20/01/10

Right then. Good morning folks, although I don’t intend to go online to post this until tonight, so perhaps Good evening would be better.
I’ve had a fairly busy few days. Although I find that when I’m here all day I don’t write an update in the evenings like I do when I’ve been on site all day. Which is why I’m doing it now at the beginning of my procrastinating. On Monday I got dropped off at the crossroads by Matt and walked to Kapenguria to finish the note taking and photo taking. It’s quite a nice walk and I didn’t get too much hassle. So I was there for the morning finishing up, and then caught a matatu back to Makutano.
I came back to the hotel and did a little bit of work before lunch. Leila made food and directed me in chopping. She really is amazing with food. Really nice fresh stuff that just makes you feel good about eating. I think we had avocado, and leftover rice egg fried with some cabbage and carrots and stuff. Lunch takes quite a while with both of us, as we inevitably end up chatting quite a lot. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon until dinner time on the laptop, half writing up my notes and half emailing. Then dinner and Leila and I went and sat round the back of the kitchen building where there is a ledge with a drop down to some gardens, and we talked about all sorts of stuff. I’m so glad she’s been around these last two weeks. I would have gone insane if I’d just had Chris, Emmanuel and Matt for company.

So yesterday I basically spent the day writing up notes again. In-between emailing again. I had a productive morning but then Leila and I went out at about 12 to buy some stuff around the town, and had a wander around the market looking at clothes. They’re all pretty gastly here. Then we came back and made lunch, again a Leila concoction involving avocado and a carrot, tomato and cabbage salad, with a dressing which was just squeezed lemon with salt and pepper, but so tasty! And she made Ugali chips (she wants to patent the idea) which is basically leftover ugali cut into slices and fried in oil that you’ve flavoured with garlic. Amazing. So by the time we had finished lunch it was 2pm, and I was quite sleepy (I had been up since 6 after not getting to bed until late) so I had a little nap. Or tried to anyway, it’s hard when you brain is reeling at 90miles an hour. So then I carried on writing up notes until dinner again, but because I wasn’t going to finish in time I had to make a brief list of stuff to talk to Matt about.
So after dinner, which was nowhere near Leya’s normal standard (she’s the lady who works here, who cooks for us every night) I went and had a quick natter to Leila over a cigarette behind the kitchen again (it’s a really good place to sit and chill) before going to talk to Matt about the museum stuff. So Matt and I were talking museum for ages, with a couple of brief stops while Laura rang him (his wife) to tell him the car had broken down while she had no battery on her phone, but luckily after sitting there panicking for about 20 minutes someone from school came along and rescued her. And then later Sarah rang me back as I’d tried calling her earlier to tell her that I can visit her on Friday. So Matt and I finally finished discussing museum stuff sometime after 9pm. Then we got Leila in cos we want her to do a couple of things for us while she’s doing her market project over the next few weeks. Then I sat while she showed him her interview and survey sheet things she’d put together, before realizing how tired I was and going to bed. Of course, I had to read for a while in bed, so it wasn’t until nearly 11 that I actually went to sleep. And then up at 6am again this morning!

I went into the museum to get a couple of last minute photos, and I was going to talk to the guide but he was nowhere around and I couldn’t be bothered to wait to see him, so I’ll talk to him when we’re there tomorrow as that should be a little more or a sociable time. I caught a matatu back here and was back by 9am! So I sat and had some tea while reading for a bit before starting work. Which technically I haven’t actually done yet. So today I need to finish my notes, go through Matt’s many photos he’s given me to find anything that might be relevant, and try to make a comprehensive list of suggestions. And possibly start to decide how the boards could be re-arranged in the Pokot gallery. Fun times. I’m avoiding then internet today though, so I might get more done. I’ll just write a list of all the things I want to do later, like look up somewhere to stay in Eldoret.

So yeah, I’m going to leave on Friday instead of Saturday so that I can meet up with Sarah in Eldoret. She’s having a difficult time at the moment, finding her research hard to do without being able to understand much Swahili, and she’s just getting really frustrated and generally longing for a friendly face. So I’m going to stop by on the way through. I’ll get a matatu from here at lunchtime on Friday, although I’ll probably have to change in Kitale, but hopefully it should only take 3 hours at the most. Then we’re going to catch a film, or buy a dvd or something to watch with a bottle of wine and have a girly night in, and I’ll try and convince her to stay with me so she gets a proper night off from being with the guys. Then I’ll be picked up by Matt when he passes through Eldoret on the way back to Nairobi on Saturday morning. Hopefully not too early though.

