Vibeke Stærkebye Nørstebø: Africa Part 2: A very different way of living

Finally, the travel report from my stay in the village Ngumbulu is here. I am now in South Africa, but I will start with telling about Ngumbulu anyway. (Some of you have already got a report in Norwegian, but I will now try with a shortened English version too, for all of you non-Norwegian-speaking people…And excuse me for the not very good English...and that the pictures are a bit unorganized... ) Ngumbulu seems already like a long time ago, although it is only a couple of weeks.

Living in Ngumbulu is totally different from all I have experienced in my life…And it was an amazing and interesting experience.

After the hike in Mount Kenya, I met Samuel and his family in Nairobi. Samuel manages all the development projects in Ngumbulu.He is from there, but he also lives in Komarock, just outside Nairobi with his wife and 4 children and house keeper. I spent the first weekend with them in Komarock. Although for most of you, regarded as a pretty simple and small house (Mainly one room, plus three bedrooms, and bathroom), it was a big and luxurious house compared to houses in Ngumbulu. Didn’t do very much during the weekend, staying in the house (walking outside alone wouldn’t be a very good idea), relaxing (Although doing almost nothing is not very relaxing for me). But nice anyway, very nice family!

Monday morning we went to Ngumbulu. Ngumbulu is a small village, you can barely find it on google maps… Although small, in area it is quite large, there are houses spread over a large area, so not densely populated. If you want to see more about how it all started, check out www.aidinaction.no. The houses are all pretty similar. They consist of an outer wall of red bricks, and a roof. That’s it, more or less… Although some have a bit bigger houses. Samuels house is situated a little bit outside “village centre”, together with the houses of the other five brothers, and his mother, like in a sort of small community . A guesthouse (for me) is also at this farm. The standard of these houses seem to be somehow above average standard in the village. Normally every farm has one house for the kitchen too, because they always cook with fire, and then it is good to keep it in an own 1-room-house. And between all the houses, it is a very very beautiful courtyard, with a large purple tree. When at home, we sit in the nice wood chairs under this tree, or around the fire place in the evenings. By the way, it seems like chairs are more or less the only furniture here. They don’t have tables…

Although the village recently has become electricity, that only goes to the centre, so most houses don’t have it. They don’t have water either, but the 3G network works very well here..:-) (seems to be more important than indoor water and electricity) The development centre though, which is the centre and office for all the projects here, and newly opened has electricity. So they had a couple of computers for instance. Some of the work I did here was teaching basic computer skills. That was quite challenging mainly due to very slow internet connection (mobile modem) and slow computers. In the centre they also have a poultry, a bakery, some plants etc. This was were I always started my day here in Ngumbulu.

The kitchen

The first thing to experience here was the African Time. Things happen or are done, when they are done…And there is no hurry. Making a plan that implies a specific time doesn’t work (Most people don’t wear watches). That makes planning somehow different than usual and it has to be done in another way. When asking about when, or also, how long or things like that, you always get funny answers like yes, or something else, but seldom/never an actual time, duration, length… Always vague answers, also to most other questions. Quite fascinating…

Things here aren’t very efficient…. but very relaxed. At the same time, that isn’t necessarily only wrong, or bad. It is simply a life without stressing. And many people here probably also have other expectations to life than what we have, and then they don’t need to be that efficient for instance. Hakuna Matata, no problem, it will be OK. That is the attitude for everything. And it is a good attitude! ;-) Anyhow, things have changed the last years. Although not efficient, most people here have now a great willingness to work, and are working more and harder then in previous time. And this willingness is surely more important than efficiency. I tried to be relaxed about everything too. It mostly worked really well, actually. Except for one day, when we were out of the office, and suddenly we were stucked a place for more hours, and I wasn’t prepared for that, and had forgot my knitting things…. A hard time, but I survived… :-)

