Report from Kenya #634 -- An Afican Adventure
David Zarembka
An African Adventure
Report from Kenya #634 – December 11, 2020
If you want the URL for this report, contact me at davidz...@gmail.com
This is my pickup stuck on the culvert not too far from our house. As you can see my front tires made it across, but the back tire seems to have broken off the dirt and we became stuck.
Getting Stuck
This last Saturday everyone in the family took a trip to Bungoma County to visit Gladys’ sister, Mary. Griffin, Mary’s grandson, who had been living with us for 7 years went to stay at his grandparents house after the schools were closed in March. He turned 12 and went through the traditional circumcision procedure. He was just coming out from a month of recovery and had a small welcome home party at Mary’s house. We took him a cake which said, “Congratulations, Griffin.”
We decided to take the back road home which was 16 miles rather than the round-about route we had come on which was about 32 miles. We crossed the Nzoia River into Kakamega County. After we had gone some way, we came to a small stream where half the culvert had been washed away. There was just enough space for my pick-up to pass. As you can see from the picture above, I got the front wheels across but the back wheels broke the soil and I was stuck. If I opened my door and got out I would have dropped ten feet into the creek. Mudavadi, our farm manager, immediately got a motorcycle to carry him near our house so that he could get a tractor to pull us out.
In the meantime, this quickly grew a crowd of men, women, lots of children, and drunks. Five of these men decided to try to pick up the back of the vehicle and put it on the road. They couldn’t budge it an inch.
In a short while a middle aged man name Mbakaya showed up. He got the crowd of adults to assemble and had a young man take a video of him making a speech. He said that he was in charge of getting the culvert repaired. It had broken in March and all the lobbying had resulted in no action by the county government. He indicated that people had to lobby to get it repaired. He mentioned that it was an American who was stuck. Two other people, one a man and the other a women, gave short speeches on how disappointed they were at the inaction of the government. A good number of the adults took pictures with their cell phone of my vehicle stuck in the culvert.
An Amazing Action
There was one very loud drunk man, perhaps in his thirties but quite physically fit. He began harassing me. I ignored him as I normally do with drunks. He came up to my window, calling me, for some reason, an Italian. I told him to leave. This seems to upset him so he loudly proclaimed that he was going to push the vehicle into the creek with the Italian in it. He then went to the back of the vehicle and started rocking it. Although it was unpleasant, I knew he couldn’t move it into the creek since five men previously had been unable to budge it.
At this point Faith, with a very resolute expression on her face, passed by the vehicle. I called to her but she didn’t respond. Soon I looked in the side mirror and saw Faith and Brian standing in between the drunkard and the vehicle. Both had their arms crossed as I asked them to do in the picture above. Whenever the man, still shouting loudly and drunkenly, tried to move towards the vehicle, Faith and Brian moved to block his path. I saw Faith point her arm and finger and, as she told me afterwards, she told him to go home. I was not concerned about the kids’ safety because I noticed that Irene, Faith’s mother, was standing close by.
The way home for the drunkard was towards the front of the vehicle. He passed by the pickup with Faith and Brian right behind him. As he walked up the road, Faith and Brian followed right behind. When he stopped and turned, which he did a few times, Faith and Brian continued to block his path. The two kids followed him well past where the crowd had been gathered and, when they stopped following him, they continued to watch him until he was well up the road. When I asked Faith why she did this, she replied, “He wanted to throw you into the river.”
I was awed by the actions of my grandchildren. I was amazed at how determined, calm, and persistent they were in their response to protect me. Moreover they did not have time to think and strategize the best response, but immediately developed an appropriate and effective one. They also acted in complete coordination. I feel blessed.
The Rescue
The tractor pulling the pickup off the culvert. Note that the wheels are turned to the right. This resulted in the vehicle going into the brush at the side of the road. This broke off the passenger side mirror. I also lost the front right reflector, and the fender on the passenger side was dented so that the light did not focus properly on the road.
As dusk arrived so did the tractor. The first attempt broke my wire chain, but on the second try with a wire chain that came with the tractor it pulled the vehicle out. It went into the bushes as described above. The tractor driver asked for $45 for his work which I was more than happy to give him. We drove home behind the tractor in the dark which is when I realized that the head lights were not properly focused. The next day Mudavadi and a friend, in the usual bush mechanic way famous in Kenya, reattached the side mirror and later Mudavadi bought and installed a new reflector. All ended well enough as no one was hurt by the accident.
One can't let an incident like this go to waste!
Yet the culvert was still broken and I doubt anything but the smallest vehicle could now get across the part that hadn’t yet collapsed. Gladys called Getry Agizah who talked to me and said that this was a time for a non-violent direct action campaign. I asked Gladys to get the name and phone number of Mkabaya which she did. On Sunday I sent the pictures and an email to Ezra Kigondu, who lives near the place where the culvert broke, asking him if he would contact Mkabaya and develop a campaign to get the culvert replaced. He agreed.
During the week, Ezra called Mkabaya and Mkabaya told him that the video on the accident had been widely circulated on social media. An aspirant for a political office in the community became interested and was able to get the government to start repairing the culvert. In addition Ezra will be meeting with the community on Sunday to organize the community to explore possibilities for other improvements needed in the community and how to lobby for their implementation. When he is there on Sunday, I asked Ezra who knows the place to send me some pictures on the progress of fixing the culvert.
__________________________________________________
To be added to or removed from this listserve, please send your name and email address to davidz...@gmail.com.
__________________________________________________
DONATE
To make a tax deductible (US) or gift aid eligible (UK) donation through GlobalGiving,
For Transforming Community for Social Change (TCSC), click on goto.gg/31755
To donate to TCSC by M-pesa go to Pay Bill: 891300, Account: GG31755
For the Friends Women’s Association (FWA), click on goto.gg/31891
To support Helping Girls and Young Women in Bujumbura Slum, click on goto.gg/38276.
To support Building FWA’s Maternity Ward, click on goto.gg/32980
For Innovations in Peacemaking – Burundi (IPB), click on goto.gg/49443
For HROC Center in Rwanda, click on goto.gg/44648.
__________________________________________________
David Zarembka
Email: davidz...@gmail.com
__________________________________________________