Back from a crazy, amazing trip around Kenya…what an incredibly diverse, beautiful country. I wish I could capture the whole trip right here, but I realize that there’s absolutely no way I could do that. Some highlights will have to do.

Train from Mombassa - Nairobi

Christina and I spent a day in Mombassa, touring around Haller Park and Fort Jesus. Haller Park is an old restored cement quarry that they’ve turned into a beautiful park with giraffe, buffalo, antelope, hippos and crocodiles. It’s really inspiring to see what can be done in terms of environmental restoration. Fort Jesus was also quite a spectacle. Then we got on the train in Mombassa and settled in for the 17 hour trip to Nairobi. The train was an experience in itself - the old Ugandan railway that is famous for the Man-eaters of Tsavo (anyone seen Ghosts in the Darkness?). Christina and I had a sleeper car all to ourselves and actually slept amazing well, lulled by the rocking motion of the train. In the morning, we saw beautiful scenery as the train moved painfully slowly across the landscape, and then pulled into Nairobi through some large slums. That was a part of Nairobi I hadn’t yet seen, and it was definitely an eye-opener. It’s easy to spend time in Nairobi and see only the busy, urban streets and modern restaurants and shopping centers. But the slums are a huge reality for many people living there. They looked like whole towns made out of trash and plastic bags. The train slogged through and pulled into the station, and then the slums became a distant memory as we were forced out into the city, navigating our way towards the matatu station and our next journey - to Nanyuki where we stayed for 2 days before meeting up with the crew from Mwamba - began right away.

Climbing Mt. Kenya

3 days up, 2 days down, summiting in a blizzard (quote from Colleen: "As an Outward Bound instructor, I say we should not be here right now!!"), no view whatsoever from the top but we made it down alive and exhilarated to say the least. Incredible views from the campsites though - glaciers, jagged peaks, rock hyraxes, beautiful sunbirds and alpine vegetation.

Matatu ride from Nanyuki to Nakuru

After Mt. Kenya, Christina and I left the group and set off on our own. This matatu ride has to go down in the history of all-time favorite matatu rides. First of all, the scenery was simply amazing - we drove across game ranches of zebra and gazelle and around Aberdare National Park and its beautiful mountain vistas. Second, and best, everyone on the matatu sang at the top of their lungs, beautiful Swahili worship songs, throughout the entire 3 hour drive! One woman started, others were quick to follow, and Christina and I, the only mzungus on board, just smiled and clapped our hands, wishing we knew the words to join in. We even stopped at a police check, and no one stopped singing. They just looked at us a little funny and waved us on.

Nakuru

Met up with Mishi in Nakuru, and she showed us around town. Nakuru is like a little Nairobi, just as urban but not quite as crazy. We toured around Lake Nakuru National Park and Menengai Crater. Mishi came with us and made the trip all the more fun. We saw tons of flamingos on the lake, as well as other water birds and tons of wildlife. An amazing spectacle - the deafening diverse array of sounds was almost better than the sight of an entire lake covered in pink!

Lake Naivasha

Stayed at Fisherman’s Camp at the southern end of Lake Naivasha. What a peaceful retreat from the loud bustle of the urban towns. The birds there were amazing, and I spent hours just sitting out in front of our little banda (thatched bamboo hut) looking at birds and colobus monkeys. The camp was right on the lakeshore, and one day we decided to take a rowboat out on the lake. Of course, we had seen the hippos that came up to graze every night along the shore but were assured that they were of no danger, as long as we rowed straight out and kept to the deep water. We did that, but then on our way back realized we’d drifted quite a bit and were unsure of where our dock was. In searching for the dock, we kept getting a little too close to shore and seeing quite a few very large hippos resting in the shallows. None of them pursued us (apparently hippos are peaceful vegetarians along with being the most dangerous animal in Africa) but they made the journey a bit more exciting, and well, yeah, I thought we were gonna die. J Made it back ok though and celebrated with some Tuskers at the little restaurant at our campsite.

