Tenkes Primary School in the Mau Forest

Our guest house in Narok had a great atrium full of lush plants and bushes. It was a joy every morning to walk out of our second-story room and be greeted by this sight on our way down to breakfast. Yes, that’s a poinsettia plant!

From our balcony, we had a view of the city, including herd of 9 cows on their way to pasture every morning at 7:15 a.m.
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Granddaughter Lauren and daughter-in-law Kim on the balcony.

Our hosts, Oldere (OD) and Marilyn gifted us all a shuka - a Maasai cloth that can be used as a jacket, scarf, blanket, cape, etc. Its use (began mid-20th century) replaced the traditional leather of centuries past. You’ll see it here and there throughout the pictures.

On Wednesday morning we loaded up the vans for a day trip to Tenkes Primary School up in the mountains of the Mau Forest. The paved road ended when we left Narok. From there up the mountain it was a deeply rutted dirt road traversed by pedestrians and boda-bodas (rented motorcycles used as taxis) alike. Villagers from the mountains walked down the road (no such thing as sidewalks in Kenya) with goats, chickens, charcoal or whatever they had to sell. Children walked up to their schools. It’s difficult to gauge the distance. Had the road been paved, it would have probably taken us roughly a half hour. However, given the condition of the road, it was three to four times that.

When we arrived at Tenkes Primary School, we were greeted by hundreds of children (don’t know the exact count, but we were swarmed!). They treated us like celebrities. It was humbling and felt so undeserved.

Many of the older girls were wearing their traditional jewelry and costumes because they had a performance planned for us after lunch.

But in the meantime, they wanted to say hello to us, practicing their English (“Hello, how are you?”) and touching our hair and skin. They were also fascinated with the Fitbit on my wrist. Several of the older girls remarked how soft our skin was compared to theirs and how lucky we were. But I told them that their skin was a more beautiful color, so we both had good and not-so-good things to deal with.

Most of the children had discolored teeth, which I remarked on later to our hosts and group. One of our group is a dental hygienist, and explained that Kenya has one of the highest levels of naturally-occuring fluoride water levels in the world. The staining is called dental fluorosis. The fluorosis is merely aesthetic, and their teeth are otherwise very healthy and strong.

In the picture above, note the building in the background. That is one of two classroom buildings. There is a separate kitchen for cooking school meals and a separate latrine, discussed below.

Our first order of business after the greetings was to visit a washroom (the term used in Africa). At this school, the facilities were a very rough latrine, with one side for “Gents” and one side for “Ladies”. Our term for it was “squatty potty”, because they were just holes in the ground.

Here one of our group, Ellen, holds the door on the ladies side while my DIL Kim waits her turn. After our visit to the latrine, we used our packed hand sanitizers. 

Next we handed out composition books, pencils and pens, erasers, pencil sharpeners, stickers and more.  It was an organized chaos, and the kids were appreciative. In many cases, the supplies they received would save their families the equivalent of more than a week’s worth of income.

Above you can see part of the line; a school child receives supplies from Mary (gray hoodie) and MaryAnn (red shuka) in our group. 

Next we planted some of the 300 tree saplings we brought. Here is my granddaughter Lauren planting one of the trees.

Many of the children were given trees to plant at home. The saplings will grow into trees and become a tangible savings account for them. The money they can earn by selling its wood eventually will help fund a further education beyond primary and secondary school.

Next we were asked to walk into the bush up the hill with the elders of the village (Entiak). They had slaughtered a goat and prepared a meal for us in celebration of our visit. This was the view across the road from the school. The Mau forest is breathtaking.

Just up the hill we passed their newly-built church. Most of the native Kenyans in this part of the country are Christian. The population of Kenya also includes a lot of Muslims, although they are concentrated more near Mombasa, by the coast of the Indian Ocean.

The Maasai ladies and girls had warm water and soap and greeted each of us as we took turns washing our hands. We were then directed to sit on cushions of mountain sage that they’d prepared for our seats.

After a speech by the head elder (translated from Maasai by our host OD), we were served nyama choma which means roast meat. This roast meat may be goat or beef, but is usually goat, as it was in this case. We all chewed on the pieces offered, and then the young girls passed out a delicious complete meal for us. We ate a meal of chapati (traditional tortilla-like bread), potato, rice and vegetables, plus another piece of nyama choma. The helpings were beyond generous, and our copious leftovers were scooped up for ???? (the goats? the kids?)

We were directed to use the sage leaves as the natives do - as napkins. And indeed, they were effective (and fragrant) in cleaning our hands of any grease and food residue. Further uses of the sage were then shown to us. The young branches, after being stripped of leaves, could be used as either a toothbrush (if left thick and fiber-y) or pared down by hand to make a fine toothpick. I was honored to have the village head elder clean my teeth for me. I think.

