A Coastal Conclusion

School is out, the semester is over, my last exam taken. What better way to conclude the indescribable experience that I have had over these last four months than to go to the beach to unwind and celebrate.

For our last excursion together as a group and our last 5 days together, we went to the Kenyan Coast. I was looking really forward to this trip for many reasons: The semester was over so this would be vacation time: no more homework to do, work to do, grants to write, I would get to just relax on the coast with the ocean and spend one last week with my friends who I have shared this opportunity with. My other reason I was excited for this trip is because this was the first time I had seen a beach in almost four years, and that is far too long for anyone to go without seeing the ocean and enjoying the beach. To get to the coast we took a train to Mombasa (yes Mombasa has made some international headlines in the last couple weeks due to the pirated US ship that was since reclaimed by the US and the situation was resolved in Mombasa port… more on that later). It is roughly a twelve hour train ride to Mombasa from Nairobi, but this added to the fun at the beginning of the trip because it was an overnite sleeper train with four beds per compartment and dinner and breakfast on the train. I had not been on an overnite train since traveling in France with my family, and all I remember was that it was fun and kind of an adventure. This was equally as fun as we hung out with each other on the train and I got to fall asleep that nite to the gentle swaying of the train as it moved along. When I woke up in the morning, we were in Mombasa.

Mombasa is an interesting looking town that is a fusion of many cultures, architectures, and history. It is much older than the rest of Kenya, and has Arabic influence and settlements going back to around the year 1000 AD or before. The first European influence was the Portuguese in the 1500s, and now it is Kenyan. So along with being a Kenyan city, it has the feel of a cross between an old European city as well as having a lot of Muslim/Arabic influence. The pace of life is slower and more laid back here, and it is much more humid than in Nairobi. The food is different here, and is more influenced by the Swahili people. The food is really really good as well, and seafood is much more prevalent as well as cooking with coconut oil and coconut. Tamarind is also found in a lot of foods (Tamarind is a sort of candyish thing that I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it is in tea Masala (which is drank throughout Kenya), and other masala cooking.

After we arrived at our hotel, we had about six hours free time to explore the city and do our own thing before an exciting dinner that nite. So, with it being extremely hot and humid, and the sun out a group of us decided to go swimming. We found this Olympic style pool that was more or less deserted, and spent most of our time relaxing, swimming around, and decompressing after a semester of school work and internships. I had only had one other opportunity to go swimming during the semester, so this was a welcome relief and made me realize how much I miss swimming. I was excited because I knew that this would be the dominating activity of the whole week. That nite we were in for an awesome treat as dinner would be a dinner cruise on a dhow and with a real, full meal with courses. It was on this dinner that I first was able to sample the Swahili food. My first course was an artichoke appetizer that was good but was not really Swahili, but the dinner course certainly was. This was many mixed fish with a coconut milk that was extremely good. The desert course was a collection of tropical fruits (bananas, mangoes, other ones that I can not remember), and an extremely strong coffee (Swahili/Arabic style) to end the food. The atmosphere was very amusing as well, as a band played reggae/ coastal Kenyan covers of popular American songs from the 70s (think like a wedding reception). It was just all to funny but somehow added to the experience of being on a dinner cruise to celebrate the end of the semester on the Indian Ocean.

The following morning we went on a tour of Old Town Mombasa. This part of the city really shows the eclectic influence of out side cultures fused with Kenya, as there are many mosques, Hindu temples, as well as old cobblestone streets and other features that make the city feel like an old European city. It really reminded me a lot of old town Quebec City (one of my favourite cities in North America), with the interesting contrast between the new, industrialized area of the city with the old, semi-preserved historical feeling area. The biggest part of our tour was of Fort Jesus. This Fort is made out of mostly coral and stone, and is shaped like a man (or Jesus as he was crucified on the cross). It was build as a fort and monastery by the Portuguese in the early 1500s, but then was captured by the Moorish Arabs in the 1600s and was turned into a slave holding area for their slave trade based in Mombasa. In the 1800s, it became a prison, and in the mid 1900s became a national historical site. The best way that I could describe this Fort is think something like the prison in The Count of Monte Christo, meets a place with slave caves, as well as being a military fort with cannons positioned facing the ocean and gun turrets. It is an eclectic mix but made for a very interesting place to see. The other big event of the tour of Old Town was seeing an exclusive sect of Hindu (I don't remember which one) place of worship. It was very very shining white on the outside, but on the inside very bright colours. It honestly looked like an Easter egg explosion of colour on the inside of this house of worship.

After our tour of Old Town Mombasa, we began our drive to the place that would be our next and last destination on this trip, the south coast of Kenya near the Kenyan-Tanzanian Border. This is the resort area of Diani Beach. To get to South Coast, you have to take a Ferry across from Mombasa Island to South Coast. From the Ferry I saw Mombasa Harbour and the Kenyan warships, along with the now famous USS Marist Alabama as it was preparing to leave the harbour, the ship that pirates hijacked and the Captain was held hostage until snipers killed the pirates and freed the captain. It was interesting seeing this ship, but I must confess all of you American readers probably know the story better than I do. While it was front page news and dominated CNN and the news cycle during the Easter weekend, in Kenya this story was not very big and not even in the top 8 or 9 pages of the newspaper and those stories contained limited information. It was essentially a non-story here in Kenya.

When we got to Diani Beach and resort in the early afternoon, we had the rest of the time of the time to have fun on the beach and go swimming and enjoy being on the beach. My first impression of the Indian Ocean was that it is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. I think swimming in the Great Salt Lake in Utah may have this Ocean beat, but it is extremely salty. It is also calm mostly with not that big of waves. This did nothing however to take away from me enjoying the sun, palm trees, ocean and waves for the first time in a few years. The resort was nice too, and had many animals running around. Walking to the ocean from my room, I would usually pass many wild monkeys playing around. I also had a couple personal experiences, as while spending time on my balcony on my first nite there I see a monkey swing down from the drain pipe and the roof and land on the barrier. As I walked towards it, it jumped back up on the roof. We also had bush babies in our room a couple of times while we were not there, as we forgot to close all the windows. It was overall an amusing time there.

