Day 1 or 2, or we're not sure. Aaah! Jet lag!

Blog by Mary (student participant)

There is a lot to process as the first full day in Samuru is underway, I think the experience is just settling in for most of us; it is surreal at times realizing we are starting a two week adventure in the bush of Kenya. The three-plane traveling caused no problems and was uneventful, other than our very own bluegrass band of Bo and Mark playing Wagon Wheel down the rows of the plane at the request of an overly-friendly flight attendent. For most, it was a hit. We are still naming the group.  

As we are currently on break between our morning and afternoon’s activities, the process of getting to the village was an adventure of unknown experiences. From the airport, the drive to the hostel in Niarobi was our first taste of the chaotic roads, a juxtaposition to the US calm highways.  After four days of heavy rain in Niarobi, the city was just coming back to life. We were all glad we were in safari jeeps are equipped with snorkels, for easy water driving.  The hostel was a series of tents, huts and rooms, serving an array of uses. Despite flooding and a little bit of stress felt from the owners, the Wildebeest hostel was a good night’s rest and a good breakfast after about 27 hours of traveling.  Leaving Nairobi on Sunday to head into Archers post is a relaxed traveling day, as we took two jeeps full of us, with a whole van with our massive gear bags. We stopped at a fruit market, and had fresh mango and bananas and had our first interaction with Kenyans.

The recently paved  roads were fast and efficient, until turning off onto the dirt roads that lead into Samuru. Kenya is a very relationship based culture, full of greetings, songs, dancing and handshaking. We were greeted in the villages Umoja and Unity with an upbeat group song by the women paired with dancing in which we all joined in on. The voices of the women are beautiful, and completely in harmony with one another despite different tones and words. The beading that women wear around their necks is called Masa. It is a series of bright, intricately patterned necklaces made of wire so it is firm and can be used in dancing and greetings, by dancing forward so that it is bounced up and down to the beat. They were all definitely more graceful than all of us.

Our campsite is about 10 kilometers away from the villages. I think we all had this mental picture of a bare bush setting, yet our campsite is lush with trees and dense bushes. In the background, there is a mountain area, mirroring the Fort Collins foothills (which Brett says we get to climb later this week). There is a group of about 4 Samburu friends managing our campsite, three of which are recipients of scholarships from Samburu Youth Education Fund, (SYEF) in which Brett facilitates. They cook for us, walk with us to the latrine (the nice word for a whole with some bush around it) so we don’t get taken by the beasts of the area (not really… we haven’t seen any yet), and guard around the clock, along with hang out with us and answer questions we have about everything Kenya related. We heard some hyenas last night and apparently the baboons are loud, but the noises are not a problem as it seems passing out is not an option after the days here.

We went on a three hour walk along a river today, to Unity village where we took a break and beaded and hung out with the women and children. They are far better at not only beading, but playing hand games, as we found out. The time so far has been full of new experiences to take in for all of us, and the people we have met have shown us truly how much motivation for education and a quality life there is. Although it can be easy to see the villages as less than what our US life is by only seeing the surface level, the happiness, hard work, and kindness is overpowering and shows how much there is to learn here.  

PS: Happy birthday Kelso!