James Kimeu invited us to his parents’ house in Nunguni for Christmas. Many people living in Nairobi travel to their ushago (up-country home) for the holidays, and this year we joined in the fun. We ended up spending 8 days there, getting home the day before the rest of the BVC volunteers from East Africa (Tanzania and Rwanda) arrived in Nairobi.
Death March:
On our third day in Nunguni Peter (James’ dad) took us on a ‘short’ hike. We stopped at a celebration for a man who was just named assistant chief of the region. After saying hello and learning about the process of becoming assistant chief, we kept on moving. Next, we made it to the professor’s house. The professor teaches college-level courses in agriculture and helps Peter with some of his Decent Living projects. Decent Living is an organization dedicated to helping people in the area experience “decent living”. They supply water to the entire area, help pay school fees, and find sustainable ways for families to increase their earning capacity. After touring the professor’s farm (a model of sustainable agriculture) we kept on walking.
At this point Amani, Bakari, and Baraka (a friend of Amani’s from next door) were all starting to get tired of walking. In their defense, we were about 13 miles into our hike through the hills. We stopped by a church a mile or so from the professor’s house and watched a dancing practice for the upcoming Christmas mass. The kids were having fun and I think they enjoyed having an audience for a little bit. Finally we were on our way home, but there was a massive hill between us and Peter’s house.
Trenton and I started powering up the hill, ready to be home. After a couple minutes, we noticed that Amani and Baraka had fallen way behind. Bakari was already on James’ shoulders. I went back for Baraka and Trenton got Amani. I used every trick I had to get him to keep climbing up the hill.
Every time we reached a corner, “Only one more to go!”
“If a motorcycle comes by, I’ll pay him to bring you home.”
“You can’t let Amani beat you up the hill, let’s go!”
Eventually we made it up the hill. Baraka was ready to drop. Just a short downhill stretch and we finished our 26 kilometer (16ish mile) hike. Peter was unfazed. If I’m able to do a hike like this at his age, I’ll be pretty pleased.
New Experiences:
On our first full day in Nunguni, we spent the day at the shamba (farm). A couple of trees had fallen over in the last storm, so we cut them up to make charcoal. I had never made charcoal before so I had no idea what the process was going to look like. We dug a large pit, stacked the logs up inside, and then covered the whole thing with green branches and dirt. The whole project took most of an afternoon to finish, but was going to make a lot of charcoal. All that was left to do was light it up in the small hole we had left without dirt. After three days of smoldering, we would be able to uncover the pit and collect our charcoal.
On the day before Christmas Eve we butchered a goat in preparation for the coming meals. I’ve done my fair share of gutting and butchering through deer hunting, but seeing an animal killed up close and personal was definitely different. I held the goat down while Hayden slit it’s throat and less than 45 minutes later we were eating freshly cooked liver and our work was done. The other difference from deer hunting is the number of organs saved to eat. We ate just about every organ that Jimmy (the goat) had to give, including matumbo (stomach). It tasted better than I was expecting.
Christmas Day:
On Christmas day, we started things off with a 2 hour church service. After church, we were back at Peter’s house eating a big meal with the whole family. James’ sister Stella and her family came from the other side of the hill to join the meal. Stella made one of the best cakes I’ve ever had for dessert! After eating, we had a quiet day of cribbage and spending time with the family. We finished the day the same way we finished every day in Nunguni – out at the fire until right around 2AM. Out of all the places we’ve been in Kenya, that little firepit might be the spot I miss the most.
We gave our presents to James, his kids, and Peter and Anne (James’ mother) on Boxing Day (December 26th). That’s typically when gifts are opened in Kenya. Some USA and NASA merch for the boys, ugali flour and rice for James’ parents, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker black label for James. We were all very thankful that James and his family took us in for the holiday season, but I decided that this would be the last year that I missed Christmas with my family. I’ll be in Minnesota for Christmas next year!
Thanks for reading!