For some odd reason 5 of us thought that - as we walked towards WEMA for another day of medical placement in the slum of Kawangware - it would be a good idea to just book a bus to Kisumu from somewhere nearby. So we booked this "western deluxe" bus which wasn't too far from Rachel's place. The thing is, it was scheduled to leave at 9pm, yet it was 3 hours late (surprise surprise) and arrived at midnight. Didn't we look like neat little targets, just sitting around in the slum with all our bags around us and the streets clearing rapidly. We were on the receiving end of many stares and laughs, and decided to stay close to the crowd waiting for the bus. At one point, a guy waiting in the crowd started punching this drunk man that was hanging around us, thinking that he was bothering us I suppose. When the bus finally did show up, we noticed a fight break out down the road and someone getting shoved into the trunk of a car. It was time to go. The 8 hour bus ride was definitely the worst I've experienced yet, but man, arriving in Kisumu in the early morning was so uplifting it didn't matter.
The hassles here were many, and the beggars were particularly rude, but I believe that the divide between rich and poor in this town is especially acute. I noticed this as we rode around in our tuk tuk looking for a hotel - We saw plenty of enormous villas set in beautifully landscaped compounds. We settled on a place called Millimani Resort, which was strikingly similar to a western hotel, with the room layout and appartment building style. There were very few options for cheaper hotels - or any at all for that matter - so we bargained a good price for this upper scale place. During our stay in Kisumu, we went fishing in Lake Victoria and were surrounded by bathing hippos and locals as we did so. We also made it to Kakamega Forest Reserve for a day trip on sunday. I'll admit, the semi-rainforest tour we had was quite dull, with barely any wildlife seen and a robotic guide, but it was a good experience. The five of us (Kiara, Olivia, Brendan, Sandy and myself) had some amazing parties on both nights we were there, both of which started at midnight and 1am after an overly long nap. One was for Kiara's birthday on Sunday.
The weekend quickly ended, and it was time for Kiara and I to make our way to Rwanda. We booked two tickets at the Starways booking office, but once we left and met the others for lunch, they called us back to inform us that there was no room on the bus. I would have thought that they'd check before booking us, but oh well. We had to head back to have our money returned. The only other bus going all the way to Kigali, Rwanda was Kampala Coach, and we would have to catch this bus at the border town of Busia - two hours away. So the guy at the booking office set us up with a matatu (passenger van with 15 or so spots) to Busia to catch our bus there, all the while attempting to squeeze as much money as he could out of me; 'forgetting' to give me proper change, not paying the matatu driver etc. but I had been in Kenya too long to be careless with money. We ended up having to take 4 - yes four - matatus to finally arrive in Busia, and one of them actually ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere on this dark highway. When we got to the booking office at 8:45pm, we were slightly freaking out because the bus - according to the guys in Kisumu - was scheduled to depart at 8pm. When we approached the booking office in Busia, he informed us that the bus was actually scheduled to depart at 11pm, and hadn't even arrived yet!
Arriving in Rwanda sparked something in me that I wasn't sure would show up upon entering this country. I had been wanting to come here for a few years now..I can't explain exactly why, it just felt like it was something I had to do. The gorilla trek wasn't the reason either, though I did really want to do one - the permits were sold out anyway. I guess I just feel that this country deserves all the tourism and attention it can get, and that people should take some time out of their busy lives to learn about - through memorials and stories etc - what happened to the country that the global community turned a blind eye to in its time of greatest need.
I must say, that I was not prepared for the sheer beauty of this country. No matter where you find yourself in Rwanda, you will be surrounded by lush green mountains and rolling hills, with well maintained roads snaking through them. There are huts perched dangerously high up on the hills, with banana, tea and coffee plantations peppering the landscape in somewhat of an orderly manner due to the more advanced irrigation systems in the country. Just seeing rows upon rows of vegetation climbing up the hills was a sight to behold. Kigali shocked me even more, and if I didn't know any of the country's history, I would not have believed that a genocide had occurred here just 15 years ago. The city is clean, there are buildings going up everywhere, they have scheduled bus systems and safer motorbike taxis with only one passenger allowed - and who must wear a helmet. The roads are also impeccable. It just goes to show what a more responsible government can do for a country, even though it may not be rich in natural resources.
I must take a brief pause to thank Erixon Kabera from TD for asking his family to host me in Rwanda. I am even more thankful to his brother Athanase for welcoming Kiara and I into his home without having ever met us before, and for absolutely no charge. These actions definitely speak volumes of the Rwandan people and african hospitality in general.
