Ndoto Hills

Ndoto Hills: Kenya's Natural Beauty, Part IV

Somewhere between the hot dusty desert of the north and the savannahs of the south, rests some of the richest land in Kenya. The central highlands of Kenya are home to most of the country's agriculture, including the world's largest area for rose cultivation. Just north of this fertile delta area yet south of the Chalbi Desert are the Ndoto Hills, whose landscape seems to be trying to blend the best of those two environments. In the winter dry season of our visiting time, the cracked, clay-bottomed river beds crunched under our feet while the hills surrounding the camps where we stayed appeared green and somewhat lush. These hills provide ample adventure opportunities for travelers who like climbing and hiking. Natural water sources remain unpredictable yet, at the same time, support leafy trees, plants, and birds of many varieties. Herds of domesticated animals dominated the landscape but tales of wild animals, particularly predatory cats, abound. We saw few wild creatures in this region but grew fond of the neighbors' cows, camels, and goats who liked to come visiting each morning at our camp.

In a reference to the belief of the Nuer people that the tree "still stood within man's memory in the south of Sudan," Peter Matthiessen named his book, The Tree Where Man Was Born (Penguin Classic, 2010), after imagining a large baobab standing solitary and majestic in the desert sun. We came upon such a mighty tree in our Nguranit neighborhood. The canopy of the tree stretched wide and far from its gnarly tangled trunk. Such trees are believed to be as old as 2500 years. It now seems easy to imagine both its age and wisdom.

Laurel























































































Photos:
"View from Ngurunit Campsite," Claudia Daggett
"Dry Riverbed, Mpagas," Claudia Daggett
"Ngurunit Landscape," Muddy Waters
"Mountain Slide," Muddy Waters
"Sunset, Marsabit to Ngurunit," Claudia Daggett
"Goats," Claudia Daggett
"Camel with Bell," Claudia Daggett
"Trunk" Claudia Daggett

Our Feathered Kenyan Friends

Our Feathered Kenyan Friends:
Kenya's Natural Beauty, Part III

While the large animals certainly hold great appeal, we found that the winged friends, with their stunning plumage and vociferous chatter, kept us just as entertained. Who knew that we would come to recognize four different types of vultures? We even chased a bustard (a pheasant-like bird) around in our bush car as Sam, our Maasai guide, became excited at the rare sighting of this shy bird. Luckily for us, the winter landscape of dry bush and barren trees in some places enabled us to spot the colorful birds quite easily. Our zoom lenses and binoculars came in especially handy at these moments. When we returned home, however, we discovered that none of us had recorded the names of the many birds we had seen. In another stroke of good fortune, we had picked up A Photographic Guide to Birds of East Africa (Richards, D. Ralph Curtis Publishing, 2001) in Nairobi, which helped greatly.

To continue the pleasure, we discovered a lovely novel, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008). With a sanguine writing voice similar in style to Alexander McCall Smith of #1 Ladies Detective Agency series fame, Drayson gives us Mr. Malik, a gentle bird-loving soul and member of the East African Ornithological Society, who is infatuated with the equally lovely Rose Mbikwe. If you can't travel to Nairobi via plane, traveling in your armchair with a book, a Kindle or a Nook turns out to be very satisfying, in this case.

Laurel






















































































































Photos:
"Little Bee-eater," Maasai Mara, Claudia Daggett
"Flock of Vultures," Maasai Mara, Claudia Daggett
"Going for a Stroll," Bustard, Maasai Mara, Claudia Daggett
"Northern Red-billed Hornbill," Ngurunit, Claudia Daggett
"Stork," Maasai Mara, Claudia Daggett
"Taita Superb Starlings," Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, Claudia Daggett
"Secretary Bird with Plumage Extended," Maasai Mara, Laurel Seid
"Ostrich," Maasai Mara, Claudia Daggett
"Red Beaks," Ngurunit, Claudia Daggett
"Yellow-necked Spurfowl," Maasai Mara, Laurel Seid

