So, are you here with your partner?

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Katherine Howell Hi all!
Having a quiet day at home today catching up on emails and blog. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur with long days at work trying to get enough done so that I can take a few days off when Dad and Liam arrive at the start of July. Hasn’t been all work though - we had a long weekend in Lamu a couple of weeks back.
Lamu is an island off the coast of Kenya, which has been declared a UNESCO world heritage area because of its Swahili traditions. The island was settled by - and a trading port for - travellers from the middle east, merging African and Middle Eastern Culture to become what is now considered Swahili. The world heritage listing means that no new development can occur on Lamu and visiting there is like being in a bit of a time warp. The architecture is one of the most striking features - a lot of buildings have been restored in the Swahili style, and many have very intricate carved wooden doors. The streets are narrow and alleys wind in all different directions. There are no cars on Lamu - transport is by foot, boat or donkey. The island is more than just its town though - it is at least 10km across, and has a number of villages as well as some lovely beaches.
It is one of a number of islands in the Lamu Archipelago, and is about a fifteen minute speedboat ride from the mainland. However, as it is a good 5 hours drive north of Kilifi, we got the plane there from Malindi (just an hour north in the matatu). While waiting at Malindi, we were approached by an older man (white, at least in his 60s) who wanted to tell us that, despite living in Africa for 30 years, he’d never seen a white racist. After initially trying to argue that perhaps it was not correct to suggest that no white people are racist, we realised he might be lacking a little on the logic front (he also felt that it was impossible for a president to be racist seeing as he had all the power) and politely bid him farewell. Half an hour later, we landed in Lamu airport - a landing strip and a small hut - which is actually on Manda Island (the next island over - a dhow transports you on to Lamu).
The first impression of Lamu once you get off the dhow at the pier is of being bombarded by lots of ‘beach boys’ wanting to make a profit in various ways from tourists. From getting a commission for taking you to hotels, to selling all-day dhow trips around the island, it was hard to get very far without someone trying to make money out of you. I suspect that this is an unforeseen downside to the rules about further development on the island - that people need to make money out of tourism as there is no other way to do so. Luckily there was a lot more to Lamu than this, as it got wearing at times. One encounter we had was pretty funny though - there is a guy called Ali Hippie who approaches tourists to ask them if they’d like to come to dinner at his house (apparently he is so well known that he is in the Kenyan Lonely Planet. We had the East Africa one though, so we were a little dubious about his claim, but we have since found out that it is true). He told us that we would eat until we said ‘Ali, you are killing me with food’ and that after dinner he would sing for us until we said ‘Stop Ali Hippie, you’re killing me with your golden voice!!’
Overall, Lamu was lovely. We put our relaxing shoes on, walked around a lot - through the streets and round the island to Shela Beach. Ate some great food - delicious fresh juices served in steins, prawns (which I ate at least once a day) and chocolate mousse were the favourites. We got some clothes made at the local tailors, and Brigid brought some very bright happy pants, which do indeed make her happy every time she puts them on. On the third day we went on a dhow trip around the islands, stopping to swim a number of times and to go for a walk on one of the other islands (which is deserted except for one house). There was no snorkeling as, at this time of year, the seas were a bit rough and the visibility underwater poor, but this didn’t stop our trip from being pretty spectacular. On day 4 we had donkey rides, going through some of the back streets of Lamu past schools and mosques, which was really interesting. Unfortunately, my donkey and I didn’t exactly see eye to eye - while Brigid got a lovely placid donkey called Bull-Bull, I scored a crazy pregnant one called Maria, who bucked me off within seconds of me getting on there. Luckily I landed on my feet, or it could have been quite ugly. Needless to say, I didn’t exactly feel all that safe throughout the rest of the ride and was quite glad to be back on my own two feet at the end!!
Our trip back was delayed a day as flights out of Lamu had been cancelled for a few days in a row due to a fault with the plane. As compensation for this delay, Kenya Airways put us up for the night (all meals paid for) in one of the swankiest hotels on Lamu. Unfortunately, I was not in much of a position to enjoy this as I managed to score a very unpleasant bout of gastro (too many prawns perhaps?) and spent the day feeling very sorry for myself. The following day the plane was still not running, so they took us all over to the mainland and put us all on a bus down to Malindi. Given the way I’d spent the last 24 hours, the trip had the potential to be very uncomfortable but, thankfully, it was ok. Was quite an interesting trip back - the first 2 hours over bumpy dirt roads past lots of monkeys. There were police road blocks every 20 minutes or so (necessitating a 2 minute stop each time for vehicle inspection before we were waved on) and armed guards on the bus for the first half of the trip (apparently a standard precaution against bandits on this section of roads - thankfully nothing like that is necessary where we are!). Despite a few (now quite amusing) setbacks, I’d definitely recommend a trip to Lamu. It is supposed to be quite similar (although reportedly less touristy) than Zanzibar, which we will visit when Dad and Liam are here.
The rest of the last 2 weeks has been more run of the mill. The rains have let up a lot and the weather has been pretty spectacular. Warm (but not hot or sticky), sunny days, and mild nights. Has been rather lovely. Also has been conducive to our resolutions to get our bums into gear before Kilimanjaro (which is now in just over 2 months!!). The exercise off-season is well and truly over! We have been going to circuits classes (run by one of the paediatricians, quite a solid workout) twice a week and taking Klein for runs most other days. Is rather lovely running through the plantations in the late afternoon - there is usually a beautiful sunset behind all the crops. I keep meaning to take my camera out there.
