Day 2 in Kenya - travel to Ondati

Monday 15th

Imagine your bedroom is in a nightclub, the window doesn't have any glass, the walls don't go to the ceiling, and the music is played until 4am... In the Luo culture, if someone dies, then all the family comes to stay. There may not be enough space for people to sleep, so music is played until the early hours (loudly) to entertain the guests, and also as a sort of Harambee to get the local community to contribute to the costs of the funeral (which may be enough to bankrupt the family, who may have just lost the breadwinner). I was staying at the house of someone called Rose last night, and her neighbour had just died. So we didn't get to sleep until late because of the noise.

This might sound awful, especially since I was already ill and hadn't really slept on the plane the night before. But actually I liked it - partly because I really liked the music - but mostly because it was one of the many things that communicated to me the very community-oriented feel to the local culture, both with regard to life events and with regard to money.

Later that day, about 6 to 7 hours after leaving Kisumu and travelling on a mixture of matatu (a bit like a bus) and piki-piki (back of a motorbike), I arrived in Ondati village, covered in dust and partly caked in mud. The picture is an attempt to depict just how gross my legs were after having been dunked in puddles a few times. I think it's one of those things you just have to feel! The local people were very happy to see me, welcomed me to the village, invited me to join the tail end of the committee meeting that the school was having at the time, and then asked me to say some prayers to finish the meeting.