July 26: Technology in Kenya

I'm confused! Apparently everyone but me knows how to text message from any phone, make international calls to and from every country, and download digital photos from a camera. This morning, I tried to make coffee, but the water never boiled. Finally my housemate condescendingly reminded me that "you have to use a match to light the fire." "Oh," I said, "what is a match?" I never imagined I'd come to Africa and be thwarted by technology.

So this morning, I walked about a half mile to the boda boda stand (a boda boda is a bike with at least one tire that's about to fall off, that has a flat seat on the back where passengers precariously hop on - girls sideways so you don't risk showing your goods - and without touching the driver - because boda boda drivers are always men and women should never touch men here, because you would not survive the rumors.) I balanced myself and my enourmous and culturally absurd "Timbuktu" brand computer bag on the boda boda about four miles down the dirt road to the intersection with the main road and then caught a mutatu (a passenger van from no later than the 1970s with rows of seats packed with passengers and all their goods, including their chicken coops, at times) which I took 30 minutes to Kilifi (the larger town outside Takaungu, that has all sorts of new fangled things like cars and electricity). So here I am in Kilifi, using the internet, and trying to write a concise description of my two days here so far. (Don't worry. I've traveled with EAC staffers.)

I have only just begun to work on my irrigation project - measuring the perimeter (with a completely inadequate 12ft tape measure and two children that kept lifting the tape so that the measurements were off and then sitting on the tape measure so it couldn't be moved and then yelling "How are you? I am fine!" in a sing-song rhythm.) Pre-school age children, most women, and older people don't speak English here. Instead they speak Swahili and their tribal language, Giryiama (sp). But everyone can say "How are you?" And children think it's hysterical to answer themselves with "I am fine!"

Swahilis and Giryiamas (also the tribes in this area - Swahilis are descended from Arabs who were ancient trading partners - Giryiamas are a Bantu tribe) are very polite. There is a whole string of greetings everyone must say to each other, or risk being rude. Unfortunately, these greetings are all in Swahili (and some are in Giriyama, which I haven't even begun to conquer) and they vary depending on what time of day, how old you are, where you're going to or coming from... "Habari za asubuhi?" (News of the morning?) "Nyuri" (Good) Habari something I can't understand yet?" (News of your morning?) "Safi sana." (Very good) All this changes in the afternoon. And then there's "Mambo" (What's up?) "Poa" (cool) which should only be said to teenagers and young adults. I already made the mistake of saying this to an elder. Goodness.

At any rate, there is much to do as far as the irrigation project. My main concern is that there is not a faucet for many many yards, so connecting to a faucet would not be practical, or efficient, in terms of supplies (too many feet of hose). Furthermore, it would be eaten by goats, torn up by children with sticks, or stolen by someone who needs some hose for whatever reason. So now I am considering building a high platform, buying a 500 gallon tank, and placing it up high. Then maybe we can use a hand pump to pump water from a reservoir on the ground up to the tank. Or do you have any better ideas? At this point, I'm just trying to measure the field and identify the crops, which noone seems to be clear on. They give me the Swahili word, and then say there is no English word. Which is probably not true; they just don't know the word. There are some funny stalks sticking out of the ground. I asked someone if they were beans (you know? bean stalks? I'm not a gardener!) and she said "Yes, bean stalks." I later learned they are grasses to feed the goats. I haven't figured out yet why you'd use so much plowed field to grow your goats grass. Goats eat wild grass!

I have pictures, but at the moment, no way to download them, since I can't find the cable, don't have the software, and my batteries are dead. There's a lot to overcome here in Africa.