The Milgis Trust

Category: Northern Frontier District | Date: May 28 2009 | By: milgistrust

Now you know why the blogging can be a touch sporadic!!… We left Elkanto at 5.30 am, for our jaunt up this hill, armed with mobile phones, and computers to climb 1600 feet higher than the surrounding area to get a signal… Its over1000 feet higher than Elkanto!! We went to see if we could send our emails, and our blogs from here as we are finding the satellite phone abit expensive!…Just recently Safari com, a mobile phone company, put a mast up at Baragoi, and this is the only place one can get a signal around here!!..

The View from the telephone booth!.. Up to the right is the radio hill, and down in the valley is Elkanto with the Matthews Range behind…. This is Lesoloyia trying to send a blog!!! Just in this 4 meter patch is where we should get a signal……

Nobody was lucky this day except the woman who was so happy to hear her son in Mombasa!!… She had come 20 kilometres to make this call… None of us got through!..Hey we walked along way as well..?. We were told by Lolokuria, the man standing on the left, who is one of the radio operators for the Milgis Trust that if its windy it works better… We didn’t wait for it to get windy, as we had a long walk home, and a long climb at the end in the heat of the day…

Stella is trying to send an email, Pete is holding the modem up, in one hand while he trys to make some phone calls himself… Stella is feeling a little crowded, shes got three dogs crowding her in the only bit of shade… The shade is just a few branches that have been cut and and balanced over these bushes! She reckons its better than the concrete jungle [Blog April 18th]she used to work in!!

This woman is speaking to her son in Mombasa.. She prefers to have the phone on ‘loud speaker’, as she can’t handle it next her ear… She is getting good news from Mombasa, that it is raining!… She wants her son to know that things are not so well, at home… The goats are sick, and theres nothing for them to eat… And water is difficult.. But other wise we are fine!… Samburu people are never miserable or negative about a situation like this… The harder the times the tougher they get!!