Running out of time

The to do list is shrinking, thank goodness, but it could still be touch and go whether I get everything done that I need to before flying back to the UK on Friday. It's been a useful but very administrative kind of day today – signing new teachers' contracts, preparing next years' timetables for school and making sure all the presents that sponsors have sent over have been received by the children and thank you letters have been written.

The Cisco team have been working like Trojans again, finishing the last part of a house build in record time before starting on preparations for painting classrooms. There is a really good atmosphere on the compound tonight. All of the children got involved with sanding the classroom walls before they get painted tomorrow. I can't imagine children in England singing and dancing while working the way our kids have this evening. All credit to them and the Cisco team for getting them going.

Listening to the place close down for the night it strikes me how much of a privilege it is to be here. It's going to be strange being back in England again. I'm sure I'll still find it just as hard to switch off at night and get to sleep. After it has rained in Kosele the noise of frogs, dogs, mosquitoes and overflowing water tanks can keep you awake for a while. At other times, like tonight, the place goes very quiet. Stepping outside at night, when there are no clouds and no electric lights to be seen the stars fill the sky. It is an awesome sight. It makes you feel very small. There are lots of things that I miss about Kenya when I am in England. The tranquillity and the sky late at at night are fairly close to the top of the list. They are a reassuring reminder that God is in His heaven and that whatever else happens there is a plan.

Three wheels on my wagon

What a day! We seem to have had a bit of everything Kenya can chuck at you one way or another. I think our visitors are getting a full taste of life out here. The day started off with a light drizzle, (not too encouraging), but, fortunately, this didn't last long and we actually had a really hot sunny day until about 4 pm. As it's Sunday today we went to church and I'd like to think that it was the joyful sound that we all made singing and praising God that turned the weather around.

The practical part of the day for our visitors involved putting mud on the walls of a house that is being built for a widow in the community. The 'smearing' part of the house build is always a popular activity and the team made a real go of it this afternoon – finishing two walls. The houses that members of the community live in would be described as 'wattle and daub' in Europe. Properly built they are an impressive testimony to local people's ingenuity in making the most of available resources, (principally wood and mud).

Taking our visitors to the site of the house build and later bringing them back again provided some 4x4 highlights for me. The journey to the site involved a shortish stretch of driving down a narrow, bumpy dirt track. After dropping the team off I had to make a three point turn and managed to drop one of the back wheels of the Landrover over the edge of a ditch, (it was a very narrow road for three point turning!). Engaging the low gears for the four wheel drive fortunately enabled the three wheels that were in contact with solid ground to pull us out of the ditch but it was a bit touch and go for a few minutes. The LR doesn't have a handbrake so doing a hill start out of a ditch on a dirt road was a bit of a challenge. Good old fashioned British engineering triumphed, (thank goodness).

The journey home was also memorable for a different reason. At 5 pm the heavens opened. It was the most severe rain I have seen for a while and it quickly filled the ditches at the side of the 'road' and turned bits of it into what looked like a small river. As I waited for our visitors to reach the pre-arranged rendezvous point I heard the most explosive lightning blast, and watched an electricity pole being struck full on about half a mile away. Some of our visitors were even closer to it than me – about 5 minutes walk away. We drove back along the rapidly growing floods across the road with the Landrover packed in classic Kenya style – three guys and me, the driver, packed into the front and fourteen people, (at least), in the back. It was a fitting end to a very African afternoon – the kind of thing that you don't forget in a hurry. The Cisco team and our two new friends from Denmark have been marvellous so far - it promises to be an interesting week.

Full house

Kosele is full of visitors now that our friends from Cisco have arrived. I have a feeling that we are in for a very busy week. The day got off to a slightly worrying start, as it looked suspiciously like it might rain again first thing. Fortunately the sun kind of sputtered into life eventually and the rain stayed away. We are all now praying for a return to the normal weather pattern of rain at night. It would be a shame if our visitors were subject to the Noah's Ark version of Kenya while they are here.

