Kenya Project Vol 2: Things take time in Kenya...

Having established a plan, before we carried out any work, we needed to organise all of the materials for the job. This consumed about 4 full days, largely due to waiting around at Hardware stores for things to be delivered. This wasn't helped by the fact that it was over the Christmas period so for two days many places were shut. But all is well because you learn to relax in Kenya.

At one of many hardware stores....waiting around

Our first visit to the Eduet women was on a Sunday, the day we actually managed to transport the tanks to the women was Wednesday, and it wasn't an straight forward proposition.

Our friend Edward, who was the reason why we were involved in the project, had found us two good priced 10,000L tank from one of his friend's hardware stores. We had called the store on Tuesday to arrange pick up of the tanks for Wednesday. It had been agreed. Come Wednesday we arrived at the hardware store ready to collect the tanks but the store had not yet inspected them. On inspection one was in a poor condition and couldn't be used. Neither of the tanks were actually at the hardware store either, they were at the gentleman's home. We decided to buy the one tank that was suitable and in the meantime we would go to other hardware stores and find the second tank. This should then allow the store some time to transport the useable tank to the village where we could inspect it ourselves and then transport it to the women's group.

We went to every hardware shop in the town. In each shop we spent what felt like at least 30 minutes, if not more, discussing the project. Our friend Edward said that it was important to tell the shopkeepers about the project before asking for a tank because this way he might be able to persuade them to sell us a tank at a discounted cost because it is to assist the community. Time keeping is not really an issue in Kenya, at least not in the way that it is here in the UK. This was apparent throughout as we never once managed to keep to our timetable. After long discussions at several stores we were most often told that they didn't have a water tank immediately available. One lady did have a tank that she could sell us (at full price) but she had been using in her own garden. Understandably we didn't agree to this sale! After many conversations, we eventually we found a tank and it was right there in the hardware store. We inspected the tank which was in a new condition. It was 2000 shillings more expensive than our first tank but after all the time wasted, for the sake of £14, we bit the bullet and accepted the tank.

Having successfully bought our second tank, we headed back to the first hardware shop but the first tank was still nowhere to be seen. I don't know why it took so long to arrive at the store because it had only been stored about 1mile away but this is how things work so we waited, waited and waited. We used this time to buy some cement for the base of the tanks and some taps. Again this wasn't an easy sale because nothing seems to be easy when buying from the hardware stores. Eventually 3 hours later the tank arrived on a vehicle. Yay! Our friend Kelvin, who was helping us on the project, travelled with the first tank to ensure that it ended up in the right spot because the Eduet Women's Group was very hard to find. Ryan, Edward and I then headed to the second hardware store. Once again we waited and waited until transport came to get the tank. Another hour went by until it was here.

Transport for our 10,000L tank

The journey from Loitokitok to the Eduet Women is 1hour 30 minutes on a good drive. Take into consideration a 10,000L tank loaded onto the back of a very old pick up truck...it was a LONG and very hot journey.

We had several sketchy moments on route but we did get there...eventually.

So having got to the first hardware shop at 8:30AM, we eventually arrived onsite at around 15:00PM. But at least the tanks were onsite. Something to celebrate! The Eduet Women's group were there waiting for us waiting in anticipation and were over the moon to see the two tanks!

We finished the day off by having an obligatory cup of chai and a chapati (the masai are very hospitable) and then started the construction of one of the concrete bases for the rain water harvesting tank. All of the locals and the Eduet group were helping out and it was a wonderful feeling. Around 18:00 the sun started to retreat so we decided to wait until tomorrow and called it a day.

A good days work - complete!