TravelStream™ news feed for member photonomad on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/photonomad en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:24:03 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/photonomad/kenya_2007/1189181820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/photonomad/kenya_2007/1189181820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/photonomad/kenya_2007/1189181820/tpod.html Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:24:03 -0400 My first trip to Africa! Adventures in healthcare, micro-lending, and a first-time family reunion!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Masai Mara, Kenya

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it has taken me so long to write. I have had some great experiences since the last post! I am currently on the island of Lamu off the northern coast of Kenya (more on this soon). However, in this post I am going to take an opportunity to fill in where I last left off:

After spending a couple of days with my cousin Tom in Nairobi, I arranged for a three day, two night safari to one of the wonders of the world... the amazing Masai Mara. Hundreds of thousands of wildebeestes have just migrated from the Serengeti (in Tanzania) across the border/river into Kenya! It was beautiful and unfortunately, I don't think my photos will ever do it justice... but went ahead and took a few anyway. ; )

I chose the least expensive, "camping" safari (about $100 a day all-inclusive). Our group consisted of myself, a solo (and very quiet) Italian guy on holiday, two German girls who were in Kenya visiting a professional runner friend, and then two more Italians who we picked up at an airstrip once in the park. We stayed in a camp just outside the park near a Masai community: it consists of basic tents with beds and a nearby mess-hall structure where we ate our meals.

I now fully understand why it might be worth it to pay an additional $300 or so to fly in and out of the Mara. Our drive started off nice... and hour or so outside of Nairobi we descended swiftly into the Great Rift Valley, then tackled several stretches of horrendous roads (everyone keeps saying it is much better now!). Even before we hit the bad roads, we passed a fatal matatu accident in which the vehicle had rolled off the road and four passengers died. (matatus are small van taxis that hold up to 14 passengers - the main method of public transport in Kenya) Kenyans are used to this type of tragedy. It happens way too often here.

It was a hot day and there was a great deal of traffic on the bumpy roads (partially under construction). Passing buses and trucks created huge clouds of dust that would envelope our nissan van (sometimes blocking all view of oncoming traffic). There was so much traffic that it was difficult to find a place to open the window for patches of fresh/cool air. I went into a slightly suffocating, sweaty, gritty trance-like state for most of the trip. I meditated on whether or not the dusty air contained any nutritional content and tried to imagine the reward of seeing lions and hippos and elephants later that evening!

Once in the park, all the guide/drivers communicate via CB radios. If someone finds a lion or cheetah, everyone in that part of the park races there en masse. It is strange to see 12 vehicles parked in row or semi-circle around lounging lions who could care less! Everyone, from all over the world, together - snapping away with a diverse array of camera gear.

Some highlights:

We came upon a cheetah who appeared to be hunting wildebeests... but it turned out that it was already 'playing' with a baby Thompson Gazelle... just like the family cat bats and plays with a mouse or lizard at home!

On day two, we did an all-day game drive through the park to the Mara river and Tanzania (I briefly stepped into Tanazania at a border marker). We had lunch while watching big vultures pick over the carcasses of wildebeestes who had drown in the river upon crossing. We also saw huge crocodiles sleeping on the shore and too many hippos to believe! Armed Kenya Wildlife Service guides escort people along the river -- just to be safe!

At one point we came across a couple of lions and our guide didn't tell us what we were about to witness.... until they started mating! They will go without eating for over 24 hours and do the deed every 20 minutes like clockwork.

We finished up our final day with an early morning game drive that included helping another vehicle that was stuck in a sandy creek. Our group got out to help push. It was an adventure... considering that our guide looked up at one point and reminded us to keep an eye out for lions! ; )

The drive back to Nairobi ended up being better -- less traffic and more opportunities to open the window for fresh air. I also remembered that I had my iPod! Thank you Venus Hum -- perfect tunes when in need of escape from African road trauma!

Thank you all for your interest in this trip! Next up... Matatu 101 in Nairobi, Lake Victoria and the Swahili coast...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/photonomad/kenya_2007/1188050280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/photonomad/kenya_2007/1188050280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/photonomad/kenya_2007/1188050280/tpod.html Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:05:27 -0400 My first trip to Africa! Adventures in healthcare, micro-lending, and a first-time family reunion!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Nairobi, Ndathi, Nyeri, Nakuru, and back to Nairobi!, Kenya

Hello Everyone!

I'm in Nairobi right now and the last two weeks have been full of adventure. I flew from Nashville on August 9th and met up with Poppy Buchanan (fellow Nashvillian and founder of Burning Bush, Inc. www.burningbushkenya.org ) and Brenda McKaig of Rising Fawn, GA (an expert in wool, spinning and weaving www.risingfawnfiber.com ).

