Transition Town Kakamega & Rainforest

Dear friends,

the last week was full of meetings. But, it was worth it: Transition Town Kakamega is finally registered on TransitionNetwork.org (https://www.transitionnetwork.org/) as mulling initiative! Together with the core team we met Florence Masika, an assembly member of Kakamega County, and also visited the Mission of the Fatherless as stakeholder of TT Kakamega. On Friday, 19th the registration of the initiative was successfully completed by the core team! Lets hope for a good development of the newly founded movement!

Sebastian, Florence Masika & me

Prisca of the core team & Sebastian

Hillary, Bridgid & Sharon of core team

On the weekend, we had a trip to Kakamega Rainforest. There, we took the Yala River Walk together with Nixon, chairperson of KEEP. He told us about the challenges of preserving the rainforest and gave us some hints, how to survive in the wilderness. After 6 hours of walking and enjoying the beauty of the forest, we ran into people, caring their selfmade brew out of the woods. All in all, it was an enjoyable and nice trip after all the hard work!

The Yala River

The beautiful rainforest

Nixon at the Yala River

Field of tea at the entrance of the rainforest

People caring brew

Wish you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Frauke

Walk around our new hometown

Hey friends,

the last weekend we had a walk aroundour new hometown Kakamega. Mophat showed us all different districts of the city. And we really fell in love! But see on you own:

Neighborhood of Mophat

The green campus of Masinde Muliro

Mophats home and our friends!

A view over the city

The county court

The beautiful countryside

 Kwa heri,

Frauke

Kakamega-Nairobi-Nakuru-Kakamega

 Hey friends,

Railway of Nairobi

last week I went to Nairobi to pick up Sebastian from Jomo Kenyatta Airport. We spent some days to explore the city a little more. Besides the Uhuru Park, we saw the parliament, different colonial style buildings and the railway station.

Uhuru Park

Crowded junction

After some days in the busy city, we headed back to Kakamega and stopped in Nakuru. It is the fourth biggest city of Kenya and the capital of Rift Valley Region with 200.000 inhabitants. There, we met Vera, Susi and Markus. Together we went to see the Menengai Crater, which is 2490 metres high and its caliber adds up to impressive 12 kilometres! The view was beautiful and the wind was howling. One could imagine the dramatic battle between the two Masai clans Il Purko and Il Laikipiak, where hundreds of Il Laikipiak warriors were chased over the cliff and died. This incident created the name of the crater, because Menengai means place of corpses.

All of us at Menengai

Me at Menengai Crater

Cliff of the Crater

It took us 5 more hours by bus, to come back to Kakamega. But today we enjoyed the sun and now we are going back to work!

Cheers,
Frauke

Transition Town Kakamega

The managing committee of DEMA

This week I gained the first stakeholder over to participate in Transition Town Initiative Kakamega. After meeting the managing committee of Disaster & Environement Management Association (DEMA) of Masinde Muliro University, Alexis and I attended the weekly meeting of the association. We had the possibility to present our project idea: Next week the teamwork will start. Since, together with the most interested members of DEMA we will identify other stakeholder relevant for the project. Then, we will arrange interview appointments with the aim to find more stakeholders willing to participate. All in all, the project starts to fall into place!

Garbage dump of Masinde Muliro University

Weekly meeting of DEMA

 Besides the project, we celebrated the 30 wedding anniversary of Rev. Timothy and Jael Olubero. It was a great and joyful ceremony at Abundant Church in Kakamega.

The happy couple

Alexis, Markus & Susi with our friend Margret

The wedding party

But the celebration was tainted with sadness due to the terrorist attack near Mandera. 28 innocent people died. I´m sad and shocked about this iniquity. My thoughts are addressed to all the victims and their families. Let´s hope for a peaceful future and the end of Al-Shabaab terrorism!

Always yours,

Frauke

Kakamega Rainforest

Hey friends,

the last week was full of work: I finally met Morphat (president of Disaster and Environment Management Association [DEMA] of Masinde Muliro University) and we will start our project in association with the student group. Next week we´ll have a presentation and students who are interested will support us! Finally, the interviews will be done and I´m going to meet a lot of different people. Really looking forward it!

 

Meeting with Mophat

My new rafiki!

Besides, Ivakale had a big stakeholder meeting for the stove project on Friday. It was a big success and everyone was satisfied after 8 hours of enriching discussion.

