This trip is moving so quickly. Perhaps it’s the non-stop nature of the work we scheduled or rather the community scheduled that is keeping us occupied but it is sad to think that in a few days we’ll be leaving Rongo and the Cham gi Wadu community. So that makes this our last weekend here so we thought we’d make the most of it.

Day 11 Saturday 27^th January

I’d asked Jerry and Isabel if we might travel to Lake Simbi this weekend. It’s a lovely salt water lake in a volcanic crater on the other side of Homa Bay, near Kindu Bay, about an hour and a half away in the Rongo Bus. We visited there 2 years ago when, there wasn’t nearly as much water as this year and we were able to walk around the lake close to the shore. That wasn’t the case this year, the shore line was much higher and although we could get down to the shore line, and did, we couldn’t walk around it as close to the water as previously. The surrounding grass and vegetation was also much dryer this year. Then it was verdant green and lush, now it was scrubby brown and very dry. Nonetheless, it was still beautiful in its own way. These weren’t the only changes though, the story of the myth surrounding the lake and its mysteries told by a number of local men to earn a few shillings from visitors was elaborated upon by James our story teller this year. He seemed to get carried away as Mac translated from Luo to English for us – although I am not sure why, as James spoke perfectly good English as I discovered when I chatted to him afterwards. Jerry got a little embarrassed by the elaborations in the story, the narrative of which had a tendency to jump around a bit, although the old story was still discernible. This video by Aron Kipkoech tells the story further https://youtu.be/jXqGYxbzuRo

After the story s few of us went to the lake shore to find an old Mumma scrapping the soil by the lakes water to extract the Bicarbonate of Soda or soda ash as they call it. They use it to settle the stomachs of their cattle and fight worms; in cooking vegetables; to clear spots, pimples and other skin conditions and various other uses. Similar to ways in which it is, or was, used by previous generations in Britain. For me this was a lovely way to spend an hour or so but it was soon time to head back to campus.

On the way through Homa Bay, we heard that Raila Odinga – leader of the NASA opposition to Uhuru’s Jubilee Alliance government, former president, freedom fighter and hero of the Luo people was speaking at the local football stadium with other NASA leaders. There was bound to be a huge turnout, and there was, and I feared we might get stuck but we didn’t. Lucky in a way because he is about to have himself sworn in as President – the people from the Nyanza region are convinced the results of the first election was rigged. This is complex affair that I don’t know enough about but I was hear just after the results of the first presidential election were declared null and void. From everything I read and saw on TV it was clear that something didn’t add up but I have no idea what that was. It is a sad fact that in this lovely land, with its lovely peoples (regardless of tribe), corruption is rife. Anyway, we got through easily enough, had dinner and returned to the Pastoral Centre for a chat and a couple of beers.

Day 12 Sunday 28^th January 2018

Not too much to tell here from my point of view. The morning was passed with the girls going with Isabel to a salon to have braids put in their hair. They did look great, especially Halima who had her braids removed, her hair treated and put in a sort of loose bouncy curl effect. I know Katie was a little apprehensive about having braids but they look good. Meanwhile Sam, Luca and I did a little shopping and chilled back at the Pastoral centre.

On the pleading of the students I asked for us to be able to skip lunch at Uni so they could eat chips, and who knows what else, at the Treat House. It made them very contented so it was worth it! Meanwhile Mac and I chatted about research and the possibility of him doing a PhD as part of the CM4K partnership. I have already supervised one PhD here to completion (the mediation of intra-tribal conflict and peace building) and have just agreed to take on another (communications for development and gender imbalances). Mac is a great supporter and I think will make a great CM4K researcher so I am happy to encourage him. Whilst chatting we watched his, and that of many Luo’s, team Gor Mahia beat the Leopards in the Kenyan Super-Cup Final. To be honest it was a dull game but Mac’s team deserved its victory. We then watched Chelsea (my team and his UK team) beat Newcastle in the 4^th round of the FA Cup. All in all a pleasant afternoon with not much more to say about our quiet Sunday.

