to feed her children without having to receive so much aid from John’s feeding program.

Tomorrow we touch base with Mama Chiku re: Kristin’s stay with her when Kristin returns to Kijabe in a few weeks (our gracious host tonight, Monic Osoti, told Kristin that the rumor is already flying: Mama Chiku’s son's American girlfriend, with the father who is a rich American doctor, is coming to visit. I can hardly wait to see how many gossipy vegetable ladies show up at Mama Chiku’s restaurant tomorrow when we go for chai! Ha!)

Photos: bougainvillea and acacia, Kijabe; street sweeper burning street garbage at the curb, Nairobi; walking to the Ochieng's house, Nairobi; Kijabe road; Kristin and John Njane; our favorite beverage!