THE CHILLY MORNING FLIGHT
DON'T TELL ME HOW EDUCATED YOU ARE, TELL ME HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TRAVELED - Mohamed
Its a chilly mid-May morning. Flights to Wajir International Airport are usually at 630am.
That means that i have to report at 530am and that means i have to wake up at 430am.
Thankfully the airport lounge has a dedicated prayer space for the fajr (early morning) prayer. I will pray immediately i have checked in.
My Project - getting to finishes stages
I check in and and am handed a paper boarding pass. The Airline staff are dressed in their yellow and white uniforms. They may have recently had to change the name of the airline involving a rebranding...... Due i suspect to a recent incident or adverse publicity.
The airline industry is very sensitive to such incidents and details. Once you get involved in an incident you have to consider changing your image to get passengers.
Its just a day since Eid ul Fitr. So alot of the passengers are families returning to their homes in Wajir. Women, children and a surprising number of elderly women who need to be assisted on wheelchairs. Unlike other days when this flight is dominated by mostly businessmen.
Our aircraft is a Dash 8. A fairly new one with clean interiors.
The elderly ladies board first with assistance from ground staff.
The COVID protocols are observed strictly. Our temperature is taken upon boarding and wearing of masks is strictly enforced. I agree with this, we should all do our individual duties for the global good.
Wilson Airport is pleasantly small, so the boarding and take off procedures are short.
Soon we are airborne over South C and the Nairobi National Park.
Mount Kenya in its glory rises over the clouds.
The seven forks dams are just below me. The water is fresh brown in colour. The recent rains have filled up the reservoirs.
Seven Forks Dam (photo: ALK) - I believe this is Kiambere Dam the others such as Gitaru have much larger reservoirs
The Mwea rice fields are just beyond the dams and are resplendently green.
From 19000ft above sea level the towns seem tiny but they all have a common pattern: they grow along the roads. The roads form the spines. This is a result of economic forces..... I wonder whether this repeated characteristic of the third world towns need to be rethought...... Is our economics model correct? Because what a town offers in terms of economic activity can certainly not propel an economic boom to equalise the developing countries to the richest countries in the world. Think about US or China or Europe or Japan...... What drives and and what gives them their dominant positions in the world order?
The rice fields give way to the montane forest. These are the fringes of Mt Kenya Forest. Repeated logging, charcoal burning and encroachment have decimated the forest cover over the whole world. In some area such as Amazon, Indonesia and Malaysia, mining has played a bigger role. We all need to play our role in protecting all our varied environments.
The landscape changes within 10minutes. We are over the Meru Conservation Area. This comprises the Meru National Park, Kora, Bisinadi and stretches right to ths edge of Rahole in Garissa County. This is savanah scrubland which gradually changes to semi arid bushes crisscrossed by dry seasonal river beds. Despite being the rainy season, the rivers are dry. Only the mighty Tana has water.
The recent floods and heavy storms in Nairobi are a far cry from what we witness in the North East.
Even at 730am, the wind on the airport apron is warm. Its a pleasant change from chilly and unpredictable Nairobi.... London has a similar reputation which makes me wonder whether its the weather or the people in the city who just dont want a slight change or us city dwellers are just finicky over small perceived inconveniences.
Wajir is now warmer as you leave the open expanse of the airport. The heat is distinct. The town sleepy. Doves are cooing in the shades of Acacia trees. The only other birds i can see for the moment are the Rufous Sparrow and a few Superb Starlings with their metallic plumage.
I head to my room in the hotel and drop off my bag and take my notebook to go straight to the site.
The client, contractors and my friend Koskei, the guy in charge of all the works are all waiting.
Just as i enter the site i have noticed that the handrail at rooftop level is unusually higher than normal. I dont like its aesthetic..... So this will be the first issue I'll tackle. As we go round and up and down the 4 storeyed building we discuss various technical issues.
Apart from technical issues that arise which we jointly solve; i cannot help but waddle into dealing with individual personalities amongst the subcontractors. Each human is unique and i try to be accommodative to each one of them with dignity but with assertive firmness.
This being a charitable project, I have to walk a tight rope to ensure good work, fair pricing for all contractors, fair treatment to all the workers but with firm commitment to a high quality project.
This means I have to wear multiple hats of a fair judge, an innovative architect who can solve problems with minimum cost implications, at the same time be part of the client team to help achieve their dreams of the Waqf project.
So unlike most other projects, here I have to be more involved not just in technical matters but negotiations with contractors and more often than not: micromanagement of individuals to try and get things rolling as smoothly as possible.
At lunch time i head to my hotel. The early flight meant i had to forego breakfast. My last meal was the previous night at 7pm so its now over 17 hrs since i had anything to eat. Now Wajir is an arid county. All the vegetables and food supplies come from down Kenya as they refer to all of Kenya beyond Ukasi.
Only mutton, camel meat and camel milk are local. So my choice is limited to rice or ugali with one of those. Because anything else will be expensive and more likely than not not fresh. So the expense is really not the concern but the freshness. I order rice, boiled mutton and its soup with kachumbari. Honestly its quite nice and filling. This will do for the day. I escort the food with spiced strungi which is tea without milk. The next meal will be breakfast tomorrow.
The imported Neem Trees are competing in numbers with the indigenous Acacias.
The Neems are winning. But the invasive 'mathenge' shrub takes the day. Its everywhere.
I fear for the environment if we don't quickly sort out this shrub. Animals, humans, flora and fauna are all not safe if this shrub is allowed free day! And by the way, mathenge is the bane of most of semiarid Kenya. I have seen its proliferation from Taveta to Baringo to Samburu, Marsabit, Garissa, Tana River etc.... This reminds me of the Hyacinth weed that has invaded most fresh water lakes in subSaharan Africa. Ports have been choked, livelihoods destroyed, economic disasters have been impacted upon some of the poorest Africans and yet there are no solutions or concrete plans in place to sort these environmental catastrophes.
On the flight back, Kilimanjaro and its snow cap are clear...
Mt Kenya and the peak of Ole Satima are clear on the other side.
It seems the rains have subsided. Its a bright day. I psych myself for the next trip...... Back to Kitale and Suam
👌👌
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