Right, now for a cup of coffee and then I really will start working.

After lunch: Well, I have done some work. I’m completely finished with all the writing up, and I even have the beginning of a list of suggestions. The meeting with the museum guy is now back to Friday, but it’s going to be at 10am so I should be able to go straight from there to catch a matatu so it shouldn’t be too bad. I’m quite looking forward to getting back to Nairobi though. My skin has taken a bad reaction to something or another here, and I’m longing for my e45 cream which I stupidly left at the guest house. I also can’t wait to have a nice long bath. Once back on Saturday I will then have two days before I go to Uganda. In which time I have to unpack, do all my washing, go to Adams arcade and buy a pair of converse (there’s a stall in the middle of the market which must have about 100 pairs of converse of all different styles hanging from each other by their laces) as the converse type things I bought with me have all but died now. There are so many holes in them that there barely any actual shoe left. But I’ll only buy them if they are either very cheap or quite nice ones which I will then bring back to the UK with me. I’m already planning what I’m going to take and what I’m going to leave behind. And god knows when I’ll get the chance to buy all the presents I wanted to buy. I was hoping to get stuff from the markets up here but I haven’t actually had the chance to go to any yet. Maybe when I come up next time I’ll find somewhere. Anyway, I digress. Before Uganda… I then have to make a budget, book my bus ticket, get all the money I will need to take with me, pack again (I really hope it’s not going to be raining still in Nairobi – I need my clothes to dry!) and try to figure out what they hell I’m supposed to be doing out there. Eek!

Even later (about 5pm): So Leila and I went shopping earlier, talking constantly the whole time. We were talking about masters and applications and stuff, and I barely noticed where we were going so we ended up going in the wrong direction for the market. We bought loads, carrots, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, bananas, avocado (they have huge ones which are 20shillings but so tasty that they are worth every penny) and eggs (10 shillings each! So expensive! And we bought 20!) and meat, oh and milk. And we spent 560 shillings, which is about £4.70. Would sound a lot cheaper if it weren’t for the mega expensive eggs I suppose. In the process of all this shopping I became very jealous of Leila’s ability to speak Swahili. She has been learning a lot longer than me, and she’s a very confident type of person so she uses it quite regularly even if she’s getting things wrong. But yes, very jealous because she’s already built up relationships with all the people she goes to for particular food stuffs because she can just speak that bit of Swahili. I was hoping to go back to Nairobi and have 3 weeks worth of lessons after Uganda, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to as Matt is talking about being here again for 2 weeks, which would be impossible because I have so much research to do back in Nairobi before I can come up.

Anyway, I’ve been going through photos that Matt has given me most of the afternoon, picking out stuff that we might be able to use in the gallery. It’s quite cool. There are some really good ones, and some interesting ones from the Kapenguria Museum so I could see how some of the displays have changed, although he didn’t have any of the Pokot gallery which would have been useful! It was good seeing some of the photos from the excavations he did before though, seeing as I’ve heard so much about them already. And seeing pictures from the first time he came to Morpus. I’m intrigued to see how much the site has gone down now actually, they’ve taken out the whole other side of the site where it went into the gulley apparently. Interesting. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow. I also found some photos of Dave when he was here a few years ago. Very funny, he really looked like a rugby player back then! Huuge shoulders and neck. Heh heh, talking of people looking funny, the guys just came back from site and Matt was orange from head to toe. The wind had been blowing the dust back at him from the section and it was a particularly orange bit, so his hair and face and beard were all orange, as were his clothes. Leila and I wished we’d taken a photo.
I also had some guy who works for the Ministry of Education talking to me earlier. I know I have the door to my room open but it’s mainly for light and ventilation, it doesn’t really mean please come and talk to me. Anyway, he might be a useful contact as he works with the schools in Pokot and one of the sections we want to update is finding out how many Pokot kids go to school now and what kind of things they have gone on to do. Anyway, we chatted about our respective work that was bringing us here, and then he had to run off to the post office but promised to come back for ‘more discussion’. I’m hoping that by that time I’m safely ensconced in the kitchen. But he gave me his card anyway, so I will probably get in touch with him to find out if he can help at all.

Anyway, now I’m going to go online, post this, and look up somewhere to stay in Eldoret. Just spoke to Sarah and she was trying to phone round places, but then she just texted and said no one was answering. So I’ll see if there is anything online which isn’t too expensive. Would be nice to stay somewhere with a bar though….