Please bear with me. A few months ago, when I started planning this trip, I made a request on the University of Brighton’s (passive and pretty ineffective) staff communications platform. One or two kind people saw my plea and offered their thoughts but largely my request went ignored. This is in no way an indication of the staff’s lack of generosity at Brighton or their willingness to share, simply that this new communications platform is passive and ineffective whereas the old one was very effective. Now before I get side-tracked on the platform the point is no-one at UoB offered my any pertinent advice and so I took it on myself to do a quick self-taught session on geo-mapping – plotting waypoints, etc. etc. I learned how to use Google maps; I learned how to use My Maps and I set up a little practice map. So far so good. I looked around at GPS trackers and read up on mobile phone apps. Did a little practice and all was well with the world……or so I thought!

It turns out that there are a number of things I overlooked not least that the manner in which waypoints are represented numerically varies and, if your name is Peter Day, this can lead to much head scratching and much cursing because plotted co-ordinates are either ignored by the google maps search engine or take you somewhere else. Admittedly in the same County in Kenya but not where we were expected. Clearly, my knowledge wasn’t up to the task I had set myself.

Now I knew that there are various ways in which waypoint co-ordinates can be uploaded but this is currently beyond my personal knowledgebase – if anyone reading would like to help me out please give me a shout, I would be very grateful. Anyhow……we had problems with the map I was developing but I am a strong believer that there are always other solutions to problems, one only needs to find them. I looked back into what I knew about map reading and orienteering. As a kid I was a boy scout with excellent map reading skills and as a young man I was a surveyor in the British Army. So I put my keen sense of direction; my map reading skills; my good memory plus my ability to read what the land is telling me to good use. I started to identify the locations we had visited on My Maps. So far so good.

However, and before you ask – why didn’t you just enter the place names in the search engine? – Google maps has been extremely lazy and lax. The Google car that drives around photographing every street in the developed world hasn’t made it to remote rural Migori County. There is no ‘Street View’ and the satellite imagery is pretty remote and grainy…….so doing what I wanted to do is a challenge. Not impossible but a challenge! However, we had 2 advantages….my personal assets (as described above) and local assets in the form of local knowledge. So I set about plotting the waypoints by hand. This is a long drawn out process as the satellite image is unhelpful at times and the map (without contour lines etc) is pretty nigh on useless. So plotting, e.g. Okumba Hill when the paths leading to it are hidden by trees and bushes and there’s lots of them, was problematic but once I knew roughly where we were on the map, it was just a matter of time before I could read the images of fields, etc running in a circular(ish) pattern. I could see this was the hill and confirmed by identifying the buildings on top. From there is was just a matter of working our way backwards to where we had parked the bus for a final confirmation. By then placing the cursor on the building I was able to plot the waypoint. Simple! The problem is it is easier to write than do here, especially when you have a room full of young students in edit mode seeking your attention at regular intervals as thoughts pop into their heads.

Anyway, this was my day, oh and chasing the University of Brighton’s Finance Department. It is now 17 days (and counting) since students paid for their end of trip safari and our tour operator of 8 years standing has still not received the payment. I am receiving no ‘helpful or useful’ information apart from the transaction has been sent via Amex. I do not blame the staff member back in Brighton but there is a problem with the system.  8 days after the transaction was sent the payment has not been made. To me that suggests a problem. Right now I don’t care about the reasons but I will do. Either tell me something helpful or retrieve the payment and I will make the payment on my card……please!

The frustrating thing about this is that Kenya has one of the most advanced and accessible personal payment schemes in MPESA and I could have made the payment in seconds before I left the UK but oh no…..the University has rules! Have I told you how I detest bureaucracy? I know we need rules and structure etc but it is the total lack of commonsense and flexibility that makes me seethe (apologies). This is not fair on our tour operator Rufus, who spent all last week running back and forth to the bank. Banks in Kenya are not like our High Street Banks and the process is not always pleasurable nor quick. Neither is it fair on the students, who have worked so hard on this trip and deserve some R&R. Oh and it is not fair on me. I work 24/7 on these trips, and love it, but I do not need this unnecessary stress. Anyway, let’s hope Monday brings a happy conclusion to this sorry episode!