Speaking of monkeys, the next morning we went to a place to see many of them. We went to the Colubus Trust, an organization created to rehabilitate and protect Colubus Monkeys in the area. It was so fun and entertaining watching these monkeys play around and they are so fast and quick. The next place during that day that we went was a sacred forest to a couple of the Coastal tribes. It looked like an enchanted forest with many old, gnarled trees and vines everywhere, and has a sacred graveyard with some sort of relic that the coastal people who live there represent. I was happy to have the dense cover of trees as it began to downpour when we entered the forest. The rain continued for a few hours, but this did nothing to deter our free afternoon at the beach, as the rain made the winds heavier and for actual waves to body surf on and it was quite enjoyable actually. That nite, we had a bonfire at the beach. It was difficult to lite, as the beach is extremely windy at nite with an estimated 30-50 mph winds constantly, but some jet fuel and some bonfire architecture done by our Assistant program Director Victor, my programmate Brian, and I made it so we had a bonfire for a short time before the wind blew it out.
The next day we had a journey even further south to an area very near the Tanzanian border. On the mainland, we got a tour of some coral caves that were used as slave holding areas during the Arab slave-trade business. I think the last time I was in a cave before this was in Hannibal Missouri at the Mark Twain cave. This one was much different as it was made mostly of coral and near the water. After the cave, we went to an island off of the coast for another tour of a place that the women who lived there was
“unlike anything seen anywhere else in the world”. She was right too. On this island, twice a year the tide comes up far enough inland that it has created this coral area that looks like a coral version of Stonehenge. It really reminded me of something of a cross between Stonehenge and the landscape of New Zealand found in Lord of the Rings. We had a Swahili lunch on the island, with much more fried fish, crabs, coconut, and fried rice, and pilau (another coastal staple that is everywhere in Kenya, and is a rice with tamarind and cinnamon and other spices, a spicy rice that is really good). We had the evening free to do more beach swimming, and then a bbq dinner on the beach that nite. I was really surprised when desert came in the from of a birthday cake, celebrating the early birthday (program birthday) of me and another girl on the program, whose birthday is two days after mine. I got cake and was sang to and it was unexpected and very nice. After dinner some of us had a crab hunt on the beach which was amusing, as I was chasing around crabs. They are quick as well and the way to capture them is to run them out until they get too tired to run. It made me think of going on a crab hunt with my brother and cousins in Dolphin Island Alabama when I was very young and how much fun I had doing that. I could not get enough of the ocean, and I got up with a couple more friends the next morning for a sunrise swim in the ocean before we left the coast.

We flew back to Nairobi, and the highlight of the flight was getting to see Mt. Kilimanjaro from the air. That was one of the things that I was most excited to see in Africa, and thought I was going to be disappointed because I thought I would not get to see it, but did. It was a funny encounter because the girl who pointed it out to me prior to pointing it out asked another program person if it was a cloud or a mountain. It looks very majestic and big, and I am really happy I got to see it. It was sort of a climatic moment of the coastal trip, and the I could not have asked for a better last week to being apart of AU Abroad Kenya Spring 2009. This truly has been an amazing experience that I am just beginning to really realize and reflect on, and this could take some time.

On that note, I want to tell you that this post will be the last post I have from Kenya. I plan to right an Epilogue post in a week or two from the US as a final word and reflection on my trip. Please check back then for my final post from this stint on An American Abroad.

Hail and Headwinds at the Headwaters: A Ugandan Easter Story

Uganda. Before coming on this trip, all the information that I knew about Kenya’s neighbor to the west came from the movie The Last King of Scotland. That movie is a biopic about Uganda’s dictator Idi Amin during his rule of the country during the 1970s. He ruled with a reign of terror, oppressed and killed many Ugandans, destroyed Uganda’s economy, and practiced negligence in the health sector, which later caused Uganda to be extremely afflicted with AIDS during the 1980s and early 1990s. This is the description of Uganda that as an American I grew up with. Having just spent my Easter Holiday there, in actuality that is not the Uganda I saw.

Before coming here to study abroad, I had all these grand ambitious plans for traveling around and seeing things. Once the life here really started and I realized how busy it would be with four classes and two full days of internships a week, as well as no long weekends off and how big these African countries take and how long transportation takes, I began to realize that Easter Weekend with five days off would be my best opportunity to see and do something new and different. First I was kicking around ideas of a safari in one of the many Kenyan National Parks, but I am content with my one safari I went on (see earlier blog). The other major option early on was to go to Tanzania and Mt. Kilimanjaro. That would have been fun as well, however a third option presented itself that sounded like the most fun, different, and exciting: to whitewater raft the Nile in Uganda. The Nile, the world’s longest river, begins near Lake Victoria in Jinja, Uganda, and whitewater rafting it sounded like an amazing way to spend my Easter Weekend. So four of us from my program: Alberto, Alicen, Nikki and I, as well as one Kenyan, Alex (a colleague of Alberto and Nikki’s with their internships), took the fourteen hour bus-ride to Jinja.

Uganda is an anomaly to me. Everywhere in Uganda has these extremely green, lush fields and vegetation is very abundant, and the topography has rolling hills. The scenery actually reminded me a lot of Northern Thailand with the mountains and forest/jungle setting everywhere. The people are very nice, friendly, and comforting, the land definitely receives plenty of rainfall (Uganda has never had a drought in its recorded history, whereas Kenya, in comparison is currently in the midst of a twelve year drought in some places and some places have not seen any rain in many years.) So with the climate and land ripe for agriculture and the people so nice, it seems very odd to me that Uganda’s economy is much weaker than Kenya’s economy. A few theories that I have as to this is that while organized fields grow everywhere, it appears as if the main crops that I saw were sugarcane, banana, and matoke (Uganda’s national dish, it is a root crop that looks exactly like a green banana but tastes more like a potato). If these are the main crops, it does not offer subsistence and cash crops for very much profit, and thus is difficult for the agriculture economy to grow strong. My other idea is the political history of Uganda. The country has been stable for the last twenty years (well, except in the far north, but that is a completely other story I have no first-hand experience with), with the same President during that time. But before that Uganda fell victim to many coups, and two dictators, Idi Amin, and Obote, who ruled with terror and raped the coffers of the state. The third thing Uganda has going against it is that it is landlocked, and must completely depend on trade through Kenya or Tanzania to get to a coast. Other than these three developmental challenges, Uganda should be far better off than it is, and I wish I had more than four days there to spend more time figuring this out and how to make it better.

Ok back to my weekend.

