Coming 'home' again: Kenya forty years later

Editors' note: This is another guest blog, authored by Bill Korol (my dad). We writes about his thoughts and emotions around returning to the large road project he worked on for 2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya. Returning to this project was a peak experience for him, my mom, my aunts and us, truly unforgettable. Take it away Dad!

I left Nairobi in the late fall of 1975 when my two years as a Peace Corps volunteer had ended. I made a promise to myself to return someday to Kenya to see the finished road project and to share some of the wonders of this beautiful country with my family. My job in Kenya was the construction of a paved road from Machakos to Kitui through the Kamba region, southeast of Nairobi. The project consisted of three stages, the mountainous area directly outside Machakos, approximately 10 kms; the rolling hills area from the mountains to the Athi River, approximately 50 kms; and the flatter section from the Athi River to the town of Kitui, approximately 40 kilometers. I worked mostly on the rolling hills section of the road with some involvement in the mountainous section. The final, flatter phase of the project was not built until after I had left.

Athi River

Thinking back my life in Kenya was split between the work week and the weekends. During the week I lived in a large construction camp with 600 National Youth Service trainees outside the village of Masii. The project was well stocked with bulldozers, dump trucks, graders, and other construction equipment. I shared my home in Masii with Jim Pawela, another Peace Corps volunteer from Buffalo, NY. It was a comfortable ranch style building with running hot and cold water, screens (unusual for Kenya at the time) and electricity during the evening hours. After visiting Madagascar with Muriel I realized my life was not a typical Peace Corps experience. The nearby village of Masii consisted of a dozen simple concrete block or mud huts surrounding a square where local vegetables were sold and where villagers congregated. The town had no electricity and one kerosene fired refrigerator in a small store.

Every weekend I drove to Nairobi in either a government issued International pickup truck, my 1956 VW bug (until the engine seized) or my Honda 175 motorcycle. In Nairobi I stayed with friends, played all night Battleship games, shopped for food for the rest of the week, did banking and conducted other business.

Returning to Kenya was something I have wanted to do for the past thirty-eight years, but it wasn't until Wilson and Muriel asked us to join them in their African adventures that it became a reality. Our first stop in Kenya was Nairobi. Since 1975 Kenya’s population has more than tripled and Nairobi has not benefitted from this. The picturesque roundabouts along Uhuru Highway worked well in light traffic but now turn into huge bottlenecks in heavy traffic. The Ngong suburbs where I used to visit friends living in country homes has high rise apartments and major shopping malls. I did not enjoy driving in Nairobi, but once downtown and out of the car the city still had a comfortable, familiar feel. My favorite bar has changed owners and been remodeled, my favorite ice cream stand is still in business and serving some of the finest ice cream in Africa and the streets are still lined with small, independently owned shops. The Hotel Intercontinental, a modern high rise luxury place in my memory, is now dwarfed by the high rise office towers surrounding it.

Bill @ Snow Cream in Nairobi

The peaceful and scenic road I used to travel every week between Nairobi and Mackakos has grown from two lanes to six. Where I used to routinely see giraffe, gazelles and antelope along the way now office buildings, cement factories, steel plants and housing developments line the road. The traffic is heavy and crazy.

Arriving in Machakos, the starting point for my road project, I realize there has been considerable growth of this small city in the past four decades but its character remains the same. We eat lunch in the New Banana Popular Hotel where the food is delicious and inexpensive. The old sports club where I occasionally played golf and racquetball is still in business. The people greet us with typical Kenyan charm and a smile.

It is not until I leave Machakos and actually start driving on the road I helped build that I realize what it means to return to Kenya. Memories flood my brain and I start crying with pent up emotions, delight in seeing a project I worked on not only serving its function but also being maintained and improved. It is a project that continues to improve the lives of the people who live in the vast area served by the road. The mountain section of the road melds into the rolling hill section and looks much like it did when I left. There are occasional potholes that go down to the original crushed stone underlayment and the gravel shoulders have ruts and holes created by runoff. Still the road is highly serviceable and I feel proud that it has lasted as well as it has.

Dad in the mountainous section of C97

A Matatu in action near Masaii

The original road, still functioning after nearly 40 years

Arriving in Masii, the town I lived near, I am stunned by the changes – the sleepy little village now has a six story building, multiple hotels, electricity and paved streets. People line the road selling wares and waiting for matatus to take them to their homes or to other towns. There are few signs of our large construction camp that once dominated this area.

