Anecdotes from Kisii

I like Bob Marley, well, most of his stuff, anyway, so I brought along a few tracks on my PC to keep me amused.

I didn't reckon on Josephat (6 years) being totally in awe of the great Rasta. It is amusing, listening to this little Kenyan child, who speaks no English, singing in a Jamaican accent, "No Woman, no cry" and Buffalo Soldier".

He also loves Michael Jackson, especially "Thriller", although if any Michael Jackson is shown on TV, he immediately shouts, "Micheal Jaskshon, Michael Jackshon!"

Talking of TV, I thought I wouldn't miss the junk fed to us in the UK, but, it is prime viewing compared with some of the stuff broadcast in Kenya, which seems to comprise mainly of Mexican soaps, very old US cartoons and the odd US CSI, sprinkled with a few really good Kenyan programmes, such as Inspekta Mwala.

Mind you, Saturday morning Kids TV is, in part Kenyan, and despite my 59 years, I find it quite entertaining. So it would seem that Kenyans can produce really good TV. It is just a pity they don't produce more.

Methane Project

We should be reaching the final phase of our project to build a cheap anaerobic digester today.

We have the actual digester producing a gas of some sort, which I guess is methane, as it is flammable. Today, we connect it up to a calor gas table-top stove and we will see what happens.

We have been approached by an organisation in Bungoma that is looking for uses for the infernal menace, water hyacinth, which they harvest from Lake Victoria at Kisumu. So far, they are producing "charcoal" briquettes, compost, fertiliser and now they want to see if it will produce methane.

From what I can find out, it will, but due to the high water and gas content of the plant, it has to be crushed, pressed and at least partially dried, otherwise it will just float at the top of the digester and not rot down.

A bit more complicated than using slurry, but there is plenty of water hyacinth, which is a menace to fishing in Lake Victoria, so if we can find uses for it, so much the better. It is just a pity that it is not edible!

Internet in Kenya

As my reader may be aware, we have had a broadband connection problem since I arrived in Kenya. We had had a telephone line and broadband installed not too long ago, but as the cables are copper and unprotected, someone stole a length of cable along the road. It took Telkom 10 days to find the fault and it still hasn't been resolved. In fact since the problem occurred, more cable has been stolen (it makes very good washing line!).

Telkom have been sort of helpful - they have lent us a dongle whcih we have to charge up. But it is only offering a maximum speed of 236kbps, as against the Safaricom dongle we borrowed, which boasted 7.2 Mbps - big difference!

Oh how I miss my "no limit, flat rate" account at home!

Of course, as the dongle connection is not flat rate, we are being very careful  about how long we are connected. This means that apart from emails, we are doing little via the Internet. We pass a comment ot two on Twitter, just to let the world know we are still alive!

Oh well, I suppose we ought to be thankful for any sort of connection.

Producing Methane

As you, my reader will be aware, I have been dreaming and scheming for a long time to produce methane on the shamba at the Twiga Children's Centre in Kisii.

Well, last Monday (23/11), we did it. We opened the tap on the digester, put a light to a gas burner and got a flame!

We had spent the last week building an anaerobic digester that was cheap yet safe. Kisii is not a town full of hardware shops selling gas connections so we resorted to anything we could find in the markets. Some bits failed, some were damaged, threads, etc., and some just were not what we needed, but eventually, we had our digester.

The next job was to feed it. We are using cow slurry, a horrible mixture of fresh dung and urine, straight out of the cow shed. We added some more solid dung later to give the mixture some body. I don't know about body, but it certainly has a smell.

We finished on the Friday and let it stew over the weekend. Now, anaerobic digesters usually take about a week to start producing, apparently, but we couldn't wait, so we had to have a test on Monday, and yes, it works.

For our next trick, we ar egoing to acquire funds to buy a twin ring gas burner so we can at last cook food for the children at  Twiga - but that's another story for another day.

I've Arrived

I arrived in Kisii, safe ans sound and on schedule, only to find that some kind soul had stolen the recently installed telephone cable, which has deprived us, and many people to the west of the town with telephone services (and Internet connection)!.

We have managed to borrow a mobile Internet modem, but I have to use my cell phone SIM, which means no one can contact me while I am using it.

So I am restricting my time on the Internet to a minimum, so blogging will be sketchy until the line is replaced by Telkom (it has taken two weeks so far - but this is Kenya).

I am keeping notes of moments of interest and will post all as soon as I can.

All Aboard the Skylark ...

It's nearly time for "All Aboard the Skylark" or whatever Sir Richard calls his infernal flying machines, and I am busy packing, checking, unpacking, weighing, repacking, re-checking, re-weighing, - well, you get the picture - . so blogging is probably going to be low down on the "To-Do" list until I get to Kisii, which will be late afternoon on Thursday 12th.

