From Khetias to Trans Matt

Where we stay at Common Ground, is probably about 2 kilometers away from the taxi stand which we use to take to Kiminini, sometimes if in a rush, or just feeling too lazy to hoof it there is the option of riding a boda-boda. Bodas are bicycles which for 10/= will pedal you to the taxi stand. They often hang out just at the road down from where we stay, so it works as a way of getting around and it is very inexpensive. Kenya is full of boda operators, as well as their motorcycled counterparts pika-pika operators. I’ve heard that boda gets its name from border, where the cycles used to bring people back and forth from Uganda and Kenya.

Getting back form Elgon meant getting right back to work for me. The first big event was a promotion outside of Khetias Supermarket, much like we did with Suam. Khetia is situated in a bit of a rougher neighbourhood than Suams and does not receive as much foot traffic, but Khetias is a very nice place. We set up booths on the street in front as well as near the entrance from Tuesday to Friday and had some very good response.

We also tried out new salespeople at Khetia days, a big part of what I’ve been doing is interviewing candidates to build our marketing team. Things are going very well, and there was a lot of talent working for us at Khetias making it a successful event.

I wasn’t actually there on Friday to see the conclusion of Khetias though because Jessica and I went to Busia to work with AMPATH and the owners of dukas in the area to speak with them of promoting the CeraMaji through AMPATH education sessions as well as speaking with duka owners of stocking the filters. This again was a very fun experience, some people had heard of our product and one woman had a great time explaining all the lessons to a late coming duka owner.  To get to Busia, we got up very early and boarded a Matatu to Bungoma and then transferred to Busia. Matatus are kind of like full sized vans. They have 14 seats and for me they are quite cramped. For the matautus that run between Kiminini and Kitale it is rare that they will run with less than 20 people, sometimes with people hanging outside of the open door. On the way back we started by matatu, but we got dropped off somewhere before Bungoma and ended up boarding a giant bus which was a lot of fun as it played music for our journey.

On Sunday we set up locally at the Kiminini market. Kiminini is more rural, and we’ve been concentrating much of our efforts on Kitale, but it was nice to set up where many people knew us. In Kiminini we were able to find both new customers as well people who were able to tell us how much they enjoyed our filters.

We had a busy week setting things up around town, and we managed to strike a deal with Trans Matt, the last remaining supermarket in town. Our first day of promotion was Friday. On Thursday I'd been told a camera crew was to arrive Friday as well I thought it was from KBC, which wasn't that big a deal. At 7am I had a phone call with Lorris, the pottery expert from Edmonton, it was a conference between Sammy, Lorris and I.

So during the call with Sammy and Lorris the factory workers cleaned up the factory. To get it ready for TV, we had recently upgraded the electrical systems which helped put the factory into something of a state. It was purely by coincidence that it was also the frist Trans Matt day, and that I had ordered a truck to come and pick up filters from our factory to take them to where we warehouse them in town. Where we warehouse them in a place in town called the coffee shop. Which is a huge building where the white people hang out (which actually gets annoying but they have good  access to power so it makes it a good place to do work).

We were waiting for the camera crew to arrive and loading filters, so I went to my hut on the other side of the school to get things ready. I was already running late for an interview I was to conduct at the coffee shop. During this time the truck took the initiative to drive up to the area where the huts are, this is up a muddy road, which is not a great thing to do seeing as our filters are somewhat delicate. Then the camera crew arrived. So we sent the truck back down to the factory, and actually unloaded some of the filters so they could film the truck being loaded before heading to town. At this point I got interviewed, the lady stood on a filter to interview me (she was behind the camera, but it was for eye level), and I explained a a few words about the project. After this I got in the truck and headed to town.

Trans Matt is right next to Suam, but this promotion was different in that we did not sell direct to consumers, but rather we simply promoted the product and told people to buy their filters inside of Trans Matt. We were lucky to have some very good salespeople, including Justin, present, as they convinced many people to try our water. It was about six by the time we finally left transmatt and took a taxi home. Then tonight as I said earlier I was on TV. They showed a clip of me saying a few words. First the broadcast at 7 which was in Swahili, and then at 9 the English version, only it was way longer, and it didn't actually air until about 950. Both times I didn't hear what I said because people in the room made noise, but it was pretty exciting.

The next day was Saturday, it was a Trans Matt day as well, after the success of our first day they ordered 20 more filters. Suam also ordered 20 filters on that day and Khetias ordered six more of their own. So I spent pretty much the whole day delivering those orders, but it was very nice to see that every supermarket in town was now stocked full of CeraMaji. It was also very good that the orders were completed on Saturday because Sunday was for Justin and I to go on Safari in the Masai Mara.

Elgon

Early on Thursday June 30^th, Justin, Kelsey, Lauren (a village volunteer) and I set out for Mount Elgon. In true Kenyan fashion the beginning of the trip was about a week before when Justin and I paid a visit to the Kenya Wildlife Service to enquire about trips to Elgon. There we were directed to someone who deftly explained to us that when people see mzungus all they see is money, and that many people will try and take our money. He then proceeded to give us free guides and maps, and advise us as to the best way to plan our trip.

