Leaving the City for rural Kenya

 Monday 6^th saw us leave the hotel and the big city for the joys of rural central Kenya. I thought inflicting the matatu experience on two 71 year olds with big suitcases this early would be a little unfair. Plus it would have been 3 different matatu’s to get to Kandara and 2.5 hours. So we took the taxi which took just over an hour. The scenery changed as we climbed and once past Thika and the vast swathes of Del Monte pineapple fields we hit real rural central Kenya and home to the Kikuyu tribe. The scenery now is very green steep sided hills made up of small shamba’s (small holdings) clinging to the steep hillsides. These are all worked by hand including the terracing and average 2 acres. Most have mud huts with corrugated metal roofs. Some have metal walls. The better off, quite rare round here, have stone walls and corrugated roofs. The “green” is banana trees, maize, coffee, avocado and mango with smaller amounts of other crops.

Most shambas house mum and dad plus 2-3 kids and their families. As the generations grow up, unless they have succeeded in education and left to  get work in the city, they stay on the shamba and build a house. This unfortunately dilutes the subsistence crops and the little cash income that can be generated. This is why projects like the Ithiru Youth Polytechnic are so important. They provide real skills for those less academic to allow them to have a sustainable income.  

The area my parents arrive in is beautiful in terms of dramatic scenery and wonderful people of the community I have now been part of for 9 months.

We enter the orphanage gates to curious stares (we do not get many cars here) then huge smiles and cries of “Siiiiimmmmooooonnnnnn!” and my parents experience the joy of living here. We unpack, “helped” by lots of little ones and settle into the Vision Africa volunteer house that we have rented for the period. (my one room 3m x 4m house could not fit the extra beds!).

Then we take a tour of the Orphanage and introduce Mum and Dad to the staff and children.

Later we take a walk into town and it is market day so very busy. I am the only Mzungu (white European) for about 15 km radius but people have got used to me being around now. However 3 mzungus walking up the high street and through the organised chaos of the market area created quite a stir. More introductions to the regular stall holders I get my food from and many handshakes. There are also some “interesting” encounters with some of the more “colourful” and “eccentrics” of Kandara. By the end of the day the oldies have had a good taster of the warmth of the people and the contrast from Nairobi and fall asleep early.