For this trip, we used this company called Nile River Explorers. They run both a campsite and the rafting company there. As we walked into the campsite, the first thing we saw is the Nile. The company built a bar/restaurant/ common area at the top of this hill, with a spectacular view of the Nile. I was surprised at how big the Nile was at this point already. The very source and beginning is only a few kilometers away from where we were camping, but it was already a few hundred yards across here. You could see and hear the rapids and that made me excited for the next day and rafting. We set our tent up down the hill closer to the water. We had a great view of the Nile from our tent, and sleeping at nite we could hear the roar of the rapids as they went over nearby Bujagali Falls (one of the class 5 rapids that we would do while rafting.) After getting the tent set up, we decided to go for a swim in the Nile. At this point of the Nile, it is the headwaters, so it is completely safe and relatively clean to swim in. This is the first experience in my life I have had with very strong current. We had to stay relatively close to shore, because swimming out far meant a strong current and a waterfall not to far away. I would consider myself a pretty strong swimmer, and I have to admit it was a fight and took a bit of a fight and an effort to swim. It was a lot of fun though and it was just amazing to be able to swim in the Nile and be in Uganda for this weekend.

Thursday nite we had a last Supper of sorts. For people doing rafting all day, they get a barbeque for dinner, however, since we were not rafting that day we decided to go to one of the “Mamas” in the hut style restaurants across the street for some real Ugandan food that a Ugandan mother makes. It really was a feast and reminded me of the Last Supper, especially as my nervous excitement built for the following day. The mama and her children kept bringing out plates of food for us, which was matoke, a very good avocado peanut sauce, sweet potatoes, steamed cabbage, beans, chapatti, and a few more dishes that I can’t remember. We went to sleep early that nite for the next day of rafting. On a day of rafting, they provide a breakfast, lite lunch on the river, and a bbq dinner, so that morning we took the truck to the rafting office/headquarters where we got breakfast. As we were eating, they had videos playing of other peoples raft adventures. We got in the truck and drove to the raft put in site and all got in groups for our adventure. Rafting the Nile is not like rafting in the United States. Having said that I had never whitewater rafting before, but it was much different than what I have heard. The Nile is much wider than most of the rivers in the US and other places, and the rafting company take many safety precautions. Along with the rafts there are about 5 safety kayakers for rescuing people who fall off, as well as a safety oar boat with a medical kit and other supplies. Nearly the entire Ugandan national kayak team works for the company as well, and they practice everyday so they are extremely experienced and really know the river well. For a full day of rafting we rafted 30 km. The first few were flat-water, where we went over different maneuvers for going through the current, as well as what to do if we flipped, etc. The guide that we had (a spirited Australian woman), let us swim through the first small rapids during our training tutorial (these were about grade 1 rapids I think, the mildest ones.) The first rapid that we took following the tutorial was a grade 3, and in retrospect, it was very easy. Somehow, on our first day rafting, we all fell out while going over it. I got my wake up right there to white water rafting and ended up in a whirlpool in the river upside down spinning under water. After a few seconds of that I got tired of it so I just hard kicked to the surface and had a safety kayak take me back to my boat. That was the only time all day that we fell, and we did not even flip once. Rafting this part of the Nile is considered the best class 5 rapid rafting in the world. The way the Class system works is that class 5 is the most extreme commercial rafting rapids in the world. There is a class 6 but only professional kayakers do these, and there is class 7 now that means un-navigable (or death as our guide said). There are about 4 class 5 rapids that we did and a handful more class 4. These rapids were everything from Bujagali Falls which was a huge wave and a small minor waterfall, to Silverback, which was where all the water from that point squeezed into a small stretch so it was major waves from the sides all coming together to meet at different points, making for very extreme, choppy water, to an 8 foot drop on Overtime. All of these rapids we took in stride over the course of the day, and did not flip the raft. Along with hitting all the rapids and getting knocked around, we also had long stretches where we were aloud to float in the current for 10 min or so each time and swim around. We got pineapple and cookie biscuits on the rafts for lunch and hung out for awhile and talked. This was the first half of the day. The second half of the rafting had 6 or so more rapids, and much more unexpected excitement.

As we were rafting in a few km stretch between 2 of the rapids, the sky turned black and very ominous, and the wind picked up. We faced a major headwind that began to push us backwards even with six people paddling as hard as they could. Lightning started to strike overhead (never bolts just flashes), and thunder. Then the hail came. The visibility became next to nothing, and it was so thick that we all had to look down in order to get through. The helmets that we all had to wear while rafting got their best use of the day during this storm. For about an hour-hour and a half we battled this storm, which was blowing us backwards or causing us not to move at all in the middle of the Nile, with visibility bad enough not to see the shore, and no where to dock even if we did see the shore. We just stroked on, sang songs, and Alex even led us in a Kenyan war cry for a while. During this time I think we all went through about all emotions from deliriousness, helplessness, fear, fun, exhilaration etc. We experienced this together though. It was a group strengthening exercise that we all went through together and came out stronger afterwards. Once the hail stopped in this rough patch the visibility became more and eventually we made it to the final rapid of the day, which was a class 6. This rapid (called the bad place), is the most extreme and as part of the day we even walked around the first part of it and put the boats back in at the very back part of the rapid, where it is still a class 5. The water was just rushing here and so fast and loud and I can now understand why class 6 is un-raftable. We made it through without flipping, and then paddled to our endpoint for the day. We had a bbq that nite and the movie from the day was played. (One of the kayakers on the river also operates a video camera for every run and films every group going over the rapids). It was a good recap of the extreme adventure of the day.

Our original Saturday plans were to do a repeat performance, but those had to change because we did not book the second day rafting in enough time and it filled up. So we went to Kampala instead. On the hour and a half matatu ride (or taxi as they are called in Uganda), I was excited because I was going to get to see another World Capital. I was not disappointed, and Kampala is absolutely gorgeous. Driving into the city, I thought Kampala looked more like it belonged in Italy than in Uganda. The city is situated mainly on six or seven hills, with big, beautiful buildings that were red roofed that looked like a Mediterranean city. Alex has a friend who is a professional tour guide, so he walked around for a couple hours and showed us the government buildings, and a few more sites. Kampala is absolutely beautiful! The thing that struck me most is how clean and orderly it is. There are trashcans on every corner (something Nairobi needs), and people actually use them. There is trash almost nowhere in the streets, the people are orderly and nice, and the city is so safe too. It reminds me a lot of Washington DC. We even went to an informal settlement, and they are more advanced than in Nairobi. There are initiatives in these settlements to clean up, build modernized housing for people, and we walked through a very large, centralized market in the settlements that is the largest market in East Africa, employing a hundred thousand people. From the roughly four hours I spent in Kampala, I think it is one of the best places I have been in Africa.

