Getting to Bumala

Africa » Kenya » Nairobi Province » Nairobi
February 22nd 2011

Published: February 22nd 2011

Hello Hello,

I am not going to apologize for the delay in posting because if I set that precedent, every posting will have to start with an apology. I have a couple days to catch up on but I will do my best. Just so you know the players in this saga, I am travelling with a non-profit group that I am involved in, One Child’s Village that was started by my Uncle Todd. If you want more info, check out www.onechildsvillage.org. So this trip is with my Uncle Todd, my cousin Whitney, and fellow volunteers Heather, Kristina and Kamal (later to be known by his last name Chetty).

Our first bump in the road was at the Edmonton Airport – yep, we didn’t get very far. We’re blaming Kristina, as every flight she’s had that’s connected through Calgary has had issues. So our plane to Calgary was delayed by about 40 minutes. Because of this, we were going to miss our connection, so they switched us over to British Airways (from Air Canada). We weren’t complaining too much though – we lost an hour of our free time in London, but the higher quality of service made up for it. But it did involve rushing through the Calgary airport with a 40lb carry-on. I really need to learn how to pack lighter so I can fit all the goodies we take for the kids.

Anyways, other than this little change, the flights were pretty uneventful. We now had a 7 hour layover in London, but it took longer to get into the city on the Tube than anticipated, so we really only had time to get some fish and chips and a Guiness (yes, I’m trying very hard to play with the adults and drink....beer) and then head back to the airport. But it was nice to get some air and exercise – because of time restrictions, we also opted not to store our carry-ons, so I was still lugging around 40lbs of facepaint and toothbrushes.

But enough complaining. Flight to Nairobi long but I caught a couple hours of sleep. Joseph, who drove us around last time I was here, picked us up from the airport, along with another driver and we crawled to the hotel in morning rush hour traffic. When we reached the hotel, Meryl was waiting for us. Meryl is a friend of Todd’s who is a photographer from New York. She made the initial contact with Patch Adams through a friend, and that’s how this whole trip originated. I’ll tell you more about that later. We didn’t want to lose any precious Kenya time, so we showered, and headed out to stock up on some things and check out the Giraffe Center. I sadly admit that by the time we reached the Giraffe Centre, our energy was wiped out. I still enjoyed seeing and feeding the giraffes, but it wasn’t quite as delightful as my first time. I just didn’t feel up a slobbery kiss from a loose-lipped giraffe, but it was still a great experience. But it was definitely a sign that we should just save the rest of the sight-seeing until we could actually keep our eyes open to see. So we started the crawl back to the hotel, this time in the afternoon rush hour traffic. Joseph said they’re planning on taking out the round-abouts and putting in over- and under-passes to help traffic flow, so if you’re planning on travelling to Nairobi in the next 10-50 years, be prepared for construction delays J We were all very quiet at dinner time, and in the 30 seconds it took me to fall asleep, I figured that in a 52 hour period, from Tuesday morning, I’d had 3-4 hours of sleep. It had been a lonnnnnnnnnnng day.

Day 2 started with meeting Daye (pronounced Die-ay) and Elisabeth, two of the volunteers with Over the Rainbow, an international organization associated with Patch Adams and his Gesundheit Institute. They do clowning tours all over the place, bringing laughter and care to kids and adults in poverty-stricken areas, 3rd world countries, etc. Daye arrived from South Korea at 2am and Elisabeth’s luggage didn’t make her short connection time in Amsterdam, but that wasn’t stopping them from joining us on our trip to Mercy Children’s Centre in the slum of Kawangware.

The school now has 170 students from Baby (4 yrs old) to Class 7 (14-15 yrs old). It didn’t shock me as much this time around, but for almost everyone else, this was their first time, and it was a little overwhelming. The dogs, goats, chickens and ducks clean up all the organic material, but there’s still paper and plastic garbage everywhere. Every once in awhile you get a waft of sewage or wood smoke. It rained the night before, so everything was wet and mucky. It’s hard not to slip a little in the clay dirt, and you definitely do not want to slide into a puddle – who knows what’s in it. But we made it safely to the school, and I noticed some changes immediately. The entrance way was now closed up by a piece of tin with a door cut out of it, but the door wasn’t made for tall people or people with backpacks. The school is actually a residential complex with rows of attached one-room dwellings. We only rent about nine of these rooms and the rest are being rented by tenants. In the middle was an open area that the children used as a playfield, but in the past year, the landlord has put up another half row of rooms, so the play area is now about half the size. The teachers also said some of the tenants have been having issues all the school kids – the noise and disruption to their lives, so we may need to start thinking of a new solution in the next few years.

