The More Things Change...

I went for a walk in downtown Kisumu recently. First time since we’ve returned from our ‘post election violence vacation’. Things are back to normal but things have also changed. I can’t really describe it fully but there is a different feeling on the streets now. On the face of it the city is thriving even more so than before the election. And I have even seen more municipal projects like road repair that even before. But there is something in the air; I’m thinking I need to go out and photograph in the streets again to understand what the difference is.

One big thing I have learned from all this is that Africa can change on a dime. One minute everyone is smiling, going along, and the next minute they are burning each others house down. There is a lot more than meets the westerners’ eye here. It’s no real surprise really, these folks see MTV, they know what’s going on in the world, they also know they are dirt poor (literally) and their politicians have taken advantage of them for years and years, these things are bound to boil over from time to time. Politicians in the west lie, cheat and steal too; all the time; 24/7 but the difference is at least the little guy has social services in place, and you get your clean running water and consistent electricity to watch your 200 channels of TV. Not so here. It is mind boggling how some people are forced to live here. I am constantly feeling ultra selfconscience of my status around here. As a fellow human being I am embarrassed about how inhuman their living conditions are. And we as westerners, participate in the continuation of this situation. We want our cheap clothes, cheap labor, cheap gas don't we?? Then if we do we'll have to continue to turn a blind eye on the plight of people living in the third world.

Sorry to go on about this but sometimes the suffering really gets to me.

nap time

Easter Hyena And Now The Passover Chameleon?

So it’s Saturday afternoon when from my home office I hear the back door slam and a long ‘hey daaaaaadddddddddyyyyyyyyyy!’ ring through the house. Then suddenly Max bursts into the office carrying a plastic Tupperware thingy with the biggest Chameleon lizard in it I have ever seen. ‘Look at this, dad.’ He says ‘I found him on our gate! Here hold this while I help Evans (our gardener) find things for it to eat.’

Cool! I’m thinking as I look at this thing with its two eyes moving around in two different directions at the same time. I suppose it was trying to think of how it could turn it’s self into the translucent color of the Tupperware thingy so it could hide. I was wondering where that old aquarium was that I hadn’t seen since we moved.

Max and I found a temporary home for it in a plastic basket with a top on it while we tried to find that aquarium. No luck as we remembered it was haircut day and we were off. No sooner than we were back and we went to check on our lizard friend then he had escaped. Damn, he was strong! Opened the lid by himself!??? We looked around the kitchen where the basket stayed, no luck. Max went outside to ask the guard if he had seen it and sure enough he had (what?)! He saw him dash up a tree in the front yard too. Hmmm, let’s think about this one Sherlock: Herculean Chameleon lifts plastic lid off of basket, jumps off table, opens steel security back kitchen door, dashes out of house and avoids detection by dogs then runs up a tree. Hmmmm. I’m sure we’ll find it in somewhere in the house by morning.

I thought it would actually be cool having a pet Chameleon around but how exactly DO you take care of a Chameleon anyway? Well, I whipped out my trusty internet enabled phone to do a little Google search: “how to care for Chameleon” and found this Chameleon Manual site. One sentence in particular stands out for me which went something like “if you want an easy pet to take care of this is not the pet for you”. PLEASE, let’s hope it actually DID open that back door and flee!!

Let’s review the last two years of pet keeping in our house: Two dogs (check) who takes care of these guys? ME. One cat, who takes care of her? ME. Nine puppies (because we thought it would be fun for the kids, not), who took care of them? ME, well, me and the two gardeners and Gladys (it takes a village you know) so what was I thinking!!!! There is no way we are keeping this lizard!

I didn’t have to say any thing to Max yet, no need to as there was no lizard, nice. But that all changed as one very excited 5 year old came running into the bedroom the next morning proclaiming the lizard had been found-in the kitchen. Oh man, I had to quickly nip this in the bud though before the excitement was no longer containable. Blurry-eyed from lack of coffee I finally convinced Max that living in the wild would be the best thing for it. We all set out to the yard with Chameleon in a Tupperware thingy, tied the dogs so they wouldn’t eat it…….yet, and set it out on a tree [see photo]. We said our goodbyes and walked away. I looked out the window 10 minutes later and it had disappeared.

