Life In Africa

"Hitting Tins and Lighting Fires"

2008-09-01T01:32:00.000-07:00

“Hitting tins and lighting fires” – Did you know this was in the job description of a Kenyan farmer? Sometimes reading the local news, reminds me of the uniqueness of life in Kenya. “Hippos smile, farmers cry” on page two of yesterday’s (8/31/08) Sunday Nation led to one of those times! I grew up in a farming community and my friends and family often had sleepless nights, but not for the reason experienced by farmers less than 13 miles outside of Nairobi!

“A herd of more than 20 hippos which live in a sewer in Ruai, about 20 km from Nairobi, has turned the lives of farmers in the area into a nightmare … hippos invade the farms at night and destroy crops … (one farmer) said … ‘I have to spend the night on my farm to keep vigil. However, all I can do is try to scare the animals away by hitting tins and lightening fires … Once they feed on the crops, the crops never recover and you have to replant. The animals also cause the soil to develop hard (spots) due to their heavy weight” … His neighbour … lost his donkey after it was reportedly bitten by a hippo yesterday morning.”

A confrontation between a donkey and a hippo? That must have been a sight to see!
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“Hippos smile, farmers cry” – http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/465860/-/tkafjs/-/index.html

Just Monkeying Around

2007-10-20T07:26:00.000-07:00

Written, April 22, 2007 - It is already Sunday afternoon here, so immediately after sending the prayer request to you, I headed towards my bedroom for a nap! Before I could take off my shoes, our two small dogs began barking wildly! These two little characters are very persistent, so I knew I had to calm them before napping! It took awhile to spot the problem – one few of you will experience today. Three monkeys are dancing around in our trees and putting on a show for the dogs! I think I’ll go and prepare a cup of coffee and give up on the nap! Life here may have its problems, but we are never bored!

Not Like Noah's Flood

2007-10-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today’s (November 27, 2006) DAILY NATION, one of the major Kenyan newspapers, gives two unique updates to the great rainy season. First, people in some flooded areas are being asked to move to higher ground – not because of the floods, but because of the crocodiles that are floating into homesteads!

Then, several housing areas of Nakuru where we used to live had an unprecedented problem this weekend. A baby elephant wandered into town after being displaced by the rains! The paper said that the people had their knives, etc, ready to butcher the elephant when the wildlife people captured it after chasing it for a few days around the different housing estates – but they were disappointed when the baby was shot with a tranquilizer rather than a gun and moved to a safer place! The paper also said that public transporters in the town had a roaring business as people were traveling from all over to see this spectacle as many of the town people had never seen a real live elephant!