I just stepped outside. I heard what I thought to be a neighbors car having issue starting. So I peered from the balcony to see what I could see. As I gazed into the night sky, I saw something very unusual. I slow moving, bright green ball fell at a wide angle towards the surface. It had a tail, only about double it's size. What could this be? It resembled a firework, but had a comet like shape. With the meteor hitting Russia last week, I can only wonder if it's a piece of space stone burning up into our atmosphere, as shooting stars are. If this is so, it is quite a wonder to catch tho rare sight!!
Here we are, over a month from our arrival here in Kenya.
I hope that everyone enjoyed celebrating love yesterday! Aria and I went to see the new Die Hard movie last night. It was quite entertaining. My birthday last week on the 5th was just right. We had a meeting with the Kenyan KFC restaurant about their waste vegetable oil for our biodiesel project. I wasn't happy to have such a disappointing meeting on my b day... they will be of no help to us. After that Aria and I went to the Nairobi Arboretum! That was nice! We saw trees that I could have never imagined! I really enjoyed a calm day amongst the trees... the warmest I have ever been on my celebration of life! Last weekend Aria and I went to the Indian ocean coast! It was paradise! Our Italian friend Lorenzo was just about to go back to Italy, and some of our friends that came down from Denmark to do circus work with children were about to head home, so we all met up in Diani Beach. Just south of Mombasa, this little jewel opened up a whole new love and perspective in my life! We stayed at the Nairobi University Hostel that was super cheap, about 5 bucks a night. Just a stones throw down to the beach from our housing, we would be eyed by monkeys that danced around us like children. Very aware, they are snatchers of fruit and shinny objects. The three of us where taking naps in a bunk room. We left the door open and sure enough, a monkey came in and got away with 2 of our three mango's! Our last day one of the guards found us some coconuts that were ripe. We smashed them open and hand fed the little friends as a final offering. It was quite amusing. Even then one ran up and snatched a piece from behind our friend! The beach had a very fine, white sand. One that I have never seen in all my travels. It seemed to be silt based as opposed to quartz, as in our lovely golden Cape Cod sand! Once wet this sand made a hard pack turf, very firm. The tide was quite dramatic. The difference between high and low covered about 500 feet of distance. At low tide, exposed to view, came the true beauty of this place.... The Coral! Some of the closer (and seemed older) coral was exposed at low tide. Our first day we took a walk out on it to explore! We had to navigate the clear water for dark spots, which indicated sea urchins! A step one does not want to take! Once on the exposed coral we began to search the pools. We found star fish that looked like fake toys, tiny little neon colored fish, sea urchins, and other amazement's! The sun was quite brutal (being at the equator) and Aria and I began to burn. We were saved by some Americans that gave us sun block. We shared an incredible and much needed conversation! I rented two pairs of mask-and-snorkel to explore the under. To my surprise there was not much exciting stuff going on around our local coral. We enjoyed some cheap meals (about 1.50 $ each) as the 4th presidential debate played over a near by television. I met a Masai man who I began to like. He shared time with us as he also tried to set up a sale, as most of the locals do to "Muzungu's" aka white people. The next day our Danish friends insisted on a glass boat tour. unfamiliar to me, a glass boat is a flat boat with a roof, and two large sheets of glass in the cabin for people to view . This was offered to us from one of the beach boys ( a local who walks up and down the beach trying to hustle Muzungu's). Original offer was for 2,000 Kenyan Shillings per person, about 23 $$. We got the price down to about $8 per person for the 6 of us, which was worth it!!!! The boat took us out to a coral a bit farther from shore. Here we met up with another 4 glass boats full of tourists. We were all issued masks, snorkels and fins and tossed to explore! I hopped in with excitement and immediately met one of the local guides. He cracked open a sea urchin and a swarm of fish began to feed all around me! Incredible!! Aria and I began to navigate the Alien World!! It was like being in a totally different world! The coral was all different textures, colors, and shapes. The water was incredibly salty making it effortless to float! I can't even begin to explain the beauty we saw; giant clam like shell animals with 4 different colors, fish of all shape, colors and sizes, so much neon!! Some of the highlights were a tiny cray fish with yellow and black stripes guarded by a larger fish, a Lion Fish!!!, clown fish, many sea snakes (yellow with black stripes), a school of minnows that surrounded Aria and I, and much more!! I had "The Life Aquatic" sound track running through my head the whole time! I totally love exploring the sea! I found a new love! I can't wait to do it again! Oh and we found a dead sea turtle that washed up on shore. Our final day I helped about 15-20 beach boys push a glass boat about 200 feet up the sloped beach. Incredibly hard work, this took about 1.5 hours. Inch by inch, we pushed with all our might. It was amazing to listen to the men talk in their local tongue, with the "one two three push" in what I believe was Swahili. We were all payed 100 Kenyan Shillings, about a buck and a half! Sorry for the length! There was so much more in those three days.Some pics to follow once I upload!! in other news, we began construction of our biodiesel processor today! The project is moving along. We still only have three places we are collecting from, despite our 1 month of outreach. This is difficult. We must find more oil. Send along news from back home! How was the snow storm! Sorry I missed that! Much love to all!! Chris-topher and Aria Some news from here. Aria and I have been not 100% healthy since we got here. Mostly minor things; Aria had a rash, I had diarrhea.
