Dan Grays log from his trip to Kenya and Indonesia in September and October of 2006

10-3-2006

This section is about Tuesday the 3rd, it's the morning of the 4th.
We had more meetings, today, then we went to the police station to do statements, then took pictures at the center.  Then tried to buy an inverter for charging cell phones, that took an hour and then they didn't have it.  "In Stock" means at another store, and then they don't have it anyway!
Then off to Nairobi, a 3 hour drive, got here at 9 or so, man, this place is loud and tons of people, traffic was a constant jam, even at 9:30 pm!  We found 3 cheap hotels, but they were all full, then Tim thought of the YMCA, not far away.  We went in and it was so peaceful, cheaper than the dives in downtown, and it's beautiful here, birds and mosquito's singing, large pool, outdoor or indoor dining, I will stay here for the rest of the time!

For the 1st time, I see a fair amount of us minorities here at the YMCA, I think about half of us are white.  Of course the staff is all local.

I've been talking to Tim about the salaries of folks here, it's pretty low, a skilled worker like a carpenter makes about $5000usd a year.  Fortunately everything is a lot cheaper, except for gas, which is a huge expense.  If you are having a menial job, you may make about $3000usd per year.

Some folks get high on drugs or alcohol, some folks get high on adrenalin rush, some folks (like me) get high on learning new things, and creating new things, Carol gets high on kids.  Last night we're wandering around downtown and we can't find a hotel, but kids are constantly coming up to us saying "I'm hungry", wanting money.  One 7 or 8 year old girl came up to Carol, and she smiles at her and tells her she doesn't have money but does she want to dance?  and the literally start dancing in the street!  I also notice that when she sees the children from the orphanage, her whole countenance changes, and when we leave, she has to "unwind" from seeing the children!

10-3-06  This section is about Wednesday the 4th, it's the morning of the 5th.
Yesterday was another very crazy day.  !st we met with two doctors one of them the head director for a research center.  We are trying to brainstorm with them about getting a program started to get statistics for the folks in East Pokot.  Right now, there are no statistic, born, die, diseases, nobody in the world knows.  They seem like they really want to help, and ask us to write a proposal.  Well, That would be up to Tim and I, mostly Tim, being the doctor, but we have to have it done by Friday.  Well, late last night, one of them (the one that isn't the director) was so excited about it, he decided to write it himself, and he called Tim to tell us.  Tim and I were really relieved, and happy, one less thing to do today!  Plus, he knows better what to write!  We are meeting one last time with him on Friday....  After this, we had to cancel one of our meetings because of time.  So then we met with Juma (who drove down from Nakuru for this), and another prestigious lawyer to make a corporation for the ownership of the 15 acre land.  She also wants to start a worldwide group of international lawyers that learn about the laws so it's easier to do this.  We want protection in case something happens to the local NGO of IHF, normally, the land would go to the government, and that would NOT be good, instead with this in place, the land will be owned by the corporation, and it's sole purpose cannot be changed from the goals of helping the tribal people.

Ok, now we're late for the airport, so we jump in the car and race to the airport to drop Carol off.  Well, guess what!, Her ticket has been canceled, and the flight was delayed.  We ended up finally leaving her at 5:30.  She finally had it all straightened out, so she should be back on her way to the states.

Ok, now there's a SAPTOP (Students Of Pokot Think Tank on Poverty) student that came from the university to talk to me, his name is James Tikonin.  He arrived at 10:00am, and had to wait until 6:00pm to talk to us.  We had dinner, then went to the I-Net cafe,  We talked a lot, his major is computer science, he's the only Pokot student with this major.  He will do well here.  It's nice to have this group of students, we are going to use them for research.  Today we're supposed to hook up with another student who will help us with water.  The SAPTOP is a group that Carol started, and she's hoping to take the extremely few kids that are lucky enough to find a college education to return some of their knowledge and help to their community.  This group is under the umbrella of IHF.

Well, after the I-Net, we took Bill home (We're borrowing Bills car).  By the time we got back it was 11:00, I had to fix the mirror on my telescope, and then we went to bed.  Tonight we hope to have a look at the moon with the scope.  We are also going to do research on Solar Panels today.

10-3-06  This section is about Thursday the 5th, it's the morning of the 6th.
Now it's my last day here.  We had a fun day yesterday.  Before I forget, about the night before last when we took Bill home (it's about 20 km from town), we had a great time.  I met his wife, and then we could see stars (as apposed to in the city), so I was showing everyone the constellations, etc.  Especially Timothy was extremely interested.  Then on the way home, it was hard to shut me up.  You know I don't talk too much, but when I get going about astronomy, it's hard to shut me up.  I was explaining about emission nebula and how it worked.  Timothy, who's a doctor (the only Pokot doctor so far), had studied electron shell theory, and basically explained it back to me perfectly.  He is extremely interested in astronomy.  I have to remember to give him some books.  I did give him my Sky and Telescope magazine (yeah Roberta, I really did).

Ok, now about yesterday.  We went solar cell hunting.  We found a store that Timothy knew about, and we purchased a 40 watt panel, and 3 battery packs with built in inverters.  These are much more expensive than in the US, but it is necessary.  Just recently, some company installed some cell phone antennas, and their cell phones started working at the 1st two communities.  Also Carol had purchased two way radio's, but the batteries run down, then they have to spend a lot of gas to drive several km's over really bad roads to communicate, or folks from the farther communities have to walk all the way to the orphanage where the IHF van is kept.  These solar cells and battery/inverter kits will help them keep their cell phones and radios charged, it will save money in the long run.  They could use another solar cell or two, but these are hugely expensive.  I spent $780 USD on what we purchase.  Also, while we were there, I gathered information about larger solar panels I'm going to need when I put a motor on the pump at the watering hole.  I plan to do this in January (the hottest time of the year).  This will literally save lives!  I'm going to be spending $8000 on just the solar panels.  If any of you are interested in helping, please let me know, you're donation will be fully tax deductable!  This is going to be only a beginning though, and we need a grant to put more wells in.

After we were done here, we took the car to the garage people, to have it serviced before we returned it to Bill, and then I had some Internet time.  We then took a nap, and had dinner at a nice place in town.  It is now just Timothy, Frederick and I.  Well, we finally had a semi clear night, and the mirror glue had cured enough, we were able to get some really nice views of the nearly full moon.  Frederick was the biggest "photon hog"  He absolutely loved it!  Several of the staff here at the YMCA stopped to see as well.  The telescope worked really well, and we zoomed in to fairly high power to examine some of the canyons etc.

Ok, today I leave for Jakarta at 9:45PM.  We have a meeting with the doctors who might help us in Pokot today at 10:00 am.  We need to get checked out and have our baggage stored.  I hope to have Internet time this afternoon.