Chasing the Leakeys

Chasing the Leakeys: Kenya's Natural Beauty, Part II

After several miles of rugged road in a landscape which struck all of us as moonscape, we rounded a corner of a rocky, barren outcrop to see the beautiful jade waters of Lake Turkana spread before us. With little to no foliage of any kind and a beating sun, it felt hard to imagine how people and animals thrive in this environment, but this region has sustained life for all of the recorded time known to man. The Leakeys maintained their camp along the northern shores. Lake Turkana, the world's largest alkaline inland lake and one of the saltiest, rests on the edge of the Chalbi Desert that stretches from northern Kenya into Ethiopia. We stayed in a true desert oasis fed by hot springs.

Peter Matthiessen chronicles his travels throughout Eastern Africa in the early '70's in his book, The Tree Where Man Was Born (Penguin Classic, 2010). He delights in his great good fortune at joining a small group traveling to the area known then as the Northern Frontier District, which stretches from Isiolo north into Ethiopia, the very same area in which we ESHA travelers spent the greatest amount of time. Like Matthiessen, we definitely felt lucky to be led by Steven, who steered our bush car, Taita, expertly through all manner of terrain and road condition and made countless introductions to the people living there. Matthiessen begins by lamenting that the life and landscape he is witnessing is likely disappearing. Forty years later, his descriptions of his travels around Lake Turkana, including the people and their customs, sound very familiar, especially the way in which the landscape simultaneously inspires awe and wonder while being challenging to travel.

"There is no road around the south end of the lake, only the foot trails of the few Turkana who pick their way over the lava flows to Loiyengalani. A bad track climbs out of the Rift and heads for South Horr across a region of black boulders, cairns, and strange circles in the sand..." (p. 71)

The landscape, the people and even the road remain very much unchanged.

Laurel

Photos:
"Laurel Admires the View," Lake Turkana (Claudia Daggett)
"Sunset over Lake Turkana" (Jamie Waters)

Anthills of the Savannah

Celebrating natural beauty forms a critical part of the Kenyan economy and formed a crucial part of our Kenyan journey. We hope you enjoy this visual display of the physical wonders of Kenya.

Anthills of the Savannah: Kenya's Natural Beauty, Part I

Although Chinua Achebe wrote his well-regarded novel of this title about a fictitious country in western Africa, it is not hard to imagine why the anthills could be a source of inspiration. They so fully dotted the landscape of Kenya, especially in the south, that from a distance, we often mistook them for animals. And animals there were! Imagine our delight at the unbelievable physical beauty of the savannahs and the species and varieties of all animals. We enjoyed the benefit of sunny days, warm red sunsets, and fortunate timing of our trip with the Great Migration of wildebeest from Tanzania. We saw so many four-legged hooved animals that we became adept at distinguishing a hartebeest from a gazelle from an impala. We learned the distinctions between the two types of zebra. We spent countless minutes observing elephants. In the end, we realized a shared hope for a lion sighting with a private audience with a resting lion couple who were thankfully very sleepy and, thus, uninterested in the close proximity of our bush car.

Laurel









































Photos:
"Termite Hill," Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (Laurel Seid)
"Colors of the Savannah," Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (Claudia Daggett)
"Taita Heaven," Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (Claudia Daggett)
"Maasai Mara Giraffe and Wildebeest" (Laurel Seid)
"Face to Face with a Wildebeest," Maasai Mara National Park (Claudia Daggett)
"Hippo on the Banks of the Mara River," Maasai Mara National Park (Muddy Waters)
"Taita Impala," Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (Claudia Daggett)
"Zebra Pair," Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary (Claudia Daggett)
"Bath," Salt Licks Lodge, Taita Hills (Claudia Daggett)
"Lioness," Maasai Mara National Park (Claudia Daggett)
"Lion," Maasai Mara National Park (Claudia Daggett)

Water

"Water is life.” On our first day in the northern village of Ngurunit, our host, Stephen Labarakwe, made this simple yet profound statement. We were in his village in early August which is winter. Many days were cloudy, but we never had one drop of rain in our two weeks there. This area of Kenya gets less than 10 inches of rain in a typical year, and much of that comes in March through April in deluges that run off too quickly to be captured. We saw many river beds but almost all were completely dry. There was a well near the camp where we stayed, and we saw three young warriors (moran) in the well bringing out buckets of water on a day the water was flowing, and cows, goats, and camels soon took turns at the trough.

