The Red Dirt of Kenya

The Oker family's Pentecostal church on top of a hill overlooking their farm & valleys on 3 sides.  Their congregation numbers 49 & the look forward to completing their church & dream of building a school next to it.

Father (age 82) & mother (age 65)of our host, Benson Oker. His father continues to actively farm & is particularly proud of his banana plantation with at least 4 different varieties.

Step 2 of making red bricks-after forming them from red mud & before firing them.

Walking dirt paths with 3 BUCHWA community health workers to make home visits to disabled persons. We've done ALOT of walking!!

These children greeted & sang for us as we passed by their school on our way to home visits. Note red dirt ground & red dirt mud used to construct their school.

Kate hopped on one of the local "piki-pikis" with her 2 bags to ride the 3 miles to our host family (up hill).  

"Bware traffic" on their main dirt road

Walking along dirt paths next to the fields to visit our host 's family farm on the next hillside

Neighbors standing next to their tobacco field

Our host family's farm with avocado & banana trees

The afternoon rain has stopped.  We walk along a red dirt road.  Today we are not covered in red dust; instead, we slip & slide in red clay mud.  The road is deeply rutted.  We pick our way carefully.  Then we look up.  A sunbreak has illuminated the fertile fields which surround us:    pineapple, kale, bananas, avocados, papayas, guava, maize, beans, & cash crops---sugar cane & tobacco.
Their green sparkles & pops against the red soil.  Each field is framed by a hedge or red dirt road, path, or track.  The plaid pattern covers the hills across the valley.  We approach an orderly stack of locally made red bricks.  They will form the walls of a home or outbuilding.  They will be smeared with plaster made of red earth & dung to seal them against the rain.  The buildings will be red & inside the floors will be red.  Even if the floors are concrete, they will be painted red.
When we arrive home, we remove our mud-caked outdoor shoes & slip into indoor shoes.  After a while, I will scrape mine clean.  But now it's time for chai.

Editor's Note:  James returned to Migori Sunday PM to precept the PA students this week.  Our two American MD preceptors completed their volunteer time last Thursday.  Kate will stay in Bware & continue working with the BUCHWA community health workers doing home visits.  We'll reunite Friday, Oct 19 when the entire team returns to Bware to complete screening of children at the final 2 schools  of the 6 schools we agreed to screen.  We jointly wrote the preceding blog entry.

Our home in Bware with Wilma, our host family's youngest in the yard. Note red earth in yard & buildings are made of brick, then often plastered to protect against the rains.