Blog

I woke about 5:30, rolled around a little, got up, cut a lemon in half, squeezed it into a glass of water and eased into a morning routine and the three things that give me a decent shot at making sense of the day and the days. I read, a chapter each of Moses, Psalms, Proverbs, the Gospel, and the Letters. I stretch. The sun salutation, a kind of twelve step stretcher’s program. I pray. For Boo Boo and Bubba and the others I love, for grace, sometimes for rain, for a day’s measure of sanity, for our project, and, as a long shot, for wisdom.

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I was in Athi River by about 8:00. I went to Fair Hardware, Halleluliah Hardware, and Millenium Hardware, looking for spade handles, the short ones. Judy at Fair Hardware didn’t have any, nor did her biblically named neighbors.

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I settled for seven rough hewn jembay handles, which Gilbert went at with a panga until they suited him.

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I had been to Eagle Africa Insurance Brokers yesterday morning and gotten 3rd party insurance for our eight ton truck, about $125, and Joel brought it by around 10:00 am. Day one of the Bedford era.

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Gilbert and I measured and laid out the road we needed on the five acres a couple of days ago and with the lorry we could begin to make it…with murram, the strata below our black cotton soil, and above hard rock, which as a byproduct of excavating our dam, we have a Kilimombogo-sized pile of.

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And, as Gilbert would say regarding murram, “It costs expensive.” It would have been about $550.00 to bring in what we used today. As it is, it ran us $24.00 in wages and fuel. It’s evidently tasty as well. Here’s Tuffy, our new cat sampling a mouthful.

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Tuffy seems to have fully recovered from a serious thrashing by the nameless mother of seven new born pups. Evidently Tuffy had committed a space violation when Gilbert happened upon the scene. He thought Tuffy was a goner, but reported later that she had merely “fainted” during the attack. She was laid up for a couple of days, but is back at it now.

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We managed about 60 meters of road in just over half a day today. Another day and a half should do us.

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The guys spreading out the murram we brought from the pile.

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They’re not in jail, I just took this through the window of the cab.

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Where I was at the helm of the former British Army truck.

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The other news today was the kick off of Joyce’s land use coop. She and the other women currently of her household, Agnes, Esther and Mbini are planting ten forty three meter long rows. We’re providing the land, the seeds and, most importantly, the water. The labor is theirs, and so is sixty percent of the harvest. It seems a fine cooperative use of some of the land until we are ready to put it under drip irrigation. And the ladies are thrilled.

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Agnes making the holes, Mbini adding the seeds.

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The planted rows.

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Esther on the water tank.

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Mbini coming for a refill.

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Esther obliging.

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Mbini walking.

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Agnes empty, Mbini full.

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Agnes full.

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Watering the just planted seeds.

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Esther, Joyce, and Ani, Esther’s daughter heading home at day’s end.

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With Mbini and Agnes not far behind

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Boniface and Julius getting ready to put the truck to bed.

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And the planting beds putting themselves to bed.

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That’s the news for Tuesday, May 13, 2008 from here.

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From all of us, good day!

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David