One of the nice things about having visitors is that it helps you to see Kenya from a different perspective for a while. It's easy to become so accustomed to your immediate surroundings that you stop noticing the small details. Having to stop and explain places, events and people provides a bit of space for reflection and, sometimes, reassessment.

The Cisco team flew from Nairobi to a small airstrip about an hours drive from our place. It was the first time that I had been there and I was surprised to discover a perfectly serviceable airstrip down one of the rough red roads that we are so used to driving on. The arrival of the plane turned into the usual spectator sport with a large crowd of people of all ages gathering to watch the landing and to weigh up the largish number of mzungus, (white people), that disembarked.

On our way back to Kosele in the Landrover John Appleton, (one of our UK trustees and the leader of the Cisco team), and I noticed a guy by the side of the road scooping something up off the ground and eating it. On closer inspection we could see that he was eating flying ants as they hatched. A freshly hatched flying ant is a real delicacy it would appear. I do remember the same thing happening on our compound when we first came to Kenya. The flying ants hatch in large numbers after heavy rain then burst into life and fly upwards in a great swarm. When it happened in Kosele we had a Kenyan girl who became my daughter Ellie's friend staying with us and she happily chased around after the flying ants, enjoying every, presumably, juicy mouthful.

During the journey back to Kosele from the airstrip we encountered the usual road hazards – potholes deep enough to break your suspension, other drivers suicidal overtaking and vindictive speed humps. Having moaned previously about the state of the last seven kilometres of the journey from Oyugis to Kosele it was really good to see that the earth moving equipment had been in action and scraped off the worst of the potholes, significantly speeding our journey up. It would be expecting too much to expect the road surface to be tarmacked but it does make a change to be able to get as high as third gear on the last leg of the journey home. Let's hope it is a sign of good things to come in the days ahead.

Big day out

It has been a very African day today. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because, in the end, everything that needed to happen happened. The down side is that the ups and downs of making it through the day aren't always very good for my blood pressure.

Anybody that has spent any time in Africa will be familiar with the idea of 'African Time'. It is a fact that very little happens on time in Africa the way that Westerners are used to. This isn't a problem for Africans and it shouldn't really be a problem for us Western folks who are, after all, usually just visitors to Africa.

Today was a big day for our oldest children – the pupils in Class 8 who recently completed their primary education by taking their KCPE, (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education), exams. As a celebration of this fact we arranged a nice lunch and small excursion for them. All of the Class 8 pupils and all of the teachers took part in the day's activities.

The day didn't exactly get off to the anticipated start due to rain. I have commented on the amount of rain that we have had a number of times but today's rain was unusual – it started in the morning and has continued on and off all day. As I type it is raining quite heavily. This was not, obviously, the ideal way to start the day. Fortunately Plan B – watching a video for a bit – worked, (thanks to our small generator). We were finally able to get off on our day out at about 10.30 am. It is perhaps just as well that the rain delayed the start of play as the bus that we had booked for 8.00 am was nearly two hours late arriving, ('African Time'). Once aboard the bus we piled off to Kendu Bay, a nearby town that is by Lake Victoria, stopping en route for a brief sightseeing visit to a new water project.

It has been a while since I visited Lake Victoria. We used to take the children their fairly regularly when they were small enough to fit all of them in our Landrover. Revisiting the Lake I was struck by how much the waterline has receded. An old cargo boat that was 'moored' (actually half sunk), by an old pier is now resting on dry land. The fishermen now land their catch at a different site, hemmed in by weeds and vegetation that is now colonising what was once the shore of the lake. Despite this change it was nice to be back at the lake, watching two fishing boats land their catches, (which were promptly bought up by Mary our manager who has a keen eye for a bargain). The Lake has a soothing effect. The fishermen that we watched plying their trade today could just as easily have been fishermen from Jesus' day. They use the same boats and the same 'technology' – ragged sails and fragile looking boats seemingly held together by prayers and string.

