Blogs from Kenya, Africa - page 232

Where to begin… The last two days have been pretty exciting as we have traveled through some quickly descending terrain in vehicles ill suited for the task. We started the days with cool showers and damp towels, cool and damp resonating with the atmosphere here in winterish Kenya. We are generally getting up early (not necessarily brightly) at 6am trying, mostly in vain, to get some hot water for showers. Priscilla and I have gotten the short end of the stick on that front, but as we are going to leave Brakenhurst tomorrow, we finally figured out that we need to have the hot water heater turned on to get such a circumstance. Breakfast is served at 7am, generally consisting of cereals, fresh fruit, a hot food (pancakes were very good) and lots of very strong ... read more

Hello, just back from two days in Lake Nakuru. Saw cheeky monkeys with strange blue furry balls, who tried to steal our lunch and attack people in our group - both things made for great photos - even the babies are vicious, glad I invested in a rabies jab. From a distance the millions of flamingoes on the lake looks like a fantastic sea of pink - much prettier from a distance, up close (after a walk across 500 metres of solidified bird poo) you have to keep your eyes on the ground constantly to avoid walking on carcasses of dead dismembered flamingoes and the whole place stinks of rotting fish. We went for a game drive and saw buffalo and rhino, they are the strangest looking creature up close - they are almost totally blind ... read more

I got a chance on Sunday to visit the poor and struggling school/orphanage in the slum of Kiberia. It was most definitely an eye-opening experience. Unlike a normal day, there were only a few kids at the school because it was Sunday and they were watching a presentation from a church group, but I was still able to get a small feel for what the school is like. The entire school is about the size of two normal size rooms in the U.S. and has a courtyard, two very small classrooms, an office, a kitchen, and a small room to sleep and do miscellaneous activities. The school has about 100 kids, with about 20 using the orphanage and sleeping in a room smaller than my dorm room. I hear that when all of the kids are ... read more

Today we are all together and heading to Uganda, catching the bus to Jinja, an hour inside the border. We plan on rafting the White Nile, the source of the longest river in the world, but more on that later. The last few days have been filled with action and lots of learning. On June 29th, we visited Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. The movie Constant Gardner was filmed in this area, bringing much needed attention to this home to over one million Africans. We went with a group of people who have created incredible avenues for helping many of these people cope with the realities of their life. There is only one toilet for every 400 people. There is no running water, no sewer system, no trash disposal, basically the place is left to ... read more

Bonjourno! Another VERY long one, but it has been two weeks, so lots to cover, and I promise you it’ll make you think in places. It’ll also definitely make you laugh at me. Enjoy the photos - the connection here is good, and the photos are low quality so it really didn’t take long to upload them. Thought I’d treat you near the end of my travels, especially after the blog length. But it’s quantity over quality. Have fun. I survived Nairobi! Quite chuffed by this statement I am, especially as I went back through the city and stayed a night in the doomed River Road district. I would have normally bypassed this place, but Afsan had kindly dropped in from Boston, and having got on well climbing Mt Kinabalu together, a catch-up drink seemed the ... read more