Sabbatical Day 20 (13 August)

I was out like a light and woke at 2 minutes to 5, 5 being the time I had set my alarm. How did my body do that? Not long after there was a very loud Muslim Call to Prayer and I wouldn’t have needed the alarm anyway. On the road for 5.15 in Stephen’s LR. Same kind of roads, although maybe more stony. The sun rises about 6.30 and the landscape seems different again. The road is narrower but in the dry and in the day doesn’t seem quite as formidable (and Stephen doesn’t drive as fast as Abdillahi). We stop at the ‘Check Point Hotel’ for a cup of tea. The hotel appears to be a standard one room shack part of which is a kitchen. There are men and women around in wonderful traditional dress. I ask Stephen if taking photographs would cause a problem. He advises against it, not because people will be annoyed, but because they will ask for money (someone way back set a precedent). The tea is made with milk and sugar, neither of which I normally take, but Stephen advises to treat it as food, not a drink. There is also a triangular shaped thing to eat made of dough. On our way again, one reason we left Maralal so early was to avoid the many people lining the roads looking for lifts. For most people here paying for transport is out of the question.

I take some photos as we drive along.

Some wonderful scenery. We see some elephant droppings, but no elephants. We do see a line of about 20 ostriches walking along. There is a large herd of cattle.

Cattle rustling is a large part of Samburu culture and owning cattle is a status symbol. Apparently a few days ago a government agent was in the area to count the number of cattle- there is government aid in this area, but if cattle were discovered that aid would be reduced. There were none. Now that the agent has gone thousands have suddenly appeared!

We enter Tuum district. Still and hour and a half to Tuum itself. We get there at 11.30am and go to Stephen’s house.

 

My tummy is now not so good and I’m glad to be directed to the toilet which is a distance from the house.

 While it’s a proper ‘sit-on’ you have to ladle water into it to flush it. We then have breakfast with a choice of typical UK stuff like Cornflakes and local stuff like mango and guava.

We chat a bit then I am shown into the guest house.

 

 It has no electricity. It does have cold water and gas cooker. There isn’t much light inside (the one in the bathroom was taken by flash and so looks brighter than it really is.)

   

                                     

The Guest House has its own dedicated toilet out the back (separate). The bucket for ‘flushing’ the toilet is to the right behind the toilet brush.

  

 

For a shower (to the left in the picture of the bathroom) you fill a bucket with hot (heated on the gas cooker) and cold water to the required temperature, hook it up on a beam (above right) and turn the tap on it. It was lovely!

The suitcase was not waterproof, but only some of the items have got wet. The envelope with my talks in has got wet, and I lay the papers out on a table.

I lie down and get a couple of hours sleep. The papers are already bone dry when I wake, even though it’s not hot, just warm and the papers are not in the sun. The wet clothes have also dried. Another trip to the toilet. A cat waits at the door. When I open it it goes in first and kindly catches and eats a cockroach that’s sitting on the wall. I like cats!

Time to look over my talks for tomorrow. Stephen is gathering some local leaders and students together and I’ll give my conference talks to these leaders with some adaptation as they are not pastors. One is an elder. Then writing up my blog, but probably won’t be able to make any posts until I’m back in Nairobi. There’s a table outside at the back of the guesthouse with a view of the mountain and people, livestock and camels passing by. Wonderful setting.

 

Can you see the rainbow? It hadn’t rained!

If I lift my head from the laptop, the picture above the one of me is what I see.

The evening meal is a black bean stew and rice which is very good. They are virtually vegetarian here. We are 6:

Stephen, myself, Kasoni, Dan (a mechanic from Nairobi who is working here for 2 weeks getting some engines going), Abdillahi and another man who arrives with Abdillahi (both after the photo was taken). Abdillahi has been getting the punctured tyre on the LR fixed in Maralal and it has taken some time. He tells us that the man who used his battery to start our stalled engine charged 500/- for the privilege! On parting Abdillahi wished him well and told him that he hopes, that when this man breaks down and needs some help, we will be on hand to do it for free. He told us also that on reflection he should have refused to pay the 500/- as the man’s truck could not have got past ours on the road anyway.

There is light in Stephen’s house powered by batteries which are charged in the day time by the sun. There is none in the guest-house, however, and it’s dark by 7, so on going to bed about 9 we light a hurricane lamp which I take over. Inside my mosquito net I listen in the dark to more Dr Who on CD on my laptop, and catch up with an episode of the Archers I downloaded while in Nairobi. So here we are. No TV, no radio, no phone (either land-line or mobile), no electricity, lying in the dark, listening to the chirrups of crickets or whatever they are. And drift off to sleep.

Jim