FINALLY saw a Beetle in Africa!

Uh, one Beetle.
And it was spotted from a balcony in a Nairobi hotel, so it's not like I could make an offer to the owner.
But hey. It's Africa like that -- at least I had a good lens.
Other shots, too. It's 12:25 or so here, so I'll be explaining the photos later with a link. Cool story; dedication of a project jointly funded by the U.S. and the government of Kenya, overseen by military civil affairs guys and Navy engineers.
Kids at a remote high school used to have to walk to town in Garissa to get frigging water.
Water is that important there; read the story and you won't look at your tap the same way again. ...
But anyway, it was a huge deal. This little town waaaay up near Sudan finally got something nice after years of asking. The last postcard must have had the stamp on it with a paper clip, because the MP for the Dujis people made some neat stuff happen for them in a timely manner when it finally came to his direct attention.
Who cares, right? We were almost the only people with cameras there for the dedication ceremony; had to drive four hours into the desert to get there.
But the pictures are pretty cool. I'll post a link to the other bits tomorrow.
How about that Bug? WOOOOO-HOOOO!

That's a great story, Cory.

There's a very good charitable organization here in Charleston called Water Missions International. They make water purification systems that can take near sewage and make it perfectly safe and healthy to drink. Some were sent to New Orleans after Katrina, and many of them wind up in Africa. You're right, we don't always appreciate just what a luxury seemingly endless fresh water is.

WOOOHOOOOO Go and find the dude and see if you can build a Speedie on his pan. There has to be a builder that'll supply a body!

Those camels are probably in the 'Camel GT' series.

I half expected to hear Cory had a bug in his shoe or under the bed!

As for water, last Sunday we all got "neighbor postcards" in with the morning paper. They are for posting on your neighbors door telling him he is using water in some unapproved manner. We are all going to be under water restrictions here in southern CA by next month. After a certain gallonage, the price goes WAY UP!
Here is a prediction: The water board will be making so much money that the gallonage will be lowered even more so they can bill us even higher! Meanwhile, the developers continue to get new housing permits approved - how the hell does that add up? Oh, silly me, you just gotta follow the money.

Cory, we could use a U.N. project for water delivery here in southern CA real soon!

Cory!
You are providing us with such a hands on view of what's happin' on the other side of the planet. We are, indeed, privileged to have you as our SOC foreign correspondent. Keep up the good work!
Ernie

Cory:

Good work covering that event! Even though it seems trivial to many of us, you're right.....It is a BIG FRIGGIN DEAL to the people who live there.

Life there is a lot like where I was in the Peace Corps. decades ago in Honduras - people doing what then have to, day to day just to survive, with a government that doesn't give a damn (as long as their pockets are being lined...) I have hundreds of stories just like that from an entirely different part of the World, although we had the opposite problem - so much water they couldn't manage it all and none of it fit to drink!

Keep the stories coming. They're great! And that picture of the Dujis dancers rate a National Geographic "Two Thumbs UP!"

What a great event to attend!!

Gordon

You have mail, Gordon.
Thanks for the props, fellas. I'm in the process right now of uploading 25 photos and the story to the site where the media get them from. When the link to the photos is good, I'll post it here. The full story is there now:

http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=30942

Cory, with no disrespect to what you're doing in Africa, it seems to me that if our Govt. spent the money here rather than on foreign soil we would be living in a better place.

My comment comes from watching countries such as this, accept our donations, work and deaths then piss on us and ridicule us for being a super power.

It's been my observation that they accept our generosity and the gratitude only lasts until the project is completed.

I know, our Govt. feels that if we step in, these 3rd world countries will be allies rather that foe's but, is it true??????

That's an interesting question, Larry. I don't know a whole lot about the specific history here, except from my own personal experiences in 1993.
I have seen, like I mentioned right after I got here, there's a lot of Chinese interest in this continent.
Insofar as I can tell, if we weren't here doing projects like this, the Chinese would be taking advantage of these poorer countries and giving nothing back in return.
There's a program here called English Discussion Group. The idea is kind of the same as Good Morning Vietnam's classroom setting where Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams) hosts a guided conversation designed to expose the students to conversational wording and phrases. Some of these guys and gals here are good with English already, although they're taught Arabic, Somali and French in school.
The comment comes up repeatedly in the EDG that the colonial French (who are still here, BTW) never speak to these folks about anything. The Chinese don't bother, either.
I don't really know what the long view is. I have noticed that the people aren't just getting handouts, though. The project engineers and half the money for them comes from USAID and the UN (UNICEF, mostly), but the project execution and maintenance afterward is up to the locals. That's part of how they scrub a project as worth doing or not.
I think the difference between helping these guys out, no offense to Detroit and other American cities that seem to be f***ed right now is, these things are life-and-death here. If American dollars would make a difference back home -- and I agree that the government has ignored the cities themselves to a horrid degree -- there would absolutely have to be a watchdog on corruption at the same time. Between bad politicians and petty criminals, there's just no interest on the part of Middle Class America in rescuing major cities that let themselves go to hell. Sad, but true.
There's no real petty crime or anything else holding these guys here back, and they're not terribly lazy -- they just don't have any resources at all and there's no economic investment potential except for their land and mineral rights.
What crime there is here is usually confined to urban areas, committed by people who are literally, flies-on-their-eyeballs starving. The pirates are a good example; they can't fish anymore, because the long-line fishermen and gill-netters are taking disproportionately large chunks of the catch home with them -- to Asia.
Here's some of the other military news about stuff going on here:

http://www.africom.mil/articles.asp?lang=0

And I hope I don't suddenly sound like a humanitarian; right now, this is what I'm here to do.
It isn't what I THOUGHT I'd be doing, but it's interesting work until the time comes to go home to Mrs. Drake and the land-o'-plenty. ;)

Cory, thanks for the great info and pics. I would rather see some of my tax dollars build a water system, than pay Haliburton to sell gasoline and Diesel fuel at 500% mark up to "The Troops". And as little impact as this small water project may have, if a single soul remembers the USA as a helper instead of a boot in the face, it is worth it.

Larry - Yeah, look what the damn Colonials did to the Brits back in 1776! Some gratitude that was - Brits wore classy Red coats and colonials hide behind fences and shot at them. Poor natives (American Indians) were the real big loosers as they got only rights to set up a few casinos.

Dang Cory - a 50 Cal sniper rifle and that VW could have been Hoopty #2. I expect to see an exotic fur tonneau on the Hoopty when you return.

Thought I should throw some updates on the old bulletin board. Still loads of stuff going on over here.
Is it November yet?
http://www.hoa.africom.mil/

Thanks for keeping us posted, Cory.

oops.....

Too quick on the button.....

Wow!

That's one Helluva web site!!!!

Guess you guys have long since graduated from Remington's.....

Keep this stuff coming, Cory!

And Jim's right....you look a little intense, there....

gn

Picture caption;

...cub reporter Jimmy Olsen feverishly typing his front page report on VW sightings...