Greeting from Kisumu

Greetings from a hot Kisumu. We have been here since late on Sunday night and have packed so much in already, I will hopefully be able to get some of it up on here when I get another chance to get online. Today we are with CADIF a volunteer run community capacity building program that we hope to form some useful links with. They are doing a fantastic job in some of the most deprived parts of Kisumu. Everyone here is well, we have had a great welcome and are safely in the hands of our various host families. Below is a report from an eventful day spent at Lake Naivasha and on the road to Kisumu!

Sunday 28th June

What should have been a fairly incident free day turned out to be anything but. We woke up at Elsamere for the last time this morning and decided it would be worthwhile visiting the neighbouring township ‘Kamere’. Howard and I had visited the night before in search of a beer but Aby and Alice had not been so Cliff and John from Elsamere took us all up there for a walk around. Cliff told us that this township is typical of the kind that have developed unplanned all around Lake Naivasha. It has spread gradually up the hill so that those at the top have views that rival any that a villa on the shores of the Italian lakes would have. The difference here is that the climate is warm and dry all year round. Probably too warm and dry. These communities are very tight knit, they have bars with pool tables, grocery shops, mobile phone charging and topping up stations, schools, churches, hairdressers, GP clinics, simple cafes and, as Cliff told us, a newly opened nursery for parents to leave their young children in while they go off to work at the Flower Farms. There are also stalls selling shoes, clothes, fruit, bike parts and even one specialising in car battery recycling. What they don’t have is a lot of space, running water, a sewerage system, a road surface, green space and enough food. We saw very few people over the age of fifty and many of the young children were walking around bare footed in ripped Western clothing, but none of them begged and they all, thankfully, looked in good health. This good health is however on a knife edge. Many of these children do not spend their days at school they form part of the army of men, women and donkeys who trudge up and down the 2 kilometre path to the Lake to collect water several times a day. The water in the lake is far from fresh, it is contaminated with the run-off from the activities of the flower farms and contains silt from the rivers and streams of the Aberdare mountains that feed the lake. The water is carried in small plastic barrels up to the township where it is then sold to those who are incapable, too busy or wealthy enough to not have to fetch their own. Cliff speculated that some sort of filtering system is used, but it is unlikely that the water would be anywhere near fresh when drunk.

HIV Aids is also a threat here, awareness raising into the dangers of having sex is evident. Given that it is unrealistic that condoms are either accessible or affordable the advice is abstinence. We saw many wearing awareness raising t-shirts.

After our last lunch, prepared and served to perfection as ever by Kennedy and his team, we packed and awaited the arrival of Edwin Ochieng from Kisumu. Edwin is our main host in Kisumu and a long time member of Global Footsteps. We were expecting him at 2pm, he arrived at 5.30pm, we’d had regular updates from him explaining that he had been delayed drastically due to the condition of the road between Kisumu and Nakuru. We were soon to experience this road, but shortly before departing we were lucky (if that is the right word) to witness nature as red tooth and claw on our doorstep. Cliff received a message to say that a python had killed a goat in the grounds of Elsamere. We rushed over to find two local rangers carrying a thoroughly cheesed off twelve foot python who had missed out on a very big meal. That very big meal, a pregnant goat was being carried by its legs by two young locals, who in all likelihood would now eat the goat themselves!

We left Elsamere at around 5.45pm, and made good progress to Nakuru where we dropped Cliff off who was going home to his wife and children after a busy week with us. I am so happy to have met Cliff, we share many interests in the world of Environmental Education. I told him before I left how impressed I’d been with what he is doing as the Education Officer at Elsamere. He is clearly passionate about the subject and passionate about developing his own skills and knowledge of it. He is way ahead of many of the environmental educators I come across in the UK, not only in ability and style, but also in his passion for the work, it is far more than just a job for him.

True to prediction the road between Nakuru and Kisumu was in a terrible condition, for well over 100km it runs adjacent to the developing new road, this temporary road resembles a farm track. Edwin had to slow to a crawl over and over again to negotiate the oncoming traffic, the potholes and the police checks. We eventually reached the New Victoria Hotel at 12.30am and crashed into bed. Howard has described it as resembling a Hotel in an old Western movie!