So we took a city tour, and saw a few landmarks such as the Hotel Des Milles Collines where the manager harboured genocide victims in 1994. We also stopped at the compound where 10 belgians soldiers, along with a soon-to-be transitional government member, were murdered. The bullet holes that riddled the wall are still there, as well as the famous chalk board with skull and crossbones and Roméo Dallaire's name. The highlight of the tour was the genocide memorial centre in Kigali. There is tons of information here, as well as disturbing displays of skulls, bones and clothing taken from victims. There is also a mass grave outside the centre holding over 250,000 bodies. That's right, two hundred fifty thousand. Just a little history on what happened. The hutu and tutsi people had had a few tribal issues before their independence, but it really flared up by the time the 1990's rolled around. The former colonial power and the French had been playing on tribal power relations, and since the Belgians had always kept Tutsis in the government and in power (the smaller tribe by far in terms of population) when independence rolled around and a Hutu government came into place, the tables began to turn. Feeling oppressed, a movement gradually formed with the intent to exterminate the Tutsis. The Arusha Peace Accords were an attempt to quell civil unrest and to demobilize the growing military and rebel forces, but the international community and UN limitations rendered them ineffective. So on April 7th, 1994, the Interahamwe, which were backed by the Hutu-led government began the systematic slaughtering of Tutsis en masse. In only three months, it is said that almost 1 million people were killed. Kiara and I also visited a memorial in Gikongoro, about 30km west of the city of Butare. This sickening and brutally real memorial used to be a polytechnic institute, and was the site where villagers from the surrounding area were promised shelter. When about 50,000 had accumulated here, the Interahamwe were called in, and they mercilessly slaughtered everyone with clubs, machetes, or anything they could get their hands on - but I don't think any guns were used...probably not 'cost effective' to them. There are 24 classrooms here filled with bodies exhumed 1 year after the genocide and which have been covered in lime powder. I wouldn't really recommend this place to anyone, but again, it was somewhere I felt I needed to visit for personal reasons. There is even hair remaining on some of the heads, and machete slashes and cracks from clubs are clearly evident on the bodies of the men, women, and children...a very large number of children...I can't describe what that made me feel, but it was something worse than anger.
We did do a bit of tourism in the country as well. We visited Lake Kivu in the north, but it was an overcast and gray day, so we didn't stay for long. We climbed Mt Bisoke in the Parc National des Volcans, which was a dead volcano with a crater lake at its peak at 3711 metres. It took us 4 hours to climb to the top, and I'm proud to say I was the first to make it up hehe. It was an amazing experience with a true rainforest landscape. On our way back down we had an extremely rare treat. A huge male silverback gorilla crossed the path in front of us and then sat in the bush about 10 feet away from us and just looked up at me quizzically. Truly awe-inspiring, but the guards wouldn't let us take any pictures, because these weren't the habituated gorillas that tourists are allowed to visit; they were research gorillas.
My time in Rwanda ended far too quickly, and it was time to fly home to Toronto two days after I got back to Nairobi. I had a small going away dinner with my newfound close friends and left for the airport at 5am on the 28th of July.
This experience has certainly changed me in countless ways, and in some I may not yet have discovered. I feel different living in Toronto now, and the reverse culture shock was a bit of a strange experience. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world, and I really didn't want to come home so early, but all great things must come to an end I suppose. I don't think I'm finished with this kind of work, and I'm glad my eyes have been opened to this sort of experience. I have definitely become a travel addict as well, and am already planning and looking forward to my next adventure :)
I would definitely recommend this sort of experience to everyone. It doesn't have to be in Africa, and it doesn't even have to be too far from home, but placing yourself in an environment alien to your own, adapting to the customs of a new culture and dedicating some of your time to its people is more rewarding to yourself than it will ever be to them. If you get a chance to, don't think about it, just go for it.
Thanks for following my journey through East Africa, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading :D
Sincerely,
Scott Johnson
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Last week in Mombasa
So the month of July has turned out to be by far the busiest abroad, and I apologize for not having posted earlier. As a result, I'll update you all on what happened after our little coastal party, and dedicate Rwanda to a seperate post.
4 new volunteers had arrived on the coast when I got back from Malindi, but two of them had to leave the very next day because of some sort of flight confusion which forced them to return to Nairobi for the remaining week of their stay. I was left with Venkatesh and Ivana, as well as a group of 4 girls that came down for a vacation on the weekend of the 10th. The two volunteers were placed at mama hope's baby centre while I remained at Chanukeni on my own. The thursday and friday before the weekend, I managed to get a good bit done at the centre, and fertilized some of my fledgeling plants, as well as helped to cook for the children again. There was also a little girl named Mwanalilu, who I'd noticed hadn't been wearing a uniform for the past couple of weeks. She had actually been absent from the centre for most of my time there, but recently came back from a visit to one of her parents in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Mama Uji (the woman running the centre if I haven't clarified that before) told me that her mother simply did not have the 500ksh to pay for the uniform. The new uniform was sitting in the school waiting for her, so I found it easy to rectify this problem and bought her the uniform. It put quite a smile on the face of this little girl who's big brown eyes and intense gaze gave a hint of the many hardships she's been through.
