Kenya Volunteer Trip Blog

My journal from our two-week trip to Kenya with a team of volunteers for Developing World Connections

Instead of political commentary, I’m sharing my blog from the current trip. Note: I’m primarily writing this as my own personal record of the trip and for DWC’s use. I’m not trying to be artistic or witty--just documenting the trip. I will add photos and edit this over the coming days. As most of it is written in a moving van going to or from the worksite, you will see MANY typos originally. I’ll try to fix them and eventually add photos and links to make it more complete. For the few of you that are brave and patient enough to read this, I’d appreciate your comments and questions. I’ll do one entry for Week 1 of work, then our safari, and a third for Week 2. Enjoy!

Thursday 12 June 2025

We began pre-packing for our Developing World Connections volunteer trip to Kenya the weekend before, deciding how many bags we would take (three), how many we would check (two), and what would be in our two smaller carry-ons:  Becky’s backpack purse and my camera backpack.

Our packing has improved over the years and with the promise of reliable laundry service at the Lusoi Resort in Kenya, we could pack even lighter.  We also plan to give away several items during our time in Kenya, as is our custom, including a pair of my shoes, pairs of socks, several DWC T-shirts, and some DWC “buffs” or neck gaiters.  We’d also leave behind some of our personal protective equipment like work gloves and then eat or give away any snack foods we packed.  We did add some other clothes, though, because of additional vacation and touring time we had planned after Kenya, namely three full days each in Zanzibar, Tanzania and Brussels, Belgium.

Giving away things makes room for the few souvenirs we would buy.  The most important thing is always T-shirts for the four grandkids, but we might include some Kenyan or Tanzanian coffee or Belgian chocolates and a shirt or two for each of us.

This is my 11th trip with DWC and 10th as a team leader.  We are returning to the Naro Moru region of Kenya where, two years before, we had built a stone-block classroom at a rural elementary school.  We’re looking forward to seeing many of the same faces that we met in 2023 as our goal is to complete a similar structure at another school—this time as the first phase of three volunteer trips that will ultimately complete a computer classroom and education center partially financed by Lenovo computers.

Earlier in the week, DWC’s program manager for the project sent me photos of the site showing that the local worked had already poured the foundation of the classroom and were preparing to pour the concrete floor as well.  If all that was done, then we would be stepping into the project at about the same point that we had two years ago.

Our volunteer group is 10 strong.  Becky is, of course, joining me for her second Kenya Trip and eighth DWC trip overall, as is Mark Kijowski (an American ex-patriot living near Pisa, Italy) with whom I’d worked in Nepal in 1019, Costa Rica in 2022, and Kenya in 2023.  Kate Smith, from Arizona, and a fellow graduate of the US Air Force Academy (USAFA) is joining us for her second DWC as she’d gone to Lima, Peru with us last Fall for work on a school in a barrio there.  “Yami” Yamakawa is DWC veteran and octogenarian from Kamloops, BC.  Hollis Toney is the 20-something son of my first cousin from Massachusetts.  Richard “Beef” Haddad is a retired US Air Force Reserve general officer and airline pilot from Florida, accompanied by his wife, Ginger—also former military and a lawyer.  Beef and I are USAFA classmates (’81 Second to None!) both raised in Arizona and friends for almost 50 years.  Next, we have Dave “DT” Thompson, a retired US Space Force general, former student of mine at USAFA, long-time friend, and fellow resident of Colorado Springs.  Our final volunteer is Katja Roberts, a DWC staff member going on her first orientation trip.

The trip is nominally for two weeks of work, but Beef, Ginger, and Katja are only staying for one week before returning home.  During the middle weekend of the trip—and before the three mentioned above, depart—we will go to Samburu National Reserve for two-plus days of safari, as we did in 2023.

The team had held two different video call orientations and we’d also formed a WhatsApp group for communications during the trip.  Beef and Ginger would be arriving first and have an extra day or two in Nairobi.  Becky and I will be arriving on Friday evening, 13 June, just an hour after Yami, and the three of us will join the other two at the Lotos Hotel in Nairobi.  The rest of the team will arrive the following day and on Sunday, after breakfast, we will all depart for the Lusoi Resort (our home base) in the Naro Moru region of Kenya about a three-hour drive northwest of Nairobi near the foot of Mount Kenya.  That is the plan at least!

I think that our packing went well.  We had some extra room in two of our three bags and I had some room in my camera bag.  My friend and Canon technical rep, Mike Cutler, arranged to send me some loaner gear for this trip—as he’s done several times in the past—to include a new Canon R5 Mark II camera, a Canon RF100-500mm “L” telephoto zoom and a 2X teleconverter that would give me up to 1000mm (one meter!) of focal length for safari shooting.