We met all the teachers and got a tour of all the classrooms. Then came the entertainment – the favourite of both kids and visitors. Each class had a couple poems and/or songs for us. So creative. So cute. So moving. They sang a song and inserted each of our names in it. With each piece, I either had a huge smile, teary eyes, or both. We hadn’t warned the newbies that there was an aerobic exercise section where we were all pulled up to join in their traditional dance. It’s a great workout, in a small hot tin building with 190 bodies, dancing hard-core for more than 20 minutes. Exhausting but yet rejuvenating.
We had a lunch of ugali, sukamawiki, beans and rice. So good to have ugali (a solid yet somewhat gelatinous starchy food made of corn flower, I’m told it’s like polenta???) and sukamawiki (a finely-chopped kale-spinach like plant) again. And then it was time to bring out the toys – another favourite time for kids and visitors. Kristina and Kamal had brought some soccer balls, skipping ropes, Frisbees and bottles of bubbles. The kids were so excited. So while Todd and Whitney had a meeting with Pius and the teachers getting updates of conditions and needs, Heather, Kristina, Kamal, Elisabeth, Daye and I played with the new toys, blew bubbles, played games, had fun with pictures (they love to see their faces on the camera). Poor Meryl had to spend a lot of time taking pictures, but after awhile, she figured she’d done enough work and she could then feel free to really interact with the kids. Daye was especially loved, as you really don’t see too many Asians in Kenya. Hot, tired, sweaty and me with a bit of a sun burn, we said our goodbyes. We made a quick stop at the apartment that we still rent for 10 girls, had a cold orange Fanta pop, thanked Pius for hosting us and for all of his wonderful work running the Kawangware school and starting up a school in Kakamega, and then it was back to the hotel.

Jane had arrived from London while we’d been at the school. Now there were 10 of us and we got to know each other over drinks and dinner, and then we sent the jet-lagged clowns to bed. Sue had also arrived from Alaska, but her journey had taken near 24 hours through Chicago and Amsterdam and she retired really early. Who I will call “The Group” – Todd, Whitney, Heather, Kristina, Chetty, Meryl and I, continued to enjoy Tuskers (yes, I’ve only had 2 cokes so far, the rest have been beer) and wine, until the rest of the Gesundheit/Over the Rainbow group arrived at 11:30pm. They arrived from Italy and consist of Marco and Marissa (a Canadian who is now living in Italy and engaged to Italian Marco), Gianluca (Jean-Luc with an Italian accent), Silvia, Elena, Chiara and Graziella. These last three don’t speak any English, but clowning is an internationally understood language and the rest help translate, so there won’t be any problems. And finally, there is Wildman Adams. He is Patch’s brother, and as fun and outlandish and energetic as I have ever seen. He says he’s called “Wildman” not because he’s crazy and fun and wild (which he most definitely is), but because he’s just a man in his ‘natural’ state. So now everyone had arrived, including Elisabeth’s luggage which was also picked up with the Italian bunch.

It would have been ideal to call it a night, as we were to leave for Bumala at 9 in the morning. So I had a night cap with Todd, Heather, Whitney and Kristina, and then I left to finish packing and get some sleep. I did my ‘motherly’ duty by reminding them of the long 9-hour drive, and then washed my hands of them.........

Day 3 started out a little rough for my comrades. In fact, Day 2 just melded into Day 3. Kristina finally went to bed at 5:30, the other 3 just decided to shower, pack and keep going.

It took a little longer to load the bus, no fault of any of us, and we hit the road at 9:30. Along the way, Todd explained a lot about One Child’s Village, Kenya, etc. I believe this is the first trip to Africa that Over the Rainbow has done. They were excited when he said we’d stop at a point with an awesome view of the Great Rift Valley, drive by a chapel built by Italian prisoners of war from one of the world wars, that there’d be baboons along the way, etc etc. Unfortunately, he’s been on this trip so many times that he mixed up the route we were taking and so we didn’t stop for pictures of the Rift Valley), we didn’t drive by the chapel, and for some reason, no baboons were out along the road today. But we did see a couple herds of zebras.

Lunch was at Lake Elementaita which is known for its huge flocks of pink flamingos, but alas, we couldn’t see any flamingos. But the lodge was amazing with all these fragrant flowers, singing birds (I don’t even usually like birds) and beautiful view over a brushy plain and lake. The food was amazing. Heather and Kristina, however, were not feeling so amazing J Whitney and Todd were holding their own. Chetty and I were feeling fantastic. Maybe they’ll listen to us next time. Next stop was to be in 4 hours at Kisumu, but heavy construction along the road made it 5 hours and everyone’s bladders were ready to burst. I was worried that “The Road to Kisumu” (from Bumala), which if you read my last blog was chalk full of car-sized pot-holes, was going to further prolong our journey, but they have almost completely repaved the thing. There were only a couple miles where we rocked slowly along, groaning with every thump and thud. It was dark (other than on safari, I have spent every dark hour in Kenya in a hotel or on the patio) for the last hour and we finally arrived at the hotel at 8:30. Lunch had been a bit delayed, but it was mainly the road from Lake Elementaita that had turned our 9 hour trip into 11. We arrived safe, but hungry, tired, hot, sweaty and stiff. But I think we got everyone back on our good side when they got a taste of Morris’ cooking. Western Ambience Hotel food is some of the best I’ve ever eaten.

So EVERYONE is having a relatively early night. In fact, I’m probably the only one still up. But tomorrow is going to have so many stories to share, that I needed to get the first 3 days recorded first.

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