my first experience in Kyuso District

MY EXPERIENCE IN KYUSO DISTRICT

How does is it feel on you landing to a new area for your first time? For most people I knew it will be a story to tell. Landing on the land that is miles away from my family, friends and the acquaintances, this is a story I have to tell to different people of this world.

What will come to your mind when you hear Kyuso in Mwingi? Many will think of a dry area or may be a bare land or even may be to some a rocky area. Beside what you may think about this area, this is my experience on my arrival to Kyuso District. Kyuso is a very hot area with an average temperature of about 22^oC. The high temperature of the area was a challenge to me that made me or rather my whole body very weak. This affected me for the first three days but fortunately I was quick to adapt to the weather change.

In my work around the area, saw many reptiles especially the Newton lizards which I got to learn that the male and the females are not the same for example the females are grey in color with a yellow head and the male are blue with an orange head. The animals don’t have any specific mating time time but they do it during the day when there is sun. The females are more than the females in number. I also noticed that the area has more insects and birds. The trees the area are mostly acacia with so many shrubs.

I noticed that the area is very sunny and windy throughout. The community in the area is mixed farmers practicing crop farming such as growing of sorghum, cow peas and fruits such as pawpaw and mangoes. They also raise animals such as cows, goats apart from keeping chicken and bees The farming does not do well in the area due to lack of rainfall and also shortage of water to irrigate their lands. Most water in the area is got from the rock water catchment area in the Kyuso rocks. An example is the Matigani rock water catchment area. This water is not safe for direct human consumption since it contain water borne disease. There is also water from the ministry though safe for human consumption it is not reliable since it is not available everyday and can get lost for even several weeks. The ground available water which is also rear is aid to be salty and not good for crop farming.

The challenges I experience is high cost of items and their availability. The economy of this area is very high as compared to other place. I suppose items are sold at very high prices due to the poor infrastructure of roads making the transportation of commodities very expensive.

Another challenge I experienced is the language barrier. I found out that most people use their local language (Kamba) and very few are literate and are not able to communicate in Kiswahili or English. What surprised me most is that even in their offices they communicate with the local language.

I thank God that I am adapting well to this area and I hope that by the end of my attachment I would have learn more.