Next we were divided up into groups and enjoyed a ceremony in which we were accepted into the Maasai tribe and given our Maasai names. I have mine (and my DIL's and DGD’s) recorded, but the picture will suffice for now. My Maasai name is Nalakiti. It means (according to the elder’s speech): Admirable woman who walks in a stately manner, with grace.

I learned in later days that the pared-down version is Woman Who Walks Slowly. Hahahaha!

But Wait! There’s MORE!!

We were escorted back to the school and up the hill (in my case with the head elder guy holding my hand - I kid you not!) to get a tour of the classrooms. After seeing the outside of the building in an earlier picture in this post, the inside should probably not surprise you. There are no windows, lights (although some solar power exists in the village), or other power. This wonderfully friendly teacher was very proud of his students and their progress. He teaches the Second Level, and next year will move with his students to the Third Level.

Next, we all were lead to some chairs set up for us, along with the village elders, to view the entertainment prepared for us. Here is Head Elder Guy and I sitting together before dancing started. After following me around, cleaning my teeth, holding my hand and sitting by me, I was wondering if this was usual treatment. Just then, he leaned over and whispered in my ear, in English, “Will you give me your........      watch??"

What a great many chuckles I’ve gotten over that story! Of course, I said no. Heck, it was my Fitbit, not some ordinary watch, LOL.

I have a couple great videos of the girls dancing, but am hesitant to insert them. Yeah, I inserted the few-second video above (fingers crossed it works) of Narok, but I recorded all 6-plus minutes of the two dances, and don’t want to push my luck.

Two of our teammates, Ellen and Shelly, presented the school with a number of soccer balls for the kids. In Kenya, soccer balls are worth their weight in gold. Below is a picture of them with the athletic teacher (holding the balls) and the school principal (extreme left).

And that was our memorable day! All that was left was to traverse down the mountain. But we did stop to take a picture of this majestic umbrella acacia tree as the sun was setting.

With a little luck, I’ll have a third installment of this travelogue ready on Friday. And then on Saturday, I’ll be joining in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge ladies to round up my July red scrap sewing. Hope to see you back here!

This is the second post of my Africa trip.
See Part I HERE.

My African Adventure - Part 1

It’s been a bucket list dream of mine, since I started a bucket list three decades ago, to visit Africa. And this month, I was able to tick this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity off my list. And it was more than I could have ever expected.

Along with my daughter-in-law Kim and granddaughter Lauren, I joined a Harambe Humanitarian effort. There were fifteen of us who visited Kenya for 12 days (along with our American/Kenyan host couple and their 2 children). In that time, we accomplished two secondary school visits/programs for Days for Girls, visited a DFG center, visited two primary school to distribute composition books, pencils, erasers, and other school supplies, as well as distributing soccer balls (and pumps) and several hundred wooden toy cars. We took hundreds of pictures to share with the Kenyans. And our hearts were stolen along the way!

In addition to the work, we visited the Maasai Mara for two days of safari. We visited a Maasai manyatta village to learn how they lived, we met Maasai warriors in the bush and learned of their rituals and purpose, we were invited to a Maasai home for a delicious lunch, we shopped in the local marketplace and in a Kenyan grocery store and mall. We walked and motored the streets of Narok and woke to the sound of cowbells as local herds made their way to pasture. We visited an elephant orphanage, a giraffe sanctuary, and made lifetime friends with our teammates and local Kenyans. I didn’t spot a blue-shirted Obama, LOL, but our former President was there visiting his father’s homeland at the same time we were.

I’ve got so much to share, that I’m going to break down my trip into several picture-laden posts. I don’t know how many it will take, but I’ll just keep sharing until we get through it. I’m anticipating about 3-5 posts per week for two or more weeks.

Let’s start with our first day. We lost a day in the air flying from the USA to Amsterdam to Nairobi. We landed in Nairobi late at night on Monday the 9th, made it through Customs without incident, and then drove in three vans to our lodgings at the Royale Guest House in the Karen district of Nairobi. Karen is named for Karen Blixen - you may remember the book or movie Out of Africa. Most of this district is what was once her estate, and her home is still there although we did not see it.

These were the grounds of the guest house. We ate outside under the canopy. It was too cold to swim (mid-sixties, Fahrenheit), and anyway it was only a one-night stop. We were headed to the elephant orphanage and then the 3-hour drive to Narok where we’d stay for 4-5 days.

Guest houses and hotels here are not fancy. And yes, it looks like a bomb went off in this room, LOL, with our messes. We had mosquito netting for every bed in every stay. Plus we were taking anti-malarial drugs and spraying ourselves well. It was probably overkill for this time of year; I only got one mosquito bite the whole trip.