Masii

From the Masii to the Athi River the road improves markedly with new layers of asphalt and paved shoulders. The surrounding countryside is spectacularly beautiful, more beautiful than I had remembered. There is an air of prosperity in the hills with neat farmyards, tin roofed homes and many small fields planted in maize, tomatoes and mango trees. The Athi River is now crossed by a multi-section bridge high above its flowing waters. This bridge was not built until after I left the road project. From the bridge the old river crossing can be seen along the river bed. I remember when water levels were high buses would come from each direction and travelers would get out, put their belongings on their head and wade across the river to embark on the bus that had come from the opposite direction. Now the bridge assures a swift and dependable crossing of the river in all weather conditions.

The original bridge across the Athi

What an improvement!

It is wonderful to see something I had worked on so long ago still in use and helping the people of Kenya. I have a feeling of deep contentment and satisfaction.

 

America: getting ‘settled’

It has been a lengthy couple of days, with both the travel and the friendly time zones heading east to west carving out an extra 10 hours.  On this flight alone we have been in the air 10 hours and forty minutes, but only advanced 3 hours from London to Vegas.  Combine that with the Nairobi-london leg and we are in for well over 24 hours of airports, taxis and tubes.  But, with video on demand and a big backlog of desirable movies, there are certainly worse ways to pass the time.  Mu opts for back to back sleepless nights, the movies are that alluring.   

I know i take it for granted most of the time, but the international air network is a true marvel. During these travel days, i squeeze in a run near Lake Naivasha outside of Nairobi, seeing giraffes and zebras, then jog along the idyllic tow paths in East London, and then the next day brings a stunning sunset trail run in Red Rocks National Conservation Area.  3 days, 3 continents, 3 cultures, 3 currencies, 3 climates.  These three destinations are so different from each other and yet condensed into such a short time frame.  After a half year on the road, and more broadly a lifetime with ubiquitous air travel (in America, at least).  Our itinerary doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is important to step back a little, take a look at a globe and contemplate the distances between these three spots.   Being able to be in those three places in such a short time frame is sort of a magic power when you sit back and think about it, yet a privilege that i all too often take for granted.

Lake Naivasha

Covent Garden

View from Chez Korol in Vegas

Those distances and the fuel required to get these massive 747’s and 777’s around the globe are not costless.  In my past jobs, i have written about carbon guilt frequently (for example here: http://www.avaya.com/blogs/archives/2010/07/my-personal-carbon-guilt.html), and am suffering from an acute round of that malady.  Air travel is one of the most carbon intensive activities in the modern world, moving planes at a high rate of speed requires an enormous amount of fuel.  We have taken 19 separate airplane trips in the last 6 months, and i am a little scared to calculate the carbon footprint of those actions.  As a starting point, the two most recent flights clock in at 1,657 lbs and 2,033 lbs of CO2, respectively, using TerraPass’ excellent online carbon calculator.  Roughly 1.67 metric tonnes of carbon, or the per capita emission for the WHOLE year in Morocco, Fiji, Namibia and Peru (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita).  Having been to all four of those countries, it is astounding that my 3 days of travel add up to the entire yearly emissions.  I don’t have a great solution, still working on that part, and many of our recent experiences, like walking through Petra at night with thousands of candles illuminating the ruins or rafting the mighty Zambezi, don’t lend themselves to dematerialization.    

It feels wonderful to be back in the States, with the first couple of days spent seeing and doing our favorite things here Vegas.  On the other hand, we are so used to the movement and newness of places, the very essence of travel, that getting back to the mother country is certainly a change in mental orientation.   Instead of exploring, we are climbing at our favorite spot in Red Rocks and gorging at the Argentinian parrillada, favorite spots that we have enjoyed many times.  

Of course, and in true Korol style, we won’t be settled for a bunch more days; after Mu drives back down to Vegas from her family up in Salt Lake, after we drive to Colorado with our little subaru stuffed to the gills with our ski gear, after a much anticipated long weekend with friends from Denver and DC at a big house in Dillon. Only then will we get really, truly settled in our rented condo outside of Breck.  Having a place to call home will be a big switch from these last 6+ months, let me tell you.

