I forget

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January 4, 2012

Day 1 in Kenya. After I had finished writing my first post, I ventured into the bathroom and decided to take a shower in the dirty little shower space with a large yellow bucket off to the side. No, I didn’t have to wash with the bucket. I still have no clue what that is for. I donned my shower shoes, choosing to use my own rather than the used pairs that were provided for me, and begun to fiddle with the different facets to try to obtain the perfect bathing temperature; a difficult task to say the least. With both a hot and cold-water knobs, I found that the water was either scalding or freezing. Not only that, but I found that mosquitoes also liked to join me in my bathing ritual. Either way, I survived my first shower in Africa; just glad I did not in fact have to bath with a washcloth and a bucket.

The only thing that really worried me was the feeling of nausea that I experienced after I put on clothes and sat down. I had been warned that the water was very dirty, and even breathing in the vapors could cause issues. Fantastic. Day 1 and I already feel like I am going to vomit everywhere. Yay life. Thank you for being so kind to me 24/7.

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I found out why I got nauseous. Apparently, if you take malaria medication on an empty stomach you can feel seriously ill. I found this out from my group leader who said that he was surprised I was not throwing up everywhere. I thought it was smart to take it at 5am when I woke up to keep on schedule with when I was taking it before… nope. No good.

Anyway, it is currently Friday January 6, 2012 and extremely difficult to write about what has happened the last couple of days before of the epicness of today. I will though! However, since I am at a place with no electricity this will not be very long since I also have to work more on my graduate school statements. Anyway, where did I leave off?

Seriously where did I leave off?

….Five minutes later….

RIGHT! Day 2 of Kenyan adventure! At this point we were still at the Catholic hostel outside of Nairobi… Though honestly all the days are a bit hazy to me so I will try my best. I didn’t even know it was the 6^th or even Friday until I checked my computer.

Anyway, sorry this is so scattered. I keep talking to talk to my roommate Erin. Funny, the first time I get another roommate, her name is Erin as well. Annnnyyyway. Second day, for real. Ummm… outline I suppose. There was a mall involved... OH YEAH! So we went down the road, past the Shiznit car wash (no joke) and entered this most glorious looking mall. I mean this thing looked like it came straight out of Northern Virginia. We went to do all this littler shopping for snacks and toiletries and what not AND I went and got Internet from Safaricom, which was set up just like a Verizon.

After spending $40 on an Internet plan I journeyed and got the most fabulous coffee that I have ever tasted. Well, technically it was a café latte, but whatever. The foam was creamy like an Italian cappuccino. However, and I am surprised I would have ever said this, but it tasted better. Seriously, the best coffee beverage I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. The amazing thing is that while Kenyan coffee is so delicious here, since the British previously colonized Kenya they drink tea more than coffee, so there aren’t many places to by it. The only stuff that is really around is the most terrible instant coffee that you pour directly into hot water and then stir like hot chocolate. And when I say terrible, it really is dreadful. Especially since they tend to use this hot water mixture that has milk in it. Absolutely horrible. But no, the Nairobi Coffee House (do believe that is the name) is absolutely fabulous and I hope to have it again before I leave the country (though I did get it the next day, yay!) And forgot to mention, they give you this amazing little shortbread type cookie with it. I don’t really even like cookies that much, but it is a perfect touch.

After coffee I went and bought snacks, which I have yet to have eaten because we literally eat nonstop on this damn trip. And here I was thinking I would loss at least 5 pounds in Kenya, while I will probably gain ten. After getting snacks and ending up pretty much broke we left and went back to lunch. Cant remember the food that day exactly, but somewhere in there was chicken and white rice with a sort of tomato sauce which was remarkably good. And most likely fruit, since we eat that will like every food.

Its weird trying to comment on the food, like I usually do in my journals. Most countries you go to there are such unique dishes that are either solely based on that country or a dominating influence from the past. However, Kenya is rather unique in the sense that their food is a combination of many cuisines coalesced together like in America. I’ve seen things that can be traced back to British roots such as the breakfast with sausage and tomatoes with eggs, along with of course 4 o’clock tea. But then we have eaten pasta, and while the Italians would have snarled at it, even though it was still good, I wouldn’t call it Italian. I even say Indian influence since we ended up eating a curry style chicken with naan bread. The only time that true African influence seems to kick in with food is with the fruit for breakfast and dessert; tropical fruits of course such as guava, papaya and passion fruit.