On Thursday morning, we woke up early as usual and spent the morning prepping ourselves, our luggage, and our house for a 10am departure.  All went without a hitch and we boarded our Lyft taxi to the airport at 10am, confident that we hadn’t forgotten anything, while repeating after ourselves “wallet, cell phone, passport” about a dozen times.

The plane boarded on time—a full United Airlines 737—and we landed early at Chicago O’Hare Airport for a two-plus hour layover before our next United flight from there overnight to Brussels.  We landed at gate C17 and were pleased to know that our Brussels flight would depart from C10, just next door to the United Star Alliance lounge.

The lounge was very crowded, but we managed to find two seats near a window overlooking a gate.  I had a beer and some snacks and Becky got a salad.  We each ate some cookies, checked email and the news while preparing for the overnight flight to Brussels.

The flight, on a Boeing 787, boarded smoothly and left on time for a smooth flight that last about 7.5 hours.  We were pleased that it arrived about 15 minutes early because our connection in Brussels was only 85 minutes.

Friday 13 June 2025

We had to take an electric shuttle from our arrival at Terminal B to Terminal T from which all flights to Africa departed.  There was a long line to board the bus and we waited almost 15 minutes, finally getting on the crowded shuttle that then needed almost 10 minutes to get to the next terminal.

When we stepped into the new terminal and saw a Star Alliance lounge and Becky asked if we had time to get a drink or use the restrooms there, I checked my watch and saw that our next flight was scheduled to begin boarding in only one minute.  We kept walking.

The boarding process for the Brussels Air flight was completely unintelligible.  We stood in what looked like a line to check-in only to find that it was for visa assistance.  Some groups only had their Kenyan visas on their phones and, apparently, this was not acceptable.  I was happy to have a hard copy of ours.  

The plane seemed to take forever to load, in part because of the completely manual and confusing document checks–they also didn’t take electronic boarding passes and needed to issue paper passes to all.  On top of that, once boarded, the pilot announced that, due to congestion over Switzerland and Austria, and our flight route over those countries, our departure would be delayed an additional 20 minutes.  In the end, we began taxiing for takeoff an hour late.

The flight to Nairobi was also almost completely full.  The Airbus A330-300 had a 2-4-2 seating arrangement, so Becky and I were on the right side with me on the aisle and her on the window.  That was right after having to suffer the ORD-to-BRU flight in the very middle seat of a 3-3-3 Dreamliner.

The flight to Nairobi was actually longer than the overnight to Brussels, clocking in at just over eight hours.  We managed to make up some time en route, landing only about 30 minutes late.

We breezed through passport and customs control quickly and our bags arrived on the carousel just a few minutes after we found a cart.  Joseph was waiting for us outside of Terminal 1E and we started walking to another terminal to meet James who was waiting for Yami.

We had had no contact at all with Yami–he had not responded to any of my WhatsApp messages, so we weren’t sure if he had even arrived on his scheduled flight.  We were quite worried, but he finally came out of the terminal telling us that one of his bags was lost or delayed and not scheduled to arrive into Nairobi until the same flight arrived the next day.

As we were walking to the cars, Yami expressed his relief that he’d made it to Nairobi and when James asked him if he needed anything, he said “A Tusker!”  So, James walked into a shot next to us and bought Yami a can of Tusker Lager that clearly hit the spot.

The drive to the hotel took about 20 minutes in the dark and was uneventful.  Beef Hadad was waiting for us in the lobby.  Joseph needed to go back to the airport to pick up Kate who was arriving just after midnight.  Beef had informed us by WhatsApp that he had scheduled a day safari and some tours with James to occur on Saturday and Kate and I agreed to go with them.  Becky and Yami decided to stay back at the hotel the next day and relax.  

Meanwhile, we were hearing from Hollis that he had missed his initial flight from the East Coast and wouldn't arrive until midday on Sunday due to delays in rebooking caused by the conflict in the Middle East–he was passing through Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airlines.

Becky and I were in bed by about 11:30pm.  I took an Ambien, set my alarm for six hours later and committed to meet Ginger, Beef, and Kate for our 6:15am safari departure.

Saturday 14 June 2025

We were able to grab a few items at the hotel’s buffet breakfast before we left on the safari with our driver, Andrew.  The coffee was terrible and seemed to be just a pot of instant coffee freshly mixed with hot water.

The drive to the Nairobi National Park entrance was only about 20 minutes and we were in line to enter quickly.  There were many safari jeeps and vans waiting and it was clear that we would not be alone on this beautiful, cool, and party cloudy Saturday morning.

Within about 15 minutes we were driving into the park behind a stream of other vehicles.  Over the next three hours we managed to see several lions, including one young male that seemed to be sleeping off a bender from the night before, oblivious to a dozen safari cars circling him no more than 30 feet away.  It was hard to tell that he was alive except for the occasional ear twitch and slow breathing.  He had a thick leather collar and GPS tracking device around his neck.