Exploring the Kenyan Countryside

After several days in and around Nairobi, we have headed out to the countryside and had some wonderful adventures. It is hard to overstate how terrible and debilitating the traffic is in the capital, and hence the relief we collectively felt as we got out of the city and started exploring the abundant natural wonders on offer in this country.

A few highlights include;

Longonot Volcano

Two days ago, we hiked a big volcano, Longonot, which erupted last about two hundred years ago to form a perfect, steep and arresting crater at about 9,000 feet. It looks out on both sides of the Rift Valley escarpment, and the interior sides of the crater boast sheer cliffs hundreds of feet tall at places. It is 7.2 kms around the rim, which came as a bit of a surprise because it seemed like a short little jaunt on initial view. Thankfully, it was not to be, as the track is amazing, a knife's edge throughout with one turn of the head yielding this verdant green crater and the other the immensity of the Rift Valley.

Lake Nakuru

The next day, we had a peak experience in the famed Lake Nakuru National Park. This park boasts a stunning array of birds and animals, one of the highest in Kenya and Africa generally. This was my first time self driving on the game drive, and we used seemingly every kilometer of the park's roads seeing animals. Highlights included leopards lounging in an acacia tree, a white rhino mom and kid gracing the savanna, lions resting under a tree, 7 distinct species of raptors, and flamingos and pink backed pelicans along the lake's edge. Wow, what at a day. I enjoyed the driving part as well, putting the 4x4 to good use. At one point I had to pop it into 4x4 low and emulate the taxi brousse in Madagascar to get through a particularly troublesome stretch of road --a wet, muddy hole.

We, of course, wanted to soak up every last minute of daylight, and so sunset found us a worryingly long way from the park gates, which are supposed to close at dark. It can be hard to pull yourself from watching lions, after all. This meant a frantic drive all the way north in the park, made longer by a barely marked detour that added a handful of unwanted kilometers. I was pushing the 4x4 as fast as I thought prudent, mixing and matching between 2nd and 3rd gear. As darkness really descended, we came across hundreds of massive buffalo in a line, stretching a quarter of a mile across the road. These beasts are some of the biggest and baddest on the savanna so I edged slowly through the pack. My heart skipped a beat when a couple big males got a little spooked and unpredictable. Then, a few minutes later, Mu shouted out, 'look out for the rhinos!' and sure enough there were 5 big white rhinos and one juvie on the side of the road, emerging as ghosts from the twilight and backdropped by the still lake. We could not linger, as the gate might already be closed and the rhinos did not seem all that comfy with our rig. A few k's later, we pulled through the gate, no fine for arriving at dark, and oh so thankful for an amazing day.

Masai Mara

We then headed several hours drive down the expansive countryside to the famed Masai Mara National Park, which combines with the Serengeti in Tanzania to form a HUGE contiguous protected area. We are here for a few nights and will be exploring the park from a very comfy home base a stone's throw across the Mara river from the park. Game driving, both self drive and with guides, is sort of similar to skiing (care to guess where my mind has wandering a few times lately?). You are doing it for quite a few hours, with a rhythm unto itself. In both, there is a bit of sticker shock at first, but then you are on the savannah or the slopes and it all seems entirely reasonable and worthwhile. Also, once you do a per hour cost, that initial sticker shock fades away. We have found it is about on par with the hourly rate for a movie nowadays.

Our first morning, we woke up before the sunrise, and headed into the park with capable Tom as our Masai driver and guide. Soon, the sun broke the horizon and brought some much appreciated warmth and light to the start of the day. We ambled in the LandCruiser through the savannah, seeing buffalo, giraffe, gazelle, and the "blue-jeaned" antelope -- topi. Then, we stopped at a big tree and enjoyed the sheer size and grace of a tawny eagle.

After a few minutes, Tom said almost under his breadth - 'I think there is a cheetah over there, about half a kilometer away, should we go?'

'YES!'