The weekend arrived far too quickly, as the previous 7 have, and it was time to make some plans to give a little taste of the coast to the new volunteers. We organized a trip to Shimoni for Saturday, similar to the previous one that I took with my host dad to see Wasini Island and the slave caves. This one, however, was organized as a safari and we intended to visit the marine park to do some snorkelling among the corals in Kisite Marine Park. We arrived in beautiful Shimoni village to board our dhow (like a 30 foot arabian sea vessel, which has sails but also a motor if needed) On the way to the marine park, we all decided we would pay a little bit extra to do the fun dive, which is a choice I am thankful I made every day since. There were four of us along with the guides and boat crew, so we split up into two groups of two. The one hour snorkelling tour was great, and we got so see some stunning marine and coral life, but it was the 30-45 minute dive that took my breath away. We got to dive down 8 metres(24 feet) and swim around at the base of the coral reef. The utter silence and the plethora of colourful fish and plant life at this depth is hard to accurately describe unless you've done something similar. It was like being on another planet. We swam up to some enormous eels, almost touched manta rays, glided along strange looking corals and saw an old underwater research marker that resembled an eerie totem long forgotten. The next day, we did a city tour of Mombasa, and I took the same three volunteers to Fort Jesus and Old Town. We had a very good guide for this particular tour named Mr Thoya, who was very patient with us, and was with us for the entire day. He showed us around Old Town and pointed out some of the older, more noteworthy landmakrs, then led us to a restaurant with great local Swahili food..and at the end he took us to a cheap souvenir shop with incredibly good prices. For all this, he only charged us 200ksh each (not even 4 dollars) so we gave him a nice tip, took his phone number, and promised to send future volunteers his way. I find that tourism really is another great way to give to the community. If you find a guide that performs a quality tour at an affordable price, you have the power to send more tourists (volunteers in our case) their way and ensure that they continue to find business and are able to support their families.
I spent a few more days at Chanukeni before I moved to Nairobi on the 16th of July. Some more volunteers from Camp Kenya were working at the centre for the few remaining days that I was there. They were finally putting up the additional classroom, office, and kitchen beside the existing school building. They also finished most of the fence while I was there, but I'm not sure if that particular group was planning on finishing the buildings...I have a feeling those would remain incomplete for at least another few months since the groups typically only came once a month for 3 or 4 days because they had commitments to other villages. I collected a bunch of contact information for Mama Uji and her the committee who oversaw the school. I found out from Cosmas, my NGO's program coordinator for the coast, that she already had a CBO (community based organisation) formed and it would be fairly easy to set up a sponsor relationship for the school. So I will bring this up with the lovely people at TD and see if anything can be done to provide support in the form of meals and/or teachers for the wonderful children at this school :)
I moved back to Nairobi for a couple of days before leaving for Rwanda, and met up with my friends that visited Diani just a couple weeks prior. We were all in the same homestay at Rachel's which was awesome. It was a nice change to be living in a house full of volunteers, especially ones that I already knew so well. I tagged along with a couple of volunteers to their placement in the Kawangware slum nearby. After about a 30 minute walk, we arrived at Wema Nursery and Maternity Ward. I got to mix some antibiotic injections at this small medical clinic, and hear a few of the patient's stories. We did a home visit to one man named Johnston, who had cut his foot three months ago, and instead of seeking medical care, had been recommended a tribal cure which involved placing cow dung in the wound. He let it fester for 3 months before making it to the clinic. By that time, the back of his foot had been eaten away, and his ACL was useless and had to be cut off. So he no longer had a tendon at the back of his foot and would have to be submitted to daily wound dressings with antibiotics...he could barely afford any of this treatment and certainly could not afford to buy any painkillers. Another man, Gershon I believe, had been living with HIV/AIDS for the past 20 years, and had a huge medical bill racked up that he couldn't pay. The doctor and nurses at the centre were understanding, however, and continued to treat him. For the past two years, he had terrible ulcers on his penis, which must have been terribly hard to bear...I was really amazed at how calm and friendly his demeanor always seemed to be. I've noticed just how tough Kenyans can be while working at this clinic, and they put to shame the petty qualms we tend to overexaggerate back at home.
