Kenya

The first place for me to set foot on African soil (although the flight stopped briefly in Kigali, Rwanda) was in Nairobi, Kenya. After that it was Mombasa and the little village of Kijire. Click on each photo to see a larger, more detailed version.

Nairobi

It so happened that one of my classmates had grown up in Nairobi. Through her graciousness, I spent the first few nights in her old room.

Not only was it comfortable and cozy, someone had went to the trouble of decorating the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars. (The butterflies on the walls were a nice touch, too.)

Mombasa

Fort Jesus overlooks Mombasa's port, the largest in the east of Africa.

Mombasa, located on the east coast of Africa, has several remnants of previous Portuguese occupation, such as Fort Jesus.

On the south of the island is one of the roads that lead to the ferry.

Along the road is a typical market, albeit smaller than the market in the center of Old Mombasa. These women are selling bread of some sort.

The road finally meets the sea; there's no bridge, since large ships frequently have to enter. Instead, there's a ferry which takes long lines of cars (and long lines of people who can't afford cars, or even shoes) across the water — in just a few minutes.

Along the south beach, there's all sorts of little resorts where rich (i.e. those with money left over after that needed to survive) tourists can go. Sitting by a clean beach in the sun, listening to a live band, eating all-you-can-eat Indian buffet, it's hard to imagine that anyone anywhere has troubles. Hey, there's even a camel for the tourists to ride.

Mombasa, with its port, is apparently one of the most important commercial cities in the area.

The bus station in Mobasa is quite busy, with each little Matatus (taxi-like busses) transferring people around whenever they can get fill up with passengers. It's at the bus station where one can also get full-size coaches to various cities. My destination was Voi, to visit a small village near there named Kijire.

Kijire

One of the first people I met in Kijire was Michael and is family.

Until a few years ago, the only way to get any sort of medicine was to somehow travel to Voi, miles away, then try to get to Mombasa. My friend Jane did a great job of getting a dispensary built to distribute medicine and vaccinations.

This is the lady who was trained in Voi who distributes the medicine that's stored in a solar-powered refrigerator that sits in a room in the dispensary that Jane built. This is the appointment book that's kept by the lady who was trained in Voi who distributes the medicine... etc.

Kijire's water, which can be retrieved from several location after a few pipes were installed, is gravity fed from a spring in the hill behind the village. Michael claimed we could reach the source after about 20 minutes. The hill didn't look very high to me, anyway.

On the way up the hill, we passed a grass hut, the home of someone in the village.

Michael was doing fine, but I was slowing him down. The fact that I kept stopping to rest didn't speed things up, either.

After about an hour, the village faded away; I realized the hill was a bit higher than it looked from the village.

Finally, after about an hour and a half, we reached our destination: the source of the Kijire water supply. (There are two, actually, right near each other.

Pretty soon the village faded away, and you could see the entire area stretching out before you.

Back in the village, we eat some sort of root (with a texture like a turnip) while standing underneath the orange tree.

I meet a group of people, who take a break from grinding the maize and washing a child in order to get a group photo.

This is one of the only vehicles in the village; its owner is living out of town at the moment.

It's late afternoon, and Thomas (Michael) Mwanbela has just got out of school.

After it gets dark, I meet the sub-chief, Benson Mwanjala, and his family.

That evening I have dinner with the entire Mwanbela family.

In the morning the fog slowly lifts from the top of the hill we had climbed the night before.

It's time for school, and the students put on their sharp-looking school uniforms.

These teachers are responsible for the four levels of the Kijire school.