Poppy and Brenda were wonderful traveling companions during my first two weeks here and it was sad to say goodbye on Friday. We traveled together to the small, rural village of Ndathi near the base of Mt. Kenya. It is about an hour's drive northwest of a town called Nyeri in central Kenya (over very rough roads). Burning Bush helped to construct the Samaria Maternity Home and Clinic at the home of Susan Kaburu, RN in Ndathi. This clinic serves the needs of a very large area surrounding Ndathi. Susan and her family were wonderful hosts. The staff and Susan's daughters, Anne and Njeri work hard to help keep the clinic running and were so nice to get to know. I was also able to meet Esther Maina and her husband, Steven -- incredibly driven people who are working hard to improve their lives and the lives of others in the community through micro-lending and other enterprises. Brenda McKaig came all the way from Georgia to share her expertise on wool production with Esther.

The community of Ndathi -- and most of Kenya, is very religious -- many conservative Christian communities (of all denominations) scatter the landscape. I was a stranger to daily devotionals and long, 3 to 4 hour church services, but was welcomed with open arms nonetheless. These first two weeks have been quite an education on so many fronts -- as always, I find more questions than answers..... I have gained insight into healthcare, micro-lending ventures, missionary and NGO aid work -- everything about development in Africa is difficult to wrap one's head around. This experience is so valuable and I know I will think on it for a long time to come.


Since I am behind in writing, I will catch you up with some highlights:


GIVING BIRTH

Shortly after arriving, I spent several days touring around to small, rural, private clinics in the area near Mt. Kenya. with Poppy, Susan and two women from the UK, Eileen and Emma. Eileen and Emma work at Bournemouth University in the UK were on a mission to explore the state of healthcare in Kenya - particularly in relation to continuing education for nurses and library resources.

During the tour, we stopped by the hospital in Nyeri. It is an open-air place with individual one-story buildings scattered about as wards. There are many open areas of grass in between the wards where family and friends sit and wait. The wards are very simple and many of the windows are open to the outside. We came upon the maternity ward and before I knew it... all five of us were smack in the middle of a very crowded and eventful labour room!!

The head nurse of the maternity ward knows Susan and said that it would be alright for us to come in --- FIVE women were giving birth and we were in the middle of it! It was so funny because Emma and I are not medical people, and we overheard the nurse say, "sure, you can all come in -- you are all medical" - we just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders nervously. I didn't take any photos -- they asked me not to and I wouldn't have out of respect and the fact that I was in a bit of shock at the moment.

There was one woman on the right, just next to the curtained doorway as we entered the small room -- they had a big light pointed right at her as she was working hard to deliver. The other four women were just to our left -- side by side on delivery tables - there were doctors and nurses huddled around each one and then the five of us, smashed together as we made our way in between all of them to a small corner. The head nurse was tall and regal -- she wore an ornate white nurse's cap and stood calmly talking to us in the midst of it all. There was one newborn wrapped in a blanket in small crib next to us... every once in a while it would cry or cough. The really wild thing is that most Kenyan women (and all of the women in the room with us) were giving birth without any pain killers and they weren't making a sound! -- made us foreigners feel like wimps! We left the way we came and passed back through a crowded waiting room full of expectant mothers waiting for their turn!



GAME DRIVE AT LAKE NAKURU

On Saturday (August 18th) we planned to set out early in the morning to make a trip down to Nairobi then on to Lake Nakuru for a game drive. However, it rained and rained in the Ndathi overnight and the road from the clinic was an absolute rutted, muddy mess. We canceled our meetings in Nairobi and waited for a couple of hours to make a try for Nakuru. Gabrielle, our driver, was determined to get us out of there. We were hardly outside the clinic gates before we were stuck. Our Nissan van was really in for a tough quarter-mile or so. It took and hour and a half and the help of 20 or more neighbors pushing and rocking and digging and sliding to get us on our way! Finally, we were on the road to the Great Rift Valley and my fist game drive!

Lake Nakuru is one of many lakes located in the Rift Valley. The valley is a spectacular sight -- especially nice as we drove down from the Aberdare mountain range. Lake Nakuru is a national park / reserve --- home to hundreds of thousands of flamingos that lace the sandy shore in a ribbon of pink. We saw huge groups of bamboons along the road... many with tiny babies clinging to their backs. We also saw buffalo, zebra, giraffe, impalla, gazelles, rhino, and even two ostriches! It was a beautfiul day and a great drive. We didn't see any lions or leopards... but I have a feeling they saw us! : )



HIKE TO THE SAGANA RIVER THROUGH THE FEARED FOREST

On my last day in Ndathi, Susan's cousin, Gerald took Simon (Susan's 14 year-old nephew) and I on a hike to the Sagana river. It was a gorgeous day and we walked through parts of the village that I had not seen before. Small wood and aluminum-roofed homes we scattered about amongst crops of maize, potatoes, beets, snow peas, and banana trees. We made our way up and down a large hill... passing many people, some sheep and the occasional cow along the way. Gerald has always lived in Ndathi and he knows most of the people in the community.

We eventually came upon a small valley that separated the farms from the dreaded forest -- land of the elephants! Elephants live in the forests in this region and routinely ruin farms and occasionally kill people who cross their path! The community has started putting up tall electric fences in an effort to deter them. Fortunately, there has been a great deal of rain lately and the elephants on this side of the village were finding food elsewhere. When they are in the area, they tend to roam about during dawn or dusk. Gerald felt confident that there were none in the area.