Soon after, we saw a family of three black rhinos including a baby that was probably a year old or less.  This was one of several rhinoceros encounters that were the highlights the visit in addition to the giraffes.  There were not many antelope of any sort.  We saw two small bands of impala and then, in the distance what looked like a herd of large antelope that were too far away to absolutely identify.  I thought they were sable, but could also have been hartebeest or eland according to Andrew.  We saw one lone water buffalo, no elephants–there aren’t any in the 166 square kilometer park.  One pond held a small family of hippos.

We saw several bands of Masai giraffes that were noticeably smaller than the reticulated giraffes we’d seen two years before in Samburu National Preserve.  They were, however, just as graceful and seemed very curious about their safari friends.

At one point, we saw a group of lions in the deep grass walking away from us but were unable to get any good photos.  There was some bird life, but not a lot.  We saw a maribou stork, large vulture, and some water birds near the hippos.

The dust was difficult because of the number of vehicles on the trails.  We were never out of sight of other safari tourists.  We made one pit stop along the way to use the rest rooms in a picnic area that had many olive baboons.  One group of irresponsible tourists tossed their picnic trash to the baboons  who tore into the paper bags and fought over some aluminum foil coated with scraps of food.  I lost it with one of the tourists and told them to go pick up their trash.  None of the guides said anything, the guy clearly understood English because he blamed the littering on another group. 

I took it upon myself to do the cleanup and walked rather loudly into the area, scattering the baboons, and picked up all of the trash.  A group of Asian tourists broke into light applause and one kind young lady brought over some tissues to wrap the trash in and wipe my hands while we looked for a trash receptacle.

The baboons were a bit of a problem because of the acclimatization to humans.  One large baboon jumped onto the hood of a safari jeep and then into the jeep from the open air top, scattering the tourists inside who ran screaming from the car.  I was sure, but I kinda hoped that that was the same van load of people that had left their trash behind at the picnic table.

From our safari, we went to the local elephant orphanage run by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The Trust.wa sestablished in 1977 and focuses on elephant and rhino conservation, preservation, and rehabilitation. The site we were visiting is an elephant and rhino orphanage where abandoned babies are brought to recover.

There were easily over 200 visitors when we arrived, all around a ropes off circle with a small pond in the middle. Once everyone was set, a group of 13 young elephants, ranging in age from less than a year to about 3.5 years, came out of the forest about 200 meters away, all in single file, nearly running to what we now realized was the feeding circle.

Caretakers brought wheelbarrows full of two gallon baby bottles with huge nipples and handed them to the hungry elephants who grasped the jugs of human baby formula with their trunks and slammed each bottle like a college frat boy chugging a 32 ounce mug of beer. When drained, the elephants dropped the bottles on the ground and went to the leafy limbs scattered around the dirt arena.

One of the caretakers had a microphone and began explaining the SWT’s background and mission. He introduced each of the elephants and the where, why, and how they were rescued as well as their ages as names.

The fascinating part of their mission to me is how they ultimately reintegrate these elephants back into family herd units within their other units located at Tsavo National Park, southeast of Nairobi near the Tanzanian border.

After the age of four, the young elephants are transported to a “halfway house” at Tsavo where they are cared for every night, but released into the wild during the day. Initially, the elephants return every evening. Eventually, though, they stay away longer and longer as they meet other elephants and become more accepted or adopted into new family units. The process can take up to five years, but the orphans all become acclimated to life in the wild and ultimately join their new friends in Tsavo.

From the elephant orphanage, we went to the Giraffe Center where a band of Rothschild's giraffes were ket for captive breeding and study. We didn’t get the same level of mission explanation here, but did meet the giraffe’s in this local band led by a large, very dark male named Eddie.

We all had to wash our hands before going in and we were each given a half coconut shell filled with feed pellets for the giraffes. There were detailed feeding instructions on signs around the feeding platforms, showing us how to not be head-butted by the females or bitten by the males.

The Rothchild’s giraffes are bigger than the Masai species, but not as large as the reticulated giraffes of Samburu. They are distinguished by their all white lower legs (below the knee) and the difference in spot darkness between the males (very dark) and females (much lighter).

The highlight of the group was a one-month-old baby of as yet undetermined gender that quietly stiff apart from the feeding giraffes waiting for its mother to return so that it could nurse.

We completed our day by returning to the hotel at about 2:30pm. Becky had been walking the neighboring area while we were gone and discovered a nice coffee shop nearby to help overcome the bad hotel breakfast coffee. 

We all agreed to meet in the top floor hotel bar after cleaning up to share some Tusker beer.

Over beers, I monitored the flight progress of DT and Katja as well as the new flight schedule for Hollis. All now seemed to be on track. Kate joined Beef, Becky, and me and we talked politics and the upcoming parade in DC as well as the counter-protests around the country.

