I had been invited to celebrate the building of a new house for Teacher Nosim’s mum. It was to be held in Ololoroi which was about an hour away on the road to Ngong. There was a group of five of us travelling from school – Teachers Rispa, Laban and Ronall, Head Teacher Bonface, Peninah and me.
I was dressed in my Maasai outfit. Norah had given me a loan of her Maasai belt and Peninah had provided a traditional necklace so I was fully accessorised. Everyone in the school insisted on taking a selfie with me before we set off!
We set off, through the valley beneath the Ngong hills. The views were breath-taking and the mood was jolly. There was also horrendous roadworks. They are building a new highway so they have covered the part finished road in large stones, scattered like measles, to prevent traffic. 
There are no diversions, so people just make their own routes up the sides of the road on both sides of the highway. These tracks are narrow, dangerous and very bumpy. At one point a water truck couldn’t make it up a steep incline, so the driver stopped dead, jumped out and opened the pipes. Clean water gushed on to the road until he had lightened his load.
I seemed to be causing a bit of a stir. There was a lot of staring from other drivers and people on the road, some swerving from motorbikes as the drivers turned their heads unable to believe their eyes at the sight of a Mzungu Maasai. There were even those who tried to snap photos with their phone through the car window when we slowed down through the villages! Maybe Bonface was right after all. I was now a demigod!
I was delighted that Bonface was driving. Plan B was that Noisim would arrange our transport. Last time I travelled with her, I was one of three on the back of a motorbike! So I had no idea what Plan B would have have been.
We were due to leave at 1pm so were on the road by 2.15pm which is quite timely by Kenyan standards. Noisim was going to be at the new house from 11am, she had assured us. As we arrived, at 3.15pm, she pulled up behind us. She was on the back of an open top truck, along with approximately 20 other women and children. There were no benches – everyone stood – and two of the passengers weren’t even inside the truck they were on the step at the back!
This would have been my Plan B! I could not imagine what it would have been like to be in that truck for an hour along dusty, uneven tracks swerving left and right to avoid animals, oncoming traffic and people. One thing is for sure. They would have lost me at the first corner! We head into the compound for the housewarming party.
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