We also got to go out for a bit of fun in Nairobi at night, and caught the new Harry Potter movie at the theatre in Nakumatt Junction. Nakumatt is like the Walmart of East Africa; it's an extremely successful supermarket. I also got to go to a proper gym for the first time since I've come to Kenya, which was very refreshing. I also went to a restaurant called Java for some great smoothies and a brownie fudge sundae. Next post coming up will include my weekend journey to Kisumu and then Rwanda :)
4 new volunteers had arrived on the coast when I got back from Malindi, but two of them had to leave the very next day because of some sort of flight confusion which forced them to return to Nairobi for the remaining week of their stay. I was left with Venkatesh and Ivana, as well as a group of 4 girls that came down for a vacation on the weekend of the 10th. The two volunteers were placed at mama hope's baby centre while I remained at Chanukeni on my own. The thursday and friday before the weekend, I managed to get a good bit done at the centre, and fertilized some of my fledgeling plants, as well as helped to cook for the children again. There was also a little girl named Mwanalilu, who I'd noticed hadn't been wearing a uniform for the past couple of weeks. She had actually been absent from the centre for most of my time there, but recently came back from a visit to one of her parents in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Mama Uji (the woman running the centre if I haven't clarified that before) told me that her mother simply did not have the 500ksh to pay for the uniform. The new uniform was sitting in the school waiting for her, so I found it easy to rectify this problem and bought her the uniform. It put quite a smile on the face of this little girl who's big brown eyes and intense gaze gave a hint of the many hardships she's been through.
The weekend arrived far too quickly, as the previous 7 have, and it was time to make some plans to give a little taste of the coast to the new volunteers. We organized a trip to Shimoni for Saturday, similar to the previous one that I took with my host dad to see Wasini Island and the slave caves. This one, however, was organized as a safari and we intended to visit the marine park to do some snorkelling among the corals in Kisite Marine Park. We arrived in beautiful Shimoni village to board our dhow (like a 30 foot arabian sea vessel, which has sails but also a motor if needed) On the way to the marine park, we all decided we would pay a little bit extra to do the fun dive, which is a choice I am thankful I made every day since. There were four of us along with the guides and boat crew, so we split up into two groups of two. The one hour snorkelling tour was great, and we got so see some stunning marine and coral life, but it was the 30-45 minute dive that took my breath away. We got to dive down 8 metres(24 feet) and swim around at the base of the coral reef. The utter silence and the plethora of colourful fish and plant life at this depth is hard to accurately describe unless you've done something similar. It was like being on another planet. We swam up to some enormous eels, almost touched manta rays, glided along strange looking corals and saw an old underwater research marker that resembled an eerie totem long forgotten. The next day, we did a city tour of Mombasa, and I took the same three volunteers to Fort Jesus and Old Town. We had a very good guide for this particular tour named Mr Thoya, who was very patient with us, and was with us for the entire day. He showed us around Old Town and pointed out some of the older, more noteworthy landmakrs, then led us to a restaurant with great local Swahili food..and at the end he took us to a cheap souvenir shop with incredibly good prices. For all this, he only charged us 200ksh each (not even 4 dollars) so we gave him a nice tip, took his phone number, and promised to send future volunteers his way. I find that tourism really is another great way to give to the community. If you find a guide that performs a quality tour at an affordable price, you have the power to send more tourists (volunteers in our case) their way and ensure that they continue to find business and are able to support their families.
I spent a few more days at Chanukeni before I moved to Nairobi on the 16th of July. Some more volunteers from Camp Kenya were working at the centre for the few remaining days that I was there. They were finally putting up the additional classroom, office, and kitchen beside the existing school building. They also finished most of the fence while I was there, but I'm not sure if that particular group was planning on finishing the buildings...I have a feeling those would remain incomplete for at least another few months since the groups typically only came once a month for 3 or 4 days because they had commitments to other villages. I collected a bunch of contact information for Mama Uji and her the committee who oversaw the school. I found out from Cosmas, my NGO's program coordinator for the coast, that she already had a CBO (community based organisation) formed and it would be fairly easy to set up a sponsor relationship for the school. So I will bring this up with the lovely people at TD and see if anything can be done to provide support in the form of meals and/or teachers for the wonderful children at this school :)
I moved back to Nairobi for a couple of days before leaving for Rwanda, and met up with my friends that visited Diani just a couple weeks prior. We were all in the same homestay at Rachel's which was awesome. It was a nice change to be living in a house full of volunteers, especially ones that I already knew so well. I tagged along with a couple of volunteers to their placement in the Kawangware slum nearby. After about a 30 minute walk, we arrived at Wema Nursery and Maternity Ward. I got to mix some antibiotic injections at this small medical clinic, and hear a few of the patient's stories. We did a home visit to one man named Johnston, who had cut his foot three months ago, and instead of seeking medical care, had been recommended a tribal cure which involved placing cow dung in the wound. He let it fester for 3 months before making it to the clinic. By that time, the back of his foot had been eaten away, and his ACL was useless and had to be cut off. So he no longer had a tendon at the back of his foot and would have to be submitted to daily wound dressings with antibiotics...he could barely afford any of this treatment and certainly could not afford to buy any painkillers. Another man, Gershon I believe, had been living with HIV/AIDS for the past 20 years, and had a huge medical bill racked up that he couldn't pay. The doctor and nurses at the centre were understanding, however, and continued to treat him. For the past two years, he had terrible ulcers on his penis, which must have been terribly hard to bear...I was really amazed at how calm and friendly his demeanor always seemed to be. I've noticed just how tough Kenyans can be while working at this clinic, and they put to shame the petty qualms we tend to overexaggerate back at home.