As we made our way back to the bus to go to our lunch appointment I noticed a group of our teachers stood on the pier by the old boat pointing at something in the swampy ground beneath them. “Shhh” they said, “there is a big snake down there”. Peering down into the grass I caught a glimpse of the middle section of a very fat, (and therefore quite large), Black Mamba as it glided through a gap in the the long grass – the first time I have ever seen one of these deadly snakes in the flesh in the wild. It was an exciting moment.

We had lunch in a restaurant called the Big Five in Kendu Bay. (Though quite when any of the Big Five animals was last seen in Kendu Bay heaven only knows). The meal was wonderful – between us we had chosen fish, beef and chicken dishes which were served very efficiently, (though the seating arrangements were a bit squeezed). The kids were served first followed by the rest of us. The meal was, (I think), a great success. As we finished eating the rain stopped, allowing us to extend our day a bit by taking a visit to a local 'historical site' – a volcanic lake called Lake Simbi. According to a travel website “Simbi Lake is a popular destination for birdwatchers and a footpath allows visitors to walk around the circular lake. There is a local myth about this crater lake. As it goes, an old lady was denied food and lodging by the residents of a village and she made the rain came down so hard that the village was swamped to become Simbi Lake.” We had a very nice walk round the lake and did seem some beautifully coloured wading birds.

I did have a 'mzungu, (white person), moment just before we set off for the Lake. The driver of the bus ate slightly later than we did, (because we had packed out the dining room), and so we were kept waiting, sat on the bus, for about twenty minutes while he finished his lunch and then had to do something to the bus before we set off. As I said, it was a very African Day. I'm sure I was the only person on the bus who was at all bothered by the unscheduled wait, and we did set off eventually. It may sound a small problem but this type of transgression of Western notions of service and efficiency is one of the most testing things about living in Kenya.

As we were waiting by the bus for the last stragglers from the walk around the lake to arrive back Madam Nyangwe, (one of our teachers), told me that a small gaggle of young children standing by the bus were very pleased about our visit. They had never seen a white person before. Another example of something you just wouldn't expect.

The route we travelled to and from Kendu Bay on was a 'short cut' that seemed to take longer than the road that we normally use. It was, to be fair, a much better “road” and it made a nice change to see some new scenery. On the way home there was a nice atmosphere in the bus – the kids were quite talkative and in good humour. As we alternated between hurtling and crawling along the red dirt track back to Kosele it was good to be able to reflect on the day. I think I must be mellowing. As long as you don't let it get under your skin African Time works. On the whole the delays didn't add up to much and everybody had a good time. Maybe us mzungus are just too uptight. Our Kenyans friends die from many tragic causes, but I'm fairly sure stress isn't one of them.

Dead novelists society

It's been a really weird day with the weather today – the most torrential downpour mid afternoon. I feel very sorry for anybody that was caught out in it. It meant that I was stuck in the office so I decided I would do a job that I have been meaning to get round to for a while.

All of our work in Kosele depends on the support of sponsors and donors from the UK, so it is very important for us to keep good records about the children's circumstances. With a hundred and thirty children coming to our school as 'day scholars' it is a challenging task. As we open new classrooms next year we will be able to provide education and a feeding program for even more needy children in the community. I digress. This afternoon I set about typing up some of the children's stories and was struck, again, by how awful some of them are.

When I was about twenty I had plans to become an English teacher, so started a Combined Studies degree course in Northampton which included English as one of the subjects. We studied a number of the classic authors, and during the course of my first year I read a lot of books by Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. Reading through the notes that our staff had made about the children's cases this afternoon was very much like reading Dickens and Hardy. Stories of the most awful child neglect, rural poverty and family breakdown, often caused by premature death due to easily preventable diseases. The most tragic of Dickens and Hardy's characters have modern counterparts here in Kosele. Women get bought and are abandoned, children are forced to work from an early age and young girls are extremely vulnerable. Apart from the intrusion of the mobile phone a five minute walk away from our main road would bring you face to face with living conditions that are straight out of pre-industrial Europe.