I enjoyed this unusual tile in an outside alcove off the breakfast terrace.

In the morning, I was awakened by the singing birds as dawn broke. I could hear the sound of distant drums, and I thought “How lovely - what a perfect way to be awakened!” Once I got up, however, I realized the drums were not of natives, LOL, but of someone in a nearby home or ?? playing the bass on their stereo too loud. I had to chuckle at that.

Here’s a photo of our group as we got ready to climb into the vans to take us to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage (with a fourth van carrying just our luggage!).

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, takes care of many animals, but primarily elephants. We got to visit with their 18 resident elephants. Many of us adopted (fostered) elephants for ourselves or our grandkids - it’s a unique program that you can read about at the link I’ve given. I’ll talk more about this in another post, as we were able to go back there again a week later to visit our “children” (by appointment).

A school group (in front) and the public wait for the elephants

The orphanage is open for one hour per week for the public. The ellies are brought in in two groups; the under-2-year-olds and the 2-3-year-olds. After age 3, they begin their re-integration into the wild. They are with trainers 24/7 (even sleeping time), and the Trust makes sure they learn the ways of elephants and are accepted into herds before leaving them at about age 5.

As they emerge from their forest area, the elephants make their way to the trainers’ feeding ground in groups of 2-4 at a time.

They are fed formula from 3-liter bottles. Each of these small elephants (the first group of 8) get two bottles at this feeding. They drink a total of 24 bottles per day.

A trainer feeds the elephant

 “Hey wait! I want my bottle!”

After the bottles, the elephants get to much on succulent branches and leaves. The spectators are urged not to talk so that the playful elephants, who don’t know their strength, won’t mistake words and gestures for playtime!

The head trainer told us about each elephant and how he/she was orphaned. Many fall into wells or get stuck in mud. Still others are just found alone, and one was found with her trunk nearly severed in a poacher’s trap. They were able to re-attach the trunk, and she is doing great now.

The babies are then led back out to the forest by the trainers, and the whole process is repeated as the ten older (2-3 years old) elephants come in.



After that great visit, we hopped into the vans and rode about 3 hours through Nairobi, small villages and the Kenyan countryside on our way to Narok.

Between Nairobi and Narok is The Escarpment. It’s a ridge that forms the western wall of the Great Rift Valley. Fantastic views of the valley, but it was a bit overcast on this day.

The Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a huge rift, bordered by escarpments. The rift runs most of the length of the continent of Africa. You can read more about it HERE.  A couple months ago there were significant rains and flooding in the area that opened up a crack in the earth in the valley. See the article HERE.

The Maasai tribe of Kenya (some live in Tanzania too) live in Narok County, of which the city of Narok is the county seat. The Maasai lands are divided roughly into the Mau Forest area (mountainous) and the Maasai Mara - the lowland savannah.  Maasai can be spelled with one or two ‘a’s in the first syllable.

After settling in our guest house in Narok, our headquarters for 5 nights, we visited a local shopping center for a late lunch and to stock up on bottled water from the grocery store.

I’ll have more to write about our Home Away From Home in Narok in the next post, as well as our first visit to a primary school and the accompanying festivities.

Finish-Along Quarter 3 Goals

I’ll be in Africa when the linkup for the goal-setting post for the 3rd quarter Finish Along goes live. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I will find some access to wifi so that I can link up this post and participate.

For me, this quarter is going to be focused on finishing up so many projects that have been started over the last year or two. I really want to clear out my queue, or at least greatly whittle it down, so that I can focus on Christmas sewing and new projects come winter. Therefore, this list is ambitious.

1.  Let it Snow

This is a project I’ve had on and off on my lists for two years. I’m going to finish it this quarter! I’ve finally bought a cute hanger for quilty wallhangings in the living room. So now I have a place to hang it (when the time comes) and incentive to finish it.  This is a Heather Mulder Petersen pattern and the fabric is Kate Spain. I still love it, which is a good sign.

2.  Linked Squares
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

This picture shows three pink blocks, but I’ve completed 18 out of 20 blocks in all colors. I just need to make 2 orange blocks when the RSC color of the month is orange and sew all the blocks together without sashing. The quilt will finish at 64x80 and probably become a donation quilt.

3.   All You Need is Love.

There is a lot to do on this quilt; more of the pictured blocks in dark blue, light green and orange. Then a black and white checkerboard row and then the 54 pink hears (already made), and a final round of some 8” block that I haven’t even selected. The quilt will eventually be for my daughter, but it's a long shot for this quarter.

4.   Orange Lozenges
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE. 

I’ve been working on this project a bit recently and it’s farther along than this. I’d love to have it done for fall.