When they saw me knitting by the way, they found that very funny and interesting, and were impressed (All asking how much I sold the products for),and wanted to learn. So I also had “knitting school” during my time here. They had a facinating optimism and self confidence when learning. First, we switched using my knitting needle. But when day, I wanted to try to buy someone for each of them. So me and another, we walked (of course) to the next “city”, 8 km away (There are not many cars in this town, no buses, but quite a lot of motor bikes, so part of the way back, we had a “motor bike taxi” (They sometimes drive eith up to 5 people on one bike). In the town, I didn’t find correct knitting needles, but I found something that was almost good, and then I also found a metal worker. He did a good work, and finally we got something looking like knitting needles…. :-)

But back to the time. Ngumbulu lies almost on equator. This means that sun rises shortly before 6, sun sets about 18.30. And that makes the frame of the day. You wake up with the sun, and start the day, you can’t work when it is dark. So in the evenings there is fire, eating, stars at the African sky (nice, idyllic and a little bit magic mood), talking (mostly in ki-kamba, so I am sitting there, having no idea what is happening), and then bedtime. Doesn’t matter if you are a child or a grown-up here. You fall asleep when and there you fall asleep, simply like that.

And when it comes to eating; I get a lot of food here, although in Africa….. And I like the food here very much, specially the Kithera, which is maize and beans, mixed with salt and butter, possibly pies sometimes. Else, we ate typically rice, potatoes, ugali )like polenta, maize porridge), tomato, possibly goat or hen or cock. For breakfast, default was white bread, butter, and sometimes egg. I am not a big fan of white bread, and this is also not a traditionally breakfast, but that is more the “luxurious” breakfast here. It is difficult to explain that white bread is not my thing, but I managed to make “witabix-porridge” quite often, and then I was very happy… Traditionally, and sometimes now too, they had millet porridge, or kasawa (arrow root), for breakfast. Both these I find very good. Unfortunately I mostly didn’t have that here.

And then of course the tea. Kenyan black tea, made with milk and water (and sugar). mmm ;-) At least, when I after a couple of days manage to stop the sugar in the tea. Yes, I love this tea-milk “mix”, I don’t even miss coffee, which is very strange and unexpected, since I love coffee and actually don’t like black tea… (But taste changes, apparently, like the swiss cheece…) But the normal version here, with sugar, I find quite unsavouriness…. But that’s obviously how they like it here, and they think I am quite strange, which prefer it without sugar…

The primaty school in Ngumbulu

By the meals, you can also notice the “ranking” quite well. For instance, I am sitting there, watching the other are preparing, serving etc. And also the men, and the higher ranked do that, because other people are actually employed to serve you. I don’t feel 100% comfortable with it, but it is how it works here. Before each meal, they always come with a mug of hot water for washing our hands. And then we start eat, and since we have all washed our hands, eating from same plate, and with the hands (sometimes we did that) is not a problem. In general, making a mess by eating, losing remnants on the ground etc doesn’t matter here (Neither inside or outside) . We (they) wash afterwards…

On my birthday however (by chance) , I was allowed to help a little bit… with the tool they got and use, which is a knife, not very sharf, and that’s it more or less, peeling and cutting vegetables with that, in the air, no cutting board or table is a bit challenging actually…:-)

The children in the school are
coming towards me

The ranking is also very evident in the schools. The pupils have very much respect for the teacher. And when I visited the schools, the children were partly shy, partly full of respect, and a little bit afraid. They were approaching me slowly, all together, getting closer and closer, the nearest ones being pushed from behind, until they were quite close, an amazing sight…

So, back to the work days here… The first two days we did a lot of walking, looking at/showing me all the projects around. Planting of papaya, mango, moringa, eucalyptus etc… Making dams, bore holes, visiting the children centres, and schools that are being build (Deeply respect and honour to Anne Louise!!) What made a deep and huge impression was going to see the river, or “river”, as there was no water flowing there, just some dribbling, two metres below the river bottom (see picture..), and people walk these 3 km each day, to get water from here…. I really hopes it starts to rain soon!! (Or hopefully it has already started) Else, many will starve… The plants need the water, and the people and animals too.

The river....

Collecting water
from the river...

