Come to our new website!

Please visit our new website and bookmark the URL!  The new website will look similar to this old one but will allow some features not available here.   For someone typing the URL into a browser, the new address is shorter so it’s a win-win for all of us.  See you at digthiswell.com.

3 Powerful Minutes

This video, created by Rotarians in the Netherlands, is a short but strong plea to help developing countries in their quest for water.
RotaryApeldoorntLoo

“Hands that serve humanity are a lot better than lips that talk of divinity”

“Hands that serve humanity are a lot better than lips that talk of divinity.”  I found this quote on the website of Eric Kimani, the 2011-2012 Rotary International District Governor for Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. This fits my personal philosophy and is also inherent in the Unitarian Universalist principles (short form: deeds, not creeds) and is, of course, the way many of my friends feel, whether they are atheist, agnostic, Jewish, Buddhist, mainstream Christian, or Muslim.  Wow!  Did I omit anyone?  As I think of people I realize what a diverse group of friends I have!

Today’s economic  world makes contributions, whether in the form of money or time, difficult for all of us and most of us are very selective about the organizations to which we contribute.  As I have chatted with people I know well and with strangers about digging the Oltorotua wells and building the latrines, I am surprised at the interest people express and I am eager to actively begin to solicit funds, once our project is affiliated with a US tax-deductible charity.  Hopefully soon.

Tree Planting in Kenya

Friend Sandi Smith-Gill called my attention to a Facebook article about several conservation groups planting 25,000 trees to protect the Mau forest, the largest mountain forest in eastern Africa.

Author Jake Richardson writes: “The 675,000 acre forest catches so much rainwater it is the origin of a number of important Kenyan rivers. One of the rivers, the Mara, runs through the Maasai Mara National Reserve, which is Kenya’s most celebrated wildlife conservation area. This area is world famous, and its fame is well-deserved due to the concentration of wild animals such as lions, rhinos, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, elephants, antelope, and wildebeests.”

Here’s a photo husband Carl took while we spent several hours watching wildlife along the banks of the Mara with Peter Liech and Jackson Liaram.

Check out the full article to see how conserving water and planting trees combine to create a healthy ecosystem.

Becoming Human

I began my book about the Leakey family by writing: “How and when did humans evolve?  In paleoanthropology, a first cousin of archaeology that asks this question, facts are found in fossils.” And most of those fossils have been found in East Africa.

Yesterday I had lunch with Carol (CAP) Saucier, author of The Lucy Man: The Scientist Who Found the Most Famous Fossil Ever (of course, the Leakeys have found a few famous fossils too!).  Carol’s book is very readable and tells the story of Dr. Donald C. Johanson, including, of course, his discovery of ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis).   Carol told me about an essay contest on the topic “What makes us human and why?”  There is a fantastic prize for each of the three entry levels (grades 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12)—Dr. Johanson will speak in their classrooms.  Other prizes too.  The contest runs Aug. 15-Nov. 15, 2011.  For more information and to download the official entry form, click here. 

Another step forward!

Jackson sent an e-mail today saying one permit has been approved.

“It is very good news that Water Resources Authority has released the permit for the drilling of the three boreholes. It is an Interim permit as they work on the permanent one. Perhaps they thought of not keeping us waiting long if we are ready to drill the boreholes.”

Jackson also said that Dan, the hydrogeologist, is checking about the status of the other permit.  Moving right along….

“African Cats”

We went to see African Cats yesterday afternoon, the first time a friend has ever been listed in the movie credits. But there was Paul Kirui splashed across the screen as the credits scrolled! I also recognized names from the Mara Triangle blog and the BBC Big Cats Diary website.

Anyone who loves animals, has been to Kenya, or is thinking of going on an African safari should see this movie. The photography is spectacular and Samuel L.  Jackson’s narration is spot on. I wondered how I would feel about a movie in which the lead actors only growl and roar, but the 1-1/2 hours passed quickly. Others in the theater must have liked it too–there was clapping at the end. Stay while the credits are rolled. Not just to see Paul’s name! — The wildlife are given funny titles.  All in all, a super movie!

Musings

I changed the subtitle to allow me to broaden the content and still stay within my purpose:  Primarily to dig a well in Oltorotua and also to write generally about the Maasai and their home in the Mara.  Today, however, is a Musings day, and I want to talk about a Polish librarian named Tedeusz Glowinski, Teddy, and his granddaughter Daria.

About a year ago I received an e-mail from a retired teacher turned librarian who was setting up his own lending library in Olesnica, Poland.  He asked me to donate several of my books.  Since writers buy their own books from the publisher, we must choose carefully to whom to donate books.  But I sent a few books to him.

Yesterday he sent me a photo of his gorgeous granddaughter Daria Drozd reading one of my books.  He wrote: “On this map there are places-countries from where I have books for my library
or illustrations for “Gallery of World’s Illustrations” at GLOWINSKIS’ LIBRARY.
There are 88 countries !!! I dream about more and more …
That map is in my flat, in my library there is too little place!”

I got permission to post the photo.  Please check out Teddy’s website (be sure to click the flag in the upper right for English or whatever your language of choice is) and, if you are a writer or illustrator, I know he would love to have a contribution and mark your location on his map.

A Different Kind of Good News

This post is not about well digging but it is about Kenya, the Maasai Mara, and friend Paul Kirui, who was featured in my post of May 8, 2010.  Earlier this week Paul e-mailed me the URL for a Belgium news article published in French.  Yesterday evening friend Sally Lockhart, who speaks several languages, translated for me.  The article is a glowing human interest story about Paul and his second trip to Europe and says he is “one of the best animal guides in the world.”  It also says Paul was technical adviser for the new Disney film AFRICAN CATS, which comes out Earth Day, April 22.  ”Technical adviser” may not be the official term in the credits but I’ll find out when I see the movie!  However, they couldn’t have got anyone more knowledgable about wildlife to help tell this true story about two lion prides in Kenya’s Maasai Mara Game Reserve.  Check out the video on YouTube or visit the official website.  I can barely wait to see the entire movie!

Here’s a 2008 photo of me, daughter Hope, and Paul in the Mara Intrepids lounge.

“One finger cannot pinch the louse.”

When I began this blog I thought obtaining a grant to dig a well at Oltorotua was imminent, or at least in the near future.  If you have followed me this far, you know I have been very honest about how naive I was!  I had no sense of the project’s complexity and no idea how long working thru the myriad details would take.  I doubt Jackson and the villagers did either!

I hardly know what to tell folks who want to contribute or help, except that the project is progressing but veerrrr-y slowly.  Here is Jackson’s latest e-mail, in reply to well-guru Steve’s request for dimensions of available blocks:  ”The blocks’ dimensions that you are looking for are available(4, 6, 8 Inches). I asked the mason and confirmed with block buildings. The nearest block mine is about 60 Kilometres from the village.” (The distance is a little over 37 miles of very bumpy roads.)

Why, you may ask, do we need the dimensions of cement blocks for a well?  The blocks are not for the well, but for the latrines.  For health and sanitation, building latrines when digging a well makes the most sense.  Phyllis, a retired professor friend in health education services from Towson University, is searching her contacts for a group that can provide training in sanitation and maintenance procedures.  (If you know of such a group, please let me know.)  I have mentioned other friends who are helping–Steve, Judy, Barbara, Tibby, my husband Carl, Dorothea, Clare.  Which reminds me of an old Maasai saying Jackson sent me several years ago:  “One finger cannot pinch the louse.” (Everybody needs other people in life — Unity leads to success.)