I was walking through Nakuru town today post-hiking in a tank top, running shorts and sneakers when I heard a Kenyan call out, “Hey Marian Jones!” I realized my attire was not exactly typical, but I needed to run a few errands before leaving for the weekend in Nairobi, so I carried on. About one minute later, I heard another call, “Are you running in the marathon?” I got what I needed and hopped in a matatu home. My legs and feet were aching from our second and more challenging hike of the week.
On Sunday, Cameron, Trevor, Nick, Cliff, Ibu and I all skipped church to go hiking at the Menengai Crater, one of the largest craters in Africa, which is about 25 minutes outside Nakuru. We all met at Top Market and began looking for a matatu. We were 3 muzungu so it was about 10 seconds before we were surrounded by matatu conductors trying to take us to any destination that we could imagine. It turned out that there wasn’t one going directly to Menengai, and the one conductor tried to arrange a matatu to take us for 200ksh each. Balking at the price, we decided that the crater couldn’t be that far away, so we would just walk. We started off, when one of the other conductors ran up and offered to take us in his matatu for 50ksh each. We accepted the offer and set off for the crater. It turned out that it was quite far out of town, so we all were very glad for the ride.
When we arrived, we climbed up the back of the crater. It started out pleasantly, as we passed though some houses to the trail. We came out of a wooded area to the edge of the crater, which was unimaginably enormous and beautiful. We walked along the side looking for the trail when we came upon a big water tank where a family was filling jugs and loading their donkeys to carry the water home. Nick and Cliff asked how to get up the crater, and we were directed to a small footpath that was leading up the mountain. We started up the footpath, and were soon in a swarm of mosquitoes. We ran trying to get out of the swarm, but it was never ending. We walked fast, in the hot sun up the mountain. I waved my arms constantly in front of my face, like mosquito windshield wipers. We got to the top much faster than we anticipated. There were a few curio shops and a large directional sign, indicating the direction and distance to many famous (and some not so famous) destinations around the world. The view was stunning (see Facebook album for photos). We sat for a bit and then ran back down, dodging mosquitoes again. There were mountain goats on the cliff face grazing, and we came across some as we turned back onto the path back to the road. We had a lot of fun, and all went home to Amos’ house for a big pasta lunch afterwards.
On Wednesday, Cameron, Emily (Cam’s cousin who joined us on Tuesday from Canada) and I joined Steve (Executive Director of the Morokoshi Nursery School) to hike up into the mountains near Morokoshi to investigate the impact of deforestation in the areas. Many trees have been cleared and the mountain land is being used for farming. However, the deforestation is leading to significant erosion, which is stopping rivers, and streams that feed into Lake Nakuru. In the past few years, especially during the drought of last year, the drying of Lake Nakuru has had a significant impact on the famous flamingo population. A local tree farmer escorted Cam, Steve and me into the mountains to look for sites for a potential tree-planting program that would operate through SpanAfrica and would also serve as an income generation program for some of our Grassroots Partners.
I think it might be opportune at this point to announce the very exciting news that I have joined the SpanAfrica volunteer staff team as the Operations Support Coordinator. In my new role, I support our Grassroots Partners with organizational management, structuring, operations and strategic planning. I also support any volunteers who come through the SpanAfrica volunteer program who have skills or interests in organizational development.
For those who aren’t as familiar with SpanAfrica, SpanAfrica works with Grassroots Partners, or small NGOs and CBOs around Africa to provide non-financial support such as expertise and volunteers.
Additionally, I have just confirmed that I will be travelling to Zambia in October and November to work with the SpanAfrica partners located there in the Ndola region of the copper belt. This will be a great opportunity for me to become even more familiar with the Grassroots Partners there, as well as gain experience with the microfinance programs operating in Zambia.
But I digress….
We started the steep climb into the mountains just before 11am and from the start we had a stunning view of Lake Nakuru. This time there were no mosquitoes, but the climb was much steeper and longer. It was beautiful walking up the long path to the forest, and the forest path was rocky but shaded and the air was fresh. As we ascended the path, we passed many people coming and going from the mountains. We passed two women who must have been in their 80s carrying huge bundles of wood on their backs, strapped to their heads. This feat became more impressive as we hiked further, realizing the difficulty of the hike. Our guide took us to see his seedlings in this nursery, and then we proceeded up into the mountains. We reached the first peak and saw many young trees that had been planted by an organization as a part of an initial reforestation effort. Reforestation efforts are taking place all across Kenya currently, especially in the Mau mountain range. There is a growing understanding of the impact of deforestation on the lakes. In Nakuru, the shrinking of Lake Nakuru would have a great impact on the economy (especially tourism), yet many of the impoverished local farmers rely on their mountain shambas for survival. There is an effort to encourage the mountain farmers to plant trees among their crops as a way to protect the young trees once they are planted. There are several policy initiatives being investigated to encourage the farmers to protect the trees.
We found several water sources high in the mountains and followed them to see where they all came together to drain to Lake Nakuru. At one point, the path disappeared and out guide used his large machete to chop our way through the brush. We say where seedlings had been accidentally trampled by donkeys. We climbed higher and were a spectacle to the farmers working in their fields. Steve had never even been up to this area, and surmised that we were the first whites to come up to these mountains. We passed two women tending to maize, who had a small baby sleeping in the field under a small tent. We started back down along the stream that we were following, and started singing Disney songs. Along the stream were enormous cactus trees, with completely wooden trunks and large cacti leaves. (Facebook album hopefully coming soon). We had many good ideas about the tree planting program, which will likely be available though SpanAfrica as a way for people to easily offset their carbon footprint.
Gloria is now very good at saying my name, and we have taken to talking in small conversations, although she generally thinks it’s very funny when I speak Kiswahili. Our conversations typically start as follows:
Gloria: “Alex?”
Alex: “Gloria?”
Gloria: “eh?”
Alex: “Eh?”
Gloria: Something I don’t understand in Kiswahili
Alex: Say anything I know how to say in Kiswahili in response
Gloria: makes a funny face.
I just got back from Safari in Masai Mara last night. I have a ton of writing to do on that, and hope to post something soon. I am also knee-deep in MBA Application essays and SpanAfrica reports, but I will do something soon. It was an incredible experience, and I have over 600 photos to sort through. I don't even know where to begin!
