Internship in Kenya: Kakamega

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.