Daraja

Those were the best days, those were the worst days
 
September 8&9th

After about 3 hours sleep, at 5 o'clock in the morning, we are on the road to Daraja, Nanyuki. That is about 4 hours drive from Nairobi. The driver is so talkative and so very difficult to understand and we are all so very, very tired. I've got the best seat in the matatu, the copilot seat, yey!!! That means I have to talk with Sammy, which is the most enthusiastic story teller. I think on any other day I would have enjoyed that.

He is talking about crops on our way, animals in Kenya and Denmark, multiple wives policy, safari rides, mountain climbing, invitation to dinner and other interesting stuff like that. We are extremely grateful for his welcome, but if we just could close our eyes for a couple of minutes it would be heaven. Well, when you are driving with Sammy, that is an impossibility, no awkward silence is allowed.

Finally in Nanyuki. The shock is enormous. The little town is so crowded , so dirty, so unbelievably out of our world. The houses and the shops are either small, made of clay or there are bigger buildings with no facade. Everything is brown or grey, like the dust on the roads. The vegetation is almost unexciting. We stop just a couple of minutes at the city mall, which is also the best kept place in town. Here is the first time I'm made aware of the word "mozungu", white man. We do also stand out like a light in the dark. We are moving forward to Daraja, 25 km from Nanyuki. And on our way we really feel we are in Africa: we meet herds of zebras, camels and a family of baboons. Just like that, along the road. It was amazing!!!

 

And then: Daraja. It is not what we are use to at home, but it is easy to adjust. The biggest problem is that there is warm water only if the sun is shining, and only from 11 to 5pm. And the scenery is just something else. Looks like a green desert, low bushes, high cactus trees and almost nothing else. The ground is so red that is unbelievable.

 

 

We are sharing the grounds with a school for girls. They are very shy, so the communication is very limited. All the children attending school in Kenya are wearing uniforms. It looks good, the only problem I see is that the clothes are very thick, for this kind of weather.

The next day, on Tuesday, we were introduced to the culture and power structures in Kenya. As I mentioned it before, there are 42 tribes in Kenya each with it's own language. English and Swahili is the common languages and are used in schools. The interesting thing is that the population, across tribes are divided in 3 groups: bantus, nilotes and cushites. Bantus are the biggest group and their main occupation and income comes from crops farming. Nilotes are also farmers, but they relay on animal products for food and cash. River-lake nilotes are fishermen. As a general rule, bantus and nilotes are Christians. Cushites are traders and the majority of them are Muslims.

Facts:

Kenya’s population just above 43,1 millions.

Fertility rate is 4,19 children/woman

Population growth rate 2,46%

Average age: 18,9

Life expectancy: 59,48 years

Urban population 75%

Comparing with Kenya, the fertility rate in Denmark, in a new report from 2014 is the lowest in 27 years at 1,73 children/woman. Furthermore, life expectancy in Denmark is 80 years old and the average age is 40,7.

In the afternoon, we visited two local families, a bantus and a nilotes. Both houses were made of clay and were small compared to our houses but it was easy to see that the nilotes were more wealthy than bantus. The bantus family had a smaller house and more children and they generally looked more needy. Neither families had any sanitation and I was wondering if they just use the bushes as toilets when in need. They all get drinking water from the rain or the nearby river. "Nearby" could actually mean kilometres. We were informed that it was the woman's job to bring water home for food and drinking. And this is done by hand power. It's no wonder that washing is a low priority. Bad hygiene is actually one of the main factors in the high mortality rate for children under 5 in Kenya. Although WHO, in a report from 2014 announced that we reached the FN's millennium goals for 2015 about reducing mortality for children under age of 5, the issue is still a big problem especially in Africa, south of Sahara. Kenya is struggling with a mortality rate of 73 per 1000 children. In comparison, Denmark has a mortality rate of 3,7/1000 children.

On the other hand, the children I saw looked happy and content, loved by their parents and had a healthy curiosity and reticence towards us "mozungus".

Maybe they were poor in our eyes, with dirty clothes and a smaller house than my tool shed, but they were rich in all the ways that really matter.

After a long day full of impressions, we were actually ready to go to bed before the lights went out at 10 pm.

Good night Kenya, good night Denmark, Good night Romania, Love you and miss you all.