I want to be on the greener side

A year or so ago, I was in Isiolo, rubbing shoulders with the Samburu community. Well, am back again, only this time it’s in Baragoi, and am faced with the stark differences I see life has given each one of us. Here I meet Nachamei, a beautiful 19 year old girl living in Baragoi district; this for some is the other end of the world that Kenyans hear about only when there is drought.

However for Nachamei it’s home; where the cattle come at dusk or after days on end on the trail looking for pasture. Baragoi is also home because she is one of the lucky few Samburu girls to get educated to form four level with a promise to advance to college in May this year. Despite the stark cultural differences, economic challenges and far distance from so-called civilization, I can’t help but envy her. Am green with envy because of the purity of her smile, not yet tarnished with jealousy of what she could have. Oh how am envious of her gaiety, not yet tainted by the harsh realities and unrealities of the city’s life on the fast lane.

But as the grass always looks greener on the other side, Nachamei can’t help but tell me how she wishes she had lived in the city like me, maybe also get a ‘good’ job and go out on missions! Oh Nachamei, if you knew it’s not as green as you may think. Greener I think is where we all are, only that instead of looking at the other side, we chose to throw our cares behind us so that happiness can find us.

The Ewaso Nyiro Experience

If I thought the madness in Oldonyori (by now you should have known where the hell that is) was ‘IT’, ohhhh, how wrong I was. As usual (it has now become the practice) we are still quarreling over this and that before the journey begins (to Borana land now), and unfortunately, this makes the start of our troubles.

So first we forget to take a turn at the required point and when this mistake is realized there is no consensus on what to do. So those with chests (wenye kifua) get their way and we proceed in the wring direction. After driving for over 30km on rough road, we take a detour and proceed for another similar distance after which one local man tells us we are traveling on the wrong direction.

Tired and hungry, we have lunch (chapati nyama – everything here comes with meat even beans) and proceed with our journey. Reaching River Ewaso nyiro, we drive across the dry river bed and boom… we get stuck. Having a local around, we are able to get out of the mud but get stuck again now in the middle of the river!!!

Now the big question is what do you think we should do??? Sms me your answer and I will sample the best in search for a solution!!!

Isiolo – wild and free …….(but not from conflict!)

So I have been planning this activity that will take me to five administrative divisions of Isiolo district for two weeks, and when the day comes, I feel like finally, lets pack a bag and be on our way.

We have a few hitches before we embark on the journey and after heated arguments, we hit Thika road cruising at 100km per hour. All is well till we get to Nanyuki, from where we are to proceed to a division in Isiolo called Oldonyiro. Since none of us knows the way, we make a number of phone calls and after talking to the locals here and there, we are shown a dirt road out of the town that will lead us to the place. We drive for over one and half hours without seeing a human being or any households; at best we only encountered an angry elephant and jumping gazelles. It is at this point that a little bit of panic sets in - the driver asks if we are really on the right way, and the rest of us convince ourselves that were are, not wanting to have to go back the long journey, but also because we are not sure whether we are right by proceeding to God knows where!

Being the ‘supposed’ lead person here, every eye turns on me to make the gnawing decision, so I make a silent prayer to the Almighty and calmly tell the driver to proceed (after all, were have done almost half, we might as well do the other half going forward than backward). For those who don’t believe in God, I pity you, because I asked God for a sign and He gave me one – after fifteen minutes of driving, we come across a small centre and the local policeman assured us we are on the right way. (I know all you cynics are thinking we would have reached it anyway because it didn’t fall from the sky… but that’s you, and this is me who calls it faith.)

Alas! At this small centre guess what we find?? Cellphone NETWORK!!! I know it sounds crazy saying that in this 21st century, but guys… this is Africa. Need I remind you that on that long first part of the journey, we had no network yet we didn’t know where we were going? Additionally we encountered a group of five morans (or warriors if you like) later in the journey striding confidently ( with you know what), and this being Isiolo, you can guess what was running through our minds…. Yeah you guessed it. Anyway back to the network issue, the first thing we all did was try and tell people (family mostly) that we reached well and ta-da-di-da. Later we try and call our contact person in Oldonyiro to ask for further directions and he asks us where exactly we are! What??? We are in the middle of mountains and valleys with no structre in sight (even a manyatta) how do you describe where you are? Do you say we are near a large mountain with rocks on the side, dah! - they are all mountains looking alike. It’s not like in town whre you would say, we are near loita house.

To cut the long story short, we reach our destination by the grace of God, and wow the welcome was wonderful; makes you forget all that drama on the road.