Back at our campsite in Jinja, it was time for dinner. Across the street from the campsite there is a guy who makes chapatti all day long. All of the restaurants around were already closed (except the one at the campsite but we wanted African food and this one catered towards wazungu). So we went to him for dinner. I ended up getting a chapatti with egg, tomato, onion, and avocado, and it was I think the best thing I have eaten in East Africa. It reminded me of getting crepes on the street in Paris, or of one of my favourite restaurants in Washington DC Café Bonaparte in Georgetown. Easter Morning a torrential rainstorm woke me up (it is the rainy season now so that is expected) and it left all of our things soaked. Once the storm stopped about 8am it was still very overcast and chilly, perfect conditions for another half day of whitewater rafting.

What a difference a couple days is with whitewater rafting. All of the mystique was gone, all of the surprise, I felt an air of confidence bordering on cockiness. Our guide on Sunday was likewise cocky, he knew we were out two days before because we made friends that day, and thus instead of getting the training tutorial for the first few km we just watched everyone else and talked and had fun. We also were in a different formation today. (The first day I had one of the front sides, today I was in the middle). The river is never the same though two days in a row and we had no reason to be as confident as we were, and I was expectation us to flip very soon. Going over Bujagali falls, we flipped and I got launched a good 10 feet off the raft and into the water. That was the first time I hit the water today, and it was still overcast and chilly, but the water felt good as it was warmer than the air. Over the very next rapid we very nearly flipped again. Alicen, who was in front of me, went in except her feet and we pulled her back up. My head and half my body was in the water but I was fighting and pulling the raft back to the other side to not flipped and stayed in. At this point, we realized we were really unequal with our weight distribution, and once things went in different formations it made things easier. On Silverback, the last class 5 that we would get for only a half day, I lost my balance while trying to paddle from a crouched position and fell out. I ended up under the raft and was fighting to grab part of the raft to hold on to get pulled up again, and was finally able to. What a difference one run to the next is. The first day we had the only woman raft instructor, who always gets playfully made fun of by the guy raft instructors, so I think she felt like she had something to prove and was very technical with her instruction. We also had not done it before so we did not know what to expect. The second day we had seen and conquered all the big rapids and we had a cocky male instructor who did not give us much instruction because we had minor experience. Shifting weight and formation I think also played into flipping and falling as much as we did. It really makes a difference how weight is distributed to not flip and conquer the rapids. This really was an amazing opportunity. To whitewater raft the Nile, to spend Easter Morning going over some of the most extreme rapids in the world on the world’s longest river. It was just all too surreal, and made for one incredibly memorable Easter.

Happy Easter

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter. While most Easters I spend going to mass and doing spiritual reflection, as well as watching the Cubs play and eating those resee's peanut butter eggs and jellybeans that I love so much, this year will be a little different.

This year I will be doing a little personal reflection. I will be physically challenging myself. Four others and I are leaving for Uganda tonite to spend the Easter break Whitewater Rafting the Nile at the source of this great river near Lake Victoria.

Happy Easter. I hope all of you have a great weekend.

Tune in Next Week

Harambee Jumamosi

"Mwaka wa 1963, Tulijishindia Uhuru, Bendera ya Mzungu iliteremsha, Mwafrika alianza kujitawala, Tuliambiwa 'Harambee! Harambee!'"

-Fungeni Macho by Eric Wainaina

The longer I am here, the more I find myself quoting the music of this fantastic musician Eric Wainaina. This song gives a little history of Kenya. The lyrics above translated from Kiswahili to English as: "In 1963. we won our independence, The white man's flag was brought down, Africans begun to rule themselves, we were taught to say 'Pull Together'.

Harambee, or "pull together" in Kiswahili. This word is entertwined with Kenyan history. It turned into the campaign slogan and motto of Kenya's first President Jomo Kenyatta, who encouraged Kenyans to pull together for independence from their British colonialist in the early 1960s. It seems that in the nearly sixty years since Uhuru (freedom/independence) harambee has lost its luster on many facets in this country. In a country with over forty distinct ethnic groups, all with their own languages, cultures, customs, ways of life, etc. in some cases it can be difficult to pull together to be identified as one. In Kenya, until very recently and even still now, many Kenyans identify themselves as Luo, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, or Akamba before you will here them utter "Mimi ni MKenya". Even still, with years of political exploitation and encouragement in the divides between the different ethnic groups, there is one facet in which ethnocentericm can not touch: Sports.

It is sports that unites a country together with a nationalistic fervor unlike anything else can. You can argue all you want that ultiamtely sports do not matter and are just a stupid game and completley insignificant, but as far as sporting contests go between two nations, I would completely disagree with you. I got my first taste in the greater impact of sports contest in my freshman year world politics class when I read the book "How Soccer Explains the World." This is a fantastic book that for all immediate purposes changed my life in a sense that is has influenced me towards desiring to go into the field of youth development through sports and/or cultural arts programs. This book explains how soccer has impacted specific countries all over the world: How Slobodan Milosevic incited the crazed soccer hooligans from Red Star Belgrade into becoming his death squad in Yugoslovia in the early 1990s, the book expalins how Football Club Barcelona became a rallying point for the Catalonian Bacelonans against the Castillan Spanish and their dictator Franco in the 1930s, and many other ways in which soccer becomes more than just a sport. This past Jumamosi, or Saturday, I expeirenced my own "how soccer explains the world moment" and I participated in my own Harambee.

