4th January 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008 at 10:08PM The political chaos continues here in Kenya, but there really does seem to be a sense of “enough is enough” now – people have had enough of the violence, enough of the politicians and thugs fuelling it, enough of losing millions of shillings in revenue each day, enough of having no food in the shops and no fuel in their cars. People just want to get back to normal. It’s up to the politicians now to somehow to redeem themselves in the eyes of public – if that is possible, for if ever there was a loss of faith in politicians, it has happened in this country over the past few days. And so we wait and watch and hold our breath…
Meanwhile, despite our human foibles, Nature continues on regardless, in her ever-perpetuating cycle of rejuvenation. The rains may be over, but signs of rebirth are everywhere: the impala fawns frolicking in the still-long grass; the waterbuck baby on the sandbank (and the male waterbuck intent on pursuing a female that is obviously on heat but equally disinterested!); the Village Weavers bringing their fledglings to the birdbath (above), along with the rowdy Starling family, and even new plants sprouting in the balcony flowerbeds, responding to the water we’ve been pouring in there to try to reinvigorate our transplanted acacia trees.
Waterbuck on sandbank (click to enlarge)
Male Waterbuck pursuing disinterested female
New plant sprouting in balcony flowerbed by birdbath
Sanseviera flowers (click to enlarge)
The mystery growth beneath the Sanseviera in our balcony flowerbed, which I wrote about on January 1st, has turned out to be a tight collection of Sanseviera flower buds which have today burst into bloom: beautiful, white blossoms emerging close to the earth at the base of the Sanseviera stalks, with the most delicate aroma, just like roses…
Other flowers are still blooming around the property, in all shapes and sizes, and the grasses are frantically seeding, and ensuring the perpetuation of their species when the next rain falls.
Kulafumbi January flowers: click to enlarge any image
We saw some of our Egyptian Goose family reunited again. The day before yesterday three of the goslings (now the same size as the adults, above.) were back with the parents. Today, however, the geese were dozing and feeding on the sandbank just below our balcony, and there was only one gosling left with them, who seemed decidedly nervous about getting too close to the parents. There was definitely a bit of “us and you” going on. Perhaps the gosling reluctantly has acknowledged that it’s time to leave and start life on its own, and the parents too are pushing it away.
You and Us scenario between parents (left) and final remaining gosling...click to enlarge any image
After our evening run (disturbing dik-dik and impala as we went, as well as a pair of Black and White Cuckoos and some Grey Hornbills), I was busy in the kitchen baking bread, which turned out rather well, if I say so myself! My beloved bread-maker, which I bought when we were living in Scotland, is a little too power-hungry for our solar power system, and so it’s back to kneading by hand again…It’s not interesting to anyone I’m sure, but on a self-congratulatory note, herewith are today’s loaves!
More images:
Wildlife...
Plants & Flowers...
Birds...
Egyptian Goose Family Photos
Reader Comments (4)
The bread looks yummy and I enjoyed the bird pictures very much!
PS I am going to post a ink to your blog on mime so i will remember to come back and see whats new in your Kenya!
Sorry for the troubles in Kenya. That was a lovely article in the Herald.
I'm just in the San Francisco area and absolutely a fish out of water, even though I lived here 20 years ago!Being here, in this man made chaos, certainly puts a fine point on how fortunate we are to live in the wild.
Best,
Kinsey
Thanks for your kind comments, Betsy - I look forward to having a look at your blog too.
I know what you mean, Kinsey, about being lucky to live in the wild. Ian and I are off to Nairobi for a week today, and we really don't want to go, but we have work meetings to attend, and we also need to restock our larder, as we can't get much around here...
It will be interesting to see how things are in Kenya's capital city after the recent unrest. I think the reality is that the recent unrest was more localized than the press has perhaps suggested. There were certain “hotspots” where there was serious upheaval and some nasty incidents – essentially in the areas where the Luo and Kikuyu tribes overlap. In other parts of the country, things have remained calm throughout. Here in the Tsavo region, it was so quiet that, had we not had access to the news via the internet, we would not even have known there was anything amiss in the country. I think many Kenyans feel ashamed at what has happened in certain parts of their country, and there is an overwhelming sense of people just wanting to get back to normal.
The fear now is an economic one: namely that the past ten days has damaged Kenya’s reputation overseas, negatively impacting on tourism, which is such an important income generator for the country. What was perpetrated by a few may have spoilt the reputation of many. There is a fresh round of talks starting tomorrow between the various political parties, which may spark a few incidents here and there in the country, but people really seem to have lost the appetite for conflict and no-one is expecting another flare-up...we keep our fingers crossed and hope that this will be the case. Certainly business is already open as usual here in Kenya. The economy as a whole has lost too much money in the past week to let this kind of thing perpetuate in the long term.
I think perhaps the greatest loser in all this is democracy in Kenya - people have lost faith in the electoral process, and are angry and disillusioned with their politicians, whom they blame for inciting the recent violence. The vast majority of Kenyans are peace-loving people, and are proud of Kenya's reputation (which we hope has not been shattered by the past 10 days) of being the most stable country in the region. So now, yet again, we wait and watch and hope for a better tomorrow...