But really I can’t say that I am surprised. Especially the more that I learn about this country. Guy Combes, one of the other group leaders, described Swahili, the national language, as being rather made up in the sense that is simply a mixture of many other languages with a lot of Arabic influence. Its fascinating to me because I have been to so many countries, seen so many things, learned so much about so many people, and then I come here and cannot seem to be able to pick out the cultural uniqueness of Kenya. What does it mean to be Kenyan? Perhaps hakuna matata… who knows. I plan to investigate this further through observation, see exactly how Kenyans interact with each other, with people of other nationalities, with their environment, with the animals. Only through observing them with their daily routines do I think you can see who they really are; if they are a huge conglomeration of a variety of other cultures, or rather a uniquely defined culture in themselves. Then again, most cultures have been influenced by others, so perhaps the posing of the question is simply ridiculous. The answer is most likely as simple as the Kenyan way of life. Kenyans are Kenyan. They are who they have come to be. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, back on topic. After lunch we went to an animal orphanage that was run by the KWS, the Kenyan wildlife service. We saw pretty much most of the animals that we were planning to see on safari, and some that we wouldn’t. It was interesting to see. But then again who comes to Africa to see caged zoo animals? It was sort of sad to see all the caged animals; especially the predators, with barely any room to roam. And I know this is going to sound immature, but I am only 22… but the most exciting thing there was definitely the monkey with blue balls. Yep, I said it.

The next day we were to leave the Nairobi area. However, first we had to go back to the shopping mall because David, who was given money from KLM still had not received his bag. They found out that it had gone to Budapest, and they would have to ship it to a later destination. I would say that I minded but I got to get another coffee and more money from the ATM, which was great because I ended up needing it. We then journeyed the next 4 hours in our safari vehicles, which we had gotten that morning. I was with the coolest driver, Isaac. He really is an awesome and nice guy.

It was cool to see all the different suburbs around Nairobi and I even saw an outline of the city skyline. There was a lot of construction there, mostly being conducted by the Chinese (long long story involving the development of a Serengeti railway). This isn’t too terrible since the infrastructure in Kenya is not very good. It was also really cool to see all the different villages that looked so rundown. It was like playing a video game.

I loved looking at all the people, especially the children. I saw the littlest of children around 3, walking home alone from school, something that is so bizarre to me. Guy said that some kids walk as much as 10km each way to go to school. Now compare that to America. The Kenyans are also very friendly and like to wave to our car, though it was mostly men who saw that it was a car full of white women so who knows. The only time Kenyans are not friendly is when they are tribe people and you try to snap a photo of them, even in a moving vehicle. I was trying to respect them and not do it, but at the same time…

We ended up stopping for a bargaining trip. Yay. Now I hate haggling. I really do. It is exciting at all, but at the same time I always feel like I am being ripped off, which we all were, but what can you do. Now, I was set on two wooden bowls. I love wooden bowls and seriously that is all I wanted from Kenya, so I was not planning to leave without them. The man asked me, starting off for 15,000 shillings for them, which made me literally gasp. WHAT THE HELL!! That is about $150. For two bowls? From Africa?? I tried to walk away at that point because I knew he wouldn’t go down to a price I wanted. I told him this and he asked how much. I said I don’t have anywhere near what you want. He asked how much I had and I told him 500 shillings. Which was true, at least for my front pocket. Because I keep different amounts in different pockets when I haggle so they never actually know how much money I have.

Anyway, after I got over the shock and started calculating in my head, we finally ended up haggling. Long story short we got down to me at 8000 and him at 9000, a large leap from 500, but I didn’t expect to even walk away with one wooden bowl at that. I eventually made him a deal, 9000 shillings if he threw in a set of a wooden salad fork and spoon. He went and talked to a manager looking person who nodded and then agreed. YAY! I got my bowls, AND the spoons I was eyeing. While $90 is pricey I was still happy.

After that we went and had lunch at the coolest restaurant I have ever been to. It was in a tree.

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Ok it is now January 7, 2012. It has taken me what? 4 days to write this second blog? I’m going to hurry up. We went and had lunch in a tree. It really was in a tree. It reminded me of Tarzan; you know his house at the beginning (cartoon Disney version), except it was open. They had their own trout there (why it was called Trout Tree) that they farmed right below. So I had that for lunch. It was an entire fish, eyeball and all, which I thought was marvelous. They fried it a bit on the outside, which made it very pleasant and delicious.

