May Project Updates

The Teremi and Chwele projects have proceeded ahead of schedule over the last month, with both buildings nearing completion. 

Chwele is slightly further than Teremi, with all roofing complete and mortar on all walls. 

The interior at Chwele.

The back ramp of the dormitory at Chwele.

The roof installed at Teremi.

 

Workers putting grout onto the back wall of the dorm.

Interior of the Teremi open bay dorm.

A worker welding one of the doors.  Most contractors will make these custom doors and window frames on site vice trying to buy standard sizes or have them made elsewhere.

Mkokoni is also progressing nicely, with the foundation complete and the contractor starting on the coral block walls.

Shimba Hills National Park

 This trip was devoid of much fun, but we were able to escape one morning to the Shimba Hills Park in southern Kenya.  This small park is in a set of hills just inland from the south coast; home to elephants and the rare Sable Antelope.

We first came across a herd of water buffalo, with this young one bounding all around the adults.

This guy’s horn was just knarly, he was the tough guy of the herd.

This oxpecker was getting really personal with this buffalo.  At one point the bird was inside its ear.

The elephants in this park are slightly smaller than the elephants from the plains due to the forested hills stunting their growth.  These were enjoying the morning sun in a hillside meadow. 

This ‘teenager’ was alittle upset at us, trumpeting, flaring its ears, and charging us a couple of times.

As we waited, more and more came out of the forest and began to graze on bushed and grass.

This is the first small herd of the Sable Antelopes that we saw, the males are a black and white and the females a more muted brown.  The skins of the males were so sought after during colonial times that they were nearly wiped out, but have made a good recovery within this park and now their numbers are climbing.

A second herd finally had a male, whose contrasting hide was just amazing to see.   He was very protective of his herd of females, always putting himself between us and them.

This shot of the herd from a distance is one of my favorite African shots so far.

Here is one of the giant land snails, which I had seen their empty shells so many times, but never a live one.  This guy was crossing the road and we all had to stop and see it up close.  It was so large, I had to put my cell phone down to give it a size reference.

Sunrise over Pate Island

One morning I wandered out to the pier at the Kenya Navy base before sunrise.  The thunderhead provided a great subject as the sun came over the horizon.  Not much to really write about, so just enjoy this pictures.  For other photographers, please give me any comments about the processing, these were really difficult to work with, actually too much color so even small changes in the RAW made a big difference to the JPEG.

April Project Visits

The work at the Teremi and Chwele schools is coming along quickly.  During the site visit in April, the contractor had the walls complete, the roof trusses installed at Chwele, and was about to begin working on the windows and doors.

This is the outside of the Chwele School girls dormitory, showing the completed walls and the roof trusses in place.

The inside of the girls dorm, with the roof trusses in place, but no corrugated roofing in place yet.

This is the metal for the Teremi dormitory’s roof, being stored and welded at Chwele and then transported to the other job site.

Welding the veranda at Chwele.

Interior of Teremi dormitory, finished walls but no trusses in place yet.

Back wall at Teremi.

Veranda at Teremi.

Another project is Mkokoni, which is a small isolated town along the coast.  We have to access it by water, taking an hour boat ride from Manda Bay to this school.  The project entails the renovation of two buildings and the construction of a third classroom.

These are pictures of the two renovated buildings.  They were thatched roofed and had poor mortar work prior to this contractor renovating them and putting on corrugated iron roofs.

This is the new building under construction.  The ground there is loose sand, which forced a long design period determining the correct design so that the foundation would not settle/crack. 

All the sand in the middle of each of these foundation walls had to be excavated out and filled with crushed coral rock.  All of this work is done by hand with just basic tools, no backhoes, no power tools, just backbreaking work.