Of all the details that I read and typed up today the one that gave me most pause for thought was the case of the two children whose parents had been 'lost' in the post election violence of 2008. The phrase he or she 'got lost' describes one of the real tragedies of modern Kenya. It has a variety of meanings but they all amount to the same thing. Somebody, somewhere is unaccounted for – probably dead. Men leave their wives and families to seek work in urban centres and don't come back. Young, single men and women leave home to make their way in life and aren't heard from again, or come back in a coffin.

When you take a look at life in rural Africa you can't help being shocked. Firstly by the sheer grind of it all but then by the resilience that so many of our neighbours show in the face of the most appalling adversity. I honestly don't know how some of them stay alive, or maintain the will to live – but they do. Thomas Hardy was often criticised for spinning many of his stories around implausible coincidences. If he'd lived around Kosele and written about the characters here the criticism wouldn't stand up. You couldn't make any of this stuff up!

Spanner in the works

Today has been another day of small victories – yes I’ve been DIYing again. I might need to be careful about continuing to blog about my small achievements in the fixing things department. I don’t want to build up any unrealistic expectations for my return home. That said I am much keener on maintenance and mending nowadays. I was thinking about the reason behind this new-found enthusiasm this afternoon. I think it boils down to the pioneer spirit. This might sound a bit odd so I’d better explain.

Living out in rural Kenya makes you much more aware of how easily we come to depend on other people to come to our rescue. The problem I was fixing today wasn’t especially complicated. Yesterday afternoon James, one of our security guards, told me that the starter rope on the generator we use for our borehole had broken. This really is a pain as the borehole is so deep that it needs a powerful electrical pump to raise the water up. We do have a back up generator but it does not generate enough power for this job. One of James’ jobs is to make sure the water tank that we use for drinking water is kept topped up. It runs out after about three days and, with about two hundred people to provide food and drinks for a day, running out of water is a serious problem.

There were two possible solutions to fixing the generator. Either replace the starter rope or attach a car battery to the generator to start it automatically. A quick trip to Oyugis, (our nearest ‘town’), this morning made the repair the only option, (there weren’t any suitable batteries for sale anywhere). There were plenty of ropes to replace the broken one. Whilst in Oyugis I also experienced one of the joys of Kenya. The idea of the happy, helpful African is, perhaps, sometimes an unhelpful and patronising stereotype, but it is, none the less, based in fact. Today a really helpful mechanic in Oyugis dropped the job that he was doing to help me locate a shop that sold decent quality spanners, (also required for the generator fix). It turns out that he was assisted by a French organisation to train as a mechanic and set up shop in Oyugis because there was too much competition in Kisumu, (a much bigger town about ninety minutes drive from Oyugis). He was very keen to point out that he, unlike many other people he knew, took great care of his tools and that he had in the past come up to our place to fix the Landrover. He was good company.

Anyway. Back at base, new spanner in hand I was able to make fairly short work of taking the rope starter bit of the generator apart and putting the new rope in. Certainly not rocket science but it was very satisfying hearing the generator roar into life at the first pull. Which is where the pioneer spirit kicks in. Back home there are relatively few occasions when failing to fix something yourself will threaten your ability to keep things going. Inconvenience perhaps. Failure to fix the generator today would mean that, as I type, we would have run out of drinking water. That kind of problem is a great stimulant to effective action. So, the generator is now fixed. I did eventually stop feeling smug about it and I’m now wondering what will go wrong next that I can apply my new enthusiasm and rapidly growing tool kit to.

Follow the cow!

The cow, (and its by products) have a number of uses in Africa. Status symbol, savings bank, life insurance, dinner, fertiliser, wall finish, clothing. It’s quite an impressive list, (and I’m sure there are other things that cows are good for that I’ve missed). Almost poetic. I am musing about cows this evening because we have been doing Farming God’s Way, (FGW), training again and I have had a revelation. It was very exciting.