Becky made dinner reservations at The Carnivore for the evening and we made plans to meet in the lobby at 5:30pm. Ginger begged off of dinner as she was in pain from her recently fractured collarbone, exacerbated by the bumpy safari jeep ride from the morning.

I booked an Uber and five of us (Yami joined) squeezed into what was advertised as a six-passenger Toyota Sienta. Our driver, Samuel, maneuvers deftly through cameras Nairobi traffic and we arrived only a few minutes late to the restaurant located very near the airport on its civil aviation side.

The Carnivore was just as we remembered it from two years before, in the style of an Argentina all-you-can eat meat house with carvers maneuvering between the tables with long knives, but more exotic meats. The “Dawa’ served honey-lime-voska cocktails at table side and we could also order wine and Tusker beer.

All of the meet was good, but the ostrich highlighted the meal three ways: carved medium rare roast; meatballs; and grilled liver. The crocodile was a bit chewy, and the ox balls seemed blind in comparison. We had pork and chicken sausages, roast beef and both pork and beef ribs. The lamb was excellent and tasted very similar to the ostrich.

Dessert was included, but we couldn’t finish all of it, sharing crème brulée and Sacher torte.

We took another Uber back to the hotel and, as we went to bed, monitored the progress and pick-up of DT and Katja at the airport. Mark was arriving even later, but I was not worried about him nor that Joseph would be ready to pick him up.

Sunday 15 June 2025

I slept fairly well aided by an Ambien, but Becky didn’t do as well. I checked messages that confirmed the arrival of Kat and DT and, since I saw nothing to the contrary, assumed that Mark had arrived safely.

Hollis was laying over in Abu Dhabi and set to arrived in the early afternoon. He would get an individual car and driver to join us at the Lusoi Resort in Naro Moru while the rest of us would leave the hotel at 10am.

I finished processing the previous day’s photos and uploaded them to my Google photos album to share with the others, then we went down to breakfast. 

We were the first in our group to the breakfast area, but DT soon joined us. He planned to go for a neighborhood walk after eating since we had plenty of time before departing. 

I did some trip accounting work in the dining area and met Kat, Beef, Ginger, and Kate later there. Becky finished packing and we all met on time in the lobby.

James arrived first as he needed Yami to sign a release form for his lost luggage that would be picked up today and delivered along with Hollis. DT has a delayed bag from the night before, too, but it wouldn’t arrive until Sunday night. He made arrangements for it to be delivered by the airline directly to the Lusoi.

Joseph and Isaac came with the vans just before 10am. It was great to see Isaac again as he's been such a great driver and guide two years ago.

We left on time, but then stopped at a Carrefour to buy large bottles of water for the worksite. We also used the stop as an opportunity to buy some beer, wine, and liquor to consume at the resort as well as some additional snacks for the team.

We were on the road again any about 11:15am driving along the major highway to the north that had largely been under construction two years ago.

We were pleased to see that the highway construction that we’d suffered through two years ago was complete–at least for the first 100 km. The Kenyans do put speed bumps in the divided highway, though, at regular intervals slowing things down considerably. Still, we made good time and stopped at about 1:15 at the coffee and curio shop we’d visited in 2023.

Several of us bought coffee at the shop and did a preliminary souvenir viewing. I assured the staff at the shop that we would be coming back in two weeks and that was when we would buy.

Our barista’s name was Kate and she and our Kate immediately bonded. The local Kate had a beaded bracelet with her name and the Kenyan flag on it and so she promised our Kate that she would have one for purchase when we came back.

Once we left the shop, the highway construction began a new. The road was reduced to one lane in each direction, which, in Kenya, means at least two cars squeezing by each way, plus bicycles, motorbikes, and pedestrians.

Along the highway, we saw many vendors selling a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other products. Near Nairobi, pineapples were plentiful. We saw oranges and other citrus, roasted corn-on-the-cob, and arrowroot, as well as large white woven plastic bags of charcoal. Some spots sold mangoes. At higher altitudes (nearly 6000 feet, we began to see coffee plantations mixing in with the more common bananas and corn.

We arrived at the hotel before 3pm and checked in at the lobby.  It hadn’t changed a bit in two years.  Young ladies at the front desk greeted us with hot face towels and cool glasses of juice as they processed our passports and assigned us to rooms.  Daniel, the operations manager, introduced himself and told us to find him if we needed anything.

Once the rooms were assigned, Mark Kijowski led the group through the outdoor guest area past the restaurant and then the indoor and outdoor bar areas.  We met the vehicles in our little compound area that was the same as in 2023 and we went to our rooms.  I chatted with Isaac and Joseph and let them know that we would be leaving for work on Monday morning at 8am after a breakfast starting at seven.

Becky and I unpacked and asked for assistance in getting the extra bed removed from our room so that we had more space.  We connected to the wifi and relaxed a bit before heading to happy hour.  Hollis was on his way from Nairobi and we expected him to arrive at or near about 5pm.