We huffed and puffed up a large hill and through the forest -- it was cool and peaceful under the trees. We came across little groups of sheep and Gerald pointed out a few piles of old elephant dung. We also saw trees that had been knocked over by elephants. When this happens, villagers will come in the night to cut the trunk from the unearthed stump. (it is against the law to take lumber from the forest... so they try to get away with it at night).

We finally came upon the Sagana River. It was so nice and crisp and clear --- the river is scattered with big black rocks (most of them volcanic). It was beautiful and peaceful up here in the mountains. I stepped out on a few rocks with Gerald's help (I didn't want to take too much of a risk with my camera). Simon was enjoying jumping about and eventually fell in!

On our way back, we came upon a group of 8 or 10 women carrying huge piles of fire wood on their backs -- it is just hard to imagine how strong they must be to do this. Life is so difficult here... especially for the women. Women carry the weight of the world on their shoulders here... expected to take care of the children, the farming, the animals, cook, clean -- it is just hard to really convey how much they do. The division of labor (or absence of it) is a real problem here.



FAMILY REUNION AND A TRIP TO THE SLUMS

I finally met my long lost cousin, Dr. Tom Gale --- he is a semi-retired political science professor at USIU in Nairobi and has lived here for 33 years. He lives in room at the YMCA Central in Nairobi. He is great to talk to and is so very passionate about improving the lives of children in east Africa. He started teaching French to primary school students in 1980 and now teaches at around 46 public primary schools in and around Nairobi -- during school terms he goes to two or three each afternoon after teaching at the University in the morning. He also teaches at a school or two on Saturday mornings.

Over the years, he has photographed the children at these schools and then coupled them with essays written by the middle school-age kids. The essays are first-hand and very powerful -- the topics range from home life, education, things that make them angry, pregnancy, rape, HIV/AIDS, gender roles and sexual harassment. He has published three books and is working on a fourth. I wish that everyone could read these stories -- they provide a vivid picture of the troubles in this part of the world. I would like to try to find a way to make it easy for him to have some distributed in the US. You can find one of his books at Amazon.com: "African Children: Their Faces and Their Thoughts":http://tinyurl.com/yuj4cf

Yesterday (Saturday, August 25th) Tom took me on a walk through Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi (and in all of East Africa - over 700,000 people live in a 630 acre area). He brought a bag of pencils to give to the students that go to the public schools where he teaches French. It was quite an experience. I was nervous... having heard countless horror stories of violence and robbery in Nairobi... especially in the slums. However, I had a good feeling in my gut -- I needed to see this place and I couldn't have been with a better guide. It also helped that a young muscle-bound guy named Peter came along too. Peter is finishing up college and is in Africa right now studying communication between and within NGO's. I did not bring my camera and only wore the basics... my worn shoes, pants, and a T-Shirt. No sunglasses, no hat, no jewelry, not even my passport/money belt. I only carried enough shillings in my pocket to satisfy any prospective robber and off we went. He planned our trip for the morning in order to cut down on coming across drunks. We walked from the YMCA to a bus stop a couple of blocks away near the city center.

The bus ride to Kibera was informative, as Tom has seen this city change significantly over the past 33 years. I had my guard up, but didn't feel in danger. Tom is very very tall, in his 70's, and his walk is slow, confident, and friendly. As you would expect, he is wonderful with the children. Every so often we would come across some children who recognized him, and knew the French song that he teaches. They would say "Mr. Tom", "Bonjour" or whisper a little verse of the French song... he would immediately smile and ask them which primary school they go to. Today, he was giving pencils to students who go to Kibera Primary and Toy (spelling?) Primary (Toy is an area in the Kibera). We did not venture toward Lindi... (it is the most dangerous part of Kibera), but he did show us how to get there. He has actually walked through every part of Kibera over the years. Anyway... we were fine. We came across an area where an big group of muslim women were preparing food in a courtyard for a wedding. They were very nice and invited us in. We then went by a Madrassa (not the kind that we fear in the West -- this one is there to help the kids - some money for the construction was given by the famous Leakey family). The children were wonderful and the people were friendly. In some ways, it reminded me a little of traveling in Uighur towns in Northwestern China... except, for the most part, everyone here is really, desperately living in poverty... filth and sewage in the dirt lanes... . We did see water pumps and we were happy to find that the cost was a pretty fair price of 2 shillings per 20 liters. (there are roughly 65 shillings in a U.S. dollar).

The kids here... they could be you or me... any one of us. Some of us are so fortunate and so many of us born into places like Kibera, without hope of any kind of future. This was a walk I will never forget.

I'm sorry I don't have photos to post with this update -- eventually, when I get home -- I will sort them all out and be sure to update this TravelPod blog..

I hope you are all happy and well at home. I will update again when I have a chance!

love,
Stacey

p.s. - please excuse the typos!
]]>