Fly out to Eldoret and meet Scott and Claire. Uneventful trip. The views from the plane were incredible and amazingly green. From the air you could really see how many small subsistence farmers there were and how few larger scale farmers exist in Kenya.
Nairobi Airport Domestic Departures:
From the plane:
Eldoret Airport Complaint Box:
We drive into town to the Reformed Church Guest House to drop off my stuff. This is my first exposure to life in rural Kenya, and I’m struck by the poverty and dirtiness. It reminded me of Mexico a bit with the small businesses lining the road ways, especially in the spots with the random speed bumps. But here, it seemed even poorer. About half of all Kenyans are below the poverty line and live on less than $1/day; how, I have no idea.
Reformed Church Guest House:
On the docket for today is to get our sand delivered to St. Catherine’s and we go into downtown Eldoret to meet the sand guy and arrange delivery. When we meet the guy, he tells us that it is 10 tons, as ordered; however, our driver says that the truck can only hold 8 tons and we arrange to weigh the truck before and after delivery at the Eldoret Steel Mill. On the before weigh, we notice a lot of water coming off the truck and wonder if the driver wetted down the sand right before coming in to inflate the weight.
We drive to Cheptiret and assess the road conditions as the last 1.5 km is unpaved. As we’re walking down the road, we’re hailed by a couple Moi University representatives and are told of another route which is apparently safe. This is good news as the attempt to go down the road the prior day resulted in Scott and Claire’s matatu getting stuck badly and the gravel being dumped in Cheptiret rather than at St. Catherine’s. We take this new route down to the site and off-load the sand. We have a couple Kenyans helping out for a price of about a dollar each, I believe it was 300 Ksh for 3 guys to split evenly. The sand is off-loaded and covered shortly before the afternoon rains arrived. We gave Solomon a ride home, and he had about 1.2 km from the road to his house. He took off sprinting to beat the rain, and upon asking him a day or two later we found he was successful. It was a pretty funny sight to see him take off like that, especially so fast.
Just Outside Steel Mill:
Now it was time to weigh the empty truck back at the steel mill. We get the truck up there and find a weight difference of about 7.8 tons. While on our way, the sand guy directs our driver to various restaurants around town as Scott and Claire had asked where some good places to eat were. We went from downtown to the rich area (where the owner of the steel mill lives) to see 4-5 restaurants.
After dropping the sand guy off, we go to downtown Eldoret to eat lunch/dinner and on the way pass by the market place that was packed with people. We ate at an Indian restaurant in the late afternoon and when I get back to the hotel, I pass out. Scott and Claire go into town at 1930 to grab a quick dinner at the grocery store and while they’re gone are robbed by a guy in another room. I find out the next morning as I slept through the night.
More at Reformed Guest house:
Hear that class missed their flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi and will be another day late. Bad luck is hitting them pretty good.
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