Hells Gate

Hells Gate is, I think, the only national park in Kenya that you can bike or walk through. We rented mountain bikes from our campsite in Lake Naivasha and biked the 5 km to the Hells Gate entrance. Biking through herds of zebra and giraffe is an experience completely unequaled in a car!! Plus the scenery at Hells Gate is amazing…huge gorges and cliffs. We spent the morning just biking around, up and down lots of hills in deep sand (apparently the route we took is "not recommended for bikers", too bad we missed that blurb in the guidebook before setting out, but hey we got a good workout!). Then in the afternoon we hiked down through a gorge with crazy rock formations and caves all around us. Our Maasai guide was hilarious and led us on a crazy trek which required us to get soaking wet while rock-climbing down through a waterfall ("you’ve now been baptized!" he said). On the way back one of the rangers sat down next to us while we were eating our long-awaited PB&J and proceeded to tell us his life story along with philosophy for living. I don’t know quite how to describe the Kenyan people (of course it’s impossible since they are all so different), except that in nearly every encounter with people here I’ve been completely thrown off guard, tossed outside my normal worldview and surprised by the wisdom, kindness, humor, love of stories, and randomness that flows out of people. There are no barriers. People here are vibrant and alive in a way that is unmatched in the West.

Nairobi

Ahhhh, get me out of Nairobi!! That was the thought that ran through my mind as I tried to navigate the crazy streets from one bus station to another. We got scammed into taking a huge bus with sheep and everything else you could imagine roped on to the top that stopped every 5 minutes instead of an "express matatu" from Naivasha - Nairobi. Luckily we got there in time for me to book the very last seat on the night bus back to the coast and then had a few hours to kill before heading our separate ways. We wandered around town, trying to avoid hasslers, drinking milk shakes (though I still haven’t learned that a milkshake in Kenya is not really a milkshake…it is simply cold flavored milk) and just letting the craziness soak in and flow all around us. We had our last meal together in the bus station café. Christina’s last African meal of hard boiled eggs and chapatti (not much to offer for vegetarians at traditional Kenyan cafes). Then she took a taxi to the airport where she flew away to London, and I spent a sleepless night in the very back of the night bus feeling every bump on a road that wasn’t really a road at least halfway to Mombassa. I nearly kissed the sand upon arriving back at Mwamba, and first thing washed away the dirt and grime from traveling in the Indian Ocean, before taking a long nap.

Needless to say, it’s good to be back on the coast for 2 weeks despite the blistering heat. I have a presentation to give on my research this Thursday and the other days will be going along with ASSETS staff to the primary schools for "beneficiary days". Basically they do some environmental ed with the beneficiaries and also do some practical conservation activities. I’m not quite sure what that means just yet, but I guess by tomorrow I will have figured it out. Then I just have one week left in Kenya. Wow. Time has really flown by. Back in June, I couldn’t even fathom what December would be like, it seemed so far away. But now it’s here and I’m wishing for more time. At least Christmas is coming soon…carols and snow and hot chocolate await…. J

 

 

October 17, 2007

 

I saw Orion’s belt yesterday morning at 4:30 a.m.  It made me excited to see something somewhat familiar in the sky, and an altogether different sky than I have been used to at night here.  Why was I up at 4:30, you ask?  I had to make 3 thermoses of chai (African tea) for our group of bird-ringers before we set off for the forest to ring birds all morning.  We had to be at the forest by 5:30 to open the nets.  The morning was lovely—cool and breezy until about 7:30 when the sun started to bake everything as it tends to do during the day now.  But it was also an exciting morning, because apart from the usual weavers, greenbuls, and the occasional olive or collared sunbird, we caught a Fischer's Turaco—a big, beautiful, brightly colored bird that is only found in Africa.  Colin was ecstatic; it was the first turaco he’s ever caught after many years of bird-ringing in Kenya.  Definitely a highlight!

 

The bird ringing was part of a ringing course that Colin has been giving for the past 2 weeks, and I’ve been sitting in on it every now and then, when I have free mornings.  It’s been great to learn more about the birds here and about ringing in general, which is really fascinating to be part of.  Other than the ringing, I’ve still been doing a mishmash of random things over the past few weeks.  I’m still trying to finish up writing a report of the research I’ve been doing here, which for some reason has been agonizingly slow.  Motivation comes in spurts, and I’ll spend an entire day at the computer slogging away and feeling good about it, and then another day will come when I can’t stand the sight of a computer screen.  At least there’s a lot else to keep me busy!  Like more interviews, for instance.  I’ve been going around to communities again, doing shortened versions of my original interviews, this time with ASSETS graduates’ families.  And instead of camping in the schools, I’ve been riding around on the back of the pikipiki/motor bike, which is great fun!  Tony drives us around to the homes, and I’ve found that with motorbiking, we get way more done than Mishi and I would in a day walking.  It’s so great to be back in the communities after nearly a month and a half solely at Mwamba.  We’re just doing a few days of this, trying to follow up on all the graduates (about 70 total, which we probably won’t get to all of), to see what they’re doing now and what kind of an impact ASSETS has made in their lives. 