Turns out there were several of these big-ass Chameleons in our yard. The guard actually did see one go up a tree. Max and I found another one dead in the yard a little later that day ( I am hoping it wasn’t the same one we set out on the tree and the dogs got to it, sigh, suppose it’s possible, I would never tell Max though). We also noticed there were a lot of grasshoppers in the yard too, favorite dinning for Chameleons.


Last year for Passover we had 40 guests for a seder. No way we can get that many in this house. We had two families over and had a great time. Here is Max helping to make Maztah, a new family tradition for us after last year.
















Of course Esther helped too!

Home Sweet Home??

As the dust settles on the post Kenyan election brew ha ha and our move to a new house I am starting to find the time to write again. Moving, how should I say, in a word, was – painful. It’s amazing that like hard drive space real space is something to be filled; if you got it, you will fill it and we had plenty of it at the other house so we filled it. The ‘new’ house is about half the size of the old one. We did a good job of filling that huge house with all sort of stuff that we are now having to say ‘hmmm, where should THIS go now?’. So there has been two weeks of that question. The two car garage here is packed with boxes and furniture.

The house is older too with all that implies. And we have discovered some seriously bad plumbing problems. Like the toilet system was never vented properly. The embassy quickly had guys in to fix most things but many remain.

The yard was a mess. Neglected for years, the landlord gave us carte blanche to do whatever. It’s been fun to play landscape architect here. I can actually afford to hire four fulltime gardeners to do the work while I get to design. It is the beginning of rainy season so we have had to work fast to get things done. Most of the entire yard was dug up and grass was planted. Now when I say grass was planted I mean they went to village where they allowed us to buy their grass, we dug it up and hauled it to the house, then planted it all by hand. We bought bricks and made a trim for a new garden spot and laid a foot path. Soon the yard will be teaming with flowers and vegetables.

As we are doing the finishing touches of hanging art and stowing books Kayla and I both remarked how this house, even though it has problems, seems more like a ‘home’ than the other one ever did.

Is That The Easter Hyena Hop Hop Hopping Along?

I have a fair bit of catching up to do with this blog! A lot of things going on here since I last wrote. First, camping in Naivasha. We spent the Easter weekend again in the most amazing countryside, camping in a national game park called Hells Gate National Park. It’s named for the slot canyon called Hell’s Gate Gorge. We hiked through it which was amazing! Here are a bunch of photos taken there. Remember you can click these images to see a larger view which might be helpful

We drove from Nairobi thru the Rift Valley to Naivasha, breathtaking views and no guard rails!
















Gigantic escarpments are everywhere in the park, it’s still an active geo-thermal area.






















Here’s Kayla helping to setup camp.



















The campsite. At the edge of one of those escarpments. Beautiful view but watch your step cuz there ain't no guard rail here either!

During the first night after the kids were asleep and we were sitting around the campfire we suddenly heard hyena calls in the distance. Hyenas are mostly scavengers BUT if they are desperate they will hunt. Shortly after we heard it again, this time very very close to camp. We decided to call it a night. Kayla and I raced to the tent but I couldn’t get the zipper opened on the f’ing tent door!!! I fumbled and cursed it in the dark while Kayla ‘encouraged’ me to hurry the hell up! Nothing ever happened and we never saw a hyena the three nights we were there. We heard it every night but we were pretty relaxed about it after the third night.





Here’s the huge escarpment we were camped on viewed from below it.

In the middle of this huge field was a lone rock
with a lone tree growing on it.

Bennie, Max, Yala and Esther, best friends. Max is an amazingly good hiker while Esther can’t be bothered and needs to be carried

Danny and Mary’s SUV has a custom made rack that can be used for sitting and viewing

animals while on safari

Getting ready to enter the gorge. We had an amazing Maasai guide named Sarit. Max made quick friends with him, he’s really fascinated with the Maasai warriors.

