We also got to go out for a bit of fun in Nairobi at night, and caught the new Harry Potter movie at the theatre in Nakumatt Junction. Nakumatt is like the Walmart of East Africa; it's an extremely successful supermarket. I also got to go to a proper gym for the first time since I've come to Kenya, which was very refreshing. I also went to a restaurant called Java for some great smoothies and a brownie fudge sundae. Next post coming up will include my weekend journey to Kisumu and then Rwanda :)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Refreshing week on the coast
So last Friday, the day after my previous post, I found out that 10 volunteers had come down from Nairobi the same day to visit Diani Beach. I was quite happy to find this out as I was taking my host family out to dinner in Ukunda. Once we finished dinner, I took a matatu to their hotel at around 9pm. Diani house (the hotel) was literally a 5 minute walk down the beach from Forty Thieves and obviously the group had done this purposely :) We had three little guest houses booked there and it the setting was so relaxing and peaceful, with monkeys leaping through the trees, tiny suni antelopes grazing in the early morning and palm trees swaying in the ocean breeze. I decided to move in with the group for their stay, as I was getting pretty lonely being the only volunteer down here for so long. I should say right off that we had many grandiose plans to explore some spots around the south coast and maybe do a short safari to one of the nearby parks, but what happened was a completely different story. The first night we ended up buying a bunch of drinks and stayed up playing drinking games with cards. We got pretty rowdy after a while and went for a late night swim. The next three nights here followed a similar pattern, and I haven't had the chance to sleep in for so many consecutive days since I arrived in Kenya! We had a nice big breakfast at this place called Ushago and did a bit of shopping at the local supermarket just down the road. I also had to travel back and forth from my homestay in Ukunda a few times to get more clean clothes/money. We had dinner at Forty Thieves pretty much every night and I must say their pizzas were really good. I had one with spinach, chicken and beef; and shared one with blue cheese and chicken with a couple others. The third night was particularly funny, as we drank more than we realised before heading to Forty Thieves for dinner. We must have been such a pain to our poor waiter; trying to bargain for almost everything, we sure looked like wealthy tourists didn't we! Someone ordered a plate of cheese out of the blue, and they must have taken at least 5 minutes to explain to the waiter that they just wanted a plate of cheese. This random guy came and sat with us for a while and we could tell right away that he was a loser. He claimed that he was half masaai (a popular kenyan tribe) and I have no idea who has every believed him in the past as he had pasty white skin and blue eyes...As he lies piled up, we did get many good laughs at his expense, and I don't think he realised it either.
