Rainy Season

Here is something I didn’t expect, we have had a ton of rain. Like an unbelievable amount of rain. I’m typing this from our front porch or I guess more accurately our side porch and I am watching the storm clouds roll in again after a night and morning of extremely heavy rain. Fortunately for Bronwyn and I, our house sits up on a hill so we haven’t been too effected but down below us there are streets that have been flooded for days. We pass a house whenever we go into the office that had three pumps working trying to get the water out. We have heard of roofs of houses collapsing and people have lost their lives in flash floods. Everyone keeps telling us this is the most rain Nairobi has had in years, here are a few things I have heard or experienced.

• We lose power every day for least a little while. I started following the local power company on Twitter where they tweet out problems. Some are routine, but many are being caused by flooding either from poles falling or from what they describe as “water damage”.
• One of the Safari guides we have befriended took a group out last weekend, he has been taking groups out for a long time and said it was the first time he had ever been nervous in the bush. The water apparently flooded their first camp site and passing through what he said were usually streams had water running almost over the windows of his Land Cruiser.

  

• The year around camp team went out where we do camp and the road we usually use to get out there was gone, just washed away. So, we doubled back and found another route but on the way in a bus was stuck in the mud. In the process of trying to get around the bus we got stuck. Keep in mind we were in a 4-wheel drive Toyota 4Runner. Fortunately the guys on the bus said, “We are here for you”, and helped push us out. One of them even had a shovel to help dig the loose mud out from around one of the tires. I have no idea why I didn’t take more pictures of this process.

  

• Our camp has a pit where we do archery and I’m turning it into a slingshot range hopefully. However, at the moment that pit is a pond. And this isn’t just a small pit, it’s really deep. I am trying to find a side by side pic, so I can show you just how much water is in it.
• I am planning an entire second blog about driving in Nairobi, but all this rain has made one thing especially challenging. There are pot holes everywhere, well potholes don’t really cover it, more like places the road no longer exists. The challenge with that is when they are full of water it’s impossible to tell how deep they are. Sometimes you just go real slow through them and other times you really have to do everything you can to avoid them. The roads here aren’t especially wide to begin with so you really have to watch not only your side but the fact that someone on the other side may dart straight at you to avoid their puddle/pot hole.
• Finally, and this one is more amusing, Bronwyn and I went for a run the other day and although it was fairly clear when we started the bottom fell out when we were about as far from the house as we could have been. Our house serves as the hub for all the BlueSky vehicles and so when we got back the guards and mechanic were very concerned about us. While we were running we mostly just got lots of looks from people who just thought we were stupid. It was the fastest we have run our loop so there was at least one positive. To say we were soaked is an understatement.

I know the rain is good for Kenya, so all my little issues are barely worth complaining about. I know in some places it’s been too much rain, but I think that is still better than the alternative. It has made everything unbelievably green and beautiful.

Thanks to everyone for their continued love and prayers. We are doing great and adjusting to life in Kenya. God has been gracious to us and the transition so far has been remarkably easy so far. Things are about to get crazy with May hitting us tomorrow. Camp staff arrive at the end of the month and then we will start our first week of camp!!

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