On Saturaday, a world cup qualifier match occured here in Nairobi between the Kenyan national soccer team (the Harambee Stars), and the Tunisian team. On this day, I experieneced real Kenyan nationalism. Perhaps when a nation has mechanisms from which to be divided on, it becomes even more magicial to see a whole country together in support of something. Today these people were first and foremost Kenyan, and that is all that mattered. These fans had so much spirit, dancing around the stadium, running laps around, lighting flares, emnating different rallying cries. On this day I saw more shirts that said the word Kenya on it, more flags, more of the kenyan colours: the green for the Kenyan land, the black for the people, and the red for the blood spilled for independence, than I had any other time since my time being here. Even two hours before the game started the stadium was three-quarters full, and with a half hour before the game the whole stadium was full. Tens of thousands of fans all showing their pride, chanting, doing countless waves around the stadium. (Perhaps the wave was heard in the sky as well because on this day, during the game, the long rainy season began here in Kenya as a steady rain fell through most of the game and has been falling on and off every few hours ever since). These tens of thousands of fans were all supporting not just a soccer team of the eleven guys on the pitch, but supporting a microcosm of the way Kenya should, can, and will be; with people from the different ethnic groups all working together as one team, one nation.

As far as the game went, Kenya definately exuberated its spirit that is reflective of the nation as trying so hard to change, to become better (both as a soccer team and a nation). The Kenyan national team outplayed Tunisia on every category during the game: time of possesion, field position, shots, shots on goal, socring oppurtunities. They looked very good for most of the game, but a slip up very early on about five minutes cost Kenya the lead one nothing. They tried very hard to make it up, but missed just barely on many occasions there were only about five minutes left, when they finally equaled the score. Unfortunately that tie did not last long as they were caught up in the celebration perhaps and allowed what would be the game winning goal for Tunisia only a minute after Kenya equalized. The score ended with Tunisia winning 2-1, but Kenya looked very promising for the future.

Facing Mt. Kenya

“According to the tribal legend, we are told that in the beginning of things, when mankind started to populate the earth, the man Gikuyu, the founder of the tribe, was called by Mogai (the Divider of the Universe), and was given as his share the land with ravines, the rivers, the forests, the game and all the gifts that the Lord of Nature (Mogai) bestowed on mankind. At the same time Mogai made a big mountain which he called Kere-Nyaga (Mount Kenya), as his resting-place when on inspection tour, and as a sign of his wonders.”

From Kikuyu Creation story, found in "Facing Mt. Kenya" by Jomo Kenyatta

After reading Facing Mt. Kenya, an anthropological study of the Kikuyu ethnic group written by Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya, and also reading Unbowed, the excellent memoir written by another Kikuyu Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and the 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate and the first African woman and environmentalist to win the prize, I had learned that this mountain held major importance for this ethnic group, and for Kenya itself. Traditional rites and customs were historically practiced facing this mountain, and it has taken on mythical proportions as it is covered in clouds and/or haze the majority of the time. With this mountain having so much importance for the country, I desired to see it. I did some research, and found that the town of Nanyuki offered the best views and was the closest to the mountain, and thus was my destination to see this mountain. So two of my fellow program participants, Amanda and Alexis, and I set off for Nanyuki this past weekend.

If most people were asked to describe an equatorial environment and climate, they would imagine a tropical climate with hot and sticky weather, forests and possibly even a beach. Kenya’s scenery is completely different; however, as the second tallest mountain in Africa at 17,000 ft, Mt. Kenya looms over the equator and acts as its marker. Friday afternoon we took a matatu to Nanyuki. I was very excited for the scenery en route, as I was expecting it to be much the same, but even more spectacular than the previous week’s trip to central province (see previous post). It was up to a certain point as the hilly highlands and heavily forested area of the Central Highlands was passing by my window. But then, I was surprised at how quickly the scenery changed and became flat, as the Lakipia plains unfolded in front of me. This area was mostly flat with low, dry shrubbery dotting the landscape. This was not the scenery that I was expecting as I neared the equator. The first time I saw Mt. Kenya, I was unsure that it was the mountain. It was certainly impressive, but unlike any other mountain I had ever seen. Looking out over these flatlands, I saw the gradual slope that steadily rose up until it became these two peaks that served as its crown. True to form, the peaks were shrouded by cloud-cover, so I was unsure of how tall the mountain actually was. I had never before seen a mountain so spread out, as it started miles away and culminated into the clouds.

While looking at Mt. Kenya as we were entering Nanyuki, we crossed over a sign that said equator on it. Before my eyes I had two of the three reasons why I chose Nanyuki over the other towns with views of the mountain. The third reason was the place where we were to be staying that nite, Nanyuki River Camel Camp. I was very excited to camp in authentic nomadic Somali-style huts on Friday nite. When we arrived to the camp, the sun was just sinking into darkness. Since there was no electricity at the camp, a camp worker showed us to our huts by kerosene lantern, and gave these to us so we could find our way back. These huts had tree branches that served as support beams, and very tightly woven straw that served as the walls of the hut. The door was not very big, as it only set about 3 feet off the ground, and was made of something like burlap or canvas. Inside the hut were two small beds made of very tightly woven straw. The floor was the earth, just the dirt that was underneath of my feet. The camp was created by a British expat named Chris, who worked for over twenty years in the northern part of Kenya as part of a UN “take back the desert” campaign to combat desert encroachment. He is a trained zoologist who worked alongside veterinarians with the animals from that region, including camels. I learned a lot about camels and far Northern Kenya. That area of Kenya is completely different than the rest of Kenya, full of deserts and lax law enforcement, giving it a wild-west feel. The campsite had eight huts and a central, much larger, different hut that resembled a gazebo with a fire pit and a floo that was a congregating point. Besides our group of three, there was one other group their of students/young professionals who were working at a hospital in the town of Meru, on the other side of the Mountain from where we were. These students were mostly Danish, but a German and an American were also in that group. Over the fire Chris talked of his experiences and then we discussed camel riding the next day. We suggested doing it in the early morning and agreed that we would do a short two hour ride early the next morning. By this time it was late so I grabbed my kerosene lamp and found my way to the hut to go asleep.