A few weeks ago we started our push to persuade as many farmers as possible in our community to turn to Farming God’s Way by training some of our church leaders. The idea is to plant a number of 6m x 6m plots with maize and beans to demonstrate how effective Farming God’s Way, (a non tillage approach to farming), is. With proof that it works to show we are equipping church members to train others in the new approach. We are making good progress. Today’s session was set up to give everybody who has been trained so far an opportunity to deliver a bit of the training themselves. The session was co-ordinated by Ian and we moved at a good pace though all of the practical and biblical aspects of the course.

We have, over the years, wondered what the best way is to help members of the community here in Kosele. We are aware of, (and actively working against), the tendency for outside help from an organisation like ours to create dependency – doing so much for people that they are not encouraged to work on ways of helping themselves. Farming God’s Way is a great tool for discouraging dependency and encouraging food security. It depends on working to a high standard, performing tasks on time and with minimal wastage. One of the important ingredients of successful, sustainable farming, is fertiliser. Most people think of fertiliser as a kind of boost for healthy plant growth. Whilst this is an important consideration it is equally important to recognise that applying inputs to the soil before planting is also enriching the soil. Sustainable soil management involves putting in as well as taking out. In FGW terms “you reap what you sow”. Sowing without applying fertiliser produces a poor yield and, in the long run, kills the soil. The problem I have been wrestling with is how poor farmers in our area can afford to fertilise their soil. So today’s revelation was very welcome.

We were digging a Well Watered Garden on Kennedy’s land today. Kennedy is one of the church leaders and he has one, small, skinny cow. To be fair to Kennedy most of the cows around our area are fairly small and skinny. Like all cows it does produce fertiliser – naturally - every day. I know because I went round Kennedy’s fairly small piece of land counting the number of cowpats and termite mounds. This might seem like a peculiar obsession but it had a purpose. Manure and anthill soil, (our friends the termites again!), are both good farm inputs. Poor farmers’ inability to afford farming inputs is a constant complaint around Kenya – yet it lies around the fields uncollected and, therefore, unused. I did an experiment with one of the dried up cowpats. First I chopped it up with a panga, (a big lethal looking machete), and then put it into a 350 ml cup, (the amount of manure required to fill one FGW hole). One cowpat nearly filled the cup. So I added a bit more from the next cowpat and took my cupful of dried up cow poo back to our gang of trainers. Exhibit A!.

When we came to the part of the training that involved the fertiliser I got the team to duplicate my wander round the farm counting piles of poo. We agreed that there were about twenty. Going by my, admittedly slightly unscientific, experiment with the poo and the panga that would be enough fertiliser for about fifteen of the holes that we dug on the Well Watered Garden plot, (there are sixty-six altogether). A five-minute search for poo provided the Eureka moment for fertiliser. Follow the cow! We talked about how often a cow delivers a deposit each day. Four times seemed to be the general consensus. (We will have to conduct scientific research). At a conservative three times a day that means that Kennedy’s small, skinny cow will deposit three times ninety piles of poo by the end of February. At the end of February everybody around our area will be ready to plant their seeds for the long rains. That lead in time gives Kennedy fertiliser for at least two hundred holes – as long as he and his family develop a commitment to following the cow.

In our discussion Kennedy made the interesting observation that many local cattle owners graze their cattle some distance away from the land they grow crops on and therefore wouldn’t be able to collect the manure they create. “What should they do?” he asked. “Take a bucket and spade with them”, I replied. This caused a bit of amusement initially but then, (I think), it began to dawn on people that a fantastic, free, source of fertiliser is being systematically wasted - fertilising rough grazing grounds. I don’t know whether the idea will catch on but I think it should. If we and our Kenyan friends want to escape the dependency syndrome we will have to work together to seek novel solutions. Following the cow might be one of them.