I do have wi-fi on my laptop but as the battery can only hold a charge for about 7 seconds, rules dictate that it has  to go in the cargo hold rather than as hand baggage, so I will not be able to blog during the interminable wait between checking in of luggage and actually getting on the Skylark (or Airbus).

I just hope that the check-in staff are lenient with people carrying stuff for charities! They were last time so I am banking on that, and the fact that the aircraft won't be full.

Isn't it weird that the word 'blog' is not in the blogspot spell-checker dictionary? Nor is blogspot, come to that!

Thirty-six Hours To Go

In a little less than 36 hours time, I will be on a Virgin Atlantic plane, winging my way to Kenya.

Am I ready? Is everything packed? Do I even know where my passport is?

No, no and no.

Oops!

Now I Know How a Headless Chicken Feels ...

I have a list, in fact I have three lists, one for what I've got to take to Kenya, one for what I have got to do before I go, and one for what I have got to do for Nyanya Mzungu before I go.

Unfortunately, I keep losing the lists, or start doing something on the list when I get interrupted by Nyanya Mzungu, who is making sure I have such-and-such on her list. She is not looking forward to being left alone while I am in Kenya, but at the same time keeps telling me I have to live my own life.

I have been to the bank to pay cheques in, probably the last I will receive from clients before I leave. While I was in town (somewhere I try to avoid), I had a look in the Pound Shop and got some little things for the Twiga Children's Centre, pens, pencils, and stuff.

I have collected my currency, which will last me about one day in Kenya as I will have to pay for the car that is picking me up from JKIA and taking me to Kisii - yes, I am travelling in style for once. It is a bit of a relief as I am taking two cases and that just about fills the back of a matatu, making me unpopular with the rest of the passengers.

I had arranged a lift to Heathrow, but my friend suddenly decided to take a 4-day break in Spain. I was worried that he might not bother to come back - but he has, so that's a relief.

I still haven't started to pack, although I have sorted through the six boxes of clothes (thanks Manuela for your help) that have been donated to the Children's Centre and decided what I should take. I won't be able to take all of it, there is just too much, but as least I have sorted out the stuff that I do not need to take, mainly the baby stuff - we don't have any babies at the Children's Centre at the moment.

As an aside, just to throw a small spanner in the works, I have to take Nyanya Mzungu to see the doctor tomorrow - just a check-up, thankfully. I also have to take her shopping. She has been through the freezer at least three times in the last 24 hours, just to make sure there is enough food for her while I am away.

So, what's left? Draw a bit of sterling cash to take with me, pack and go. Hey! I'm ahead of schedule!

Jim Humble's MMS

I have written about Jim Humble's MMS, or Miracle Mineral Supplement here. I am sceptical about anything that boasts the word 'miracle' in its title, so if its claims are to be believed, I have to see the proof - not reports from other people.

So I acquired some of this supplement, which consists of two bottles of liquid which have to be mixed together just before taking - it tastes horrible. All I needed was an ailment to treat and recently, I was in luck, so to speak.

I broke a tooth whilst eating, chomped the broken bit into the resulting cavity and pushed my other teeth out of place, all of which resulted in a pain under the damaged tooth, probably caused by an abscess.

Although I tried to get an emergency appointment with the dentist, I was out of luck, so nursing an aching face, I turned to MMS, I have to say, with no expectations other than a bad taste in the mouth!

I gave myself quite a hefty dose, swilled it around the damaged tooth and gum, then swallowed. I didn't notice any effect, but a couple of hours later, realised that the swelling had gone down and the pain was almost gone.

The following day, there was no swelling and no pain.

That's twice I have used MMS, and on both occasions my condition has improved very quickly. I still don't endorse MMS, but feel that it is worth further investigation.

We will remember them.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.”

I Really Must Start ...

... to get ready for my Kenyan trip. I leave on Wednesday, and I haven't sorted, packed or even given it any thought - I don't even know where my passport is!

I have my clothes to pack - that shouldn't take more than two minutes. I mean, just how many clothes do you need in a country where daytime temperatures hover around 25°C and at night never drop below 15°C.

I have the technical stuff to pack:

• Laptop
• Handycam & DVDs
• Backup camcorder & tapes
• Digital camera & memory cards
• Back-up digital camera & memory card
• Rechargeable batteries and charger
• Tripod
• Card reader
• Video tapes for the kids
• Mobile phones

Then there are the clothes that have been donated for the Twiga children. These are stored in boxes, all jumbled up. Probably the easiest way to sort them into age groups.

We have been given loads of toys and games as well. Some are obviously too big to take, even with an allowance of two bags at 23kg each.

