Farewell forest, hello construction

Farewell forest, hello island life.

Last week marked the end of my time in the Kenyan forest searching for monkeys. In my last days, as a treat, we headed down to the 'shelf'- the beautiful tidal coral 100m ledge that sits fringing the mangroves. There, at low tide, shore birds of every colour, shape and size can be found, hunting for fish or a mate. I was happy with the sun high in the sky, the tide receding, barefoot as I tip-toed toward egrets, camera poised.

I found myself humbly happy as a Greater Egret lunged for an invisible fish, snapping it up in a flash of white and yellow. And as I dodged the sea urchins and brittle stars I saw birds with odd markings as their feathers mark the change of season, to a time of breeding. It felt almost personal, its a time of change for me too, as I approach the end of my year and as I try and find peace in my return home.

And so on Friday I found myself waving farewell to another batch of lovely volunteers, to spend a quiet weekend with Tegan in Diani (I took her there for her birthday present- something for every letter of her name- G is for a Getaway to Maua lodge).

If you're ever in this part of Kenya, stay here- its lovely!) lazing by the pool reading and spotting birds. It was lovely to have down time to process my time here in Kenya, already 6 weeks have flown by.

And on Sunday we arrived back, feeling fresh and free to cross to Wasini island for two weeks of construction. Wasini is a small island, 6km across and about 2 km wide. There are two villages at either end, and GVI is based just outside of Mikwiro, population 2,500. Life on the island is basic. Salt water bucket showers and generator electricity (once daily). And as we are on an island, water is an issue.

All our drinking water is rain water, collected into huge plastic tanks that hug the sides of the volunteer house. Elsewhere on the island people face the same problem. Old coral brick pits have been sealed with cement and make for perfect reservoirs. At the school there are some plastic water tanks like ours. At the orphanage the gutters feed into a huge cement tank in the centre of the grounds. Everywhere I look I see wise water use and water collecting.

And so that is my job here for the next two weeks. To help with GVI's water construction project. Tegan, Andy (an smart English mechanical engineer), Shaffi (the sweet smiling, local builder man), and I are to put guttering on buildings, fix various water tanks and make platforms for new water tanks. We had our word cut out for us today as the sun beat down on us, both Tegan and I covered head to toe, wrist to ankle, in traditional Muslim dress. We decided Project 1 was to fix the tap on one of the tanks at the orphanage. But to do that we had to empty it first. You know the joke, how many people does it take the change a lightbulb? Well, how many people does it take to empty a 5000 litre water tank?

I'll tell you- four. Tegan, Andy, Shaffi and I! And that is what we did today, we let the tap run free as we filled 10 litre bucket after bucket with fresh, rain water and moved it 20m into the giant cement reservoir. We kept a strict tally and by evening we had moved 2330 litres of water. And made dozens of kids laugh as we tickled them as they came to say hi in their school recess.

It was a tough day of back bending work, but to walk away and hear the kids chant "Madame Tina! Madame Tina!" makes it all worth while. (I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my parents for naming me Tina, its the EASIEST name to pronounce in EVERY language- to all would-be parents out there, I encourage you to take this into consideration before naming you future child- find an accent friendly name, I implore you!).

Its moments like those that made me realise I want a simpler life. To do this I took a plunge. All of you will have heard of Facebook, and I made the decision to ditch it. No more was I to post my blogs on it, no more was I to share photos of my adventures. And so I closed my account, and although I know the visits to this blog will suffer, and ironically it was GVI's competition on Facebook that won me this year of volunteering, I couldn't get it to sit in the image of my life after this year, so I kicked it to the curb, and already I feel better, and lighter for it.

In the meantime, the forecast for tomorrow is sunshine and moving water. And sure I'll sit and daydream of diving while my bucket fills, and I'll search the horizon for a bird I don't know, but I can't imagine anywhere better to be, than on an island, in the heat, moving water from here to there, knowing in less than 3 weeks I'll be home, on the mainland, in spring's chill, using a tap.

Farewell forest, hello construction