The Project
My grand plan is to install a modern kitchen in the Faraja
Centre to expand services to the whole community. We share a vision to offer a
variety of meals, using the healthy produce grown in this fertile region, to
the vulnerable children who converge on the centre every Saturday for a basic
meal of beans and rice, stories, songs and ball games and lavish doses of nurturing
from Mama and Pastor Garama.
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| Millicent with the Faraja children |
Mama Millicent, an experienced health worker, and her loving
husband are passionately devoted to improving the quality of life for families
throughout Chogoria, a vibrant market town set in the heart of the lush
farmlands of Tharaka-Nithi in the foothills of Mount Kenya.
On my arrival we brainstorm without limits, imagining teaching
cooking and nutrition classes to the local ladies, holding Pizza Nights for the
youth, Mums and Babies get-togethers, Movie Nights, Family Events, Men’s
Fellowship, all sorts of training workshops and so much more. We are tingling
with excitement at the possibilities that a new kitchen will unleash!
So anyway I have some guys from a Kitchen Company in Nairobi
travel four hours by matatu (public bus) to draw up a design and give us a
quote on the project. When I get the email, my heart sinks! The design is impressive
but not exactly what we’d asked for and the quote is way too high! I realise
the process of communicating clearly and negotiating in the planning stage is
going to take much longer than my four-week stay!
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The plumber discussing another water tank and filter system
to supply clean drinking water to the centre |
Another round-table meeting with Millicent and Garama and
board members and we agree to go “pole pole” – that’s Swahili for ‘”slowly
slowly”. I decide to return later in the year for a three-month stay to help
with installing the kitchen, an extra water tank and filter system and new
electrical wiring.
Meantime we tackle the task of repainting the floor and
courtyard in the beautiful rust-red colour of the earth. Garama, with the help
of son Peter and young Silas, quickly transform the place in the first stage of
the Faraja Community Centre makeover!
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| Garama, Peter and Silas hard at work repainting the floor |
The Cast of
Characters
I am staying at the delightful Snow Peak, an unlikely name
for a hotel surrounded by a leafy tropical garden of towering palm trees,
exotic ginger plants and pretty purple bougainvillea, a tinkling stream and
sweet singing birds. The locals proudly explain that when you look up you can
glimpse the snow-capped peak of majestic Mount Kenya!
You know the feeling when you stay at a hotel so long it
feels like a second home? Well I sure have settled in to a pleasant routine of a
leisurely breakfast on the tranquil balcony while trying Kenyan dishes and
making new friends.
The owners of the newly opened hotel, the lovely Mr and Mrs
Njeru are making me so welcome! Justin Njeru Ng’entu is also a coffee farmer
with a depth of knowledge about the region’s history and he regales me with entertaining
stories of the colonial past.
Under British rule it was illegal for local farmers to grind
and drink their own high quality coffee, which was seized for export at massive
profits for the Brits, while farmers were paid very little.
In an ironic twist of fate, I had bought a packet of Mount
Kenyan coffee in Waitrose in the UK and gave it to Justin along with a coffee
plunger as a gift. So we sit together savouring the aromatic coffee and
dreaming up ways he can sell his superb coffee direct to the public!
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Mount Kenyan coffee farmer, the lovely Mr Njeru
and his prized plunger and Mount Kenyan coffee bought at Waitrose in the UK |
Garama has also discovered “London Tea” (in preference to
weak milky African-style tea) and is enjoying the ritual of taking strong tea
mid-morning and afternoon with biscuits! This is a new vice he can blame on
me!
I buy huge ripe avocados for a few shillings in the market and
make guacamole with Sylvia and Joy. The avo’s in this fertile paradise are so
plentiful they fall on the ground to be eaten by happy pigs! Mash them up with salt,
garlic, chilli and lemon and serve with African-style chapati and suddenly the
locals are discovering why avocados are so popular in other countries! I love this cross-cultural exchange!
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| Chef, Joy and I make guacamole |
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| Joy with hotel owner, Mrs Sylvia Njeru |
My favourite Kenyan dishes are vegetable samosas, Bhajia,
which are deep fried scalloped potatoes with coriander, and Spicy Cowpea Curry.
The young staff – Peter the waiter, Peter the intern, whom
I witness blossoming in confidence, the pretty girls; Linda, Magdalene, Joy,
Maureen and Wilson, Oscar and Johnstone in the kitchen, Dickson in the bar and Rose and Paul, who every day meticulously mop and polish the floors, are all so
friendly and amused by my accent and my funny ways!
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| Pretty waitress Linda and me |
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| My "Kenyan Twin", Kuka and me |
My African “Twin
Sister”
But when I meet Kuka I believe I’ve met my African “twin”.
We are so alike with our shared backgrounds in media, politics and psychology,
with our secret passions for romantic movies and country music, we hit it off
and can’t stop talking for hours! Kuka
already has a real twin sister, Kuki, so I accept the role of “imposter twin” and we laugh at how similar
we look for “twins”, comparing our chocolate and vanilla skin!
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| My "Kenyan twin" Kuka with American friend Ree'l and her son |
In the restaurant after a huge lunch with Kuka and American
friend Ree’L, I am texting, when I look up to see this larger-than-life
character sporting an Akubra hat and floral shirt!
Micheu Obadiah is a genuine
one-off! He loves to play his guitar and sing and we immediately burst into old
songs; Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Elton John, the Seekers!
Like, who would
believe I’d find someone in Kenya who knows every word of ‘Another You’!