So I have set tomorrow (oh, that's just over an hour away) to sorting all this out, finding two bags or suitcases (and my passport), and packing everything - more or less.

I still have some time available on Monday; Tuesday is a bit cluttered, and I leave on Wednesday. If I haven't got everything by then, it will be too bad!

And the Truth Is ...

"Words offer the means to meaning and, for those who will listen, the enunciation of Truth. And the Truth is, there is something terribly wrong with our country, isn't there?"

'V' from V for Vendetta.

A nice blog from 'Diary of a Geek'

Ambulance Service?

Involved as I am in the well-being of a small community in Kenya, I do a lot of reading about illness, health and prevention, and the one thing that strikes me is that there are a lot of unnecessary deaths due to illnesses such as malaria, particularly amongst children, because their immune systems are not yet fully active, and they dehydrate more quickly.

I have been told, on good authority that a child sick with malaria needs glucose to "kick-start" the body, but this is rarely available in rural areas. So, if a child is sick with malaria (and many other illnesses) a spoonful of sugar placed under the tongue is a good alternative.

But, at the end of the day, the child needs to go to hospital for treatment - as quickly as possible. And this is where the problems start. People in rural areas rarely have a vehicle, they may not even have a "proper" road to the village. So the child has to be carried to the nearest road and then it is a wait for a matatu to come along with enough space to take the child and parent. The matatu, of course, costs money.

This got me thinking. If a vehicle were available in a town where there is a hospital (Kisii springs to mind), just how much would it cost to run a free ambulance service covering the outlying areas. All it would take is a single phone call from the village to the ambulance control and it would be dispatched to pick up the sick person and transport them to hospital.

The vehicle does not need the state of the art equipment that is to be found in ambulances in the UK. I doesn't even have to be a specially-built vehicle. A minibus with a few seats removed or folded down to make room for a stretcher would be adequate. The crew would probably need basic first aid knowledge and be capable of driving in a safe manner.

Twos and blues would probably be useful, but not absolutely necessary. Other drivers would probably not take a lot of notice as many matatus are also equipped with these.

So, a basic minibus with a few seats modified, a stretcher that  can be fixed securely into the vehicle, a part-time driver, and we could have an ambulance.

The sick, particularly children would get to hospital quickly to be treated before it is too late.

There must be a hole in this idea somewhere, it is far too easy.

Oh yes! Funding. Money. Isn't it funny how the health of children comes down to money - or the lack of.

"What Is That Bad Smell?"

"David, please, what this bad smell in die house?" So asked one of my foster kids as he walked in after school.

I don't profess to be a good cook, but I like food - I love food! So, I have had to teach myself to cook the meals that I like, one of which is cassoulet, which is a dish from SW France.

Now, I don't want to bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that a lot of preparation goes into this dish, and it takes me the best part of two days to get it on the table.

I was in the outskirts of Johannesburg at the time, and decided that a cassoulet would be a good meal that would last a few days. I started preparation on Wednesday, and started to cook it as soon as I got home from work on Thursday.

But that's when disaster struck. I had not long been in South Africa and was still struggling with the lack of oxygen at 5,500 ft. So, having put all the ingredients on to simmer for an hour or so, I fell asleep.

I was rudely awakened by the smell of burning meat, not the "Oops! Dinner is a bit scorched" smell, but the "seriously burned to a cinder" smell, which is stronger and horrible.

And I had no dinner.

I opened every window and door in the house to try to dispel the smell, with little success. Hence the question on Friday afternoon,

"David, please, what this bad smell in die house?"

My Little World Has Gone Mad!

When I am not in Kenya, I am an IT consultant serving clients in a smallish village in North Hampshire, fixing things, taking viruses off, upgrading and swapping data from old PCs to new ones.

But, just recently, I have had to take up another occupation, that of twiddling thumbs. There was no work. Everything was dead. So I decided to go out to Kenya for a month, leaving on 11th November.

But since last week, my work diary has been full! I can't say that I have earned a fortune, I never have and doubt that I ever will, and I wouldn't want to, but this last few days has brought in the money.

I had been wondering where the money was going to come from for this trip. Well, it has arrived!

Today, I trotted down to the post office and ordered my Kenyan shillings. On Monday I will bank a few cheques and draw the money. My anti-malaria tablets have been ordered. All I need to do is pack!

Now I am really looking forward to this trip - I can actually afford it, as long as I am careful.

Feeding the Children

No, not the Twiga OVCs* this time. I was staying with a friend at the coast and looking after her two children, an almost-5 girl and just-7 boy.

It was lunchtime and I was rummaging through the kitchen trying to find something to stop the regular cries of "I'm hungry!"