We walked for some hours and kilometers per day, but still very calmly. After all the walking, I was asked if I was tired (I guess I was supposed and expected to be that) When I said I wasn’t tired at all, I am quite used to do quite much more per day, they found it a little bit strange…They suggested I was maybe used to flatter terrain, which made me smile, in my opinion, you can barely get it flatter than here… :-)

At the centre we also had a biking day (Of course baking about 160 scones is a full day project involving a couple of people), and test production of papaya juice, where I was considered the expert on that…

After couple of days living in Ngumbulu, I realized there are no dangerous people or animals here, and since I anyway was awake before 6 every day, and the work started later (no stress, also not in the morning), I took a morning jog. People found me (again) very strange doing that. There are no runners here, there are no point of running like that, just for nothing. ) In Kenya, you’re probably either one of the best runners in the world, or you don’t run…) But sometimes I partly got company of children on the way to school, and one day I got company of a little small barefoot boy, running the whole morning tour with me (Also chasing away some stray dogs). He had no problem keeping up with me on the running :-)

Another morning, it suddenly came a short and heavy rain when I was running. It got very slippery, almost like soap or ice, and very muddy. Although I also fell once, I felt cleaner than in a long time after this morning run…. I was used to wash myself with wet napkins. Occasinally I had some rain water available. I am in general not very “fastidious”, but after 2 weeks in Ngumbulu I was really longing for a shower…

Life in general changes here when it rains. First, they all start to collect water in all buckets etc that they have. Then you use the opportunity for washing, clothes and house. This is no more important than going to work (Anyway, you wait going away, for work, until the heavy rain has stopped (wouldn’t have worked in Trondheim….) No point hurrying. Also, the rain really destroys the roads.

Weekends was also working, but more calmly, and also church of course. The people here are Christians, and in general “more” than us. I think religion, and the solidarity and unity and hope this represents is more important for people having a more unsecure life… The people in rich and developed countries doesn’t have the same need for it, it seems so at least. So each Sunday, it is church time. (And there are often more ceremonies during the week too) I went too the church too, the African Inland Church, in Nairobi and in Ngumbuulu. An experience, and very different from what I am used too. Much less organized and structured (as the African life in general), sometimes as if it was not planned at all, just impulsive. For instance, in Ngumbulu, the pastor suddenly aska me to present myself, and then he ask if someone has an English version of the bible, I can borrow for the rest of the service. It is a lot “happier” service, it has more rhytm, a lot of music, singing, and dancing. It is very nice I think. And they are re ally good at it! Wow, they have impressing dancing skills, and rhytm. In Ngumbulu, we suddenly had a song that also I knew; Head, shoulder, knees and toes…:-)

The church room

In Ngumubulu, it turned out to be a long day in church, but it wasn’t only the service. But there was an somwhow unnoticeable transition from the serice, to a church meeting/voting, and then to dance practice. So I never found the occasion to go out from the church. But at some point during the practice, I realised it was OK to go out (There were no other left in church, only the people practicing). Outside, I met the pastor, and then he invited me to have lunch with him and some of the other church leaders outside the church.( We had Ugali) Besides, the church is also just one big room, with a roof, and chairs inside, that’s more or less it.

Else, I also had birthday during my time in Ngumbulu. I didn’t have any celebration (Don’t think grown up people have that here. I mean not everyone know they birthday from the older people so…) But the two other women in the office celebrated me a little bit the traditionally way, and that is washing the person having birthday. Washing means throwing a bucket of water over you, while singing the birthday song, a quite unique birthday celebration for me! :-)

After two weeks, my time in the nice and pretty quit village Ngumbulu was over. I was getting used to the life here, to the funny, slowly way to walk, to the people and the culture, but at the same time longing a little bit for some more “action”… At the end of the week we went back to Nairobi (Ready for Safari), coming straight into the big traffic jam there…. Wow, cars everywhere, no one following the rules, all cars having bulks, and a lot of queue. So glad I don’t have to deal with that daily…. Life in Ngumbulu is a lot easier, nicer, more pleasant and less hectic...

That was life in Ngumbulu. A good village, and a lot of nice and friendly people. I will come back. Who will join me next time?

And the travels report from Africa are to be continued, next chapter Safari in Kenya, followed by ocean, mountains, surfing, wine, working etc from South Africa….