Off we tore through the savannah, about 500 meters to where there slowly became visible a solitary cheetah. In its mouth, a very dead thompson's gazelle. The cheetah had taken it down this morning, probably about 30 minutes ago and was getting its fill (5-7 kilos of meat) before ceding the carcass to the scavengers, most likely hyenas, lions and jackals. Cheetahs are actually one of the only predators on the savannah that will only eat what they kill, refusing to scavenge for their caloric needs. That is a work and food ethic I can certainly appreciate. An adult will average 2 kills a week, and this one sure looked to be enjoying its well earned feast.

We stood transfixed, about 20 feet away, and heard the ripping and tearing of the muscles and bones in the powerful cat's jaws. Amazingly, there was zero blood on the cheetah's mouth or luscious coat. The bright red of the gazelle contrasted powerfully with the unmistakable spots of this cat, which can reach up to 60 mph on the open grassland. We were so lucky to be here, sharing in this essential aspect of the overall ecosystem. We were even luckier to be the only truck at the kill for minutes, as the stillness and calmness allowed Mu, my parents and me to fully absorb this special moment.

Now this is what I imagined I would expierence on safari in Africa!

 

Being helpful: Solar panels in Madagascar and Kenya

I am writing this blog post from Aruba Mara camp in the Serengeti. The Kenya side of the Serengeti (where we are) is called Masai Mara because this is the traditional land of the photogenic, famous and enigmatic Masai people.

Here in the Aruba Mara camp, they use a solar power system with dry cycle batteries to power the electricity that they need. Their system has around 20 solar panels, 14 batteries, and a solar technician to maintain the system. The solar technician learned his trade in Kenya's big coastal town, Mombasa, and said that solar energy is being used all throughout Kenya.

We were all drawn to the solar system, as well as other systems in place at this eco lodge to make it self sufficient. With the Mara river on our doorstep, and the enormous park across the river banks, we are at the end of the road, in the very best way, and hence the need for systems of self sufficiency. This is the only way to have reliable, sustainable sources of essential, or near-essential, goods, such as water, refrigeration and power. We have seen such systems in place throughout our travels in Africa -- a good think in a land of vast distances, harsh climates, and spotty State infrastructure.

For example, in an earlier post, I touched on how my friends in Marofandilia were using a solar power system for energy in the village. Unfortunately, that solar power system has partially broken down. The system has two spare batteries, which only draw enough to charge people's cell phones. Before the system deteriorated, they had enough power to run a fridge. The fridge allowed the village to have cold water, coke, beer, etc. Since it is so hot in the area, those cold drinks are worth their weight in gold. The refreshments were also a very important draw for tourists as they headed to the parks that are further along the rough road; and to get those tourists in the spending mode with the village gift shop.

So Wilson and I have embarked on a quest to help get the solar panel system working again. We enlisted the assistance of his dad, Bill Korol, an expert in buildings' energy systems, and my brothers: Dave Moody, an electric journeyman, Paul Moody, an electrical engineer, and Joe Moody, a solar panel technician student. Even with this cadre of experts, the road to assisting my friends is difficult.

Assisting in getting the solar panel system up and running requires multiple steps:

(1) figure out the exact problem

(a) try to get the specifications of the solar system from the US Embassy because no one in Marofandilia had any paper work about the solar system;

(b) call Marofandilia, Madagascar (expensive and tenuous to get a good phone connection) and explain to my friend, Mihary, how to trouble shoot the system on a very sunny day (this may stretch the limits on my ability to speak Malagasy over the phone across the world in a subject I am far from an expert on in my native language)

(i) in order to trouble shoot; he must disconnect the batteries.

(ii) he then has to try to run the fridge from the inverter directly.

(2) if the problem is, as everyone suspects, the batteries, then:

(a) we need to buy new batteries because it seems that avenues for fixing the batteries have been exhausted;

(b) buying new batteries requires:

(i) access to the correct batteries (deep-cycle batteries);

(ii) money -- Mihary said that the batteries were just under $400 per battery;

(iii) figure out how many batteries are required -- before they were running the fridge on 4 batteries;

(c) education to Mihary and others about:

(i) both the correct maintenance of the batteries in the future so that they last a long time; and

(ii) the business/development concept of replacement cost and accounting for that expense throughout the productive period of operation.