Our project is moving slowly, at the pace of things in Kenya. We are stressed about the personal investment that we are putting into the project, without looking for any return (being a volunteer, community project). We came here blind and ambitious. Next time proper fund raising and such will be in order before coming. But we had no idea what it would be like I've here, so we had to try. I think the project is feasible, but will take more time than I think we may have to give it. My friend Charles Reith (former professor at Tulane) is now the head of AUN sustainability department (American university of Nigeria). In mid march we hope to fly there to do a similar project for AUN and a part of one of Charles' classes. This will be a payed gig (but for sure not a huge money maker). I don't see us getting this project off the ground that fast. Things move very slowly here, so we are faced with some hard decisions. The best scenario would be for the AUN project to be delayed, so we could give the Kenya project complete and patient attention. This has added stress to stress that we already have, including the brand new laptop that we were borrowing from the community was stolen out of our office. We had it 5 days, Aria working on it consistently, and we left the window open out to the roof. A child most definitely was used to squeeze through the small opening between the security bars. We have reason to believe that it was one of the orphan boys in the community in which we have been staying. Loosing all the work she had done, including her jump drive with all her personal info, Aria (and I) were very put off. In short, we've had difficulties. But good times as well! At least two of the major 5 star hotels of Nairobi have committed their oil to our project, and we have our own transportation, a small 175cc Chinese made motorcycle. A crew of Danish actors and circus performers were just here. They did a community performance in Kibera slum (one of the biggest in the world) that was amazing! See my blog for pics! We are resuming our efforts and going to keep trying. Logistics are a nightmare. We will be giving this our best shot and the success will rely on the team, not the individual. More reports soon. We are still looking for donations! Please if anyone can donate or knows anyone who would like to donate send them our way! One can obtain a tax credit if a donation is $250 or higher by our fiscal spinster the Alliance for Affordable Energy in New Orleans! Please write and let us know what is happening back home. It's a comfort to hear news from back home, in a place of hard comfort! Much love to all Our Danish and Kenyan friends performed in this peace rally yesterday. Free and open to the public, the event was held in one of the worlds biggest slums. Kibera slum. Quite awesome stunts, music and dancing!!
Something happened to me that day. Up in new hamster, as the still of winter calmed the forest, the cold of night pronounced the stars.
I stood there, alone, just about to turn 19. I knew, since my awakening of the mind (around 13-14 of age) that this turning of age was something special. The tranquility of the forest was familiar to me by now. I was completely comfortable. I felt the universal unity ,clear, all present. My eyes looked completely at the frozen, still trees, the back drop of the deep night sky; stars' bright pure white radiance of light, and the snow; purity, insulation, comfort. I was in my temple. My favorite place, with my favorite things. I could have teared at that moment, overwhelmed by the love I felt in this place, in this time space. A change. A shift. Something expected. An awakening if my awakening. What I learned in that moment was that that feeling was ever present. always in the moment. Right there, as I choose to acknowledge. Two weeks in Kenya
Aria and I spent the first two weeks here in Kenya tending to each others illnesses. First it was I, with pneumonia, and then Aria with a strange flu. The first few days here were quite busy, and combined with the common New England cold and 24 + hours of traveling with little sleep, we had the perfect concoction for getting ill. Aria was kind and nursing of my needs, and the day I felt better, she came down with different ailments. A few days ago she came over her illness, but is now uncomfortable with a skin rash. We have been off to a rough start. The Kuvuli center where we are staying and building the biodiesel project I quite complete. There is a doctors office right here for the community (very cheep rates, and volunteers can get free care), a dentists office, pharmacy, sewing center, bakery, African art store (with art from community members), and an orphanage. Please do take a moment from your busy life to look at the Koinonia website. It's amazing what Padre Kizito has fine here in Africa. Kuvuli is just one of the five or so centers that he has started for the people here. Our third floor balcony looks over a basket ball court where the orphans play daily. Exotic "mouse birds" with long tails, kites the size of large hawks, dark iridescent Ibis's and other beautifully colored blue, orange, and yellow birds visit daily. At night, a large white owl visits with a cryptic screech. Over the neighboring walls one can view the neighborhood goats. The streets are full of goats as well, scattered amongst the crowds of people, ferrel dogs, chickens and the occasional sheep. Our Kuvuli center is off a main road, down a smaller one lane road, that is high in the middle and slopes to rather side. As a car approaches another, one must pull their vehicle off to the side. Motor cycles, cars, and matatu's (local for buses) barrel quickly down the street dodging