Back to School!

Morning view from Karibu porch

It was a beautiful morning in the Ngong Hills, in spite of the fact that it had rained off and on all day yesterday and most of the night. Yesterday, Sherry washed clothes and tried to get them dry in between rain showers. Finally she gave up and Dave rigged a clothes line from the Karibu House hall into their bathroom. So they enjoyed a movie last night with a background of wet clothes hanging from the inside clothesline.

Off to school!

Waiting to board the bus in uniforms and gum boots

Today was also the first day of the new term for the girls. They were all up early and ready to go. There are too many of them to all go in the bus at once so they went in two busloads, one leaving at 6:45 and the second at 7:00 am. Everyone was carefully pressed and polished for their first day. But the effect was somewhat ruined by the gum boots they all wore in case the bus couldn’t make it down the road to the school and they would have to walk part of the way. Sherry, Avril and I were all out there to take pictures and wave farewell to send them on their way.

I had to take four of the girls to a clinic in Karen this the morning and expected to be back here by lunch. So before we left, I ran two loads of laundry, expecting to get them on the line to dry by 1 pm. However, as these things are wont to do, the simple trip to a clinic in Karen morphed into a multitude of errands to make the most efficient use of the expensive petrol as possible. So in addition to the clinic run, there were payment checks to be delivered, money to be deposited in the bank, a secondary girl to be delivered to a spot where she could get a matatu to her school, picking up of one of our girls who starting a law internship and delivering her to the hostel where she will be living, supplies to be picked up on the way. It became clear that we would not be back to Hekima for lunch, so I bought lunch for the clinic girls and Kinyua.

Mudflow on Ngong Road

On the way, I took some photos of the mud that has engulfed the town of Ngong. Water flooding over the road is scary, but mud flows are even scarier. One evening our accountant was returning home and two cars ahead of her were washed away in the mud. She was terrified it would happen to her! Due to lack of resource management on the part of the government and stripping the trees from the hills for firewood, there's nothing to prevent erosion or divert the mud once it starts flowing. The government has paid contractors to plant trees in the hills, which sounds good in theory. But what happens is they plant trees and put a fence around them, collect the money and that's the end of it. The contractor has his money and takes no more responsibility for the little trees. The locals cut the fences to let their herds in to graze, no one waters the saplings during the dry season and they mostly die. So there are many fenced areas up in the hills with only grass and scrub growing in them. Still nothing to revent erosion.

Humphreys relaxing amid indoor laundry

After all was said and done, we got back here barely before 4 pm. By then, the sunny day had turned cloudy and rain threatened. I tried to hang my laundry on the line, but as the sky got darker and darker, I gave up and gathered everything off the line and brought it inside. So tonite my laundry is decorating Karibu House as the Humphrey’s did last night. I hope it is all dry by tomorrow morning, but I’m not holding my breath!