The notion of replacement cost won't be lost in the village because people have already encountered this concept with the village water pumps that were installed by the Japanese in 2004. The Japanese had devised a system where people would pay money to use the water pumps so that there would be money for replacement parts. People in the village told me that even though they had collected money for the water pumps, there had not been enough money for replacement parts so a national non-profit, Fanamby, gave the money for the replacement part for one pump and the other pump is barely sputtering along because another outside organization has not given the money for the pump. Sadly, it seems that the political will to collect the money for the water pumps is actually lacking. For example, no one asked me and Wilson for money when we used the water pump while we were there, and we would have been thrilled to contribute. However, in the private enterprise of the solar panels, perhaps, Mihary and others will save up some money to replace the batteries after their useable lifespan.

Despite these issues, this project is something that we feel 100% comfortable working towards a solution. In truth, the idea of 'being helpful' here in a continent with so much need proved to be more of a challenge than we had anticipated. We were attune to good organizations, maybe not proactive but certainly open and interested in any that we could discover. But, the nature of our transitory travel meant that there just was not sufficient time or opportunity to determine whether any particular project/org was worthy. Sadly, we have heard stories of aid that was underperforming or otherwise felt off. Thus, we are going to be be working on getting the solar array back to functioning at capacity in Marofandilia, a place where we know the variables, the pay off and people.

We'll keep the blog updated about how this repair of the solar panel project, with its cadre of experts, progresses. Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated in the comments below.

 

Touching Down in Kenya

After almost 4 solid weeks of adventure, fun and reminiscing in Madagascar, we finally headed to the Tana airport for the last time (a place I was not disappointed to say goodbye to, thanks to the lax, monopolistic airplane brousse Air Madagascar) and boarded our plane to Nairobi. Mom and dad had left on a flight the day before and we had a nice last day in the capital attending to various travel and life plans. We were sad to leave the unique and engaging island but I am particularly excited for this last section of our trip in Kenya.

I wrote about this a bit earlier, but Kenya has been a country that has held special sway in my mind for as long as I can remember. Hearing of the adventures and importance that this place holds for my dad throughout childhood and adolescence has built it up to a degree shared by just one other country in my mind, Brasil, where my mom lived for several years as a child herself. Since I have studied abroad in Brasil, conducted grad school research for one of my master's projects, traveled its length from crossing the frontier in Chui in the south up to the Amazon to the north, I feel pretty good that I have experienced that country to the max.

But, I had never been to Kenya until this trip, and never really been close. It always seemed so far away and required too many resources (money, time, planning). As such, I am so thankful that we have overcome those challenges and are here now. There is something inherent to the power of childhood associations, it is amazing the deep strength that these stories hold. Those stories get into your brain and never really go away. And nor should they. Dad's Kenya of almost 40 years ago is certainly very, very different from the one that we are visiting today, for instance the country has gone from 8 million citizens at independence in 1961 to 44 million today. Still, the landscape and spirit of the people remains true, and has been superior to those stories of yore that i was so enthralled with as a kid, a teenager and into adulthood.

Mom and Dad @ Hell's Gate NP

We have been here for about a week and had many an adventure, despite the horrendous gridlock of Nairobi. Right now, I am writing from the veranda at our delux lodge on Lake Elmenteita deep in the heart of the Rift Valley. Mu and I got in a morning run on the dirt tracks in the village around the resort, with long views across the pale, still lake right along the side of the Rift. Traveling with mom and dad has been wonderful and a serious steps up in comfort, several steps really. They have been so impressive in our travels in Madagascar and here in Kenya, riding with the punches and reveling in the splendor we have seen along the way.

Sunset across Lake Elmenteita

Dad will get into more detail shortly in his own post, but just wanted to mention one of, if not the, main reasons we are here in Kenya, returning to my dad's Peace Corps road project 38 years after he left this country. It was super emotional for my dad to see his road project that connected Machakos to Kitui 40 years ago intact and being used heavily. Some of the stretches we drove did not look like they had been improved much in the intervening years and were still much better than the heavy majority of the roads we have driven elsewhere. My dad will write much more on this in a day or two - it was a lifetime experience for my mom, my wife, my aunts and myself, and certainly for Dad.

Dad's road (Machakos to Kitui) in use 38 years later

 

Cars, trains, planes, boat - Travel in Madagascar

Editor's note: We are thrilled to have our first guest blog, authored by the indefatigable Deborah and Bill Korol. Take it away mom and dad.

