Africanization

Hope you all are well. Its 6pm on Thursday night, and i'm laying on the bed in the guesthouse. Im now in Kuria district, in a town called Kehancha, in the very southwest of Kenya. I got here last Friday night, and will be leaving on Saturday morning for Nairobi for a couple of days before I head north to the last village. Its thunderstorming like a sob right now, as it has every day since I arrived. This area definitely has a very different feel than the places I was at previously. The people are not nearly as friendly, and there is a lot more begging, and from the conversations I've had, a lot more corruption as well. But I visited the land on Monday to start formulating another sustainability plan anyways. The land is about 30 acres of beautiful green virgin land, on the river that separates the Kuria tribal lands from the Maasai lands - if you are not aware, the Maasai are the red robe wearing kenyan pastoralist tribe that survives mostly on a mixture of cow's blood and milk - the Kenyan government likes to promote them in tourist guides, even though they make up something like 1 percent of the population. Looking out into rift valley province, it was kind of surreal to be standing in the very fields where the two tribes historically fought battles over stolen cows, killing the enemy with primitive machetes and knives if he resisted the invaders. And when I say historically, I mean 2009. Wierd. Hence the reason for the broken barbed wire fence all around the property...the fence seemed to be in the way of the war, so they just fought through. Guess the organization will have to suck that cost up. We passed a few dudes with machetes on the tramp through the brush back to the dirt road, and I couldnt help but wonder... Tuesday we went to a school for more of the research, and Wednesday as well. We stopped at a building (i dont dare use the word bar or hotel for fear of misleading some to believe that this was a structure actually worthy of conducting a business) for a beer, but seeing as it was late afternoon, we left after one in order to catch a last matatu. we got one, squeezing 10 grownups into a toyota station wagon (two people sit under the steering wheel section - i dont know how the heck the guys drive that way, but hey, they make it work, so 4 up front, 4 in the middle, and 2 in the trunk) and we took off on the 10km drive to the next town, right on the border with tanzania...we made it about 7 km when we ran out of gas. so we started walking, and made it into town just as night was coming...a thunderstorm was coming in as well, and people were scattering..except for the 3 of us, looking like asses standing out in the oncoming hurricane in the electricity less darkness.... this was like the buildup to the climax in the movie...darkness, wind, swinging broken creaky doors all over, rain coming in....after about 10 minutes we caught the last guy going towards our town, and managed to cram in just as the sky opened up. this drive was about 45 minutes over terrible hilly, dirt roads in the dark. i was about to pee my pants when the guy came to a stop in the middle of nowhere, just one cattle trail heading off to the left, so I hopped out for a "short call" regardless of what the other passengers thought. at that point i didnt care, but upon finishing I turned to thank everyone for waiting, but saw that the driver wasnt around... then i heard the yelling, and through the rain i could see one guy dragging another one on the ground kicking and screaming back toward the taxi. I guess he didnt pay but the driver caught him. the driver was trying to get him in the car to take him to the town or the police, but seeing as that they still practice mob justice on criminals here, the guy wasnt ready to go.. he was cryign and screaming like a little girl wrestling in the rain. we are watching from inside the car...this went on for about 4 minutes probably, and only stopped when a guy showed up out of the woods and paid the guys share...the driver relented on taking him to the town because my guy here is in good with the chief of the tribe, and assured the driver that they would come get him later. all in all it was a ridiculous drive home, about 2 hours after we started...about 10 miles away as the bird flies. we showed up soaked and hungry at 830, ready to eat dinner and crash. today was chill, just worked in town with the aid of functioning electricity on excel reports for a good part of the day, and i got the hole in the soccer ball fixed. i took a break and got hustled in a game of pool this afternoon, and walked home jsut in time to miss getting drenched again. This place knows how to rain something serious. Im looking forward to Nairobi for a couple of days. I could use a real shower, and I really want to use a toilet. Functioning or not, I don't care - squatting sucks. Hopefully I make it there with my computer and am able to get something up here again. Stay thirsty my friends.