Sunday Walk

We go for a walk on Saturday and Sunday mornings. John gets plenty of exercise during the week since he usually walks two to three kilometers every day to and from school. I on the other hand don’t get much exercise. Walking in our neighborhood gives us a chance to explore and learn more about our new home. We try to take a new route each time we go. This morning we took our camera along to show you what we see in our neighborhood.

This road is a mirum road. It’s the next best thing to being tarmaced (blacktopped). I don’t know what it’s made of, but it sure doesn’t hold water. Even after a heavy downpour there are no mud puddles. There might be an area holding water for a few hours, but it is soon gone. On this type of road you don’t have to worry about getting stuck. The road to John's school isn't nearly this nice. He won't let me take him all the way to school because he's afraid I'll get stuck.

Click here to see more pictures. We are surrounded by hills. The Cherangani Hills are to the north east. To the north west is Mt. Elgon amid the Cherangani.

All houses and most building are located in compounds. There is a wall surrounding the compound and usually a hedge of some type. It’s not at all unusual to see cattle, goats and sheep eating grass along the edge of the roads. I’ve had to stop several times on my way to and from school to wait for them to cross the road. The shepherds are good in that if they see cars coming, they will try to get the animals to move over. At times there is no person with the animals. In that case they seem to be local animals with long ropes tied around their necks. They must belong to a compound nearby and are out grazing for the day.


Notice the lady walking with her small child in this photo. If you look carefully you will notice that she is carrying firewood on her head, a baby tied to her back, and a shopping bag on her arm. How does she do it?

Homes in our neighborhood run the gamut from large, multistoried homes for several families usually owned by Indian Kenyans, British colonial homes built in the early 20th century, modest stone homes similar to ours, to small homes built out of timber, corrugated tin, even mud.