We arrived in the crowded,warm airport in Antananarivo (Tana) on a flight from Nairobi, Kenya tired but so excited to see Wilson and Muriel. After getting through customs and getting our bag- only one as the other had yet to arrive from London there at the barrier we saw them waiting for us. Our reunion reminded us of the children's book The Runaway Bunny (http://www.amazon.com/Runaway-Bunny-Margaret-Wise-Brown/dp/0064430189) where the mother assures her children she would go to the end of the earth to find them. The waiting car and driver whisked us off through the crowded, narrow streets of Tana where pedestrians are at peril and the horn is used more than the brakes.

Tana streets

After a quick stop for lunch at a local restaurant and an ATM where the maximum withdrawal more than fills a wallet, we were off to Parc National d'Andaside - a three hour ride in ideal conditions but four and a half hours in torrential rain and falling darkness. We arrived at a charming lodge with private bungalows located on a hillside in the rain forest.

The following morning we were awakened to the unique wails of the rare indri, Madagascar's largest lemur. We knew we were in for a special day. Our morning walk through the national park with our guide Tina was an unforgettable experience. Into the rain forest we went scanning the canopy for lemurs and other wildlife with the first sighting being a family of the large diademed sifakas. Further into forest we found a group of indri lemurs in classic form, jumping from tree to tree, babies clutching their mothers, feeding on leaves and occasionally calling out loud. We were so engaged with the indri that we almost missed seeing a group of brown lemurs who came down to the forest floor and within a couple of feet of Bill. What a morning! To fully appreciate what lemurs are like we recommend the BBC DVD's Madagascar, Island of Marvels - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ymh67.

Wailing indri

The afternoon adventure was a trip back to Tana on La Micheline, a restored pneumatic bus that operates on train tracks and took us through the beautiful Madagascar countryside, past villages and towns and acres and acres of rice fields. The pace of travel was soothing and a fabulous way to see the country. The restored bus tires have a tendency to go flat and after a few hours we had to stop to repair one of them. In another hour another tire went flat and we stopped again. This pattern continued and the frequency and intensity of the rain showers increased. We felt we had embarked "on a two hour tour, a two hour tour" aka Gilligan's Island. We did eventually make it back to Tana and in spite of the delays we thought this was another peak experience.

Le Michielin, traveling 30's style

The next day we caught an early morning flight to Fort Dauphin, a city of 60,000 on the southeastern coast. We checked into our bungalow perched over the bay with the sound of crashing waves and the sight of fishermen working their dugout canoes. We then walked around the city before stopping for a late lunch at Bernard's restaurant across the street from a white sand beach. The owner of the restaurant was from France and had worked as a chef in Vermont in the early 1970's. He had worked at Sugarbush at Le Chez restaurant and Bill still remembers eating his French onion soup there. What an interconnected world we live in.

Muriel covered the next day in her blog. We travelled in style in a 4x4 and enjoyed our stops. The Parc National d'Andringitra and its spiny forest was a remarkable The helmented tortoise was a sight to see and three of of us walked right by it before Bill called it to our attention. For those of you who watch 60 Minutes it was the one highlighted a few weeks ago. What a treat for us! We also saw a chameleon on the way out of the park that changed colors while we look on.

High endanger Radiated Tortoise

The next day we had planed an all day boat trip through two lakes and a sort of inter-coastal waterway to a beach up the coast. Although the weather looked iffy we were sure the rain would hold off so off we went. Well, just as we got to the beach the heavens opened up and it rained like you have never seen. It is the rainy season here and we got more rain in an hour than we get in a year in Las Vegas. We were unable to do the activities we had planned and as the afternoon came we were concerned that we would not be able to get back at all. Thank goodness our guide really knew what he was doing as he went between two strong showers to get us back to town. The highlight of the trip for us was the time we spent inside a hut on the lake shore with a Madagascar women. We had been by hundreds of these small houses and it was so good to see one from the inside. The roofs are made traveller palm leave lashed together with sisal, a plant brought to the island to make rope commercially that has now become invasive.

The sprint back to Ft Dauphin

Our day ended with another great supper with the sounds of the sea everywhere.

Wilson and Muriel have been amazing guides and traveling companions. Muriel's command of Malagasy has been invaluable and has allowed us to experience the country in a personal and intimate way.

Having a ball