We met Yami and Mark at one of the outdoor tables for happy hour. Katja arrives soon after, then Hollis showed up. I bought him a Tusker and we did introductions. Beef, Ginger, and Kate rounded out the team.

Dinner started at 6:30pm and we had a set menu from which we could choose several items including beef, chicken, pasta, or fish along with vegetables, rice potatoes, and then sliced fruit for dessert.

Near the end of the meal, we held our trip briefing discussing safety, the work site, expectations, and other parts of the project. We left agreeing to meet for breakfast at 7am for an 8am departure.

Becky and I returned to the room and prepped for the night. I had a phone call scheduled with Dan Miller, the DWC Board Chairman, at 8pm–or so I thought. I called him as planned but he didn't answer. He called back a few minutes later and I realized that we planned the call for Monday evening and I’d confused the dates.

Anyway, we talked about DWC in general and the offer of a board of directors seat for me. I gladly accepted and was told that it will probably be confirmed at their 27 June board meeting.

Monday 16 June 2025

Becky and I slept fairly well. The compound was very quiet until about 5:55am when, it seemed, all of the birds just turned “on” and started chirping.

After cleaning up, I met DT in the courtyard and we walked to breakfast together. Beef was there already and Yami and Kat arrived shortly thereafter followed by Becky. We had eggs to order, fried potatoes, vegetables and peas, toast, and cut fruit (watermelon and oranges).

The coffee was better than in Nairobi, but still not great. They also served hot Africa milk tea and Becky had. Cappuccino.

On the way back to the room I knocked on Hollis’s door and reminded him when we would be leaving. He ran out for breakfast at 7:40 and was ready to go at 8, as was the rest of the team.

We pulled away at 8:05am, not bad for day one.

The weather was cool and cloudy. We could see the foothills of Mt Kenya but not much else. Along the road, workers wer cutting down grass with hand scythes, bent at the waste, one every hundred meters or so. Cattle were doing similar work at a slower pace, some attended by their owners, others roaming free (or so it seemed), still more tethered by a rope tied to their ankle.

The drive to the worksite took a total of 40 minutes. The Marcharia Comprehensive School was located only about 100 meters off of the highway a few miles after Naro Moru.

When we arrived, we were met by our local lead, Gladys, the school’s principal, Jane, and then the work team led by Simon and the foreman, John. 

We put our bags under the tent and then went to the main school yard where we were greeted by all of the students and teachers. They lined up by grade level from preschool through grade nine. Theynere all in school uniform with the primary school children in bright red and white and the junior high teenagers in grey.

I introduced the team to all of the students and then they greeted us with cheers and a short version of “If You're Happy and You Know It.”

Next, we went to the work site to meet John and Simon. We saw that the classroom pillars had been completed, as well as the foundation and floor, but the first, base set of stone blocks were not in place.

After introducing the other workers to us, Simon explained to us that we would have two jobs to start the day: mixing concrete and washing the stone blocks. He chuckled and then looked at Becky, joking about much he knew she enjoyed that task.

The other half of the team would be mixing concrete and prepping the area to see stone blocks, just as we had done two years before. In fact, Simon told me that the work would be identical for this new classroom.

The good news was that this classroom was really an addition the an already operational wing of the school with several classrooms. We would be adding the three walls needs for the addition and that room would be only about three-quarters the size of the previous project.

The teams split up, with Kat, Kate, Yami, and (for a while) Hollis scrubbing the bricks with new steel brushed and a wheelbarrow. Things we're already better than last time.

The concrete mixing was huge undertaking. We started with 12 wheel-barrows of sand and the four 50 lb bags of Portland cement. The raw pile was huge and we moved it four times to dry mix it.

Ten, the work began setting the first layer of stone. Two side we're distinctly lowest than the front, so we had to break each block in half the long way to fudge the same level height as set by their clear plastic tube level.

This first set of stone took hours to put in place. We all worked on cutting stone with the locals and letting them set them. We filled the gaps with concrete. Once complete, and after tea break, we laid the first full layer of stone, finishing just before lunch.

The team was doing very well, but also working very hard. Beef had had some digestive issues the day before and wasn’t full speed. Coming from Florida, the altitude zapped him quickly. Kate was feeling nauseous and light-headed and stayed in the shade for a while before joining the stone-washing crew with Yami, Becky, and Kat.

Hollis learned to fill masonry gaps with concrete, as did DT and Beef. Mark was using a chisel to tear into the end columns of of the existing building to find the rebar columns that we would tie into with more rebar, more effectively locking the new structure to the old.

We accomplished quite a bit before lunch and were happy to be moving quickly. All of the teams were working well together.

Lunch consisted of spinach, rice, and a ginger beef stew that was excellent, LL prepared by Lucy, Nderitu 's sister and a young chef. We also had orange wedges and tea.

