Wamunyo wood carvers

4/28/07 -- late morning

After we left Masii, we headed off to the Wamunyo woodcarving village, about 30 minutes away, where we were absolutely overwhelmed by the amount and quality of the craft. I bought way more than I should have, but oh well. A little retail therapy for me, and gifts for the good people who donated back in the States. I chatted with the woodcarvers for a bit and they were delightful -- we watched them carve a giraffe out of a single piece of wood in just a few minutes.

Laureen was not feeling too well, so she and another couple of people got off the bus at an intersection (Paul was on the cell phone and had the other Tumaini van come out from Masii to pick her up), and the rest of us headed off to have lunch at the home of Grace Kanini (Little Grace) -- Stanley Mutunga's 87 year old mother, who still lives just outside of Masii. We had to take a different route, as the main road to her house had been washed out recently in a heavy downpour. The local folks were out en masse re-doing the road (they would dig out the dirt from the side and throw it on the road) and the bus got stuck up to the back axle, just as we were getting to the turn off for Grace's shamba. We all hopped off, which helped a lot (since all the weight was in the back) and Joseph had the bus extricated from the mess by the time we had all walked down the side road to the house.