Slight change of plans - a weekend at Elias' house

So instead of climbing Mount Kenya last weekend, we changed it to this weekend and for good fortune because I had the unique experience of staying at a local Kenyan's house.

On friday Sandra, Sean, James and I did a 30 km bush walk with 2 rangers, Nkori and Jacob. it was a real challenge, at first I really underestimated how hard it would be and I didn't bring food or water, what was I thinking? I guess I hadn't been out for so long before and I am used to working in the office or workshop, James and Sandra saved me by giving me bread and water. Anyways it was a real adventure, we were out for 7 and a half hours and we walked almost to the North end of Lewa and looped back. We were walking through many different ecosystems, Savannah, a tropical valley and a mountainous area. I couldn't imagine doing that every day like the rangers do, my legs hurt all weekend.

After the big adventure I met up with Elias, who is an electrician at Lewa and we met the first week I was at Lewa. He had been asking me to go to his house for a long time and I finally found a time to go. So we took the Matatu (public transit) to his village called Nkubu (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=Nkubu&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl), about 1 hour ride southeast of Lewa.

You take a 45 minute drive from Lewa to Meru then about a 20 minute ride to Nkubu market. Really cool place, got to his house and it was pitch black, we had gone to the supermarket on the way and bought food, snacks, beer, wine and some meat right off the cow. Then got to Elias’, it is a small place and I was uncomfortable at first, but I really warmed up to it. We ate a really good meal of Ugali and a vegetable/beef stew. Soo good. Then some tea, then walked to his fathers/brothers place (crazy walk through the hills) and watched some soccer with his family and some of their friends.

Elias' family have are farmers and he showed me around his farm, his banana trees, coffee plants, mangos, papayas, yams, sweet potatoes, avocado, cassava, sugar cane and bees nests.

In the morning I ate breakfast back at elias’, eggs and bread and pb, tea, bananas. Then met his bro named Dennis and went to the “bamboo family resort” as they call it, which is a waterfall by the river that they own. We drank beers by the falls, took a bunch of pictures, picked and roasted some yams, then forded the river to go to get some miraa (small stems from a tree which you chew and it feels kind of like drinking coffee, it is very popular around here) from their neighbours.

Elias has 3 kids, Anna who is 18 months old, Megan who is in grade 3 and then Sylvester who is in grade 5 (they are about 12 and 14 years old). They are very good kids, very smart and study hard especially in English. Then we went back to the house, had a lie down and a really big meal of mokimo, which is a traditional Kenyan dish, it is very good and they gave me huge portions. Every meal except breakfast is taken outside in the front yard, cows are nearby in their pens and chickens are running around. Elias is trying to build a house but doesn’t have the money to finish it, he has been building for 2 years and he reckons he can have it finished in one year.

The family atmosphere there was amazing, so many brothers and sisters, kids, all hanging out together, helping eachother out, farming together. In the morning woke up, ate sweet potatoes, tea and oranges with Dennis for breakfast then went for a big adventure with dennis and elias. We walked down the valley, past some pineapple plantation, then down to the water, to a hydro project. They didn’t really know where they were going, we were just exploring, I was probably the only foreigner to go to these places in a long time. I fell in the water trying to get to the waterfall so i ended up going swimming in these big falls, they thought i was crazy.

On Sundays after church in Kenya, many people like to enjoy home made beer. Many home made beers haha. It is made with sugar cane, honey, and it is fermented with a certain type of bark, really good. After lunch we said goodbye to everyone and headed back to Lewa. Before getting on the bus we went to a bar with the family and some of their friends, it was really fun.

Anyways this is a bit of a long post but I wanted to describe this amazing experience. It gave me some different perspectives on life and the African people. I definitely recommend doing something like this if the opportunity arises. Now I am back at Lewa, working on the recycling project and planning my next few weeks here.