The next day I woke up very early because I wanted to see the sunrise over Mt. Kenya. I was told by many people that the only times that the mountain could clearly be seen were during the early morning and evening hours. This was not true as the mountain was as hazy as the nite before it, but it was still pretty seeing it as the rising sun painted it a palette of vivid blues and purples. Also unlike most perceptions of equatorial climate, when I first woke up in the morning I was cold for the first time on this trip. For the whole time that I have been here the temperatures have been in the mid-80s in the day and the low 60s at nite, but when I woke up on Saturday morning it was probably below 50 degrees, but it felt great to have this nice change. Soon enough it was time for a camel ride, which was an experience in itself. I have ridden horses, I have ridden elephants, but a camel is nothing like either one. And low and behold, they gave me the playful kid of the group of camels that was subsequently the hardest one to handle. As soon as I climbed onto the saddle the camel stood up. Camels are incredibly tall and instantly I was about ten feet up in the air. It is not a smooth climb either as they rock back and forth to stand up or sit down, so when the camel sat back down, stood up and sat back down again all in the span of about 10 minutes I felt like I was on a roller coaster with all the extreme angles I had to orient myself with. Once the camels were all calmed down and the group all settled up, we set out for our ride. Riding a camel is an interesting experience as well because of the way that they move. They move their legs according to side, so the left front and hind legs will move together, and then the right front and hind legs will move. This creates a constant swaying motion from side to side. It was a beautiful morning for a camel ride, and the scenery was pretty as well. We were in a desert setting around Nanyuki, as the long rainy season has not started yet and much of the country is suffering from a drought. So the scenery during the ride was of low, dry shrubbery in the foreground (from which the camels just stepped over), and the mountain as the backdrop. As we were riding, I encountered Massai children herding their sheep, goats, and cows, and the occasional person riding around on a motorcycle. It was truly an amazing experience getting to go camel riding in a desert setting and look at a large mountain. I felt like I was crossed between being Lawrence of Arabia and John Wayne. After about an hour and a half of riding it was time to go back to the camp, experience the rollercoaster that is getting off of a camel once more, (only once this time), and then head off towards the next adventure in our day.

This adventure involved heading to the equator. We walked a little ways outside of town where the equator sign was, and it really illustrated that Mt. Kenya was on the equator, with the angle of the sign pointing straight towards the high peaks of the mountain. On the equator we took many fun and funny pictures: Me lying on both sides, sitting down, and climbing the sign, and the girls running through the equator and jumping over it. The one trick that we absolutely had to have illustrated was the demonstration of Coriolis Effect. This is the effect that causes water to spin in a certain direction depending on if you are in the northern or southern hemisphere. They have pitchers of water set up for this experiment. We walked about 50 feet to the side that the southern hemisphere is on, poured water into a bowl, and put a stick in the water, and the floating stick started to rotate clockwise. Then, we walked to 50 feet on the northern hemisphere side and did the same thing, and the stick rotated counter-clockwise (as most of you have seen every time you flush a toilet). Then, for the climax of this experience we stood under the equator sign directly on the equator and performed the experiment. The floating stick sat idle in the water without rotating. One other thing of note that I forgot to mention that just happened to be a cool coincidence is that we were on the equator during the Spring Equinox. I learned on that day what an equinox exactly is, and that it is the day (or days because there is a fall one too) in which the amount of daylight and nite time are the exact same. And only directly on the equator during an equinox will the sun be exactly straight over head, and it just so happened that we were on the equator at noon on the spring equinox so we got to experience the highest point of the sun’s path for the entire year. It was a unique coincidence that I had no idea was occurring until we were told that.

Having done everything there was to do in Nanyuki, but not quite ready to go back yet as it was only early afternoon; we decided to do a little exploring. We found bota-botas (the motor cycle taxis in Kenya, see Kisumu post for more) and told them to take us as close to Mt. Kenya as we could possibly go without going into Mt. Kenya National Park (this national park surrounds the mountain and costs quite a bit of money to get into, which is something that we did not have nor were willing to pay for only a short time period). So the bota-botas dropped us off inside this Wildlife Preserve, and it just so happened that it also had the best views of the mountain. As well as lucking out with being on the equator during the equinox, we were extremely lucky because the mountain was in full view with no cloud cover or haze surrounding it, which for this time of day was extremely unusual but worked out in our favour. So we just hung out in this field and took more pictures and pulled crazy shenanigans with the mountain in the background. We almost forgot that this was a nature reserve, until we were soon joined off in the distance by some antelope and warthogs. We decided to explore more and walked down this dirt path in the preserve further, and on this walk we also saw llamas, baboons, and wildebeest. It was like a safari, only we were not in vehicles and unintentionally much closer to the animals than we should have been. It was still amazing to see these animals just roaming free and open to us, but did not press our luck to get any closer. After a time spent in this park we went back to town and went back.

It was truly amazing the amount of cool, unique experiences that we could have in over just a 24-hour time frame. We lived like Somali nomads in their type of huts with kerosene lanterns as lights, watched the sunrise over the 2^nd tallest mountain in Africa, rode camels, hung out on the equator during the spring equinox, and made friends with animals. When I decided that I wanted to see Mt. Kenya and planned a trip to make this happen, I had no idea that I would end up facing Mt. Kenya from a camel’s back.

Central Province Part I

This past weekend, our group took a day trip to a bird sanctuary in the Central Province in Kenya. While on the trip, staring at the spectacular scenery of the highland, mountainous region of the foothills of Mt. Kenya, and the very tall, green trees everywhere, I had a revelation. The landscape in Kenya is as diverse and reminds me a lot of the scenery in the Western part of the United States. It ranges from the desert areas and the canyons and escarpments from the Great Rift Valley, which reminds me of the New Mexico area, to the highlands with the tall green trees and the mountains, which reflect the Wyoming area.

The Central Province has historically been the most blessed region of Kenya. During the colonial period, it was known as the “white highlands”, the area where the British colonialist settled and forced the Kikuyu population that considers this area their homeland as workers on their farms. It is in this area that Kenya’s world famous tea and coffee fields are the most abundant, and it is this region that the most money has been given in Kenya’s history. The reason after this is that post Independence; there have been three Presidents of Kenya. Two of them have been Kikuyu, the first president Jomo Kenyatta, and the current one Mwai Kibaki. This area has a Kikuyu majority, and during the Kenyatta administration Kikuyus were major benefactors and recipients of land and other subsidies. I learned about this in my Politics and Culture of Kenya class, but I was actually seeing this now. The houses were much bigger in the area and made with much nicer materials than the tin shanties that I had seen in much of the rural areas in Kenya. While physically the land did not look that much different than Machakos, in Ukambani area, Western Province (see earlier post), it was very apparent that the central province has had access to much more money.

