On African time

One of our first days on Rusinga Island we were scheduled to walk to a neighborhood called Kaswanga to visit Teddy's sister, Beldina. She expected us at 4, but we got hung up at the Tom Mboya masoleum (more coming on that) and showed up an hour late. We had arrived, our guests were very quick to point out with a smile, on African time.

You know the cliché, and it's not without basis. People did seem a little relaxed about keeping a schedule in Kenya (perhaps not totally incomprehensibly in a town like Rusinga, where there isn't reliable electricity). So it was good to get the joke out of the way early and put the mzungus (the white boys visiting) at ease.

The next day, of course, we showed up right on time for a scheduled 1 p.m. lunch. We sat down to eat at nearly three, with nothing to bide the time but a room temperature Fanta and the pleasure of listening to a long conversation five or six elderly women were having in Luo. African time, we learned, imparts a significant degree of patience.

Given that lesson, now the folks reading this blog will be offered a taste. As I mentioned two paragraphs previous, electricity wasn't reliable on Rusinga, and that's putting it generously. Sabina's house, where we stayed for a few nights, had a single solar panel to gather a little power, and even that only really functioned during bright sunny days (it is now winter, though the weather was pretty pleasant). Most other houses had no panel at all. So blogging occasionally updates as I had planned, even if there had been a public computer to use, was ruled out.

But there are still stories to tell. So you get to read them, as they say, in African time. Timm and I are back now, so I'll postdate some entries to share what certain days were like, explain some interesting things we learned, introduce you to some people on Rusinga, and show a few photos of wildebeests. I had trouble coming up with one word today at work to describe the trip (to answer "How was the trip?"), so here's where I'll publish the 15,000 or so that really are needed to do the job. I'll try to do a new entry every day or so for the next week, see where it goes.

First up: An exciting first ride in 'Nairobbery.'