This man was building a school. I sometimes wondered how much he appreciated the help. Every time I saw him he was very focused on his work. Keeping every thing level was a challenge since the bricks were all donated by different families and they weren’t uniform.
This is Mr. Kithusi. He lives in Mulundi, Kenya, a few miles from the market town of Kitui.
Here he is walking in the courtyard of his compound. My son and I stayed with him and his family on two trips to the village in 2011 and 2012. My son also lived with the family for three months when he graduated college, teaching at a near-by secondary school.
Mr. Kithusi of Mulundi Village in Kenya.
Don’t let the rust fool you, this is a relatively wealthy family and the compound is quite well kept. They have quite a bit of farmland and own a flock of goats and a milk cow.
Khanga on the wash lines.
Khanga, lesos are what they are called in other places, are an important part of Kenyan attire. I have a book of 100 uses for a khanga. Everything from a simple wrap around skirt to improvised baby carrier.
When Mrs. Kithusi came to the USA to visit her daughter, she gave her khanga (leso) to the woman who was going to milk the cow while she was away, so it would feel comfortable with her.
When I went on a safari several years ago some folks in my group were disappointed that we didn’t experience a kill. I was happy enough that we didn’t, especially since it seemed to be a time of year with lots of babies.
A PHOTO CHALLENGE OF PLACES WE SIT…OR MIGHT SIT…OR ART ABOUT SITTING
Welcome to week 35 of the Pull up a Seat Challenge in 2019.
Take a load off and share a favorite perch by linking your post to
this one, either with a comment or ping-back. For more detailed
directions go to Pull Up a Seat page.
One of the awesome, actually awesome, things about my trip to Masai Mara several years ago was that our little safari group saw so many lions that we didn’t get excited about them anymore. Looking back, I wonder how I could ever have gotten to that point since I was only there three days!
Kwa Muema means “Good Place”, but I can’t remember if it is Swahili or Kikamba. It was the name of the secondary school under construction in these pictures.
One of my various projects these past few months has been to learn more about post-processing. Cee’s challenge this week gives me a chance to try out some vintage black and white techniques in LightRoom. I thought they suited the classic nature of the subject: these pictures could have been taken almost any time in the last hundred years.
These are pictures taken on my first trip to Africa. We went as part of a “mission trip” (not a good description, but I may never be able to fully process the trip and find words for what it actually was). We were planning to help with construction of a new classroom for the secondary school. But, for the most part, our help wasn’t really wanted (it took paying jobs away, but there was also some political weirdness).
Welcome to week 2 of Pull up a Seat. Take a load off and share a favorite perch by linking your post to this one, either with a comment or pingback. For more detailed directions go to Pull Up a Seat page.
Thank you to everyone who is participating. It is really fun to see all the different ideas conjured up by the theme.
Here are my photos for this week. These were taken several years ago in the Kitui area of Kenya, most in the village of Mulundi.
Men sitting:
My son visting with a new friend on a day so hot the dogs barely twitched.
Three generations.
Women sitting (notice the difference?)
Seamstress in Kitui market town.
Shelling peas and shooing chickens.
Making mandazi.
Making mandazi.
Finally a rest: Working hard all week makes Sundays extra special. The worship services are a real celebration with a lot of singing and dancing. These catholic ladies are wearing choir clothes, so they probably earned a rest. I saw them perform at a village function and they are really wonderful. I smile just remembering.
Over to you. Add a link to your post in the comment section.
Unusual bamboo fence where the bamboo was split and unrolled. They must have steamed it flat.
Fences around lantern in Toyama.
In Ireland:
In Africa:
Rift Valley Viewpoint
Rift Valley Viewpoint
Monkeys on the fence at Lake Nakuru
Fence at Kichwa Tembo Airstrip
In China:
Weifang park
Mount Tai
Eye of the Tortoise at Mount Tai.
Prayer ribbons on a temple fence at Mount Tai.
Decorative fence at Shibao temple on the Yangtze.
White Emperor City on the Yangtze.
In Montana:
Wind fence.
East Glacier Lodge.
In Missouri:
I was surprised at how many fence pictures I have. After going through my archives looking specifically for fences I realized that I have a tendency t use them as framing elements in photos.