On a lighter note, whilst some of the students were editing, I had given Hafsah permission to facilitate a Focus Group for her dissertation study. It took away half the Kenyans but from what I could hear from time to time it gave her some great data and she was very happy. A nice way to end this post about a day of trials, challenges, discovery and lessons. The weekend is calling and it’s time to relax a bit.

I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying this trip despite feeling a bit drained from Wednesday’s samozagate incident. There are always things that crop up and barriers but that is community work. I just really feel like we are making progress. A range of things seem to be falling into place which I can’t make public yet as they are not confirmed just indications that they will be confirmed.

On Wednesday I started to develop the community asset map. Reflecting on this process made me realise that we were capturing content about/relating to the physical assets and not enough about the people – especially in the photographs. So before we set off I spoke to the students and asked them to try and strike a balance and capture more ‘community life’ in their work. A note on the map – I am currently using Google’s My Maps and will continue to do so for now but when I get home I am going to seek out a map app with more flexibility in the content functionality. My Maps is limiting the visual experience of some of the fantastic pictures the team have taken.

We set off for the 7^th Day Adventist Church at Osiata. Visually it is just a largish wooden building with a corrugated iron roof and the inside has been fashioned into a traditional church with whatever materials are to hand. However, the place came to life a bit when some Church Elders (women) came over and gave us an interview. Mac was back with us and translating between Luo, Kiswahili and English. The interview jumped around a bit in both the questions and the languages but the latter adds authenticity (imho) and the former can be edited. There was a storm very close by and the rains threatened but really on dribbled on us. As the road was very narrow we had parked the bus and walked to the church (this was to be the story of the morning) but this was a pleasure as it allowed us to walk through a countryside otherwise denied us on the bus. All in all a lovely experience although one or two of the party were less pleased when we had to do the same again at our next stop but with an added twist.

Lang’o Arek Mixed Secondary School sits at the top of Okumba Hill. We left the bus at a point circa 0.5K from the main road and made our way along a bridle path. This path widens to the right at a crossway which leads up to the school. Looking for all the world as if the Romans had laid a 30 or so metre stretch of cobbles the hill then steepens sharply and some started to lag. I turned back to encourage Isabel, Fiona and Halima who were feeling the pace. The walk up is definitely worth it though as there is a breath-taking 360⁰ panorama of Nyanza and Kisii. The Head was busy with other visitors but he arranged for teachers to show us around and do the interviews. This process was now running quite smoothly and we were away with what we wanted within the hour.

The walk down was pleasurable although back at the bus we couldn’t make it out fully boarded so we alighted and got back aboard once Baituk had us clear of the rather tricky ditch. I have to say he is a great driver and has worked so hard for us during this trip.

Our final call of the day was a revisit to Cham gi Wadu. It was market day and nothing brings a place alive like a local market. I asked Hafsah to retake the shots of the shops as the previous ones made the shopping centre look like a ghost town. I got Mac to accompany her so he could ask the shopkeepers permission and explain what it was for in Luo. She produced much better shots. However, it is the market that is the hub of this community. Located off a side street behind the shops we had to work fast because the storm that had held off was about to break. There was some reluctance to be photographed to start with but some of the local students got people to agree and before we knew it we had captured the essence of the market.

A crowd had gathered on a nearby street corner where Halima, Fiona, Lydia & Charloth – our audio group were interviewing a local man. Word started to spread and people gathered and as the locals started to hear of the possibility of a radio station for them, by them and in their community people were becoming excited. It was heartening to see my Kenyan CM4K students of 3 to 4 years standing doing so well. Aron came over with his video cam and started filming and the crowd grew larger with the steering group members also chatting to people on the street nearby. Just then a massive dust storm introduced itself by blowing up the street. Those out in it (like me) got covered in the fine red silt particles of the locality. The rains weren’t far off and it was time to go but the word is out in Cham gi Wadu and I look forward to hearing the audio capture and watching the video footage collected here but even more, I look forward to enabling community radio in Cham gi Wadu. We are making progress without a doubt!