 

Mwamba is in transition now with the center managers, Dave and Liz, leaving to go back to England after two years here.  They’ve hired new managers, a Kenyan couple from Nairobi, who will arrive soon.  There will be many changes in the way things run, I’m sure.  It’s been pretty chaotic recently, partially because Dave and Liz went away for 3 weeks and left me in charge of all the bookings and center e-mails!  What with powercuts nearly every other day, me being slightly organizationally-challenged, and trying to balance everything else I’ve been doing, let’s just say the guests have probably had a slightly different experience (and a more authentic taste of what a crazy field study center can be like) than they normally would staying here. 

 

My stolen passport has actually been found—hallelujah!  Well, not good that it was stolen, but good that at least I can say I’m not crazy and haven’t just misplaced it.  It was in fact taken by the volunteer we suspected from Nairobi, who had apparently taken a few other things as well that warranted someone going through his bags.  We got a call from the Nairobi office asking if anyone knew an American named Michelle Gooch, because they had her passport, drivers license, credit card and other documents.  Funny how these things happen, right after I got my brand new passport in the mail after many hours of travel (to/from Nairobi) and worry.  Oh well; all’s well that ends well. J

 

Now I’m getting excited for Christina (my sis) to come and visit, as we have many travel plans in the works!  I think quite a few us here, myself definitely included, are getting restless for a break from the coast and the heat/humidity.  We’re hoping to climb Mt. Kenya and do a bit of traveling, possibly to the Amboseli area and/or Nakuru (where I will pay Mishi a visit!).  I’m sure it will be exciting, as most things in Africa tend to be!

 

October 20, 2007

 

Right now I feel as though I just ate a huge Christmas dinner…

 

We had a goat-roast at Mwamba today with the youth from Colin’s church in Malindi.  What a process it was!  I watched as they paraded the goat off the truck and proceeded to kill and slaughter it.  It was so interesting to see how they use all the different parts of the goat.  And I’m not kidding when I say they use every part.  I’ll try not to be too detailed and gross people out, but it was really fascinating.  And now I have a better idea of where sausage comes from.  The Kikuyu (a tribe in Kenya) have a traditional way of eating the intestines, which basically ends up being the same as haggis, the Scottish version of the same thing.  All of it gets roasted over an open fire, and they leftovers they wrap up in the goat skin to keep warm for later.  And the whole thing takes so much teamwork and ends up being an entire-day ordeal.  We must have had at least 30 people working on doing the cooking at one time.  I was struck by how community-building cooking can be, how it brings people together.  Across so many cultures, too!  We had Kenyans from all over the country, Ethiopians, South Africans, Brits, Germans, Canadians, and Americans (the presence of Brits and South Africans in our midst will make the World Cup rugby final tonight very interesting and exciting!!).  It was great fun, though I don’t think I’ll want to eat again for a very long time… :P

 

Christina comes on Monday!  I’m getting so excited about traveling, I need to focus and stay living in the present.  I still have much to do here before we head off.  It’s going to be a crazy next few weeks, and the time I have left here is going to fly I'm sure.

I have a few minutes before the USA rugby game starts to write a bit...seems so odd, doesn't it, that here I am in Kenya sitting in a posh hotel using their wireless while watching rugby?  There are so many contradicting worlds here, and I'm never quite sure in which one I fall at any certain time.  The past few days have been an answer to prayer--I've been feeling the need of some kind of 'retreat' lately...I think that happens when you live in community that is always changing.  Every now and then the community life overwhelms you and there's this intense need to get away from it, to reconnect with yourself, with God, with the Great Silence, with whatever needs re-connecting with.  I was thinking that on the beach the other night, that I just really needed some me-time.  And lo and behond, Colin Jackson, the director here, and his wife Ronnie, happened to be going away for a week and needed someone to house-sit for them at their home down the beach.  I jumped at the chance and have spent the past few days blissfully lounging in their hammock, listening to music, pampering their adorable Jack Russel, Bonga, running on the beach, and being alone.  Yes, the introvert in me is rejoicing.  It has been paradise, a rejuvenating vacation for the soul.