This was an exciting trip. A good personal friend from the Iraq War, Dan ‘Lucky Dog’ Svoboda from Wisconsin, travelled with me this time. He had supported us in the past and wanted to see first-hand the work we do. He wasn’t disappointed.

We planned on doing something totally different this time. We invited representatives from 100 Maasai villages to attend a seminar in late March in the Saraishe Area of the Rift Valley which is 4 hours farther west of the Ewaso Clinic. Almost 100 kilometers and 8 hours due west of Nairobi. Originally planning to use a small clinic’s facilities, we quickly realized that it was too small and so moved down the road to a local school.

Due to an accident involving a teenage boy only 67 representatives were able to attend – the rest were at a fundraiser for the young man to cover his medical expenses, which I’m told were quite high. We all assembled in a large classroom, the men on the right and women with children on the left, and began with our interpreter Marisoi Ole Paripet (Daniel) introducing us and explaining step-by-step the construction and use of these Portable Water Filtration Systems. Almost 3 hours later we finished and enjoyed Chapati, sodas and water in the late afternoon and left for Ewaso shortly after.

The seminar was hectic because of a few issues we hadn’t bargained on cropping up, such as the number of people in the room, the heat of the day and the Maasai men knowing nothing of the Water Systems, never having laid eyes on them before, but acting as though they knew it all inside and out. This led to some confusion and ‘veering off course’ but we righted the ship and continued. Typical of men everywhere, right, ladies?

Before we left, one middle-aged warrior saw my two hard-shell suitcases laying on the ground open and empty. I use them to carry the Filter Systems. He took hold of them and started to walk away into the bush. I caught up to him and asked where he was going with my suitcases. He told me he was going back to his village. I asked him why with my luggage? He said they were empty and of no longer use to me and he could use them, so he thought I wouldn’t mind. I said they were reusable and of future use to me and he laughed and said ‘Really?’ He didn’t understand their continued value to me and I didn’t understand his reasoning. We finally agreed I should have them because I’d be back again and so we shook hands and he happily went one way and me the other. It’s funny how different cultures think.

Around midnight that night, after having left the Saraishe School, we ended up lost crossing a massive lava flow that ran for a few miles. There were no tracks to follow as there was no dirt and Dr. Mereu and Action Jackson were driving much faster than Dan and I. They lost us somewhere on that lava flow. We kept going for about an hour guessing which way they might have gone and eventually ended up about a mile past our turn. We backed up for that mile because we were elevated and didn’t want to go over the embankment. There was also a large berm on either side of us. We had passed a cut-off in the rocky dirt road that went in two directions in a ‘Y’ to the right. One branch went over a 4 foot embankment and the other went around a lazy curve. I opted for the curve and then jumped the dirt berm and drove for about 50 yards through the bush and picked up another road that went about a hundred yards through dense brush and then coming out of a turn we saw tail-lights and figured we made it back to the village of Ewaso considering nothing else was out there. We were correct.

The next day around noon we headed for Nairobi and the hotel arriving around 08:00pm that evening. Dan and I knocked down a few stiff drinks over dinner and swapped war stories and then turned in. The next day we went on a short safari in the Nairobi National Park, visited the Elephant Sanctuary and took a stroll through Kibera Slum. Our friend Action Jackson showed us the tiny tin-roofed shack he shared for 7 years with 8 other young men. Jackson and Barnabas both lived for 14 years in Kibera having met there where they became good friends. They are from different tribes in Kenya. Kibera is one of the largest slums in the world. Between 1 1/2 to 2 million people from all over Kenya live in some of the most squalid conditions imaginable within a 2 square mile area on the outskirts of Nairobi. We then walked to the Havilla Childrens Center on the edge of Kibera and spent some time with the children and staff. Barnabas and Jackson, along with a few others, founded the Havilla Childrens Center in 2008 with about 6 children from Kibera and today educate over 125 children providing them with a free K-5 education, uniforms, shoes and 2 meals a day.

The next day Lucky Dog and I boarded our plane for home – him in Wisconsin and me in Pennsylvania. 24 hours later I was home and Dan was mid-flight to East Milwaukee. It was a great and successful trip for everyone.

Robb (65)

Robb Luther is a Partner at the Inbound Agency, Pittsburgh Internet Consulting and Vice President of Business Development. He has been diligently working for the past 20+ years helping B2B companies grow their business through improvements in website usability and conversion rate optimization.

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