the many pedestrians. The drivers are quite keen, and it's common for cars to come uncomfortably close to the walkers. Women often carry large injects on their heads. Loads often include 4 gal buckets of water, sacks of food or a large box. Some of the men have carts that they pull down the road. One in front in the position of a horse, and an assistant in the rear helping push. They carry quite large loads this way. The local street I lined full with little shanty stores not more than 10 feet across. Almost all food and other essentials are found right out our front gate (our center is protected by a large metal gate guarded by security 24 hours a day). We purchase mangos daily for about 23 cents a piece. Rice, carrots, potatoes, chard, cilantro, sugar, milk, beans, tomatoes, beans, and other fresh produce is common everywhere. We eat well! Yesterday we went into the city center. As one could assume from our neighborhood, the city center resembled New Delhi India. Completely packed with people! Traffic is almost always jammed, and people, carts and bicycles are everywhere. There is a string Indian presents here. Many of the imported goods come from India and china. The local people from the Kuvuli center often accompany us for shopping, due to the white person tax. White people are very uncommon here, and everyone thinks we are rich. We are often times asked for hand outs, usually three times a day or more. The people here are quite kind to us. We often times get looks as we walk and the children love to say "how are you", a phrase that must be learned in school. It is comfortable temperatures here right now. We are locales just one degree south of the equator, but at about 5,000 feet above sea level, so the temperature is in the upper 70's during the day, and 50's at night. Quite comfortable! Our little apartment has all the essentials; hot water, shower, bathroom, bedroom, living room, and is rather small but just enough. Padre Kizito has issued us an office with Internet, and we will be getting a computer soon. The constellation Orion is probably the bet known constellation in the night sky. Back home, it appears in the night sky just over the horizon. Here it is directly over head, and the horizon revels stars that are only visible in the southern hemisphere. We are 8 hours ahead of eastern standard time. We are going to sleep as you are eating lunch! There is an italian man named Lorenzo living here and going to school at Nairobi university. There is also a woman from Finland doing a really cool project with a children's choir from kibera slums, the poorest part of town and the biggest slum in Kenya. Many of te orphans here are from there, and we will be going there for a peace covert with these boys. Enough writing on my iPhone tonight! More soon! There is so much happening! I hope you all are enjoying these emails! Don't forget to write about what's happening in your lives! Much love to all from Aria and me! With love from Kenya, Chris-Topher and Aria We arrived in Kenya after 24 hours of travel time. Starting at Logan (Boston) to DC, then to Istanbul, turkey, and celebrated the new year as we flew over the continent of Africa.
Around 3:30 am, we arrived at the capital city of Nairobi, where we were greeted by our friend Ayla and her driver, a Kenyan man named Joseph. The streets were full of people celebrating the new year. Joseph took us to the Kuvuli center where we will be working with the Rwandan refugees building a biodiesel processor. Upon arrival, there was a reggae-esque dance party. The party suddenly ended as the power went out, a common thing here. Aria and I slept until about 2 in the afternoon. Ayla woke us up with food and coffee. We took to the streets to walk around. The center is on a dirt road lined with little shanty like stores, selling all sorts of fruits, vegetables, and services like hair salons. Ayla's father, Charles Reith, is a good friend of mine from new Orleans. He helped me with my biodiesel project there. It's been about four years since I've seen him. She took us to where he and his wife Pin were staying, at another Americans house, Dr. Bertrand, a professor at Tulane. We have been staying at this koshie house for the past five days. Charles an crew took us to see a baby elephant orphanage on our first full day here. They had over 20 elephants that were orphaned by poachers or parents that have died. We also saw a rhino, warthogs, and a gazelle. After the elephants we had our first meeting with the crew of refugees. They are an intelligent bunch and seem very motivate at this prospect. The biodiesel project will be much more difficult than in the states. Resources are hard to come by, and the chemical costs so far are very high compared to the US. We are doing a more acute feasibility study, and if we find that it's not feasible, we are going to look at other ways that these people can generate income. They are already doing amazing African carvings and art. It seems probable that we can open a US market for there goods. Many things are different here. Local food and services are cheap, comparatively, but western goods are more expensive than in the states. A jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce is about $5 for example, but one can purchase a mango for about 10 cents. Being a white person here has a tax. There is a tourist price and a local price for almost everything. I was disappointed to find out that most of the large animals endemic to Africa are in large preserves and parks. A tourist has to pay 50-80$ to see lions, elephants, rhinos, and other animals. Locals have to pay 1-10$. Pretty outrageous! |
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