Bondo, WTF is BONDO?!

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WoW. Talk about being sent out in the whops! I am slightly panicey with regards to what have I gotten myself iinto. Now I didnt realise this when I signed up but Bondo is like an all day bus trip out of Nairobi leaving at about 9am. The road seems to remain tar seal for most of the trip, that being the 7 hours from Nairobi to Kisumu. The final couple hours, maybe 2 from Kisumu to Bondo is tar seal, then it kind of disappears to dirt road, for the last half hour-ish. All I was thinking was if this guy Eddy was not waiting for me in Bondo like he was supposed to, I would be stuffed. I usually feel a bit uneasy, being the only white person even in major cities, you kind of stand out as a tourist. Having said that, thus far I have been treated reasonably well by the local populace.
Yes Eddy was there!
With cash running low, and hunger and thirst running high along with my anxiety levels I was relieved that we could stop off in a little eat out. I had some beef thing. Some of the simple foods are nice, but I am not sure the locals understand there are certain cuts of meat you need to slow cook for a couple hours to make them tender Anyway, I had a Picana to drink, and that was great! If you could imagine a mango drink made from mostly mangos in like an oldskool coke bottle. Yum.
So from Bondo we went off to the village centre where I would be staying. Well actually, it was Eddys house (shack) we went to as it was too late to walk me over to the center.
Anyway, a quick note on the local surroundings. This is rural. Like this is real rural living. No electricity, no running water, so no lights, no fridges, no showers, nothing. And a long drop hole thing, with MASSIVE african cockroaches at night. I have some tips on how to use these things now but I wont embaress myself going into that.
I was walking around like a stunned mullet.
Anyway, Eddy was a real nice guy, his english was very good etc. He offered me his bed for the night, but I couldn't take that off him, I said I was pretty prepared. So pulled out my sleeping mat, and silk liner, it was generally too warm for anything more than the silk liner. Pulled out my mosquito net and went to sleep on his concrete floor, praying my net would keep out any other gogos (get a south african to tell you how to pronounce that word its not go go, more like a gghhaww gghhaww) that might be creepy crawling around.

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Photos

Eddys place
This was where I spent the first night, the village was a bit out of Bondo

Picana
Mangoey goodness in a glass bottle

Comments

[Justin Latif]

heya!
Hey mate - great updates - we're missing you heaps - cool that you're enjoying kenya - it's bringing back good memories - picana juice is awesome aye! it's almost too sweet though for me. do you need some contacts? i have a friend near Nakuru and a friend directly north of Nairobi. One is the the maori guy who took our wedding and shot me heaps at my stag party - he's doing building and his wife is helping an orphanage with their admin near Nakuru. And the other guy is this african pastor who is the nicest person in the world. Let me know if you keen to visit either of them. Enjoy the moment - coz once you're back here all you'll have is the memories. and cool that you're meeting hot german girls haha

[Jo Latif]

picana
mmmmmm mango juice - kenya does a good job with that stuff