Our hosts always made sure we had bottled water, and, on the one day that we ran low, we did get a little nervous. I cannot imagine what it would be like to face days when water was not available. Our hosts had set up a shower for us to use, a barrel with water attached to a shower head. When we saw the lack of water our hosts faced, we chose to forgo the shower as it seemed like an unnecessary luxury. We saw a dam that a German company had constructed to capture more of the rainy season flow. Also, some of the schools we saw had 10,000 liter barrels attached to gutters on the roof to store the precious rain that did fall. I hope I never again take for granted the water that we are blessed to always have available to us.

Muddy

The singing well: Moran below hoists bucket of water to his peer who fills the trough,
both singing a call-and-response chant.


Photos:
Steven, Laurel, and Muddy at a dam and dry riverbed (Claudia Daggett)
Large water tanks at WorldVision (Claudia Daggett)
Schoolyard water tank (Muddy Waters)

Video:
Singing well (Muddy Waters)

Our Friend, Steven

We are likely all too familiar with the various roles we undertake when leading schools: wise counselor, patient listener, passionate advocate, benevolent judge, inspired educator, etc. Our school cultures present us with strengths and challenges that help guide us in prioritizing our time. We take comfort in the company of colleagues (shameless promotion for the value of ESHA here). Once in a great while, we meet a colleague who makes us shake our heads in wonder at all that he or she accomplishes. This is how we felt after meeting Steven Labarakwe, who leads seven primary schools in the Laisamis area of Northern Kenya.

During our time with Steven, we covered several hundred kilometers visiting his schools. Do you have buildings on different sites? Imagine having to travel over rock-filled and washed out dirt roads to get to them. Undertaking capital improvements? Steven must constantly work on improving his buildings, most of which are without electricity or running water. He monitors the collection of water in fantastically-sized barrels large enough to walk into or the digging and maintenance of wells next to the sites with underground water. We made a humble contribution by painting blackboards in one school and gathering stones for the foundation of a new classroom addition to another. Project management? Steven built a beautiful new primary school in Mpagas within the last year thanks to his efforts in organizing local and international volunteers. He also worked with a Netherlands foundation, Ayuda en Todas Partes, to purchase the materials (http://www.ayuda-en-todas-partes.nl, website in Dutch). The school, on a beautiful hilltop, now serves as something of a local community gathering spot. Teacher and administrative oversight? We read, with awe, the monthly report from one of the schools. The thoroughness of the school's inventory (including a special accounting of the school's camels, castrated and uncastrated, goats, cows, rice, beans, and other assets) caused us all to marvel.

Along the way, Steven practiced the art of pole pole (literally translated, it means "slowly" in Kiswahili but we came to view it as an approach to life). Pole pole (pronounced po-lay po-lay) requires one to stop at any point and greet clan members, neighbors, friends and potential new friends. Handshaking is a requirement, as are affirmations of head nodding and sounds like "eh" every time there is a lull in the conversation. Steven also served as the primary source of news. In a place with little or no electricity, great geographical distances, multiple dialects and languages, and illiteracy, Steven brought the news to the people. Bringing news is always pole pole.

In the village of Ngurunit where Steven maintains the equivalent of a summer getaway home, Steven's time and attention were taken up with organizing the women's market, political advising for the constitutional vote, counseling to people about their children's health and education, being a father and husband, and, for one special friend, arranging his marriage ceremony. In addition to all of these responsibilities, he served as our cultural interpreter, driver, and fellow traveller during our visit. By the end of our time together, we felt honored to have been given the opportunity to get to know this incredible school leader who we fondly referred to as "the Big Boss."

