Endulen Diary
Vol. 23, #10
October, 2000
November 7,
No matter how long I live here in Endulen, I never seem to grow weary of the local sights. This afternoon, on the way to the hospital, I passed a long line of donkeys, driven by boys and girls and carrying grain to Maasai villages far out in the bush. Having bought the corn at the local shops here in Endulen, they started off on a trip of a number of days to reach their homes down on the edge of the Eastern Serengeti. They laughed and calling to each other as they went, untroubled by the prospect of the thirsty and hungry journey ahead. A little further on, a warthog ran across the track in front of the car, proudly holding his tussled tail at full mast. Two giraffe stood in the shade of a tall Acacia tree with their long necks bow and their eyes closed. Some hundreds of yards further on was a herd of zebra, forced to leave the plains of the Serengeti, now a desert. They were getting little in the way of grass here in the Ngorongoro highlands. It is almost as dry here as it is on the Serengeti, visible in shimmering waves of dust far below us here in Endulen. Just before arriving at the hospital, we passed a small herd of impala listlessly scratching for what grass they could find in the virtual dust bowl that Endulen has become during this dry season.
October 23,
Deep in the woods, on our weekly trip into the forests on the mountain above Endulen, we realized that the ancient two wheel firewood cart had lost a wheel. The track was rocky and potholed causing our jeep and trailer to bounce around so badly, that we did not realize we had lost a wheel. My helpers, two Maasai elders, and I backtracked and found the wheel and various bits of hub innards half a mile back along the torturous track. Elephants and Cape buffalo are numerous here in the heavily wooded mountains of the Ngorongoro highlands so we weren’t surprised to find a small herd of curious buffalo keeping our lonely cart wheel company. The glowering buff moved off on our arrival. We retrieved our wandering wheel and slogged our way back to the car and cart. Getting the hub back together proved too much of a challenge for our limited mechanical skills (read limited as non-existent). We temporarily abandoned the trailer and drove back to Endulen looking for a mechanic. One was found and a number of hours later the cart although wounded and needing some lost bits and pieces was pull-able once more. In the early evening we arrived back at the mission with no firewood and very tired.
November 2,
One of the diabetic students, here for diet and medication control, died yesterday of kidney failure. The doctors at Salien hospital decided that Makotio was not a viable candidate for the kidney that his brother offered. It seems that his diabetic situation precluded that kind of surgery. Makotio had been with us for nine years through much of primary and all of high school. His going to sleep, the Maasai idiom, was difficult. It was especially hard for the two remaining diabetic students still with us. This event has brought home to us what a dangerous and potentially lethal disease diabetes is, especially for young people.
Till next month,
Ned
