Random Thoughts on Kenya

The people we met out in the villages and the school were so poor. They literally had nothing and lived in stick and mud huts resembling igloos with 6 or 7 people living together. No water, no toilets, not much food.

The children walked for 2 hours to get to school and then walked 2 hours home. And that is 2 hours through the wilderness on a dusty foot path among lots of thorns; many had no shoes. On top of that most of them did not eat every day but they showed up for school. And mom didn't walk them there, they were sent on their own.

One of the Kenyan men, Alfred, told one of our guys that he might have a cup of water every 3 days. We were drinking water by the gallon but they did not eat or drink anything all day. I guess that is one of the things that made me kind of angry about all the complaints about our food - at least we HAD food! (And it included bananas, fresh pineapple & watermelon at every meal!)

We did see farms and sheep and goats and really skinny steer/cows but most of the people we encountered didn't have any of this. I really don't know how they managed to stay alive. This is the rainy season but there is no rain so the ground is dry and blowing away all around them. The creeks and rivers are getting very low. On top of that they have over cut the trees and shrubs. Some of those that do have sheep, etc had gone to Mt Kenya - a 5 day walk - to have better grazing land.

Every day we passed Sweetwater which is where we went for our safari on Wednesday night and Thursday. There is a well there that the people come to to get water but for many it is 2 or 3 hour walk there with empty buckets and the same time back home with full 5 gallon buckets of water and children and dust and heat. They do this every 3 days to have water at home.

A few people have bicycles but just about every one walks everywhere. Nearer the cities, people load their bicycles with so much stuff, they can not ride but have to push the bikes. City traffic in Nairobi was wild!! No one stopped for intersections or red lights. We saw one city bus driving on the wrong side of the road in the walking area, but he was making good time. Small vans would pass us on the left shoulder of the road that had ruts that were 2 - 3 feet deep. We were amazed that they could get through them.

This is actually winter in Kenya. Although the temp was around 75 during the day, almost everyone had on jackets and long sleeves because they were cold. All our group was in short sleeves and sweating. I guess when your summers are near 100 every day, 75 is pretty cool.