Dispatch from the field: Kenya
From a letter from Singer Rankin -
“Hello! I am in Kenya on a buying trip before meeting friends who are joining me on a fundraising trip for World Women Work, Katy Payne’s Elephant Communication Project in the Congo, and Iain Douglas-Hamilton’s Elephant Research in Samburu. I buy the most beautiful things here.
“I am staying in Samburu at Oria Douglas-Hamilton’s Elephant Watch Camp. During the day we spend hours with the elephants that Iain is studying. The river is their favorite hangout. We watch as they dig with their feet a huge hole in the bank where they splash and cavort on top of each other. Every one is black with mud and doing something different – fighting, playing, touching – such chaos. Their trunks spike up from the water like antennae. The matriarchs take turns coming with their children. They lie down, rub against the bank, throw mud and generally have the most
fabulous time.
“I go to the village, which is outside the park where the women from the Beading Project live. World Women Work is helping to fund this project that was started by Oria Douglas-Hamilton, and will sell the things they make. The land is overgrazed, and it is hot, windy and wild. The women are waiting for me.
“First we go to the house of a young girl who has a WWW Scholarship. The house is made of cow dung and mud. The entrance is tiny and I can barely get through it. There are 3 little rooms with a fire in the middle. I am given a stool – a place of honor – the rest sit on cow hides on the floor. We then walk hand in hand across a dry river bed to the thatched hut that is to be the beading center. The women are so beautifully dressed in bright colors dripping in their beaded jewelry. They stand out against the earth tones of the land like bright birds. This is in many ways like Nepal.”
Note: For more information on The Samburu Women’s Beading Project, please see the Projects section