Laurel

Photo: Steven Labarakwe (Photo credit, Laurel Seid)

Travels with Taita Toyota

Here's a photo of our trusty Land Cruiser, dubbed "Taita" in honor of one of our first adventures in Kenya. She (and Steven, our host, mentor and driver) helped us cover many dusty and bumpy miles, as illustrated below by our map and Muddy's log of our journey.



Kenya travels, 7/27/10-8/10/10

MUDDY'S LOG:

Sunday, July 25
10:40 AM Jamie, Muddy, and Claudia arrive at Logan Airport
11:30 AM Told flight to NYC delayed for mechanical reasons
2:45 PM Mechanical problems not resolved; new plane on way
3:45 PM Weather in NYC (80 MPH winds) cause further delay; means we will miss connection and must rebook and meet Laurel in Zurich
9:30 PM Leave on Swiss Air for Zurich (3738 mile trip)

Monday, July 26
10:30 AM Arrive in Zurich; meet Laurel; check in at Radisson Blu Hotel at airport (6 hour time difference from EDT)
12:30 PM Take train to Old Town part of Zurich
1:30 PM Eat lunch at Zeughauskeller Restaurant
2:30 PM Wander through Zurich
5:00 PM Take train back to hotel
7:00 PM Take train back to Old Town and eat dinner at Mere Catherine restaurant
9:30 PM Back to hotel as sun is setting

Tuesday, July 27 (cloudy and cool)
7:00 AM Wakeup call
9:30 AM Leave for Nairobi (3784 mile trip – 7 hour diff. from EDT)
6:15 PM Land in Nairobi as sun sets and met by Stephen Labarakwe and a driver
6:45 PM Arrive Sarova Stanley Hotel in Nairobi
7:30 PM Meet Joseph Lekuton for dinner at hotel
10:00 PM Bed

Wednesday, July 28 (partly cloudy and cool)
5:30 AM Wakeup
6:00 AM Leave in Toyota Land Cruiser for Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge in Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary near Tsavo West Game Park in southern Kenya (360 KM)
12:30 PM Arrive at Sarova Taita Hills Game Lodge for lunch
4:00 PM Game drive with guide named Crispus; saw elephants, zebras, buffalo, eland, gazelles, antelope and more
7:30 PM Dinner
10:00 PM Bed

Thursday, July 29 (partly sunny)
5:30 AM Wakeup
6:00 AM Game drive (same animals plus giraffes and monkeys)
8:30 AM Surprise breakfast in the bush with tables with linens, chef, full breakfast and champagne
10:15 AM Return to lodge
11:30 AM Up to Taita Hills for lunch
12:30 PM Relax
4:00 PM Game drive
6:00 PM Another surprise – Sundowner, which is snacks on a hill as sun sets
8:30 PM Dinner
10:00 PM Bed

Friday, July 30 (sunniest day yet and warm)
7:00 AM Wakeup
9:00 AM Leave Tsavo West area for Nairobi
4:00 PM Arrive Sarova Stanley in Nairobi
7:00 PM Dinner
10:00 PM Bed

Saturday, July 31 (partly cloudy and cool)
7:00 AM Wakeup
9:30 AM Leave for Joseph’s camp in Ngurunit in the north
12:30 PM Lunch at Trout-Tree Restaurant (amazing monkeys nearby and the freshest fish possible)
1:30 PM Stop for pictures at Equator
4:00 PM Tarmack ends at Isiolo and dirt road begins
8:30 PM Arrive at Joseph’s camp after 500 KM drive and dinner
10:00 PM Bed

Sunday, August 1 (mostly cloudy and cool)
6:45 AM Wakeup
7:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Hike in area with Josephat – See many mothers, young children, goats, and camels; we hear loudspeaker speeches about upcoming vote on constitution
12:00 PM Back to camp for lunch (chicken stew and ugali) and relaxation
2:00 PM Quick visit from Joseph and quiet afternoon
7:30 PM Dinner (spaghetti and potato stew)
8:30 PM Bed