We danced a bit under a disco ball and on a completely empty dance floor before staggering back to the hotel. Two of the girls just layed on the beach laughing for almost half an hour. We also spent a day in Mombasa so that some of the volunteers could see Fort Jesus and Old Town just adjacent. Kiara (a volunteer that I met before my trip to Uganda) and I had already explored these sites and instead of paying again we took a tuk tuk (motorized bike with three wheels and three seats at the back) and walked around the city centre. I guess we forgot that it was sunday and that almost everything was closed in this very islamic city, but we came up with a random idea and found a massage parlour that was open. Kiara had a sore back and I had never had a massage in my life so it was an interesting experience. We met up with the other volunteers at an indian restaurant for lunch and then headed back. Three more volunteers headed home on monday night and we spent most of that day laying around and nursing hangovers at the resort. We took the three to Ukunda to catch their night bus and grabbed some cheap but tasty dinner at Diani restaurant. On Tueday morning, with only 5 of us left, we headed into Mombasa to try and catch a bus north to Malindi. We found one shady bus that was already full, and instead of trying to cram all of us in like the conductor was trying to do, we instead took a matatu for the 2 hour journey. This decision was really no better, but we did get there eventually and more quickly than the bus. We made and ate some sub par sandwiches on the ride as our first meal of the day and complained for a while about the cramped seating for the journey ahead. About halfway there, this drunk guy got on the matatu and stared at one of the girls constantly. We told him to stop many times and he did tone it down but he was a constant pain. He was speaking an english no one understood and was just being a loudmouth with everyone in the van, locals and us alike. We were glad to see that he didn't get off at the same stop as us, because we really believed that he was just positively nuts. I noticed the difference in Malindi as soon as we arrived. The charm of this coastal town reminded me of Shimoni, but on a larger scale. Mosques were scattered throughout town, and tall concrete buildings towered over the narrow streets. The usual hustle and bustle of Kenyan life was there though, and there were even more vendors and people here offering their services to us mzungus. The town had a very easy going air about it though, and everyone was quite friendly for the most part. We stayed at this luxurious resort called Scorpio Villas for a night. We really have been living like tourists for the past week, but a trip well deserved in my opinion. One of the tuk tuks with the guys broke down on our way to the hotel, and later on the boda boda (motorcycle) that I was on broke down as well, but we all keep a certain acronym in the back of our minds - TIA (This Is Africa) - which we used quite religiously. The resort really was amazing and I wish I could easily post pictures here, but I'll have to wait until I get home. We lounged around the pool, and later snuck in some alcohol and water because the prices for drinks there were way too high. We did bargain for a good price on one room though...paid 800ksh each, like 12 dollars.
We visited the Gede Ruins on our last morning here, which was a wealthy arab village that was abandoned a few hundred years ago for reasons not completely known. I believe it has been there since the 11th or 12th century. It was quite a sight to behold, with remnants of arabic masonry in the remains of the buildings - namely the arched doorways - and the beautiful coastal vegetation overtaking what used to be a nice little bit of civilization. I was sad to go home and leave such a great group of people that night..but all good things must come to an end, and I think I'll be seeing them all next week anyway so I can't be too upset about it. 4 new volunteers had finally arrived when I arrived back in Ukunda around midnight. Should be more exciting stories to come soon :)
Missing you all
Scott
We danced a bit under a disco ball and on a completely empty dance floor before staggering back to the hotel. Two of the girls just layed on the beach laughing for almost half an hour. We also spent a day in Mombasa so that some of the volunteers could see Fort Jesus and Old Town just adjacent. Kiara (a volunteer that I met before my trip to Uganda) and I had already explored these sites and instead of paying again we took a tuk tuk (motorized bike with three wheels and three seats at the back) and walked around the city centre. I guess we forgot that it was sunday and that almost everything was closed in this very islamic city, but we came up with a random idea and found a massage parlour that was open. Kiara had a sore back and I had never had a massage in my life so it was an interesting experience. We met up with the other volunteers at an indian restaurant for lunch and then headed back. Three more volunteers headed home on monday night and we spent most of that day laying around and nursing hangovers at the resort. We took the three to Ukunda to catch their night bus and grabbed some cheap but tasty dinner at Diani restaurant. On Tueday morning, with only 5 of us left, we headed into Mombasa to try and catch a bus north to Malindi. We found one shady bus that was already full, and instead of trying to cram all of us in like the conductor was trying to do, we instead took a matatu for the 2 hour journey. This decision was really no better, but we did get there eventually and more quickly than the bus. We made and ate some sub par sandwiches on the ride as our first meal of the day and complained for a while about the cramped seating for the journey ahead. About halfway there, this drunk guy got on the matatu and stared at one of the girls constantly. We told him to stop many times and he did tone it down but he was a constant pain. He was speaking an english no one understood and was just being a loudmouth with everyone in the van, locals and us alike. We were glad to see that he didn't get off at the same stop as us, because we really believed that he was just positively nuts. I noticed the difference in Malindi as soon as we arrived. The charm of this coastal town reminded me of Shimoni, but on a larger scale. Mosques were scattered throughout town, and tall concrete buildings towered over the narrow streets. The usual hustle and bustle of Kenyan life was there though, and there were even more vendors and people here offering their services to us mzungus. The town had a very easy going air about it though, and everyone was quite friendly for the most part. We stayed at this luxurious resort called Scorpio Villas for a night. We really have been living like tourists for the past week, but a trip well deserved in my opinion. One of the tuk tuks with the guys broke down on our way to the hotel, and later on the boda boda (motorcycle) that I was on broke down as well, but we all keep a certain acronym in the back of our minds - TIA (This Is Africa) - which we used quite religiously. The resort really was amazing and I wish I could easily post pictures here, but I'll have to wait until I get home. We lounged around the pool, and later snuck in some alcohol and water because the prices for drinks there were way too high. We did bargain for a good price on one room though...paid 800ksh each, like 12 dollars.