Stakeholder meeting

Tree planting in the end of the meeting!

The highlight of the week was the sunrise walk on Saturday morning, starting at 5 a.m.
We had a beautiful view all over the rainforest. On our way back we met a goup of 38 Olive Baboons coming along with us.

 

Our Banboon friends

The rainforest and fog indicating the river

Sunrise in the rainforest

Cheers,
Frauke

Kakamega – Kitale and back

Long time no see – but many things have been going on in the last several weeks. 

I finally moved in with the German students Vera and Markus, who I got to know in the Vike´s. Since, Kakamega is working on its grid system we have daily power blackouts. Therefore, working becomes a little challenge, depending on computer research! Anyways, cooking is due to the gas stove still possible and warm showers can be taken in the evenings, when day work on the grid is finished. 

 

My new home

First homemade pasta on gas stove

Concerning the project I met with Joe Nyamulu of Masinde Muliro University Kakamega, who linked me to the student body president Bill Clinton (what a suitable name ;)). Finally, next week I´m going to meet students of the environmental club and we can start working on Transition Town Project. So, bureaucracy and hierarchy are not just common in Germany and need to be respected all around the world.

Meet our Bill Clinton!

In spare time I´m working on my master courses and trying my best to learn Kisuaheli. But there is also some fun time: Last weekend I went with Alexis to Mount Elgon National Park (close to Kitale and border of Uganda). We had a wonderful day having a jeep safari and went hiking on the second highest mountain in Kenya. We saw different caves, waterfalls, monkeys, springboks, waterbucks and the ant lion (one of the small “bis five” of Kenya). Hiking the mountain we could see Uganda and the natural border between the two countries. Additionally, we had an exciting journey home when we were in a Matatu not just driving very fast (it took us 3 hours back, comparing to 5 ½ hours in the forward run),but  also broke a window during the trip. 

Top of the mountain is worth hiking

Our very knowledgable ranger Philipp

The ant lion of the small "big five"

After returning to Kakamega, we had a daytrip through the rainforest visiting our stove potteries Mlachake Women Group and Valongji Group. We took 110 liners to be installed in Malava – except for two of them, which we brought as presents to the house of our friend Benedict. This was the first time I watched the installation of an Upesi stove and had fun to help shaving the clay.

 

Our way to travel through the rain forest

The liners (all in all 1 tonne)

Installing an Upesi stove is hard work!

Hope, next post won´t take so long!

Cheers,

Frauke

Kakamega

Dear friends,

On the highway near Nairobi

I´ve arrived in Kakamega on Sunday. On our trip from Nairobi we stopped in Naivasha to visit Hellsgate National Park. On our bike-safari there we saw giraffes and zebras and I got sunburned pretty hard. Additionally, at Lake Naivasha there are some hippos, which we have seen at night.

Besides the rain, Kakamega is very beautiful. So far, we´ve attended a Barasa, a meeting of chiefs and we´ve visited KEEP, the partner organization of Ivakale.

Giraffes and Zebras

The countryside and the rainforest are amazing. Just passing by, we´ve seen different kinds of monkeys and a lot of different and very colourful birds!

Right now, I´m in Vike´s Hostel!

Cheers,

The Barasa

Frauke

Still in Nairobi

Nairobi National Museum

In the last days Michael and Alexis arrived in Nairobi and now our team is complete. Unfurtunately, Alexis´ laguage is still lost, so we have to wait for it before leaving to Kakmega.
But we used the first additional day not only for still owing arrangements in the Center of Nairobi but also for a visit in the Nairobi National Museum. The exhibition was great and we did not only learn a lot about Kenyan society but also met Lucy and Turkana Boy! Indeed, very affecting was the special exhibition about the terrorist attack at Westgate mall in Westlands (Nairobi). On 21 September 2013 at least 67 people died, no matter which age, religion or race. The message of the exhibition was "in the end we are all just humans" - a great and truthful installation!

The three of us in front of the Museum

Lucy, 3.2 million years old

Turkana boy, 1.6 million years olf

 
Special feature of this week was Tuesday, when electricity was gone and work impossible, we went for a swim in a pool of a nearby hotel.

The awesome pool

Our beloved home in Nairobi

But hopefully, we´ll be able to leave soon for our project!

Cheers,
Frauke