Monday, August 2 (sunny and warmer)
6:45 AM Wakeup
7:30 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Watch 3 moran (young warriors) get water from well
10:00 AM Walk to local school; on way saw young boy who had stepped in fire and burned foot badly (we gave some bacitracin)
11:30 AM Drove to Ngurunit Primary School to see it. Jamie and Muddy stay there while Claudia and Laurel ride with Steven to Marsabit to help with errands
12:30 PM Laurel and Claudia attend Samburu wedding
1:00 PM Jamie and Muddy walk back to camp with two young Kenyan teachers who work in school a primary and secondary school in Korr
2:00 PM Lunch
4:00 PM Jamie and Muddy climb a hill that gives good view of area
7:00 PM Dinner
9:15 PM Laurel and Claudia return from Marsabit
10:00 PM Bed

Tuesday, August 3 (sunny and hot)
6:45 AM Wakeup
8:30 AM Walk to Stephen’s camp and then drive to school to paint more blackboards
11:30 AM Drive to see another school in Mpagras (13 KM away);
Stephen talks to elders there about news including the proposed constitution; see place where well they tried to dig was washed away by flood
2:30 PM Lunch
4:00 PM Women from village set up market for us to buy crafts
5:15 PM Drive up tough road to slide in mountain stream
7:30 PM Leave for Samburu Sports Camp in South Horr (70 KM away)
9:30 PM Arrive at camp, dinner and bed

Wednesday, August 4 (sunny and hottest day yet - Constitution referendum today)
7:00 AM Wakeup
8:15 AM Drive 70 KM north to Lake Turkana
10:30 AM Arrive at Palm Shade Camp in Loyangalani on Lake
Turkana; lots of lava rock looks like moonscape)
11:00 AM Meet lots of kids from Elmolo tribe (smallest tribe in world); they hold our hands as we walk down hill to market; get tour of village and learn about their main livelihood, fishing
1:30 PM Lunch
2:30 PM Rest at camp
5:00 PM Go for swim at pool fed by hot-water spring; then, go to watch local officials count votes for referendum on new Constitution
7:00 PM Dinner
9:00 PM Chat with Joseph who is optimistic about outcome of referendum
10:00 PM Bed

Thursday, August 5 (clear and hottest day of trip - 39 degrees Celsius)
7:00 AM Wakeup
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Tour of Loyangalani with David, grade 8 student; see Joseph conduct rally of locals while another group marches on our camp to press an issue with Joseph that he resolves
11:00 AM Return to Camp to wait for Stephen and Joseph and lunch
3:30 PM Leave for Ngurunit
6:00 PM Stop at Sambura Sports Camp for dinner and shoot some baskets with kids there
9:00 PM Arrive at Stephen’s camp and sleep outside on deck
10:00 PM Bed

Friday, August 6 (sunny and warm)
7:00 AM Wakeup
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Walk to riverbed to collect stones that will serve as foundation for 2 new classrooms for school (hot and demanding); fill Land Rover 4 times with rocks
12:30 PM Lunch and siesta
4:30 PM Moran warriors dance and sing for us for 90 minutes
6:45 PM Fireside chat with Stephen’s children and their friends and cousins
8:00 PM Dinner
9:00 PM Bed

Saturday, August 7 (sunny and warm)
6:15 AM Wakeup
8:30 AM Goodbyes to new friends in Ngurunit and leave for Nanyuki
10:30 AM Stop at World Vision office in Laisamis
11:00 AM Stumble on new camp built in hillside owned by Diipa Lenanyangara and sponsored by a group called Cultural Survival
2:30 PM Lunch at Oasis Restaurant in Isiolo
5:15 PM Arrive at Equator Chalet in Nanyuki
6:00 PM Walk streets and are besieged by children asking for handouts
7:30 PM Dinner at Sherlock’s Den at Books First
9:00 PM Back to hotel and bed

