Chance Encounters

I love walking. Especially around this area because it is so green and beautiful, it just puts me at ease. Several of my new Kenyan friends have commented on and, of course, had to have a good laugh about my affinity for walking.

There is also another, less advertised reason for my walking. It is a great way to be able to interact with people. Especially in the settlements even more interior than Ngorika, people want to greet me and ask what the heck a white guy is doing
way out here.

Today my walking led to a chance encounter that turned out to be more brilliant than a simple conversation/greeting. I was troddling along when I hear “tssst tsst, come to us!” Now usually I ignore people when they due the “tsssst” to grab your attention because it just grates on my nerves but some feeling within me told me to stop and see what they wanted. When I hit reverse I see that it is a man and a woman (and when I got closer another man deep within the hole) working to dig a well. I stop and chat for a little when I quickly find out that one man is a carver and road worker and the other is a mason.

Ding.

My interest alert goes off and excited level goes up. Why, do you ask? Because one of the major issues I have come to notice here in Ngorika is that unless you have a little extra pesa in your pocket (and even then sometimes) most people use the three stone cooking method. It is literally three stones put closer together, fire in the middle, and pot on top. This is highly less effective fuel wise aaaaand produces a lot of smoke. Upper respiratory infections are a high in the area.

The problem I have been encountering with further enquiry is that ant hill soil is hard to come by and much more expensive to purchase in this area and because of the many quarries in the area the use of brick is little to none, yet still much more expensive than many are able to afford.

Long story short he has offered to assist in creating a more cost effective means of creating the improved stones with resources available! He gave me his contact information and I left sunburned, yet satisfied that my little walk had proved to me more valuable than I could have imagined.