The trip to the bird sanctuary was lackluster, it was fun to go hiking in the heavily wooded area that we were in, but at the same time it was pretty uneventful. We only saw a couple birds: an owl and some sort of dove, and a peacock as we were leaving the place, but it is interesting to note the difference in economic breakdown of the different areas in Kenya. I was hoping to get to see Mt. Kenya, but we were too far away and it was a hazy day so that was not possible. Stay tuned for Part II after my hopefully pending trip to the town closest to Mt. Kenya in Central Province this coming weekend for more on the area.

Dreams of His Father’s Land: Kisumu and Kogelo

Whenever I first came to Kenya, I began to plan various trips that I wanted to take. Now, two months later, I have seen just about everything in Nairobi and felt the need to start seeing the rest of the country. One of the places to see at the top of my list was Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the world (behind Lake Superior I think), and is one of the most striking geographical features in Africa. Once I began to plan this trip, Kisumu became the best place to go because it is on the lake, and is the third largest city in Kenya. Kisumu is also in the heart of Luo-land, the third largest tribe in Kenya, and the one that holds the closest place in my heart. When we first came to Kenya, all of the people I met were Luo: my assistant program director, the cultural assistants and friends who helped teach us about Kenya, a lot of the Kenyans at my work are Luo, and our President Barack Obama is a Luo. I wanted to see this area where all these amazing people come from, and so this past weekend I did.
Just like Barack Obama made a trip to Kenya and the Lake Victoria area when he was young to discover his roots, I feel now that this trip has been the most remarkable one on so many levels, but mainly I felt as if I was able to dig deeper into the heart of Kenya and its people, and really experience this trip as a Kenyan.

I owe this to the amazing people I traveled with. Last week when I was on my rural retreat (see earlier post), the guys from the Initiative for Sports and Social Arts Kibera(One of the organizations that AU Abroad has an internship with this semester) came along, and I had an amazing time with these guys. I said I wanted to go to Kisumu soon, and one of them, Andrew, said he grew up near there and wanted to come along when I go. He also suggested that I go to Kogelo (which is about an hour away and where President Obama’s paternal Grandmother Sarah Obama lives). So I took this trip with the ISSA guys: Andrew, Tony, and OJ, and Andrew’s girlfriend. These people are absolutely amazing as Andrew, Tony, and OJ are best friends and have a lot of fun together and goof around and have the most amazing and funniest conversations. They are also a model for Kenyans, as they are three best friends from three different tribes working for the same organization for the betterment of the country. OJ is a Luo, Andrew is a Luhya (also from Lake Victoria region and neighbors with the Luo), and Tony is a Kamba (from the area we went last year on the rural retreat).

Because of a tight schedule with classes and work, my only option to Kisumu was two overnite busses, as Kisumu is a seven hour bus ride. So, thus, we left Friday nite late and arrived in Kisumu Saturday morning at around 5am. Luckily, the ISSA guys had a friend who lived in Kisumu, Anastacia (or Thetu as they call her), and we crashed with her when we got there until the morning started. She was with ISSA at the very beginning of their organization, and was the program officer for their biggest program: Mr. and Ms. Kibera, but she moved to Kisumu for a new job.) This was my first experience inside a Kenyan young professional’s home, and we used this for our home base for the trip. It was not the unlike what a single young professional would have in DC. It was a small house which would be about studio size, with a kitchen area outside the house on one side and on the other side a shower and bathroom outside the house. When we got to Thetu’s house, she served us maybe the best Kenyan chai I have ever had (that or that it was 530am), and fed us for breakfast. One thing that I have started to learn here is that Kenyans are extremely hospitable, as they will always offer you chai or food when you visit, and I am grateful for this. Once the day broke and it was a reasonable hour, we set out for our day. Walking down Kisumu, I noticed that there were more bicycles on the road than cars. These are called bota-bota, and serve as taxis in Kisumu. It’s a bicycle with a small platform behind it above the rear wheel that the passenger sits. This struck me as both different, and I liked that bicycles were utilized so much. From an environmental standpoint, it keeps pollution down, and people exercise this way too. I wish that in major US cities, or even in Nairobi, bicycles would catch on for public transport. One of the many running jokes of the trip was that you were more likely to get hit by a bike than by a car. (By the way now would be a good time to address the origin of bota-bota. The term involves the Kenyan-Ugandan border and how in the past the way to travel across the border was by bike, if you paid someone they would take you across the border, thus bota-bota.)

So we picked up a matatu, and headed out to Kogelo, Obama’s ancestral homestead to visit his grandmother. We took the matatu to the nearest town to Kogelo (an hour outside of Kenya), and had to take motor bota-botas (motorcycle taxis) the rest of the way about 15 more minutes to Kogelo. As we were going into the middle of nowhere, I had glimpses of the Lake off in the distance at certain points. We also drove past traditional Luo homesteads (round mud huts with thatched roofs), and I got excited because it seemed like this was going to be an authentic experience. The bota-bota dropped us off right outside the Obama homestead, and as we walked up, I was a little disappointed because it seemed not traditional and had just been remodeled it looked like. It also has a full time security post on the grounds from Kenyan police due to the rise of our current President. When we walked through the gate, OJ asks me “Ryan, can you believe that this moment is happening?” I hadn’t really thought about it being a big moment, but then it hit me that I am really going to meet the US President’s grandmother at her homestead in Kenya! The Kenyans were excited to, as they were brushing their hair, checking their clothes and whatnot. So when we got there the guards said that she comes out at 11am, so we had a few minutes to wait. Plastic chairs were arranged in small groups that the grandmother could walk around and greet and talk with each one. I asked OJ how to say hello in Luo so I could be ready to greet her when she came to our group. When she first waked out of hew house and over to greet the other group that was first to be talked to, one of my friends saw her first. They pointed her out and said “there’s Mama Sarah”. She is just this simple elderly Kenyan woman, wearing a traditional looking green dress with a red cloth wrapped around her head (as you see many Kenyans wearing), and walked with a cane. She reminded me a lot of my own Grandmother, who is similarly elderly, still walks on her own and lives on her own, and is still going strong. The parallels with my own Grandmother continued as through the course of our conversation, Sarah Obama gave off this very unassuming, down to earth vibe, as well as her mind is also extremely sharp, and my grandma is the same way. After a few minutes of visiting with another group, she came over to receive her visitors… us. We all first introduced ourselves, saying our name and greeting her… (I said hello to her in Luo, but cannot remember the word at this time), said my name and that I came from Illinois, to which I was told she responded that is where the President planted his political roots, and everyone else greeted her, and she responded with greetings in each of their respective tribes (it still amazes me that Kenyans can tell the difference amongst themselves). While talking to her she explained how this is where her husband (Barack’s grandfather), and her lived her, as well as her son (Barack Obama Sr.) lived here and both males are buried here. She gave a little history of her son (like what we all have heard countless times from the media and our President during the election), and also talked about how the President came and stayed here when he younger to learn about his family. She asked about me, and one of my friends explained to her in Luo who I was, that I was a student and also working here and what not, as well as who they were and what ISSA does. She spoke with us for about fifteen minutes, and before the end my friend asked her if we could get pictures. She said yes and specifically said because of me and that when I go back to America and tell people of this event that a picture would be the only way to prove that (as the security protection were adamant about not letting anyone take pictures with her or of the homestead). I am still in awe of the whole experience. Who would have ever thought that I could just walk into the American President’s grandmother’s homestead, in Africa no less a half a world away, and she would be this nice and assuming and come out and greet and talk with us like it were a friendly conversation over a card game or something. She has also become a public figure in Kenya, as she is now a UN Goodwill Ambassador for either health or the environment or something like that( I am not sure). Sarah Obama is such a lovely woman, and now when I am back in Nairobi and people ask about my trip and I tell them I met her, their eyes sparkle and they get this amazing sense of pride and admiration for her. This was an amazing highlight of my trip, and it was only the beginning of the weekend and the first thing we did on the trip- I was worried that the trip reached its peak at the beginning and would only go down from there.

