Arrival

An arrival in Chavakali... not the safest location. One man shouting “hey idiots, want to buy some crack” repeatedly while we attempted to keep track of all of the bags we were carrying. We were very fortunate to have had another one of Chief Mangwala’s sons, Patrick, meet us on this end to help secure transport to Wasundi, where the Chief’s house is. His friend and neighbour, Martin, who also works with SID on some projects (and whose smile I am kinda in love with) also came to lend a hand. A crazy ride in the back of a truck with all of the luggage.... up a very steep hill... where Martin and another passenger had to get out to help push the poor truck up the hill... at one point we were rolling backwards... aieeeeee!

Tricia and I enjoyed our first bucket baths of the summer... it felt so nice after a long overnight bus ride. Feeling fresh, we joined the Chief and his family (Patrick and his daughter Rosalida) for breakfast – sliced bread and Blue Band margarine... which is chock-full of vitamins and is apparently a staple breakfast here... with yummy Kenyan tea. We passed a few tea farms on the route so I enjoyed being able to finally taste it! We then chatted a bit with the Chief (at which point he asked me if I would like to learn how to kill a chicken... bet you can’t guess my answer), and discussed Kenya’s recent political history.

We were to meet the rest of the team in Chavakali where I would then travel to Mudete, where my home for the next four months would be. Unfortunately, as soon as it became time to leave, it started to rain. And when I say rain, I mean suddenly downpour. I had on my backpack ready to walk, so unloaded, produced my rain jacket and backpack cover, and proceeded to get ready again. Tricia did the same, and we then simultaneously glanced around the room – our escorts, Martin and Patrick had both sat down again to return to the stimulating Mexican soap opera that was playing on the tele. I suppose it was true- when the rains come, Kenyans just wait it out. So we sat. And sat. Luckily it wasn’t a very long rain and by the time the call came from the team announcing that they would arrive in half an hour, it had stopped. A beautiful walk (though heavy with all of my baggage!) into Chav past many tea fields, a lot of wide-eyed children and shocked locals and we were back in nightmare city.

We must have had synched internal clocks because the team’s bus arrived at the exact moment we walked up. We found the driver of the truck and loaded in 16 bags of luggage before ourselves loading into the back of the truck. The first stop was Mudete, where Natalia, Allison and I unloaded and met a smiling Mme Jean with 5 adorable little girls shying away from the muzungus.