Despite working long days, we have still been fairly social - there seems to be something on here every few nights. Highlights include a night of Scottish dancing (who would have thunk it in Kenya?? Actually, there we heard a Kenyan guy from the lab do a hilarious rap version of Waltzing Matilda. Who would have thunk that either?!?) to celebrate some birthdays, and our ‘Grog and Togs’ party last night. We did provide a translation (‘Drinks and Swimsuit’) for all those non-Australians, but it didn’t stop one guy asking why people were wearing inappropriate footwear - he thought ‘grog’ was thongs!! Nice one. The togs bit of the party didn’t eventuate as it was a little cold, but it didn’t stop Brigid from diving in the pool fully clothed after everyone left. In fact, we had a bit of a dance off in the pool at about 1am. Noice….
Brigid’s attractiveness to the opposite sex hasn’t waned here at all. She now has an 18-year-old, Charles, who is quite besotted with her (despite the fact that he can’t pronounce her name and calls her Brigen!) and waits outside our place (or rings the doorbell with amusing gusto) each morning so that he can ride with her to work. He is quite a nice guy, if overly persistent, but I think he’s just bored. His story is quite sad - both his parents are dead and, after his father died, his step mum ran off with all the money. So, now he lives very frugally and, despite having finished high school, is too poor to contemplate going to uni. He currently does not have a job. So, he has plenty of time on his hand that he wants to spend with Brigid. She has told him about her ‘boyfriend’ back in Australia (whose name, I have decided, is Fergal), and he asked her the other day if her boyfriend has promised her marriage!! Charles has been very keen for Brigid to go and see his village, so eventually she agreed on the proviso that I come too. We went there yesterday - he came and collected us and we walked the half hour or so over there. We met a friend of his, an older guy called John who has become a kind of father figure to him and helps him out with food. John lives in a one-room place (there are about 8 similar rooms in the same building and then a kitchen area that is shared by all the families) that is quite comfortable - has a bunk bed, couch, chairs, table and a huge amount of books (which we discovered are mostly religious books he’d been given by missionaries - there were some disturbing titles there!!!). He lives there by himself - his wife is in Mombasa during the week running their business and their twin daughters are at school up near Malindi. We had a soda with him and then Charles took us on a tour of the village. He knew a lot of people and stopped to introduce us to a lot of them, including a 99-year-old woman who wanted us to guess how old she was. Unfortunately, given that she was deaf as a post (Charles was shouting at her in order that she could hear anything), we didn’t get to have much of a conversation. We finally arrived at Charles’ house. He lives in a small ‘banda’ (hut) that used to be a kiosk. It measures probably one by two metres. The external walls have been smoothed down and painted white, and then Charles has drawn some cartoon-like figures on the outside to liven things up. There is basically nothing inside - he sleeps on a couple of pieces of plastic (which are actually the coverings of a couple of 8-packs of toilet rolls), and has a bit of foam and a rolled up pair of trousers that he uses for a pillow. He had a shoe box with some malaria tablets, mosquito coils and a pen in it, but beyond that, there was nothing in his room. It was really quite confronting to see how he lives. I think the fact that he hasn’t always lived that way and that he is there by himself made it seem worse. We eventually arrived back at John’s house for lunch. John’s wife, Maria, had arrived from Mombasa and the five of us had some tasty pilau from one of the local shops and some fruit. Was a really nice lunch - we chatted in half Swahili, half English about each others’ lives and the difference between Australia and Austria. We left after many ‘karibuni tena’-s (you’re welcome again…), and will meet up with Charles next Saturday as he wants to take us canoeing on the creek.
The title of the blog refers to an amusing event the other day. I was walking to work (having left my bike there the night before) and another woman who works at the lab stopped to give me a lift as she drove past. While we were chatting, she said to me, ‘So, are you here with your partner? I’ve seen you around with another girl’. Must be the short hair… Regardless, I have set the record straight that Brigid is my sister, not my partner!!! Incidentally, the hair is going crazy - Brigid told me today I look like I have a thatched roof on my head. Wicked.
Ok, that’s all for now. Apologies for those of you who have emailed and haven’t heard back yet! Am working my way through a long list of emails that I’ve neglected as I’ve had computer overload trying to analyse my data here… Hope you are all well and look forward to hearing more news. Love, K x
PS I have so many Lamu photos, but will have to put some more on later as the computer is taking so long to load them, I'll never get any work done!!! More when the internet is faster...

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Photos

Father and son
Walking back to Lamu town from Shela Beach. The boy was quite a chatterbox and very keen to show off his english. Every time we got near him, he'd list words he knew like 'giraffe, cow, elephant...'

Catching up on the news
Men sitting round talking. There are many benches on the island specifically for this purpose!

Catching up on the news 2
Taken from Lamu fort.

Approaching Lamu
View from the dhow on the way over from Manda Island

Lovely tropical beaches
Mmmm, life is tough!

Comments

[Joey]

Don't mess with Maria!
It sounded like another typical Katherine story when I read about you being bucked off a donkey. What was unexpected was that you actually landed on your feet!!!! I expected you to land on your backside in a huge puddle or a pile of steaming donkey droppings or something equally as lovely!