We went back to work at 2pm expecting to finally use up the giant concrete pile from the morning. Now that the base layers were set, we made excellent time, completing two more layers in just over two hours.

At the end of the day, Gladys called us all together so that we could quickly discuss the day’s progress and allow Simon to tell us the plan for tomorrow. I thanked everyone for the hard work, too.

Simon said that tomorrow, we would continue with the work as we had done today, but that we would add curing of the walls with water–again noting how much Becky enjoyed that task!--and saying that we would work on constructing the rebar rings that would reinforce the block structure.

We left at about 4:15pm, all exhausted but happy with our first day. It had helped that the weather was breezy, cool, and partly cloudy. Also, our work area was somewhat shaded on one side. We had completed a base plus three full layers of stone. Isaac thought we were well ahead of schedule and that, at this pace, we might finish early and have nothing to do the last day or two. We told him that we were good with that!

We were back to the resort shortly before 5pm and agreed to our usual optional outdoor bar meet-up for happy hour.  I arrived first with a couple of cold Tuskers, followed by Hollis, then Beef, Ginger, Kat, DT, Becky, and Mark.

Yami’s lost bag finally arrived, but DT’s had not.  We hoped it would get here during the day, but now we were holding out for sometime late tonight.  He’s such a big guy that the option of buying clothes locally didn’t sound feasible.

Dinner was a buffet with fried chicken, vegetable curry, beef teriyaki, pasta, mashed potatoes, and an excellent pumpkin soup.  Just as before, the soups were great.

Dinner was fun and everyone was energized by our first day’s accomplishments.  We did a little research and discovered that the stone we were using is called Ndarugo stone from a unique quarry in Kenya.  We used it two years ago and again for this project.  I couldn’t find an explanation of exactly what kind of stone constituted Ndarugo cut stone, but it was clearly a very soft rock not unlike a solidified clay.  It is easily chipped and broken into pieces and seems to bridge the gap between brick requiring considerable manufacturing and processing and a hard cut stone like granite.  This will take a little more time and research.

At dinner, DT asked to speak to the whole group and gave a very gracious shout-out to Kate for persevering through some sickness and not feeling well to contributing substantially to the day’s stone cleaning and other work.  As usual from him it was a very well done and heartfelt note that was well-received by all.

We broke up before 8pm and all retreated to our rooms looking forward to the next day and adding more layers of stone to our first four as well as constructing the rebar frames that would circle the structure at two different levels.

Tuesday 17 June 2025 

In the morning I was not as sore as I thought I’d be and the rest of the team seemed to feel the same way, at least according to early breakfast reports.

The breakfast buffet included crepes and cooked carrots along with the usual potatoes, English beans, and eggs to order.

On the way back to the room, I dropped by the front office and asked that extra clothes hangers be put in all of the rooms by housekeeping. 

Unfortunately, DT’s bag had still not arrived from Brussels (or Nairobi) and he continued to get the run-around by the baggage agent that was supposedly handling the case for Brussels Air. Beef gave him an extra T-shirt, but he really needed some pants. Finding something in his size in Kenya would be a challenge if his bag never materialized.

The weather was cloudy, but began to clear as we left at exactly 8am. The forecast called for some drizzle and then about a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon–nicer than the record heat expected back home in Colorado.

We decided to stop at a hardware store in Naro Moru to pick up some extra buckets and gloves to help with the concrete curing and rebar cage assembly, respectively. Beef also asked Isaac if we could stop on the way back in the evening to buy some soccer balls for the school.

Somehow, the road connecting the resort to the highway had gotten worse. The approximately two miles took 15 minutes and had huge ruts, some filled with rocks too big to smooth the ride. 

This morning, we saw large chalk arrows in the road out down early this morning. They looked like what you would see for a cross country race, but Isaac said they were directions to a funeral that would occur later in the morning.

We found cheap leather gloves for Kat and Hollis at a hardware store in Naro Moru, but no spray nozzles or extra buckets. The gloves were 300 Shillings per pair of about $2.30.

When our van arrived at the site, Beef and Mark were already moving sand and mixing concrete while Kate and Yami were scrubbing bricks.  The skies had cleared a bit, too.  We jumped in to help and before long the next ring of stones were set before the tea break.  We wondered where the rebar was to make the reinforcing cages for the next level, but they had not yet been delivered.  Most of us moved to the stone cleaning work while the locals finished the last touches on the set stones and cleaned the area.

During tea time, we heard but did not see a truck on the other side of the school.  As tea break ended, we were told that the rebar and the boards that would be used to make the forms for the poured concrete around the cages were in the yard on the other side of the school, so several of us helped moved those items to the work area.

The rebar came in both size 8 and size 10 widths.  We would be using the size 8 for all of the work on this window-level ring.  We also learned that, since this ring was for window reinforcement, we would only be installing the rebar and poured concrete on the front and back sides of the room that would have windows and frames.