We visited the Gede Ruins on our last morning here, which was a wealthy arab village that was abandoned a few hundred years ago for reasons not completely known. I believe it has been there since the 11th or 12th century. It was quite a sight to behold, with remnants of arabic masonry in the remains of the buildings - namely the arched doorways - and the beautiful coastal vegetation overtaking what used to be a nice little bit of civilization. I was sad to go home and leave such a great group of people that night..but all good things must come to an end, and I think I'll be seeing them all next week anyway so I can't be too upset about it. 4 new volunteers had finally arrived when I arrived back in Ukunda around midnight. Should be more exciting stories to come soon :)
Missing you all
Scott
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Time is flying by
Wow July has already arrived, and it's been almost two months since I've left home. I've lost track of time here, and a week goes by as if it were a couple of days. I've been back to Chanukeni since my last post (Chanukeni is the name of the school). The kids are always in a playful mood, and I helped teach the class a little bit. As for work, I tilled most of the soil around the bean plants and other food plants to help them grow faster. The teacher brought in a couple of young mango trees and another, much bigger passionfruit tree than the first. Things are growig fast here, and we've already got a broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables going up in this relatively small compound. 4 Banana trees, 2 passionfruit, 2 or 3 starfruit trees, 2 mango trees and 1 sugarcane plant. There is also a pumpkin plant, plenty of tomato plants, beans, sukumawiki (similar to spinach) and other vegetables, the Swahili names of which I can't remember. We've also, over time, added several trees and flowers to add shade and beauty to the area which gets quite flooded with sun. truck has been coming by every day for the past week to drop off building materials - stone, sand, gravel and eventually concrete. Looks like work on a second classroom and office addition will finally commence next week. Camp Kenya is funding the project, but I'm not sure if it's their volunteers that will actually be building the additions...I'm thinking locals will do most of the work.
I went to Haller Park, Bamburi Beach and Shimoni last weekend with the father of my homestay (here we refer to the father by his child's name and say baba Tracy...or mama Tracy for the mother) So we visited Shimoni on Saturday, and this little fishing village was very refreshing. Shimoni means "place of the caves". It was named after the large cave underneath the village, which is said to have been a holding cell for slaves on their way south to market in Zanzibar, Tanzania. I took a short tour of the caves and saw plenty of bats sleeping on the ceiling, as well as a shrine that some superstitious locals still use to make animal sacrifices when the weather isn't favourable or when they witness bad omens. The people of this village are very friendly and laid back, considering the number of tourists that go through here on their way to wasini island and kisite marine park. Seafood is also amazingly cheap here - we bought 2 kilograms (10 fish) of tuff fish, similar to tilapia, for 300 kenyan shilling...about 5 dollars. The fish was caught that day and never frozen; as fresh as you could ask for. We also took a boat to Wasini island and explored the town of Wasini as well as a dried up coral park with a mangrove tree forest within. What a strange site this was, with what must have been hundreds of thousands of crabs poking their heads out from holes scattered throughout the marshy park. Seafood lunch on the island was also great, with crab, tilapia, chapati, rice, potatos, seagrass sauce, and fresh kenyan coffee. All this for 500ksh each, or $7.50 Canadian. It was definitely worth it to go with a local who already knew most of the people on the island, as baba Tracy works with the Kenya Women's Financial Trust and regularly visits here for work. Another tourist group of four sitting near us paid 10,000ksh for their buffet..5 times what we paid.
Haller Park just north of Mombasa - where we went on Sunday - was another great experience. This is a very peaceful forest reserve which is hard to believe since it's so close to the city and to the overdeveloped hotel industry along the north coast. We did a lot of walking through nature trails and on our way into reception, we were greeted by a waterbuck drinking from a pond, staring at us as we approached. I honestly thought it was a statue in the water until it ran off haha. There were monkeys playing in the trees, giant tortoise lumbering around and many different kinds of birds. The turles were huge, and they were likely 3 or 4 times my age. These things can live past 100 years. There was also a sign that said "please do not sit on the tortoises!" We visited the giraffe compound past reception, and I was surprised to find that we were allowed to just walk up to the giraffes; no barriers or gates seperating us. So we took pictures about 10 feet away from them as they observed us curiously. There is also a crocodile farm in here, and an animal sanctuary with antelope, colourful ground birds and a few hippos...but the hippos were hiding underwater when we got there. We were too early for their feeding time. Oh, and there were walls around the croc farm and hippo sanctuary...definitely not safe enough to get too close to them. After the park, we visited Bamburi Beach Hotel for a buffet lunch. This tourist resort is always packed, mainly with package tourists from europe who do the usual one week getaway from home. The food was great, and we took a walk along the beach before heading home.
