Friday's adventure

Friday was an adventure. We drove to the Rift Valley (a very dangerous drive - curvy and straight down a mountain - dangerous because there are a number of big trucks that are overloaded and accident prone). We got about half way down the mountain (no guard rails) when we came up on a traffic jam. A truck had gone over the side and was being towed out. Our impatient driver took us down the shoulder (the van was at about a 45 degree angle and I kept thinking it would flip on its side) until we could go no further. We had about a 30 minute delay and got to watch the truck being towed out. We went about a half mile further and there was another truck turned over on the side of the road. We made it safely to the bottom of the Rift Valley and went to Jikaze (the Internally Displaced Persons - IDP - Camp). Many of you remember this place from our 2009 trip. At that time there were 145 families living in tents. They had pooled their money together to buy the land but couldn't afford to build homes. Our team helped raise the funds and provided some of the labor to build homes for the families. These are mainly educated people who were violently forced from their homes after the post-election violence in early 2008. It's amazing how the village has changed. Each of the 145 families has a home with a fence, a garden, landscaping, etc... It's quite nice by Kenyan standards, especially for people who have been displaced and have had to start all over again. Our job was to plant an indigenous tree at each home to help with reforestation. The Rift Valley is turning to desert as people desperate for wood to cook violate the law to cut down trees. It was a filthy, hot job (the holes were dug... we had to mix manure and soil to fill back part of the hole, plant the tree, fill the top with soil, gather dried grasses/twigs to use as mulch, and water. Each group had to plant 20-23 trees (the camp is divided into 7 blocks, so we had 7 teams - 1 for each block). It was rewarding to see the changes over the past 2 years and encouraging to see the trees that had been planted last year - many were 6-8 feet tall and already providing a bit of shade.

After Jikaze (and surviving the terrorizing drive back up the mountain) we went to Nairobi for a quick trip to the market and then dinner with friends. Joe and Linda are from the UK and have lived in Kenya for 9 years. They recently built a beautiful home where we enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

Today we're headed to the Center... Kimberly and Bailey leave tonight to return home. Everyone but Grace and me leave tomorrow morning for safari. Grace and I have lots of plans for our 3 days on our own. Eating pancakes, playing with kids, visiting our old friend, Mama Joan, etc...