Typhoid and E.Coli - joy joy!

The lights are out - again. It's an everyday occurrence that the electricity dies – and tonight is no different. Today we found out that when the power went out this weekend - so did the water purifying system. This is a bit of an issue as no one found out until Monday around noon - AFTER we started feeling a bit queasy. It’s now Tuesday and we found out that there is E. coli as well as typhoid in the water. At least we now know why Stiv and I have been feeling so crappy (no pun intended!)

As we sat down to dinner this evening I was telling Stiv (who had been away on an interview trip today in Nairobi) and he looked at me with his sick and pitiful face and asked in his very English accent “Do you mean someone crapped in the water?” At which we all completely fell apart with laughter.

As for the adventure of going to the park over the weekend - that was incredible! The Lake Nakuru National Park is simply stunning. We traveled by private van to the park -always a good choice when going through the choked streets of Nakuru on market Saturday. I’d seen busy streets in the past (think Ann Arbor Art Fair) but this was like the Art Fair in full swing with cars – it was insane – I’d never seen so many people, cars and bicycles in one place all moving rather harmoniously. No one was beeping their horns or getting run over, no one yelled out windows or raised their hands with obscene gestures – it was all rather controlled chaos.

As we drove through Nakuru, Stiv (our English housemate, who is 23 and just looked over my shoulder and wanted me to mention that he is a very eligible bachelor, likes adventure sports and traveling. . . ) went with us – he needed money to get into the park so we stopped in Nakuru so he could jump out and get to an ATM. As we waited for him to reappear, street vendors (for lack of a better term) started banging on the van to get our attention – it was really a bit unnerving. I’ve never felt like I was claustrophobic – but this was really a bit unsettling to have about 7 people banging on the windows trying to get you to buy flowers, candy, postcards and anything else they could figure out to sell. We sat there for about 15 minutes while this went on and I was more than a little relieved to see Stiv reappear and get into the van so we could leave that area.

We then passed through smaller streets where goats and chickens mingled with the people and cars and bikes and vendors in the streets – all while we were trying to get through to the next street to turn off and out of the downtown area. Crazy.

As we drove out of town – things began to look a bit better and respiration returned to normal. About 5km outside the heart of all that craziness was the gate to Lake Nakuru National Park. You park and watch the monkeys stroll around waiting for handouts – there are no cages, no fences (except to keep the people out of the park) and the monkeys are free to steal any and all mater of things from people – it was pretty funny to watch. We drove into the park and went to the resort area – pretty swanky place as there was a nice cabin for us to stay in (about 140 sq ft) with three beds and about as much walking space as it took to get into the room and a pathway to the bathroom. Because Stiv is volunteering for CURE, he has no money, so we decided to have him stay with us – he took the floor – he is a tolerant soul to have stayed with three women – all but me older than his mother!

The park drives where exquisite. After an amazing meal – the drivers came to pick us up. He popped the top on the vehicle and we stuck our heads up and out like a turtle out of his shell to see all the wildlife. The park is huge and the animals have completely free range of the place and roam around a massive salt lake. To give you an idea of how beautiful it was I took over 500 photos. I hope the few photos I put up the other day will do for now as the internet today is s—l—o—w—e—r than usual so it would take about 40 minutes to upload a single photo – sorry about that.

Life here in Kijabe continues to open up like a present – each day brings amazing people into my life and the experience has been wonderful. I’ve found I’m enjoying getting to know the people who live and work at this place and realized it takes a very special person to give up what they have in the states to come here and work for years at a time. Life here is vastly different than home and today was a rather stark reminder of how easy we have it at home – drinking water that is not contaminated and electricity that doesn’t die each day while you are trying to work. This part of Kenya is stunning and tonight was no different. The clouds formed over the mountain and brought rains and thunder and gave us a wonderful light show across the sky. A nice way to end a day. . . in the dark.

I hope you are all well and safe and looking forward to sharing more photos when I return to the US in a few more days.