There was a lookout crown’s nest from the top, which I took some scary steps up to. It was really pretty, except I put my backpack down in some monkey droppings. Oh well, I am sure it will go through worse by the end. There were monkeys there. Can’t remember which kind, perhaps vervet or something. They are around here a lot along with baboons, but I am kind of just done with baboons.

They had a cool gift shop, which I was originally going to ignore because it was a restaurant gift shop and they usually don’t have anything good, but I am glad I stopped. The prices were amazing and all the gifts were handmade. I bought another pair of salad utensils, a pair of chopsticks of all things, a soapstone rhino and finally this person on a bicycle with an umbrella. I cant say what kind of material it is exactly, some sort of straw or something. It will be interesting to try to get it home, or even through the rest of the trip because it is so fragile.

We then drove the last of our journey to the El Kamara conservancy, where we would be staying three nights. After the bumpiest road from hell we reached a point where it was the start of the conservancy. Our driver, Isaac, asked if we wanted to take the tops off of the safari vehicle for a mini game drive and of course we agreed. We have to take off our shoes to be able to stand on the seats so we can get a better view, which is no big deal. I finally got to see some of my first wild animals besides a baboon. There was nearly always something wherever you looked. But I must say, nothing like Disney world.

I can’t remember exactly all the animals off the top of my head, but I know that there were zebras, giraffes, and impala galore. I think it is funny looking back at how excited we were to see these animals for the first time and now we barely even comment on them when we pass a group.

The camp we were to stay at was gorgeous. We split off (me with Erin as previously mentioned- a rather opinionated and direct girl, yet still likeable in my opinion, even though I was hesitant with her at the beginning). We went to our tent, number 4, which was just to the right of the dining hall area when looking up from the river. It all appeared rather luxurious. The tents were huge and protected at the base by a small rock wall. At the entrance before the mouth of the tent was a covered area with two large and comfortable chairs that looked towards the river, even though the area was covered with bushes, still quite pleasant.

The inside was quite nice. A twin bed lay at the entrance of the tent, which Erin took even though I told her to take the large double in the back, but she refused. The beds have huge mosquito nets over them that make them appear as if they are four-poster beds. The bathroom is gorgeous; everything is made of dark stone with a dark type of cement to hold it all together. The only problem? No electricity. Which is fine, but living without it for the first real time is truly something. True, we can climb up the hill in the daylight to go to the reception hall to plug in our electronics for charging, but even that is hard, because we are gone all day mostly and you need a guard to escort you at night.

But really, the main problem with no electricity is that there are no lights in the tent. They have LED lights hanging from the ceiling, which are solar powered in the day, but really they are not bright enough to do anything. So walking around, finding things and packing were all a bit difficult.

But I must say, sitting here listening to the bird’s chirp and the sounds of the river are all quite wonderful while sitting in the warm of my bed. Too bad I have to get up soon.

We went on a lot of game drives while at El Karama. Including a night drive where we saw a lot of hares and dik-diks (a small deer like animal). We also saw bush babies! They are adorable; we managed to see one up-close while coming back. They are afraid of the lights so they quickly scurry from tree to tree or even to the ground, and bounce to safety. They are so small and can jump so high! We used a red light to spot eyes, so sometimes all you could see was this red eye bouncing up and down. With the red light and regular flashlights red eyes are most animals, while green eyes are cats. Part of our car thought they saw some green eyes but really it was too far to tell for certain.

The next morning we went on a walk. They drove up slightly far away and dropped us. The owner of El Karama came with us, sporting a gun, which I thought was for the animals, but was actually for any rebels that might come on to the land and try to kill us………… what the fuck???? Was not expecting that. But I let it slide. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but what they hell am I suppose to do? Say: sorry no rebels for me, thanks. I’ll be going home now…. No, don’t think it works like that.

The walk itself was nice, we got very close to zebra, and even saw a leopard track. While everyone was looking at what was close to us however, I decided to look towards the distant hills and see what I could find. I was the first to spot a rather large bull elephant slightly far away, which everyone got quite excited about. We tracked him the majority of the walk to see if he was going to move anywhere and become a threat, but he didn’t. I also knocked a large tick off of Tracy while it was crawling up her leg. Limes disease (sp?) is an issue here, and I hope others have my back like I got theirs.

Crap. Have to go. At least I have Internet at the next place so I can post this! AND EMAIL MY PROFESSORS TO SEE IF THEY HAVE SUBMITTED MY GRAD LETTERS. I seriously hope so, I am done freaking out.

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