Today was a longer ride but compared to the day before the hills were slightly less relentluss in that because they were undulating with every uphill came a downhill! We rode through some of the poorest areas I saw but also some of the friendliest. Children as like the previous days would shout "how are you" constantly and as soon as you answered them "fine, how are you?" they would roar with laughter. They also shouted Jambo and appreciated our efforts to wave and say hello to them. As a rule the Kenyan's who would line the roads as they walked to work would be very sombre looking and at times you did not know whether to say hello (Jambo) to them or not. However, once you had 9 times out of 10 their whole expression would change they would give you a great smile and say hello back. The children were so friendly - out of all the villages and towns we cycled through I only heard 1-2 derogotory comments referring to white people. There had been one village on the second day where a mam had pushed one of the women off her bike and they had to sent the ground crew in the vans to park at either end of the village to escort us through due to the possible trouble.
Here though they were so friendly and welcoming it was amazing. We stopped at lunch in a local pasteurs garden who was obviously quite well off for his village and he was very friendly, introduced himself and told me a little bit about himself. He was a pasteur, but also had a PhD and was a very well educated person. He strongly believed in education for children and told me that he intended on sending all of his 11 children (ages 21-1) to school and further education if he could afford it.
One thing that I noticed whilst cycling through so many villages that very young children were always looked after slightly older children - they were rarely with their parents. It was only babies that I saw with their mothers.
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