While we

walked in the gorge Sarit told us if there was a flash flood he would be able to ‘hear it coming’ at least 15 minutes before the water would arrive and he knew all the emergency exits in the gorge. He told us how he had saved many people, so don’t be worried. Yea, right…

There were actually some difficult passages to hike through. Sarit carried the kids on his back through some of it. Like the place where there was a 20 foot drop and a hot springs waterfall running through it. Frankly I can’t believe I hiked it through myself!

There was a place we saw a dead antelope of some sort, about a week old. Sarit said a lion had killed it. Now we were all told there were no lions in this park which is why I agreed to go camping there. Guess what, there are no ‘resident’ lions, only visiting ones! We all looked at each other wide eyed. Sarit told us the lions didn’t like the sulfur smell in the area so they never stayed around. That was reassuring…not!








We stopped at a place where red ochre was in the rocks. Sarit explained some of the Maasai warrior face painting while he applied it to Esther and Max.

Queen Esther getting carried, again, on a hike the next day. Man, I was really sore from the Hell’s Gate hike!

Lunch break at the top of the mountain.

This beautiful cave has been a special place for thousands of years for humans to mine obsidian stones which were everywhere imbedded in the walls and rock in the area

Zebra at dusk

Leavin' On A Jet Plane ...

Don't know when we're gonna be back again :-)

The evacuation was lifted on Saturday while we were camping at Hell's
Gate with the hyenas (more on the camping trip later) and we found out
on Monday from a local Newspaper article. Thank you gubmnt for letting
us know we can go home.

Monday night I flew to Kisumu to be there on Tuesday while they
unpacked the house and to also move Rafiki, who was found on Friday,
to the new house, Sign some papers then fly back to Nairobi today to
fly back to Kisumu with the kids on Wednesday. Meanwhile, last night
Kayla and the kids stayed at a friends house where Kayla left the kids
at the crack of dawn to fly to Kisumu for work. Kids stayed at friends
house as Gladys is no longer in our employ. Even though Kayla and I
were both in Kisumu I never saw her before I flew back to Nairobi
today to pick up the kids and arrive back to the house all before
10pm!

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Moving Hell

So of course the evacuation is still in effect and costing big money while things just aren't going to get much safer here. We are all very frustrated, having to fly back and forth a couple times a week to get things done in Kisumu. Speaking of which the embassy in all it's wisdom decided we have to move out of our house during all this, never mind they have set things up so we have to fly in, move, then fly out again! Actually it was me who flew in to Kisumu for the move. it was only a move to down the street two houses but it was almost as traumatic as moving round the world. We had to pack a 3000 sq ft house into a 1800 sq ft house. Needless to say the garage is full. They say it's a temporary residence but when the goverment says temporary watch out for their timetable!



i suppose the biggest trauma for me is poor Rafiki the cat was so terrified that she has gone missing and I had to fly out without moving her to the new house. I did get a call from the night guard that he saw her in the house which lifted my spirits. They tried to find her in the morning but she must have some amazing hiding place because no one can find her in an empty house. I am due back in Kisumu Monday night so I think I might have to camp that night in the house so she will come out.

Move 'em out!

We're moving. I am in Kisumu supervising the move to our new house which is literally two houses down the street. Kayla was here in Kisumu too,  but not the kids, they are still in Nairobi. That was a source of incredible augst for me. It's the first time since we have been in Africa that we have both been in different cities than the kids. I wouldn't do it if the kids were in Kisumu but Nairobi is different. There is plenty of support and help if needed.

 

These movers say it will take 4 days to pack and move us. I don't believe it. Man, do we really have THAT much stuff? It's a lot I know but these guys are trying to work double time over the Easter weekend I think. We are moving to a much smaller house so they erally won't have to unpack some of this stuff, ti will remain in storage until the embassy finds a more "suitable" house for us. But who knows how long THAT will take.

 

So Kayla came to Kisumu yesterday, I came today and she returned to Nairobi tonight. She'll stay in Nairobi Tuesday, I'll stay in Kisumu Tuesday, Wednesday at the crack of dawn she will make her way to the airport to come back to Kisumu and Wenesday night I will go back to Nairobi. Whew!

 

Then this weekend we are all going camping at a place called Hells Gate, pictures to follow!