September 2016

September finds the boys well into the swing of school, and Cristina and I continuing our work with partners.  There is no big news, but here are some pictures to show what we're doing these days. 

I (Doug) am working a lot with a sand dam assessment project, so spend a lot of time in Machakos, Kitui and Makeuni counties.  We're visiting 100 sand dams, and assessing some measures of their effectiveness.  More on that later in the year when we get more results, but thusfar it is interesting to see the vast diversity of how the dams are functioning.  This was an interesting one, as it is an example of a colonial-era dam, built in 1953.  So 65 years later, it is still functioning well, by all accounts.  Coarse sand is behind the dam, and as deep as we could core (1.5 meters).  There is obvious agricultural activitiy on the edges, here you can see a vegetable garden and some napier grass (for fodder).  In short, the community was very happy about its continued function.

Coring on the dams involved digging through the soft sand, here MCC staffer James Kanyari.  Standing on sand in the Kenyan heat digging endless holes reminded me of the classic novel "Holes"!

A typical scoophole on a dam, used to collect water in jerrycans for household use.  Here Joseph from UDO samples the water for salinity and bacteria levels.

Part of the assessment is to measure bacteria in water which communities use from the dams.  We'll compile results later, but early results suggest bacteria in many of the water sources used.  Here is a test of the water actually used from a person's household, taken from a scoophole on a dam.  MCC along with our partners are thinking of what work can be done to improve water quality from these sources.

Not all dams function well, or even at all.  Here a dam in the south part of the region appears to be totally nonfunctional.  There is no evidence of water, of increased water table, and the material behind the dam is heavily silted (which prevents it from effectively holding sand).  This area missed the last rainy season, so is bone dry as it has not rained since last December.  It's not clear to me what the communities do for food.  The area has some very badly eroded sections also, as can be seen in the foreground.

A core on a silted sand dam.  There was a bit of crusted sand on top, but within several inches of the surface is muddy silt. That's not good for holding water for use.  

Even silted sand dams sometimes seem to provide benefits.  Here a seeming oasis in a desert - the obvious greenery of many gardens around a sand dam - is from a dam that was basically all silt/mud and no sand.  Much water had pooled on the surface, so in effect seemed to function as a sort of conventional dam.

Another water harvesting technique is the use of rock catchments, here in an area down by Mtito Andei and Tsavo National Park.  Barriers are built along the large rock surface so that water flows off the rock into channels, which run through pipes into tanks.

Here the troughs from the rock catchment feed into two large tanks.  The tanks reportedly easily fill even in a single dam.  In the background is the new SGR (single gauge railway) being built by a Chinese company.  The SGR runs from Mombasa to Nairobi, a badly needed alternative to all the trucks taking goods along the overcrowded Mombasa Highway.  Unfortunately the SGR impacts land owners, here they say the tanks will need to be taken out and the rock catchment will no longer function.

SASOL and UDO staff, and 4 interns we've hired to help with the assessment.  I greatly appreciate all their dedication and hard work tromping around lots of backwoods areas in the sun!

I find all sorts of fascinating animals while out doing the assessments.  Digging holes in Kitui, we found lots of these Blunt-faced Snout Burrowers.  They hide under the moist sand of river beds until rains and then come out.

One of our favorite birds here, the Purple Grenadier.

There are always interesting sites, and I never tire of the amazing baobob trees.  Here you can see the pegs they put into the trunk, allowing them to climb up the tree (presumably for fruit, but perhaps for something else)

The loquat tree outside our flat is in full production these days, and the boys are enjoying climbing it to harvest the fruit.

Cristina and the boys made loquat pie!

It's still amazing that Nairobi has a national park right next to it, and despite its proximity it has a lot of great animals.  We took a Saturday morning to escape to the park for a bit of watching wildlife.

Giraffe baby with its father

Baboons cheekily take any opportunity to get some food.  Finding our windows closed on the MCC cruiser, it decided to claim a spot on the roof

Game parks are always an opportunity to practice driving.  As usual, that involves dodging wildlife on the road.

The SGR also passes through the national park, a particularly controversial part of the railway plans, as many would rather reroute it around the park.  They're still arguing about how much that will happen, although it appears here that it is a "done deal" for at least part of the railway.

We took a weekend camping trip to Hell's Gate National Park, near Lake Naivasha.  The campsite had an amazing view across a grassy valley where we could watch the animals grazing.

Morning with our friends Joy and daughter Amilee.

Running with the zebras.  Hell's Gate has no predators or elephants, so is a rare park where you can walk freely about.  Evan decided that doing some running with the African animals would be fun!

The lower gorge in the park is a beautiful hike through a slot canyon

After our hike, we stopped in at the KenGen hot springs pool.  Hell's Gate has abundant geothermal resources, so there are geothermal generating plants (background) in the park that produce some 15% of Kenya's electricity.  Hot mineral water seeping out of the ground here is shunted to a pool where one can enjoy a hot-tub experience!  While having a generating station in a national park seems incongruous, it is good to see what is presumably clean(er) energy production.