Easta

         Things are going well here, The green house has gotten underway and the new schools are in the process of receiving their supplies. We will be doing formal launches at the schools in may, A launch is where the Aqua Clara staff goes to the school, introduces the program to the community as well as build the first filter for the school. But this week has been all about the green house, lots of timber gathered as well as information shared, It should be finished by next week thursday if all sticks to the plan. 

    I was lucky enough to be able to take a little time off for a trip to the rainforest with a friend. The trip was great and I saw some amazing things. Included was a jaunt to Lake Victoria and Kisumu, Kenya's second largest city on the shore of the lake. Kisumu was a great time, the place has lots of good food so I ate well for a couple days. I went out on the lake from a place called Dunga Beach, a small fishing village a few miles outside of Kisumu. We took a boat out on the lake to see some of the wild life. Hippos and lots of birds, My pictures do not do the hippos justice because they are truly massive. You cant really tell but this fella was really really big, We did not get too close in the small boat because of their tendency to flip boats and trample the people inside but it was still great. The birds were also amazing, several different types of storks, lots of king fishers and many unidentified brightly colored ones. All in all it was a great morning.

    After the morning on the lake I moved on to Kakamenga Rainforest, It is the largest remaining chunk of equatorial rainforest in Kenya. There was a time when it was joined to the big forest to the west and the whole forest reached from the Atlantic to the Rift Valley, This is no longer the case due to development, logging and the quest for more farm land in both Kenya and Uganda. We stayed at a place inside the forest reserve, Small thatched roof huts with mud walls and a large communal dinning area. There were a few other tourists there and all of the people who ran the place were great. We took a dawn hike to catch the sun rise from the top of the largest hill in the park. The hike started at 4:30 a.m. I thought it was a little early but after the two hours of walking the sunrise was worth it. We got to the top of the hill around 6:30, right on time. As you can see from the following pictures it was quite an experience. After the sunrise we headed back into the forest to see lots of wildlife. Baboons and a couple different types of monkeys. There is an abundance of reptiles and birds in the park, the most common are chameleons and a whole bunch of different types of snakes, many poisonous luckily we did not come across any of those. There were also lots of different types of butterflies everywhere. 

         

   Easter is a big holiday here in Kenya and many people travel, Unfortunately work requires my direct attention so I will not be going anywhere this weekend. But the couple days off are welcomed with open arms. I am missing my favorite holiday meal at home so on sunday I will try my best to come up with something that rivals it a little bit. I hear the bars are a good time tonight so I think I will have to make my way into town in a few hours. Kigeugeu, a very popular song here, so this is what I have been womping to when I get the chance. Hope all of you are doing great, I am bummed to be missing such great playoff hockey from the red wings but I catch as much as I can on the internet and sometimes if the timing is right I can argue enough and get the kenyans to change the channel from soccer or the news. (the news is hugely popular here for some reason that I can not understand) Have fun and stay healthy,  Talk to you all later.

Love Sam

Jambo Kenya

 A view of the great rift valley on our initial drive to Kisii from Nairobi

 Research on greenhouse construction. This one is about twice the size of the ones we will be building at our schools.

 The office at Rigoma

 This is the storage building that I helped to build. The three tanks out front are rainwater storage. They are nested for over flow. We are demonstrating how people can increase their storage abilities over time, not having to buy a very large tank but a few small ones.

 The site where my greenhouse will be going, We are starting construction on monday, More photos of the project to follow as we move along.

This is an example of one of our water filters. They can filter up to 40 liters of water a day, in most cases that is more than enough of a family of 6 to drink in one day. We also sell the clear plastic containers. They are called safe water storage containers. They have a tap on the bottom as well as a lid to prevent recontamination of the water.

Long days are the way of life here. Early in the morning well into the evening for a volunteer at an NGO. The work is hard but gratifying, the end result looks like it will be pretty great as well. After a night in Nairobi Scott, Claire and I. Scott and Claire are the husband and wife team who manage Aqua Clara’s programs here in East Africa. We traveled due west of the big city to the town of Kisii where I will be working for the next year. The offices are in a rural village about thirty minutes outside of town. We have three rooms in the same building as the DO or District Officer. He is the government representative for the village of Rigoma, where our offices are located. We also have a plot of land about 50 yards from the office where our demonstration area is being set up. The set up and construction of the required buildings are my first responsibility at Aqua Clara. Demonstration gardens have already been planted and are producing lots of vegetables for us office workers to enjoy they also serve as a form of payment to some of the local people that help us out.  My current construction project is a storage building for our filter supplies and general things that do not have a place in the office. The building is almost complete the installation of glass and the rainwater collection system remain. Next will be a green house for growing tomatoes. I am traveling to a site where one is being built this week so I can get a feel for the project and to see exactly how much help we will need. 

The rains have started in the past couple of weeks so it is very hot during the day upwards of 90 then an afternoon storm will roll in around 5 or 6 and cool the whole place down to a balmy 75. One thing that has amazed me is the amount of mud that builds up after so much rain. Pants are usually quite filthy from the knee down after even the shortest of walks. Motorcycles are my main mode of transportation around town. They are pretty cheap and convenient but very dangerous. I have been involved in a couple minor bumps already so if I have the opportunity to walk, I take it. 

Aqua Clara had a week long training last week. We are starting five more schools in my area and our program is expanding to a town called Eldoret, about three hours north of Kisii. There we are starting a bunch more schools. The training session was great I learned so much more about the program and the roles of each of the individuals who works for us.

I am taking a trip to Kakamenga rainforest this week, I felt I deserve a long weekend so thats exactly what I am going to have. I will also get to see Lake Victoria which I am looking forward to. More photos and regular updates to follow my apologies for the time it took for this one but I am really busy. I hope you all are doing great and I miss seeing your smiling faces. Lots of Love

Sam