Well I think that about covers everything up til now, and I still have a few travel plans before I go home. I hope to go to Shimba Hills NP and Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary this weekend and possibly Kisite Marine Park to do some snorkelling and dolphin spotting. One trip I am planning on doing should take place on my last week in East Africa before I go home. I want to go to Rwanda for that week to visit the genocide museum and hopefully one of their national parks (parc des volcans) to do a gorilla trek. This is supposed to be the ultimate wildlife experience, so I am crossing my fingers. My friend Erixon from back home in Toronto has told me that I would be welcome to visit his family in Rwanda, and that his brother might even show me around Kigali, which is a very kind offer :)
More to come soon everyone!
Scott
I went to Haller Park, Bamburi Beach and Shimoni last weekend with the father of my homestay (here we refer to the father by his child's name and say baba Tracy...or mama Tracy for the mother) So we visited Shimoni on Saturday, and this little fishing village was very refreshing. Shimoni means "place of the caves". It was named after the large cave underneath the village, which is said to have been a holding cell for slaves on their way south to market in Zanzibar, Tanzania. I took a short tour of the caves and saw plenty of bats sleeping on the ceiling, as well as a shrine that some superstitious locals still use to make animal sacrifices when the weather isn't favourable or when they witness bad omens. The people of this village are very friendly and laid back, considering the number of tourists that go through here on their way to wasini island and kisite marine park. Seafood is also amazingly cheap here - we bought 2 kilograms (10 fish) of tuff fish, similar to tilapia, for 300 kenyan shilling...about 5 dollars. The fish was caught that day and never frozen; as fresh as you could ask for. We also took a boat to Wasini island and explored the town of Wasini as well as a dried up coral park with a mangrove tree forest within. What a strange site this was, with what must have been hundreds of thousands of crabs poking their heads out from holes scattered throughout the marshy park. Seafood lunch on the island was also great, with crab, tilapia, chapati, rice, potatos, seagrass sauce, and fresh kenyan coffee. All this for 500ksh each, or $7.50 Canadian. It was definitely worth it to go with a local who already knew most of the people on the island, as baba Tracy works with the Kenya Women's Financial Trust and regularly visits here for work. Another tourist group of four sitting near us paid 10,000ksh for their buffet..5 times what we paid.
Haller Park just north of Mombasa - where we went on Sunday - was another great experience. This is a very peaceful forest reserve which is hard to believe since it's so close to the city and to the overdeveloped hotel industry along the north coast. We did a lot of walking through nature trails and on our way into reception, we were greeted by a waterbuck drinking from a pond, staring at us as we approached. I honestly thought it was a statue in the water until it ran off haha. There were monkeys playing in the trees, giant tortoise lumbering around and many different kinds of birds. The turles were huge, and they were likely 3 or 4 times my age. These things can live past 100 years. There was also a sign that said "please do not sit on the tortoises!" We visited the giraffe compound past reception, and I was surprised to find that we were allowed to just walk up to the giraffes; no barriers or gates seperating us. So we took pictures about 10 feet away from them as they observed us curiously. There is also a crocodile farm in here, and an animal sanctuary with antelope, colourful ground birds and a few hippos...but the hippos were hiding underwater when we got there. We were too early for their feeding time. Oh, and there were walls around the croc farm and hippo sanctuary...definitely not safe enough to get too close to them. After the park, we visited Bamburi Beach Hotel for a buffet lunch. This tourist resort is always packed, mainly with package tourists from europe who do the usual one week getaway from home. The food was great, and we took a walk along the beach before heading home.
Well I think that about covers everything up til now, and I still have a few travel plans before I go home. I hope to go to Shimba Hills NP and Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary this weekend and possibly Kisite Marine Park to do some snorkelling and dolphin spotting. One trip I am planning on doing should take place on my last week in East Africa before I go home. I want to go to Rwanda for that week to visit the genocide museum and hopefully one of their national parks (parc des volcans) to do a gorilla trek. This is supposed to be the ultimate wildlife experience, so I am crossing my fingers. My friend Erixon from back home in Toronto has told me that I would be welcome to visit his family in Rwanda, and that his brother might even show me around Kigali, which is a very kind offer :)
More to come soon everyone!
Scott
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