Hello everyone! Dave and I have just finished almost 3 weeks in Kenya, and I thought it was about time for an update!
We have settled into the community life here, which has been very nice. We live in a guest room, and there are currently 4 other volunteers here (Laura from Australia, Nat from Europe, and Lydia and Naomi from Kenya). All of us take our meals together, and often hang out in the evenings. It has been interesting sharing our Canadian culture and getting insight into the other cultures represented, we have had many “Really!? You do ________!?” moments!
Dave and I have each been assigned a large project, though we also end up working on many other things, as A Rocha Kenya has a LOT going on! Dave’s project has to do with promoting a farming method called Farming God’s Way, which is a lot friendlier to the land than traditional Kenyan agriculture. Mine is a tree inventory of an area that was forested many years ago, and replanted about 15 years ago. The data I’ll be collecting is very much a pioneer project, as the growth rates of most indigenous Kenyan trees have not been recorded. Hopefully, this will be quite helpful for starting future reforestation efforts. A lot of the coastal forest has been destroyed through destructive agricultural practices and for hardwood carvings, and ARK is very interested in preserving what’s left!
Other things that we have ended up doing work-wise are: fixing computers (Hannah), working with the tree nursery/planting trees (Dave), going bird watching/ringing/counting (both of us, did I mention that the staff at ARK LOVE birds?), and some general data entry-type jobs that come with the volume of data being recorded around here. There is also a nature trail here that is meant to be an interpretive trail for school groups that come here, but it is missing some signage and other amenities, and getting that more interesting is a project that Dave and I will be sharing. It has been really interesting learning more about the plants and animals here, there are so many more than in Manitoba! As well, things grow so quickly when it is +30 and rains every day!
We’ve also had some lovely recreation times, especially enjoying the beach here! It is a beautiful white-sand beach, and the Indian Ocean is nice and warm (though really refreshing after a long day!). The only thing that mars it is the tiny blue Portuguese man-o’war jellyfish that inhabit it! They are by no means fatal, but have caused some serious stinging and itching for some of the other volunteers here (neither of us has been stung... yet!). We’ve taken goggles out and seen all kinds of cool fish. Hopefully we will soon get to go snorkelling on the coral reef that is just off the coast here!
The local economy is based largely on subsistence agriculture and labour-type jobs, and the roadside scenery abounds with goats and cows, tied to various fences and bushes as they graze on the roadside. I went on my first “tourist” trip to Malindi (the closest city) the other day with Laura. We took a matatu (cheapest form of transport here, a 14-passenger van that costs 80 shillings, or about 1 canadian dollar, to get from Watamu to Malindi), and realized partway through we were sharing it with a goat! The wails that I had initially thought were a baby got a bit too warbly to be mistaken for anything else!
I hope that this gives you a bit of a picture of what is going on here. It is currently about 6:30 pm and raining, though there have been many lovely warm and breezy moments today. We’ll have supper in about half an hour, and then a bit of downtime J
Hannah
