Amazing Dhow trip

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I've only got extraordinary things to write about. Swahili class is going great. Learning lots really quickly and am having a blast doing it. This weekend was another amazing one. It was the weekend of our dhow (traditional sailboat) trip. At 6am on Fri morning we all piled into 2 boats and took off for Kiwayuu. It's an island north of here. Unfortunately we didn't get to sail on the way there. The view as we made are way among various islands was once again amazing. It was pretty peaceful (except for the sound of the motor). We stopped breifly on an island for a bathroom break. The beach on the island was white, but the dirt a little ways up it was a deep red/orange. The colors here are so vibrate. We soon climbed back into our boats.

For lunch we stopped at another island. As we were headed for it (not knowing we were stopping there), all of us said that if we were to be stranded on an island, that would be the one. I've never seen such a white beach and the water surrounding it changed from a beautiful turquoise in places to a deep royal blue in others. I've never seen an ocean with colors like this one. Lunch was very good. We even had warm rice. (they packed it in Lamu in an ice chest and it was still warm 6 hours later.....which means it was quite hot out.. hehe). They gave us some time to just chill on the beach and swim some. So relaxing. =) After we left that island it wasn't toooooo much further to Kiwayuu.

I don't know what I was expecting Kiwayuu to be like, but it definetely wasn't what it was. The island was sooo deserted. There are only 200 people living on the island and it's a pretty good sized one. There was a little leanto for us to sleep on, but most of us opted to sleep on the beach. After we dropped our stuff off, we headed to the beach on the opposite side of the island. We walked along the trail (if you can consider it). We got attacked by trees and bushes that have really really long pickas. In fact one tree stole my hat and I had to fight with it to get it back. lol...It seemed quite the adventure.

I'm sure you're getting tired of hearing this, but the beach was gorgeous and we were the only ones there. Although Egan and I did get attacked by a crab. lol.... wasn't bad at all. After the beach we walked to another part of the island to sunset peak. Yep, it meant hiking up a really steep mountain, but it was sooooooooo worth it. When we got to the top you could see for miles and miles in every direction. We all watched the sun set from way up there. I've never seen anything more peaceful or more majestic. After the sunset we all booked it back to our camp so we wouldn't have to walk in the dark. The evening was nice and peaceful (for most of us)

We did have quite an event though. Brian, one of the two guys on the trip, brought his hammock along and strung it up in the baobob tree (about 18-20ft. up) to sleep in (he's done that often). At around 12 he fell out of it and apparently landed face first into the pile of firewood (for cooking). Purely by a miracle he wasn't seriously injured. Athman, our academic advisor, rushed him to the hospital in Lamu with the speed boat he came in later that day (the trip is only about an hour n' a half to two hours by speed boat). Brian came back the next day himslef. He suffered a concussion (no suprise there), broke his nose and got two stiches in it. Other than that he just mostly had a bunch of scrapes and bruises. His knee is pretty banged up, but not broken. After that happened we found out that the locals teach their kids not to climb baobob trees because they believe evil spirits live in them. Just pretty interesting. Luckily Brian didn't recieve any serious injuries and it sure is a story for him to tell.

Sat. we just had a kick back day. Went fishing in the morning. That was lots of fun. Even caught a few fish (well, our boat did... I didn't personally). It's different fishing without a rod. All we had was the line and a hook and bait at the end of it. It worked though. We ate the fish we caught for lunch. After fishing we joined the other group of students that had wanted to go snorkeling (ended up not being able to 'cause the equipment was in Lamu). On that island there were some amazing tide pools. It was fun to walk around and see all the various sea life in them. It's so neat to see those kinds of things outside of an aquarium. The rest of the day we just slept and chilled on the beach. I helped the cooks make chapati for dinner. That was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately the weekend had to end and we headed home sun. morning. We got to sail part of the way though. What an exhilarating feeling sitting up at the bow of the ship as it rises and dips with the waves and no sound of the motor to ruin the atmosphere. I loved it. I could've stayed on the ship for forever. When we got back though, it was soooooooooooo nice to take a shower and wash all the sand and sweat off me.

One thing though that kind of bugged about the trip was the difference in how women and men are treated. When we needed to unlaod stuff from the boat, us women were kind of brushed aside or given something they crew thought was really light and was something we could "handle". I had to laugh at one point. I walked over to the boat and the guy didn't want to give me antyhing but I insisted so he started to hand me a medium sized suitcase and warned me that it was really really heavy. So, here i was prepared for something that was quite weighty. Nope, the suitcase was almost completely empty and was quite light. When we got back into Lamu we had to carry stuff back to the houses and again I insisted to one of the men that I could carry more than I had and he looked dubiously at me and handed me another suitcase and asked if I was sure I could handle it. Of course I was.... I'm not an invalid. Also getting in and out of the boats they had to make sure they have us a ladder instead of letting us just jump out. It really wasn't all that bad and I can understand where they're coming from, but by the end of the trip that all just really annoyed me. I am capable of getting out of a boat on my own, and of lugging things around. Anyway... I don't want that to taint the weekend 'cause it really was wonderful, but it was an interesting observation.

Now it's back in Lamu for the last week here. Early Mon. morning (around 3 or 4am ) there was a fire near my tutors house. 4 houses were burnt, but luckily there wasn't much of a breeze (which really was amazing cause it was quite windy when I went to bed and woke up in the am) so the fire didn't spread much (all the houses here have thatched roofs and are really close together, so a fire and wind could've been devastating... especially since here you put a fire out the old fashioned way... a bucket of water). Unfortuately one woman was killed when her roof caved in several hours later. She was from England. I don't know many other details. But I wanted to assure everyone at home that all of us SIT students are fine (not sure if anything about the fire has been in the papers).

I think this entry is long enough now. I hope it hasn't bored any of you. Thanks to those of you who've e-mailed me or left me messages. I'll try to get back to you, but if I can't or if it takes a while please know that I really do appreciate it and I'm thinking of you. Times just a big issue for me in getting back to you all. Take care!

Kwaherini!

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Photos

The Other Dhow
We took two dhows to Kiwayuu. This was the biggest of the two.

Paradise Island
This is the island we had lunch on on our way to Kiwayuu