5.   Apron for myself.

I need a new apron badly, and with the summer and fall harvest, I’ll be spending more time than usual in the kitchen. So this is a priority for me.

6.  Aqua Donation Quilt
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I whipped up this cute little top last month with charm squares and some leftover neutral fabric. It just needs to be layered, quilted and bound.

7.  Bowties Quilt

The collage shows some of the bowties I’ve been working on, by color, for the last year. I think I have less than a dozen left to make, then I can begin assembly of the top. The colors will be mixed, but I haven’t decided yet on a setting.

8.  Groovy Guitars

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

My husband Bruce has been so patient waiting for this quilt of his. I still have some hand sewing to do on it - stitching down those small yellow and green circles. Then I will need to quilt it; a simple stipple for the black areas, lines for the guitar necks (to mimic strings) and ??? for the guitar bodies. This is a high priority for this quarter. 

9.   Farm Girl
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

Now that this has (finally) been stitched into a top, the rest will be easy. It needs to be layered, quilted, bound.

10. and 11.

These embroideries are with me on my trip to Africa. I plan to work on them during the looooong flights from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam to Nairobi and back again. I have no specific plans for them yet. 

12.  On Ringo Lake

I joined Bonnie Hunter’s annual quilt-along last December and made great progress until BAM! The steps came right on top of each other near the end, and I got behind. Then the Rainbow Scrap Challenge started up in January, and this has been tabled ever since. I’m not sure I’ll get to it this quarter. However, if I finish up lots of the other goals, this should at least move up on the list!!

And those are my goals for the third quarter of 2018. Fingers crossed that I can link up and make good progress!

Red Hot Sewing

It’s July, and that means a new color - RED - for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. We’re sewing our red fabric scraps and linking up with Angela’s Scrappy Saturday post. Come join us!

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for Kenya for 12 days on a trip that combines humanitarian projects (Days for Girls, ribbon cutting of a new community center, distributing hundreds of wooden toys from Tiny Tim’s Toys) and pleasure (3-day safari during the great animal migration). I’ll be taking lots of pictures, writing in my journal and getting to know as many lovely Kenyans as possible. I’m so excited that I can hardly sit still!

But sit still I did, earlier in the week, in order to churn out as much red scrap sewing as possible. Nervous energy! Here’s what emerged from under the needle....

One Linked Squares block. It’ll finish at 16”. Only two orange ones left to go...

Six 4.5” red bowties. I think I’ll only need a half dozen orange bowties, then I can begin assembly of this RSC quilt.

Lots of selvage squares: 12 at 6.5” and 2 at 4.5”.

Quarter log cabins galore. Sixteen of them at 6.5”.

All I have left to do are the Squared Away sampler blocks, which I plan to work on today since I’m all packed and ready to leave. And then when I get home in a couple weeks I’ll still have all the crumb blocks to work on.

Oh! I also sewed up six cute Christmas tree blocks for the Block Lotto’s July drawing. Coincidentally, they also feature red (with cream and gray or black). These were really fun! The link to the pattern is HERE.

Our garden is going gangbusters, and we have been enjoying the last of the rhubarb (now done), spinach and peas (both done), the butter lettuce (still going), lots of crookneck squash and the cherry tomatoes are just coming on.  I was able to get enough apricots from the tree to make two batches of apricot jam this week, and they are safely in the freezer.

The cats weren’t too crazy about all the fireworks for the 4th of July, but they did love the patriotic quilts I’ve had out. Here Darla models the one I made last year. I have one of Alfie snuggled in the quilt, too, but can’t find it at the moment. But Darla says the picture of her is better anyway.

See you in a couple weeks!

July: One Monthly Goal

Welcome to July - the second half of the year already!! And even though I will be out of the country for almost half the month (going on a humanitarian trip to Kenya), I know I will still have time when I get back to knock out a quilt (she said, perhaps overconfidently....)

Last week I pieced together many of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks from Lori Holt’s 2015 quilt-along. I had been procrastinating on this one because my finished block sizes - it was one of my first major projects - varied by a half inch. But now that I’ve got a a few years and finishes under my belt, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  So here it is, a finished top. And the backing is already pieced (one long seam, it was easy) and waiting.

My goal for July is to get this quilt basted, quilted and bound.  

Since I’ll return on the 20th and probably spend Saturday the 21st sleeping and/or suffering from jet lag, I may not get started on it until the last week of the month, but it’s still very do-able. Unless I return home to a huge mess. DH is staying home to work, tend cats and the garden and “batch it” (play the bachelor) while I’m gone. Seriously, though, I’m only kidding about the mess. However, I do expect to return to a needy hubby, cats and lots of produce to put up!

Linking up to the July goal setting OMG linky party at Elm Street Quilts.