There was little to give them as we had planned on doing some shopping that afternoon, so, what to do? Then my eyes settled on a bag of rice. "A-ha!" I thought and put some on to cook in a 50/50 mix of milk and water. I added sugar AND honey, then when it was cooked, called the chldren.

"What! Rice? By itself?" complained the boy.

"Try it," I said

The boy dipped his spoon into the rice and tasted a couple of grains. The look of surprise on his face was a picture. "Wow! Natasha, come and try this!"

In the end, I had to make a second batch as they enjoyed my take on rice pudding. It's a pity I didn't have an oven to do the job properly.

It also occurred to me that the Twiga OVCs would have been happy with a bowl of cooked, unsweetened rice. Different strokes ...

*OVC: orphaned or vulnerable child

Daily Conversation

When I am not trotting off to Kenya, I am the 24/7 carer for my mother (87 years young).

This is the conversation that we have several times a day:

Mum: When are you going [to Kenya]?

Me: 11th November.

Mum: When are you coming back?

Me: 11th December

Mum: Do you really have to go?

What do I say? "If I don't go, I will go mad!" " I have to lead my own life!" or "I will be back before you know it."

This last is of course not true, she suffers every day I am away.

Guilt trip!

Meandering of the Mind

The date for my next trip to Kisii is fixed - I have bought the ticket (the cheapest available, so I cannot change it without penalties) and I leave these shores on 11 November.

Despite preferring Kenya Airways (marginally), i am going with Virgin as their fare was £101 cheaper at the time of booking. Still, the one thing that I didn't like when I used them last has changed, that is the return flight. It used to leave JKIA at 09:15, but it has now been put back to12:50, which is better for me as I have to get back from Kisii to Nairobi.

I want to get the hut on the plot somewhere close to habitable. It needs a good clean-up as  two rooms are used for storage of ... stuff. The stuff needs to be sorted and that which is beyond use, disposed of or recycled.

The biggest problem is the windows. They are metal frames but they are not glazed. And I would guess that glazing them would be expensive.

But why do they need to be glazed? Purely to keep the mosquitoes out. Rain never gets in due to the overhang of the roof.

So, there I was, lying in bed, thinking about how to glaze the windows for as little money as possible. And then it came to me. Cling film. I have seen it used as a cheap alternative to double glazing, so how about wrapping it around the frames of the open windows? Not too strong, but mosquito-proof, I am sure.

We'll see.

I am going to have to apply myself to packing very soon. I don't need a lot for myself in an area where the daytime temperature is always around 26°C and never drops below 17°C at night.

But I will be carrying  two video cameras, a digital camera, laptop and if I can, some external PC speakers.

Also, I have been given a lot of children's clothes (and some of the Twiga kids sorely need clothes) and toys. I would love to be able to take all the toys, but I fear that I would exceed my baggage allowance (2 x 23kg), so I will be doing a lot of juggling before I go. Decisions, decisions!

I need to get to the post office very soon. They offer a very good exchange rate, and although I can usually get a better rate in Kenya, I don't like arriving without any currency. Changing money at the airport is not a good idea, and I will be going directly to Kisii, so will not be able to visit one of the banks in Nairobi centre.

Oh well, I think that's covered everything, except travel insurance and malaria pills - that's £100 blown before I even start!

Generous People Will Make It Christmas At Twiga

Since the beginning of 2008, I have been collecting old cell phones for sale in Kenya. Last year, this effort raised enough to buy all our kids a new pair of leather schools shoes!

I have continued to collect cell phones, but they are becoming rarer. So I put out a plea for toys and games, as we approach Christmas - and my departure for Kenya.

Orphaned kids in Kenya don't do Christmas. They go to church, but other than that, Christmas Day is just another day to survive.

Anyway, I just want to say a big thank you to Sophie, 10 years old, who lives in Newbury. She has given up her complete collection of Barbie dolls, 15 of them! Her little brothers gave 4 or 5 cars and a few other bits and bobs.

Anne, also from Newbury, gave us a load of cuddly toys, and some games, such as chess, draughts and card games and a junior Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Mia, a South African, also from Newbury gave us some games and some seed for our vegetable plot.

Our kids at Twiga are going to have one very good Christmas, even if it will be a little early - I will be back in the UK for the day.

But we still need money to feed them (and to build the much needed children's home), so if anyone is feeling generous, or wants to do some fund-raising, please feel free. Donations can be made with the PayPal button in the right margin.

OK, I'm British - Official

While I was pushing my mother around hospital in a wheelchair, I was rammed unceremoniously from behind by one of those motorised mobility scooters.

What did I do?

I turned round and said, "Sorry!"

Only in England ...