Mt Elgon
Arianna and I travelled with Ken & Sarah and their to far Western Kenya over the weekend to visit Temoi’s home, Mt. Elgon, a 12,000 dormant volcano on the border of Kenya and Uganda. Absolutely spectacular place and awesome opportunity detach for a couple of days.
Temoi has been telling us about the beautiful his home is for years, and it certainly did not disappoint. He recently finished his time in Kijabe peds started medical school in hopes that he can return home and build a healthcare system for his people.
Deep in the forest, atop the world.
Friends,
Memories
Dreams of change
And dreams of things that might stay the same.
Stories, of
Elephants that pick maize fields clean, shucking the cobs,
Uproot potatoes, tasting them
Then replant as the fields are not ripe.
It is said, before the herds dwindled
The forest people could speak elephant.
Why not?
There are people who can feel color
Blindfolded, they sense hue through fingertips.
Temoi’s Mom wants to see Nairobi, to her it is the farthest journey imaginable.
I thought the same of her home. Fascinating how the ends of the earth to me are the center of another person’s world.
A donkey brays like Gondor’s horn
Breaks the morn
The rooster covers his ears
Yearning for another hour of sleep
In the high mountains there are two sunsets tonight. One the actual sun piercing the fog, the other a refraction in the high clouds –
Even that which can be explained is puzzling.
The rains wash the earth and colors explode, succulent textures like a patchwork blanket covering the landscape as if the feather boa was born in Kenya.
The earth rhymes;
The highlands of Kenya echo the highlands of Wyoming, Austria, Taiwan, Mongolia –
not precisely the same, but full of repeating elements, lavender and wildflowers, crater lakes
We go down where we have come up, Through the thick mud, temporarily stuck, but like the mud, so many problems are temporary, dissipate with leverage and teamwork. The story of being bogged is more vivid than 800km or smooth tarmac.
Then the long drive in the dark night to the home we love, and our girls – the center of our world.