 We then asked him about renting a tent from the service. At this point he took us for a walk. Not to the supply room, but to his residence which was on the compound. We were sat down while he got his tent, and in the room there were two girls a little younger than us. When our friend came back into the room he explained the situation to us. It basically went “this is my daughter, this is my niece, aren’t they beautiful? They are in university, I take care of them, these two tents are 14000 shillings.” For scope, a new tent is 8000/-.

I was pretty busy with other things, so I didn’t get to involved in the planning, so I would like to thank Justin, Kelsey and Lauren for finding the supplies we needed for the trip. With all the supplies we called a familiar taxi driver to pick us up at 530 on Thursday. From there we drove to the post office, to pick up our porter. We ended up waiting for an hour before leaving porterless. The next stop was Kenya Wildlife Service, where we picked up our guide (Hassan). The man with the gun, this was part of the deal we’d worked up with our friend from the wildlife service. He told us that “one gun cannot go up the mountain alone” therefore we would have to hire two guides, unless we brought one with us, as a nicety we rented our tents from him (for 4000/- for the trip). So four people crammed in the back while I enjoyed the ride in the front seat to Elgon, which took about 40 minutes over roads of various quality.

It was when we arrived at the mountain that the Kenya way of things was well illustrated to us. The people at the gate tried to charge us for an extra guide and wouldn’t give us student fees (we had no student IDs), but after a call to our friend things were smoothed out. We hired a porter at the gate (Moses), and we were given another guide for free (Gary). Gary took his sweet time getting ready, and after an eternal wait we were finally off on our hike of slow ascent to a majestic cloud covered peak.

The first day was not so bad at all. It’s probably pretty easy to decipher the chronology of the pictures. The slope of the mountain was very gradual, and except for one steep moment up an area called Endebess bluff, there was very little challenge the first day. Although the packs were quite heavy, as we had packed more food than we actually needed, and water weighed since we only had one porter amongst the four of us.  The scenery was very nice, we saw some animals, right at the park gate before we entered there were some baboons, but they left before we actually got in the park. Still there were many Water Buck right at the gate, and a few on the way. It was when we finally got to camp that things got interesting. By this I mean Justin decided to make a spear. I’ll admit, I thought he was crazy, I still think he’s crazy, but his spear was a great idea as it turned into a mascot or prop for the rest of the trip. Right after completing his spear, the potential for an epic photo shoot was immediately apparent. Unfortunately my camera got damaged, and I had to rely on Justins for the rest of the trip.

The next day was muddy. I’d decided to try and make the trek in running shoes, this was probably not the best choice of footwear as I pretty thoroughly destroyed my shoes throughout the trip. It was also pretty cold for a while on the second day, not much sun and always the threat of rain though not much actual rain. Other than this the second day didn’t offer too many unique challenges. It wasn’t until we got to the campsite (the end of the road campsite) that things got a little problematic as it began to rain and we found that our tent was not so waterproof. It was a cold night as I slept in everything I had, and was still a little chilled. The campsite was also at some altitude, so it made it a little more difficult to sleep. But in the morning the sunrise was really something to see.

The next day we made our attempt at, Koitobos, the summit. This was a little more difficult as we were no longer walking on a road, but on a hiking path. We got up early so that we could make the summit early as well, but still by the time we got there it was shrouded in fog. This though wasn’t such a bad thing as it made it seem that much more desolate, remote and exclusive once we were up there. It was also a pretty good backdrop for our epic photo shoot with spear. Justin and I stayed on the summit a little longer to complete the photo shoot while the girls got a head start on the descent, by the time we got down off the difficult rocks it was raining lightly, but it soon passed. We hiked back to camp where we found a ranger patrol waiting for us, after some debated we agreed to let them drive us half way back to camp, and we walked the rest of the way back to the campsite at which we had stayed the first night.

The next morning we got up early again. Our plan was to visit Kitum cave and begone from the park before 1200 thus avoiding the park fees for another day. It turns out this plan was folly. The quick jaunt to Kitum turned out to be quite the hike. We walked forever. The bright spot was that we saw two giraffes on the road in front of us, and then they ducked into the bush but we still had a good chance to observe them. We also saw many Columbus monkeys and Wild Tigers (not actual tigers, they were more like antelope) the last day.

Kitum was very neat. There were bats, a lot of them, and when a light was shone at them their eyes glowed red. It is also a cave that is frequented by elephants who tusk the wall to get at salt deposits and they leave huge gouges. There was even the skull of an elephant who was trapped by a fallen rock. It wasn’t until about three that we left the park.

Through a bit of manoeuvring we got out of paying fees for that day though. Mostly by promising to refer people to the park… So if you’re looking for a mountain to climb…