While the locals set the framing forms and the block cleaning continued, Beef, Hollis, DT, and I worked with Simon and Joseph on the steel.  First, we straightened the long pieces (12 meters each) that were bent in half for easier transport.  Then, we used hacksaws to cut two of them in two 20 pieces, each 60cm (close to two feet) long.  Simon used a form nailed to a tree to bend the pieces into rectangular cages that would then be secured to four 12 meters pieces of rebar, spaced 20cm apart.

We were all taught, or retaught, how to wrap the wire around the rebar to secure the cages to the long stringer pieces and went to work.  It all went much quicker than we expected and we had the entire, nearly forty feet of cage done shortly after lunch.  It was then cut into pieces that would span each section of the two walls between the set pillars and Simon bent the last two inches or so of the four rebar stringers at each end by 90-degrees inward to have better purchase with the poured concrete.

The entertaining pet of the work was the conversation about war movies initiated by Hollis–a huge cinemophile. Of course, our experience (DT’s and mine) was much different than his. He considered anything before 1990 as “classic,” and was more knowledgeable and familiar with the newer films, while we considered the classics to be from the late 40’s through the 70’s to include movies like “The Longest Day,” “Patton,” and “12 O’Clock High.’

Eventually, the conversation even served into sci-fi and we then progressed to war in space and some lessons on timing, orbital mechanics, the size of “space,” The Expanse and other movies and TV shows.

While we were doing this, the team was mixing concrete in the room, this time with one- to two-inch rocks and gravel as filler.  The mix was quite watery to make it easier to pour into the forms using shovels and also, I presume, to minimize the number of voids and spaces in the pour.  As we did two years ago, any gaps in the forms were filled with cut up pieces of cement bags.

The weather became cooler and, while we were doing this work we had our first few raindrops of the trip, but that quickly blew over.  The mix was put into the forms and we didn’t have enough to finish the job, so we needed to make another small pile of concrete at the end of the day to finish the job.  We completed what Simon said was the goal for the day and would be setting more bricks the next day up to where the next reinforced ring would go at the top of the classroom wall.

At the end of the day, we interacted with the kids a lot. I loved their questions and interest in all of us. I took some photos and then videoed interviews with Kate and Hollis surrounded by school kids.

On our return, we stopped in Naro Moru to buy soccer balls for the school and a few items. Beef bought four balls and a pump and Kat bought two more. I also went to the local pharmacy and bout 20 extra Band-Aids, called “elasto-plasts” in Kenya. Beef and Kate bought some allergy and sinus medications and Beef also bought a jacket for Ginger–the weather here is cooler than expected!

Eight of us oiled into Joseph's can for the return while Isaac and DT waited for a van that would finally deliver DT’s list bag from Brussels. It arrived soon after and they were only five minutes behind us.

When we returned to the Lusoi Resort, the power was off. We were told it would be back in a few minutes, but I explained that “a few minutes” in Africa meant anything from a few minutes to “sometime tomorrow. “  

With no power the water pumps weren't working either, so none of us could shower.  We decided to bring chairs into the parking area and set up our own happy hour with my cold Tuskers, Beef’s gin, Becky’s gin and tonic in a can, and a celebratory DT in clean underwear mixing African screwdriver made of something approximating orange juice with Absolut vodka.

Just before 6:30, the power was restored–just in time for dinner. We all decided to go to dinner without showering and happily made our way to the dining room.

Everyone was in a very good mood at dinner, happy with our progress and profiting from happy hour. The creamy vegetable soup was excellent, as usual, and we had more fried chicken, a pork stir-fry, rice, and mixed vegetables along with the usual cut fruit dessert.

It was later than usual evening of revelry and we didn’t return to our rooms until just before 9:30pm.

Wednesday 18 June 2025

Becky and I got up at 6:30am and joined Beef and Ginger at breakfast. The others followed shortly. It was another cloudy, cool morning just like the previous ones. The forecast was identical to the previous days, but with each day the predicted chance of rain seemed to be creeping towards 50%.

Our van stopped in town to buy water and arrived a few minutes behind Joseph’s team. Once again, my Float card (both virtual and physical) was declined and both cards “paused” by Float, despite them being reactivated by DWC with an explicit message to Float that they would be used in Kenya. Very frustrating…

The skies cleared quickly and most of the morning was sunny and warm with almost no breeze. The stone washing crew went back to work and was making great progress. The team’s job today would also include setting up the scaffolding with the locals as well as completing the next two layers of block.

We brought over about forty poles that were really eucalyptus tree trunks about four inches in diameter at the base. Symon showed us where to dig holes around the structure and Mark, Hollis, and I dug 12 holes about 15 inches deep using long crowbars. The logs were set into each hole and then the dirt was packed around them as the primary vertical components of the scaffolding. Before this, Mark and I had removed the forms from the previous day’s reinforced concrete pour and then taken the nails and other supports off of them. These forms would be used as the scaffolding platforms for installing the higher courses of stone.