Sunday, August 8 (cool and brief mist before sun in Central Highlands)
6:30 AM Breakfast
8:30 AM Leave for Ilariak Game Lodge
10:00 AM Stop at Thompson Falls in Nyahururu
11:00 AM Stop at Kisima Secondary School run by David and Catherine; beautiful school for poor students from north of Kenya
11:30 AM Visit David and Catherine at their home
2:30 PM Arrive Naivasha and have lunch at La Belle Inn
5:15 PM Lights of car sow problem with engine so we are nervous; after restarting car, it is fine
6:15 PM Arrive at Ilariak Lodge
7:00 PM Dinner
8:00 PM Watch Kenyan Idol on TV
10:00 PM Bed

Monday, August 9 (partly sunny, 15 degrees Celsius at wakeup)
5:45 AM Breakfast
6:15 AM Leave for 65 KM trip to Masai Mara
7:30 AM Arrive at game park and pick up guide (Sam)
8:00 AM Get first look at 4 million migrating wildebeests (90% are male)
9:30 AM See hippo site near Tanzanian border, also see crocodile, hyena, cheetah, giraffe, zebras, and many dead wildebeests often with vultures
11:30 AM Get 10 feet from sleeping lion and lioness
1:00 PM Lunch at Keekorok Lodge
2:00 PM More touring of park
5:15 PM Return to lodge; drove 150 KM in park during day;
Crossed Sand River into Tanzania and Serengeti Park
8:00 PM Dinner
8:30 PM Great talk with Joseph and Stephen in front of fire
10:30 PM Bed

Tuesday, August 10 (cool and partly sunny)
7:00 AM Wakeup
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:10 AM Leave for Nairobi
12:30 PM Arrive Nairobi and go to Joseph’s office
1:00 PM Lunch in Parliament dining room
2:30 PM Observe Parliament in session
3:00 PM Go on walking tour of downtown Nairobi and to top of Kenya International Convention Center (2nd tallest building in city, with great view)
6:00 PM Meet Joseph in office and drive to Carnivore restaurant
8:15 PM Leave for Airport
9:00 PM Arrive airport and Joseph takes us straight to lounge used by Parliament members
11:30 PM Flight departs for Zurich

Wednesday, August 11
6:30 AM Flight arrives Zurich
12:40 PM Flight arrives JFK in New York
6:00 PM Flight arrives in Boston

Photo: Jamie Waters and Steven Labarakwe with Taita Toyota (Photo credit: Laurel Seid)

Update

We have had a amazing two weeks in Kenya, including several days of service and visits to schools while living in a Samburu community in the North and the balance of our time spent seeing sights throughout the country.

With Netbook, extra batteries, and a tether arrangement for the Blackberry to access the Internet through a mobile connection, we thought we had set off on this adventure prepared to create a daily blog entry when in regions with cell service. However, consistent cell service has been an elusive thing, even where we thought we would be able to connect. So, we'll offer a retrospective on our trip instead. We head home on Wednesday and should have much to share soon thereafter.

Claudia

The Road to Tsavo

Wednesday morning arrived bright and early, and off we went to the Tsavo National Park region in the southeastern area of the country, headed for a safari. Here are some of the scenes along the way.

Claudia

(Photo credit: Claudia Daggett and Laurel Seid)

(Photo credit: Claudia Daggett and Laurel Seid)

Arrival

We arrived in Nairobi this evening and were met by Steven Labarakwe, Joseph Lekuton's friend and our guide and host during our stay. "Jambo!" and "Sopa!" were exchanged as we tried out our new Swahili and Maa greetings. We had the additional delightful surprise of being greeted by a Cape Cod Academy friend's brothers-in-law: Edward and Katampe Surum, with Edward in traditional Maasai dress.

We were then whisked off to the Stanley Hotel, where we enjoyed dinner with Joseph and Steven. Kuku wa Kupaka was the choice of all of the Americans at the table -- a local favorite featuring chicken, ugali (a polenta-like side), and sukumawiki (chopped kale). It was a day of much travel, surprises, and good fellowship.

Claudia

Photos: Steven Labarakwe, upper left; Joseph Lekuton, upper right; the Surums with me, bottom (Photo credit: Laurel Seid)