Friday, January 11, 2013

Yesterday Travel and Bumpy Roads, Today Shopping and Presidential Campaign Rallies

Yesterday was a day a bit more bumpy than we had expected.  Our EZ-Coach trip from Nairobi to Kakamega was not on roads recently rebuilt by the Chinese, to say the least.  But, the trip started at 9:25 AM, only 25 minutes late, and ended at 6:25 PM, exactly 9 hours in length, as we had expected.  The first three hours took us to Nakuru where we got a potty break and an ice cream plus a 250g bag of tea for each widow.  The next six hours came with none of the above.   They came with slow and bone jarring progress on the road to Kapsabet, often with potholes so large and numerous that the bus had to abandon the road altogether.  But we made it, with bladders full, good humor still intact, and daylight nearly gone.

We found a big taxi and arranged our quick 300 shilling ride to the Golf Hotel with our six huge checked bags, two very heavy carry-ons, and 12.5 kg of tea.  Turns out we arrived a day earlier than expected but the Golf was ready for us.   The staff put all but our carry-ons into a storage room and we were assigned to room 204 with a balcony overlooking the grounds and a sliding glass door that opens to the balcony and the barking guard dogs on the adjacent golf course (not affiliated).  And, we have a brand new, fancy mosquito net!

Breakfast today at 8:30 was followed immediately by a meeting with the fellow who will deliver and install four BioSand water filtration units in the village on Monday.  He was impressive, especially in his apparent dedication to making these things get used properly.  Each comes with immediate training in how to use them for all who might use them, especially the children of the households.  He and his staff do follow-up evaluations every two weeks for a couple of months followed by less frequent visits to make sure all is well.

The majority of the day was spent shopping at local wholesalers for items to be distributed along with the tea to the widows tomorrow:  100 kg rice, 50 tins cooking oil, matches, Vaseline, 100 kg sugar, biscuits, and 50 kg lentils.  These items will fit nicely into the 250 or so donated reusable shopping bags. Many of the books and toys we brought with us will go into two metal footlocker we purchased today.  And we purchased new plastic jerry cans into which clean water will be delivered by the BioSand filtration units.

All this took place while the CORD coalition held a big rally at Miluru Gardens (park) just a couple of blocks from the hotel and while CORD candidates for President, Vice President, senate, etc., came into town on helicopter s and filled our hotel with themselves, security personnel, and coalition muckity-mucks dressed in orange, mostly.  In fact, after we finished our meeting with the water filtration fellow, Eric, at around 11 AM we found that we were locked into the dining room for security reasons.  The current VP and PM were attending meetings and having lunch just over our heads.

 

Sandy told a security guard that she was a friend of Raila Odinga (ODP Presidential Nominee and current PM) because we saw him here at the hotel last year.  He must be following her. So, they let us out of the dining room and we headed on our way.  Miluru Gardens park was filling fast, with construction of a stage and testing of the very loud speakers going on.  Music filled the air.  Lots of watchers and supporters from the three parties in the CORD coalition milled everywhere.  .The truly ardent fans had already found seats under the many, many tents erected for the occasion.  As we walked through the park, I masqueraded as an ODM supporter by wearing a free ODM cap given to me at the hotel.  It was surprising how many people gave me a thumbs us and said O-D-M to me throughout the day, as long as I had my orange cap on.

 

By 2:00 PM or so, things were in full swing at the park and we had completed our first round of shopping, having all delivered by one of the wholesalers to our hotel by 4:30.  Candidates had finished meetings with their wealthy supporters and were on the stump with at least 10,000 people listening while sitting, standing, or hanging from the trees.   Some even stood on their bicycles (kickstands down).   

 

Tomorrow – yet another coalition comes to town for an event just as big. We’ll be in Kasavai.