Elephants at night

It's 8:15pm here. There's a watering hole alongside Sweetwaters. There's a small barrier between us and the watering hole. There are a dozen elephants here as we'll as Cape buffalo and zebras. It's an amazing site. And the sound of them pulling up grass with their trunks is noteworthy.

Equator

Giraffes

Sweetwaters Tented Camp

We have arrived.

All aboard!

Here we go!

The plane

Our plane has arrived at the airstrip.

Leap of faith

We are heading to the airstrip to get our charter to Laikipia for our safari. We are leaving behind 17 pieces of luggage. It's a bit of a leap of faith to trust that all of it will magically meet us back in Nairobi on Saturday. But our travel agent has never let us down.

Passion Fruit

Wow, these look odd! But the gang loves them!

Going-away dinner

Wednesday was the last day of surgeries, followed by a going-away dinner in our honor at the Eldoret Country Club. We had a nice buffet dinner, brief speeches, and gift presentations.

Dr. Henry Nono

Henry is one of the local ENT's. He visited us in the US in 2011. Last evening, we visited his house and family. Here he poses with his wife and his four daughters.

It's warmer where??

Indy had a brief warmup, and Eldoret is very cool in the early mornings, so Indy is currently much warmer! But that won't last more than a few hours.

Another math quiz

If gas is 107.3ksh per liter, and today's exchange rate is 86ksh per $1, how much is a gallon of gas?

Welcome to Walmart

Actually, this is Nakumatt, the Walmart of East Africa. Yes, they have everything.

Cold cokes

Here's my engineering friend Henry helping Todd lug a case of cokes to the operating theatre for refreshment. We only see coke products on the streets even though I have seen Pepsi and 7up in the grocery.

The most common soft drinks here are Coke, Sprite, and Fanta Orange. But you can also get Fanta Black Currant, Fanta pineapple, Bitter Lemon, and a local drink called Stoney Tangawizi, which is like an overly gingered ginger ale. You can also find Coke Light and Coke Zero, but they aren't popular with the locals.

Calibration workroom

My engineering friend, Mark, pushed to have a calibration workroom built. He was not only successful, but as any good scientist would know, you need a constant temperature when calibrating any kind of equipment, so look at the picture. There's an air conditioner for this room! This is where I want to hang out on hot afternoons.

Oxygen

Many patients need oxygen. Hospitals are big consumers of compressed, "bottled" oxygen.

The first time I came here, in 2009, the engineers showed me their new "oxygen plant", a small dedicated building for producing compressed oxygen. They were bottling it and then transporting the bottles to the operating theaters, ICU, and the patient wards as needed. The plan was to some day pipe the oxygen to each building, eliminating the bottles and the need to transport them. Even while making their own oxygen, their consumption was enough that they still imported additional bottles from Nairobi, but they had the space to double their production in their oxygen plant.

Then when I visited last year, their oxygen compressor was not working so they were importing all their oxygen bottles. Well, this year, the plant is still not operational. From what I understand, their compressor broke down due to a power failure or surge. Now, the South African company that sold it to them wants a king's ransom for the needed repairs. The hospital found a local company to do the repairs for much less, but the South African company insists that they must do the repairs for it to remain under warranty. (The needed repairs themselves aren't under warranty.) So repairs are currently at a standstill.

In the mean time, since we were here last year, they have been piping all the buildings with copper feed pipes and vacuum return pipes for the oxygen system. These pipes are hung along the outside of the buildings, going from building to building, with little tap-ins where needed.

Rain

It rained a couple of times Monday afternoon. Some of us were caught in it while wandering through the local fresh produce market. The first picture shows that the sellers have covered their produce. The second photo is a small sample of a display.

Random photo from ENT clinic

Fish Eagle

Here are more pictures of a Fish Eagle. The species is dwindling in numbers due to pesticides used by farmers. There are believed to be around twenty still at Lake Baringo. The last photo is zoomed in to show an identification band on this eagle's left talon.

Moonlight

Moonlight over Lake Baringo Saturday night.

Crocodile

In the third picture, the crocodile is eating a fish that had been tossed into the water to attract the Fish Eagle. But the croc got it first.

Birds of Lake Baringo

A sampling of birds (and a water flower) at Lake Baringo. Notice anything about the Fish Eagle?
>
>

More village pics Lake Baringo

We are now back at Indiana House. Here are a few more pictures from the village on Lake Baringo. Note the action photo of Diana serving at the volleyball game.
>

Traffic jam in Kabarnet

It is common to see cows or goats being herded on a road, either coming from or going to a place to graze.

On way back to Eldoret

We paused in Kabarnet on the way back for a coke and to let our overheating van cool off a bit. Off in the distance of the first photo is the other side of the escarpment, and the town of Iten. It sure looks a long way off still. I hope our van makes it!

In the lower picture, a local man uses water in a puddle to wash his feet and sandals.