A Walk Around Korr

I've finally arrived "home." After a week and a half in bustling Nairobi, I've been deposited into the middle of the northern desert of Kenya. Yes, it's hot, and dusty, and slower-paced than anything I've ever experienced, but it's also one of the most beautiful places I've seen yet in Kenya.
Imagine this; flying into town, all you can see for the last 30 minutes of the flight is sand and small savannah trees with the occasional crop circle like thing on the ground. (These formations are the outlines of old villages. The Rendille and similar tribes are semi-nomadic so 3 times a year they pick up and move a few feet over. I'm not joking.) The 6-seater plane lands on an impossible small sand airstrip and at the end spins right around to taxi up to the tree where people are waiting. There are Rendille and Samburu people just there for the show, as well as mizungus (white people) to be picked up. The heat hits you, but without the heaviness of humidity, so this means it's easier to cope with (?). Then you drive down a road, of sorts, that is littered with sparkly quartz stones, which means it's quite pretty but makes for a bumpy ride. Goats, donkeys, and dogs wander around in the sparse brush (the camels who are still alive after this drought are out to pasture now.) You drive through town, which is a combination of corrugated sheet metal/concrete stone homes and min (dome-shaped huts made of cardboard and sticks), and find yourself in quite a social arena. There are far more people sitting and chatting or shopping than you ever really imagined for the middle of nowhere.
And then you reach your house. Built on a small hill to catch the breeze, it's whitewashed concrete with a large front porch and windows all around. There is a guard there whose job is to watch for intruders, but also to keep the plants watered, visitors informed of where you are at all times, and get rid of the rare rabid hyena. (There's also a night guard who is more likely to keep you safe from pesky carnivores.) Inside, the house is all concrete as well, as wood cracks in this heat, carpets are made useless from the dust, and it's just plain easier to clean. But it's all painted wonderful colors and there's a significant library containing even a Dickens collection. Unexpectedly, there is running water (therefore shower and sinks), electricity, a lovely outhouse, and two resident kitties who love to cuddle.
It's quite the place; that is Korr and my new house. Not what I expected, but in all the good ways.

(Included is a view of the desert from the plane)