It’s
an unusual way to meet someone but life’s too short to waste an opportunity to
sing!
So we sing together in the restaurant and the young ones are now convinced I
am quite mad!
I’m planning to bring my guitar next time so Obadiah and I can strum
and sing around the campfire!
I discover, on an impromptu nature walk that Obadiah is also
an expert on medicinal plants of East Africa and a keen bird watcher, who can
mimic the beautiful calls of all the local species!
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| Extraordinary local character Micheu Obadiah |
And so I meet Larry, a rugged Texan paramedic, who is doing
a vital project setting up emergency services for villages in the remote areas
of Kenya.
He shares stories of life in the spectacular scorching
desert of his home state, adventures in the Mexican wilderness, working in
Yellowstone National Park, and setting up medical services in poor countries
all over the world.
And there’s James, a Kenyan man who has returned home after
living more than 20 years in the UK, and is now embarking on an innovative
farming project with 30 families. And there’s Alpha, a social worker who has
worked with charities and NGO’s all over Africa.
I’ve become good friends with the Garama brothers, Peter who
is the proud new dad of baby Oliver with his beautiful partner Purity and Eliud
who is training in community development work with his mum and her team.
Millicent has become my Kenyan sister. She has so much
wisdom and strength and exudes empathy and bubbles with laughter. Pastor Garama
is my Kenyan brother, so protective, caring and kind.
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| Loving couple, Pastor Garama and Millicent |
I feel loved-up and connected to my network of new friends
while strengthening my bond with Facebook friends and followers in this
cross-cultural immersion.
The Place
I’m becoming a local. I know this because after a trip to
the colourful, bustling markets, laden down with bags of bananas, mangoes and
peanut butter and African fabric, I jump on the back of a ‘Boda-Boda’ motor
bike and whiz along the road, with my blonde hair flying in the breeze and the
locals laughing at the Old Lady ‘Muzungu’ (white person).
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| Ladies at a market stall in Chogoria |
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| Riding home from the markets on a Boda-Boda |
One day we pile in the van with Peter and Purity nursing
baby Oliver and grandma Millicent beaming with pride in the back with Eliud capably
behind the wheel and me in the passenger seat gazing out at the spectacular
rolling hills as we head for Meru. Only problem is traffic is gridlocked
approaching the bustling town and we sit and sweat for over an hour, crawling
along inch by inch. But ‘Hakuna Matata’ we eventually arrive and have lunch.
The meals take over an hour to emerge from the kitchen because all food is
prepared from scratch. I’m learning that patience is part of Kenyan life!
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A day out in Meru with proud Grandma and baby Oliver,
Peter and Purity and Eliud |
So we hit Tuskys department store and buy up a whole lot of
baby stuff for little Oliver who sleeps his way through the whole hot and
steamy shopping expedition! And we also buy the paint and rollers and poles for
the floor painting job!
On another busy Saturday the boys and me head for Chuka to
buy mobile phones. I have succumbed. As an Apple devotee, I cross to the Dark Side
and purchase my first Samsung to use exclusively with Safaricom in Kenya. My
Goodness, it’s complicated setting up a new phone! So thankfully Peter, who is
an IT whiz, gets me all sorted and connected to social media and every app ever
invented (I’m exaggerating now!)
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| Peter and I working on the Faraja website |
And Peter and I are working together to create a Faraja
Facebook Page and enrich the Faraja website to build a following of international
supporters and encourage visitors to this beautiful region.
I’m starting to get to know the little kids as individuals.
The tiny pretty little girls whose big brown eyes and dazzling smiles light up
the room and the lanky teenage boys who can kick a soccer ball with incredible
force!
The children have a little party with bread and crisps and
bananas as extras on their beans and rice and then we spend ages playing ball
games, colouring with crayons and having stories and singing Swahili songs.
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| Colouring with the children at the Faraja Centre |
The rainy season has come early. During the Faraja “Kids’
Club” a torrential downpour drenches the courtyard within minutes and the
thundering noise on the roof makes me a little frightened. However the heavy
rains stops just as quickly and the brilliant green vegetation sparkles and the
air is fresh and fragrant. And no one back at the hotel is worried when the
power goes out and we’re plunged into darkness! Hakuna Matata. I go to bed with
my Spotify country music playlists and when I wake up the power is back on.
Perfect Climate
I’ve lived for 20 years in the sub-tropics of south east
Queensland, Australia where the sweltering humidity over summer makes you pour
with sweat 24/7 and the relentless sun gives you a permanent squint and you
burn your feet on the scorching sand trying to dash to the ocean.
I’ve lived for almost 10 years in the UK where the bleak
winters make you hibernate indoors with a case of SAD (Seasonal Affective
Disorder) or risk a frost-bitten nose on a rugged-up walk through the eerie
bare trees of the muddy woodlands with your shivering dogs.
So while Chogoria is close to the equator, the high altitude
means the climate is ideal boasting pure hot days and clear blue skies with cool
evenings and cool mornings so you can snuggle up and sleep without raising a
sweat!
Like Goldilocks, I’ve found the perfect middle ground – not
too hot, not too cold – just right! “Asante sana” - Thank you very much!
I’ve given myself a Kenyan name, ‘Diani’ after the idyllic
beach near Mombasa. This forever-young hippy feels right at home in rural Kenya
– a beautiful place with a cast of character and a purposeful project to keep
me busy.
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| Pancakes on the balcony of the Snow Peak Hotel |
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| Lush coffee and tea plantations, and banana, mango and avocado farms on the rolling slopes of Chogoria |
