layering the makuti and vifuvu. Many small children came to watch and
play with our supplies. We had to put away the machete that we used to
cut the makuti before the kids could get that one. There wasn't enough
dry vifuvu to fill the barrel, but we made do. The drum refused to
light in spite of our best efforts, but we persevered. Finally, after
making some torches by tying some small makuti pieces to a stick. The
torches worked, and soon the area filled with warm damp smoke as we
burned off the water inside. Unfortunately, we weren't able to light
in multiply areas, so we had to let the fire spread on its own. At
this point, we began aggressively keeping the children away from the
drum. Shortly after, the warm white smoke transformed into gloriously
hot flames as the volatile gases burned and shot up 3 feet above the
top of the drum. At this point, I knew that we had really made it
work. We waited for the lingering puffs of white smoke to die out
completely before and let the volatile gases rage a bit longer before
sealing the drum to let it bake. I think my favorite part of doing the
first burn is watching the paint melt off. Our lovely blue drum
finished the evening a dull silver.
We then had to guard the drum to make sure that the small children
playing in the vicinity didn't come too close. Jeff pulled out his
chess set, to pass the time on our sentry duty. Like a good host, he
promptly granted me his queen in exchange for a pawn. Not to be
outdone, I waited a bit later and have him my queen for free followed
by my king. I guess I need to sharpen my chess game a bit. After we
had waited a full two hours, we couldn't wait any longer and opened up
to feast our eyes on the wonderful carbonized material.
The drum was filled with black material. There was virtually on ash
and only a small fraction of uncarbonized material (most of it was the
outer husk of the coconut, which was an experiment anyway). All this
without any casualties except for one small child who was whacked on
the head with a stick by another small child. Miraculously, the fact
that I did everything in flip-flops did not result in a single second
degree burn (that is an allusion to an older testament to my lack of
common sense).
After our glorious victory, we enjoyed a nice dinner with Jeff's
family again (too bad that our dinner conversation has to be
considered unbloggable), we decided to actually sleep early.
Feeling energized by our success, we planned to perform another burn
after church that day. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. We
spent the morning making briquettes from our fully carbonized
materials in my Kenyan made briquetter. We used flour and water to
make glue, and lots of people started to believe when they saw this
part. We had arranged for people to collect the shells in the
community this time and left them out to dry with the rest of the
makuti. We hoped to catch part of the US soccer match, but we couldn't
find anywhere in town showing it, so we went to the beach instead. As
we stood there admiring the ocean and watching a storm come to the
shore, we realized that our materials wouldn't be able to dry out and
would possibly get soaked. We rushed back to find that the vifuvu was
fine, but the makuti was soaked. We tried to dry it out over a small
stove, but that was not working, and the rain kept stopping and
starting, so we threw in the towel. Apparently, our efforts to dry out
the makuti was a source of endless entertainment for the children who
had watched us the previous day.
Jeff is now pretty confident in his charcoal ability, so I am really
hoping that this will become a popular project in Msambweni and
possibly surrounding areas. I got a much needed break from the
stresses at my school and was glad to bond with Jeff a bit more. We
slept early again and on Monday, we had to go to Mombasa to get flu
shots since swine flu has made it to Kenya (just generic flu shots,
but they should prevent us from getting the worst of it if any of us
are afflicted). I got to see and talk to a lot more Peace Corps
volunteers before Nick and I began our trip back to Voi so that we
wouldn't have to miss any more school than necessary. We caught up a
bit and I felt bad because I was supposed to pick up some fresh fish
for him, but got very salty shark for him. I hope that I'll learn to
read someday.
Final disjointed thoughts:
- Msambweni was great. Just a great place through and through.
- After hearing about Michael Jackson, I made Jeff listen to the song
Billy Jean while I broke the news to him.
- Jeff's Kenyan family was wonderful. They were very pleasant and
helpful at every turn.
- It was nice to learn who will be replacing our country director as
he is transferring to a new position very soon. It would have been
nice to hear from Nairobi, but the only way information is passed
through Peace Corps is the volunteer rumor mill.
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