East Pokot

Salutations.

One of the members of REPACTED had been inviting me all week to attend a theatrical event of his in a neighboring town this Saturday (today). I wasn't exactly clear on the details of the event, but he is one of the funnier and friendlier members of the organization, so I agreed to attend on principle, trusting that it would work out well. It did.

So, I meet Mapet and three other members of his Church's theater group at nearby Kabarak University, where we pile into a small truck and head north. I wasn't really sure how far it would be, but every kept telling me we didn't have too much father to go, so I didn't really worry about it.

My first indication that this might have been a mistake came about half an hour later, when we passed a sign that read "You Are Now Crossing the Equator."

Half an hour after that we passed signs for Lake Bogoria, a famous destination with hot springs and scenic boat rides. My family had suggested we travel there last weekend, but had decided against it because it was too far.

15 minutes later we had finally finished crossing the savanah, and it's occasional road-wash outs, and moved onto a dirt road in a full-fledged desert. The herds of cows and goats crossing the road left and right disappeared.

15 minutes later we couldn't see behind us because of the dust cloud we were kicking up, but could see a giant red and black cliff band ranging from 40-250 ft paralleling our road for about 10 miles. We could also see me drooling at the thought of climbing it, which of course was not and probably never will be possible.

15 minutes later we passed through the remains of an ancient lava flow, much like the ones in the badlands of New Mexico. It was basically like any other place in the world, except for enormous heaps of bowling-ball to television-sized black rocks laying around everywhere. It's hard to describe how out of place this environment was, and it was even more striking because of how suddenly it arose and how quickly we passed through it.

15 minutes later we pulled off of what was already the worst road I had ever been on. Instead of a street sign, there was just a camel painted on a rock by the turnoff. The new road was even less accommodating than the first one. It was basically two parallel ruts filled with 6 inches of dust or 6 inches of loose stones, with giant hedges of prickly pear cactus on either side, and occasional patches of savanna, often with wild Camels hiding behind them. We began to see herders and goats again, too. We slid off the road several times, and often had to drive down short pitches of giant and VERY steep river beds that were eerily dry. I can't really explain how bad the road was, because nothing I say will conjure up a severe enough image. Think like, hiking trails. And then like, worse.

15 minutes later we arrived at a small encampment owned by the Catholic Church. Population: 1. He was very nice, though. He gave us soda and we picked up a water tank (apparently the theater group was doing a play about water safety), and then we were off. 20 more minutes of terrible roads brought us to East Pokot, where we scorched in the 100 degree heat, refused to eat at a filthy restaurant (the only one in town), drank about a dozen sodas each because we didn't trust the local water and no one was selling bottled, and finally met the district commissioner (a relatively high position in regional politics, although I couldn't quite tell you how high). He showed us to his office, spent about 10 minutes talking about himself, and finally led us to the parade grounds/football(soccer) stadium, where the days activities were to take place.
I was finally starting to get the picture that this "play" was really just a brief water-sanitation lesson as part of a much larger town celebration of Kenyatta day, the second largest national holiday. Weird. But it ended up being a great time anyway. First of all, there were numerous local officials, tribesmen, scouts, and school children, all in VERY diverse outfits ranging from military fatigues to traditional Americans-only-see-this-in-National-Geographic beaded clothing. It was breathtaking. Second, as the only mzungu there, (realistically probably the only one for a hundred miles), and because I had a camera, everyone assumed I was some bigshot journalist. I got invited to the DC's tent, people brought me more sodas, and I had the freedom to walk anywhere and take pictures. It was really fun. Everyone was also very impressed that I am learning Swahili, so that got me even more leeway. And third, the "skit" about water safety ended up being terrific. It provided valuable information about sanitation and filtration to the entire assembled crowd, while also being thoroughly hysterical. In the end, it was a pretty great day.

Other exciting notes that I didn't find a way to include in the narrative:

I saw wild ostriches, a giant turtle, and numerous exciting small beetles and such, including a "rhinobeetle" - about 4 inches long and with a massive horn on the front.

I ate bloodfruit, mini bananas, and green oranges.

"The Land Down Under" - (the worthless American 80's pop song) came on the radio twice, in both cases as the only English on the entire radio channel.

Kenya is REALLY crazy.

Yours,
Chris