We removed as many nails as possible from the pieces of lumber that had been used as braces for the pour, too.

After the verticals we're in place, horizontal pieces were nailed into them, followed by braces that locked the scaffolding to the structure. The scaffolding assembly would take all day with the sone masons setting the next two layers of stone while fixing the positions of the window frames front and back.

At the end of lunch, we found the head teacher and told her that we wanted to pass out balls to the kids. They assembled the whole school in the main courtyard as before and the principal and I spoke to the kids. Selhe and I made it very clear that the balls belonged to the school and that they shouldn’t be taken home.

The moment the balls began to be passed out bedlam (and a lot of dust!). But every time one of the school leaders spoke, the kids instantly quieted and listened closely. They sand one song and then did a couple of cheers. The head teacher asked if the children remembered any of our names and they called yelled “Beef!” in unison!

After passing out the balls, we went back to work doing the same tasks as before. A few rain drops cooled us but, but did not disrupt our work. The block cleaners were really working together well and almost everyone cycled in for some of the work. By the end of the day only a single full layer remained, plus about another half layer.

We went to gather our things and we're thrilled to see all of the kids in the field playing with the balls. There was no organization or teams at all–they we're just chasing after the balls with the nearest one kicked it. One group of middle school boys was playing a game of volleyball without a net using one of the two “net balls” we had given them.

We walked into the field and I took some video and photos of the kids including the usual selfies that they seem to love.

With our things gathered, we met near the work site and Symon thanked us for our hard work and said that tomorrow we would concentrate on getting the next three courses of stone set, up to the tops of the pillars. Of course, we should also finish cleaning the blocks and may get started on building the rebar cages for the top ring. Tomorrow would be our last work day of the week as we planned to leave for Samburu at about 8:30am Friday morning.

We left right at 4pm and were back to the Lusoi at 4:40. The second van stopped along the way to take photos of a troupe of baboons alongside the road and we're just 15 minutes behind us.

Happy hour started just after 5pm when Becky, Kat, and I met Beef under the umbrella. He has a case of three Cuban cigars and sat downwind, offering me one, which I declined. DT arrived, though, and took him up on the offer. The herd of local cats came by but where chased away by Beef as he blew Cuban smoke in their direction. Kate arrived a little while after and did a boilermaker (Guinness and Jameson’s) with Beef, while Dave mixed his usual screwdriver, Kat and I had Tusker beer, and Becky enjoyed another of her canned gin and tonics.

For dinner, the crew had rearranged the tables into a V shape that seemed like what you would see at a corporate board meeting. Yami decided to skip dinner and stay in, while Beef took some food back to the room for Ginger. Both were feeling better, but wanted to rest.  

We had Kung Pao chicken, rice, spinach, “minute steak,” and chapati bread. Bottles of wine were ordered and dinner conversation was lively as usual. DT has to leave at 7:30 to participate in a corporate board meeting remotely.

The group broke up and reassembled, in part, in the bar. Hollis ordered two beers to go. He was headed to his room to watch “Letters from Iwo Jima,” more of his World War II movie kick. Beef poured me a gin and tonic and Mark ordered a bottle of red that he shared with Becky.

We were watching local Kenyan news on the TV–a network called the Citizens’ Channel. They were documenting civil unrest in Nairobi that had been on-going for several days. It had been triggered by the death of a young blogger while under police custody. In the latest round of violence, one man has been shot in the neck, but recovered and was being released from the hospital. In another, more tragic case, video showed two body-armored and helmeted policemen shove a man from behind and then one shot him in the back of the head. It was very graphic.

The two policemen were identified ND had already been indicted on charges of attempted murder. The victim was still alive, miraculously, after doctors removed the bullet from his skull.

We were in some ways impressed that this network was showing such detailed, graphic, and pointed criticism of the police as well as the government’s handling of the case and overall situation.

We broke up at 9pm and went back to our rooms for the night.

Thursday 19 June 2025

Breakfast was similar to most mornings with the exception of a plate of cooked peas and carrots. Kate said she was skipping breakfast but asked if someone could bring her a banana back to her room. Most had their usual cappuccinos, while I ha taken a liking to Africa Tea, which might better be described as hot milk with some tea flavor.

Yami came to breakfast and looked like he was doing well, which was good to see.

I brought Kate a banana and fruit bowl and she was out to the vans on time for our usual 8am departure.

The weather was as it had been every morning: cool with low clouds slowly burning off. We had still not had a good view of Mt Kenya!

The goals for today were fairly clear: finish cleaning the last of the stones; mix concrete and set the remaining three courses of stone; construct the rebar cage to go atop those three courses; and build the forms that would frame the poured concrete around the rebar cages. Mark and I thought that that last stage would be the slowest work as we didn’t know from where the boards would come to build the frames.