I was very wrong in that sense, and as we were heading back to Kisumu, my friend Andrew (who grew up near a small village between Kisumu and Kogelo called Buwanda) told me “I think we should stop by my house. I want to say hi to my mom.” I got really excited because I was going to get the opportunity to experience and get a taste of a real Kenyan lifestyle, and this was going to be an amazing, unique event that as a white foreigner I never dreamed I would have this opportunity to experience real Kenyan life while I was here. So we got off the matatu near his house, and set off down a path for about a mile until we reached his homestead. Andrew grew up in very beautiful area with tall rolling green hills and shrubbery. As we were walking down the path Tony pointed to a group of trees that lined one side virtually the whole way down and pointed out that they were guava trees. When we reached Andrew’s family homestead, the first thing that I noticed that it was a decent-sized home with a couple cows out front who greeted us by mooing when they saw us in between lunching and grazing on their grass, and a few chickens roaming around. Andrew’s mother was not home yet, and so we just relaxed on some of the big boulders out front of the house in the shade under the trees. There were little kids who were running around playing (who I believe were Andrew’s nieces and nephews and other neighbor kids, as his older brother and his wife lived right next door), and once they spotted us they ran over and greeted us. Andrew told me that they were going to slaughter a chicken for lunch, and that they had to find the one that was going to be the lunch. They joked that it had run off that morning as no one had seen it. Once it was spotted, it was difficult to catch and was extremely funny watching Andrew and OJ chasing after it around the house diving under bushes and around trees trying to catch it. By about the third time around the house, Tony got up from sitting next to me, walked to a corner, waited for the chicken to come near, and just grabbed it and handed it to Andrew, who gave it to his nephews to do the slaughtering. They invited me back to the back to watch, so I accepted out of politeness and went near. For the second weekend in a row, I was watching an animal be killed for our food. I have to admit, it is easier to watch a chicken be slaughtered than a goat, as it is less of a process. Once the chicken was killed, Andrew, OJ, and I went for a walk in the area and he showed me around, pointing out his primary school and introducing me to some of his neighbors. While walking back to his house, Andrew told me “Ryan, when you meet my brother you have to greet her in Luhya, and told me how to say hello” (which I also don’t remember but it will come back to me). So when we got back she was there and I could see the resemblance to Andrew. She was dressed like a normal modern Kenyan, wearing a t- shirt and trousers, and when I greeted her she laughed at my Luhya. Andrew’s girlfriend Melissa and his mom helped began chopping up cabbage and preparing our meal, and we went outside and relaxed, where Andrew had stalks of sugarcane he chopped up and taught me how to eat right off the stalk. (You have to remove the very hard wooden outer part, and then bite and rip off the inner part, suck the juice out of it and then spit out the rest). (It’s kind of like a bigger, tougher, more complicated sunflower seed, but at the same time is extremely good. We went through about three very big sugar cane stalks between our group. (The sugar cane stalks are about 5 feet long).
This traditional Kenyan family dinner was the chicken that I saw slaughtered, and ugali and cabbage/mixed vegetables. The ugali tasted different than when I make it (and I make really good Kenyan food I must say), but it was good. I was explained that they grind up their own corn meal to make it, and that is why it was different a little bit than the bought maize flour that we buy. It was a good dinner, followed by good chai. Chai is different here, as they heat up the milk, and heat up water separately, and mix them together with the tea bag. It is thicker and really good as well, as Kenya is blessed with having some of the best tea (and coffee) in the world. We took pictures after with the family, and then said an after dinner prayer (this is a very catholic family, as most of Kenya is very religious and has visible prayers all of the time,) and left to go back to Kisumu. When we got back to Kisumu a couple hours later, we went to a market to buy supplies for a dinner, which we had at Thetu’s house. That dinner was beef stew, ugali, and sukumawiki. (This is the most traditional Kenyan dinner, and one that I have to admit I am really good at making.) You know, it has just occurred to me that most of you don’t know what I am talking about with this dinner. Beef stew is self explanatory, it is just beef that is thrown into a pot with a tiny amount of water, and it is just cooked over a burner and boiled. All you really need is the juice from the meat, but most Kenyans also throw in this mchuri meat seasoning which adds some good spice, and when I cook it I also chop up onion and throw it in too. Sukumawiki is essentially steamed kale (or collard greens, which I believe it is called in America). It is named Sukumawiki because it translates to “push the week”, which means that it is very cheap to buy stalks and you can usually make enough to last a week, or pushing the week for the poor people. Ugali is the other main dish and it is my specialty of all three. It is just maize flour and water. You bring water to a boil and then periodically add maize flour while stirring the whole time, until it gets to be a very dense, spongy like cornmeal cake. It was fun to be with these young Kenyans, who were cooking, as it was like a real authentic experience.

That Saturday was one of the most fun, and one of the most beneficial days that I have had while here in Kenya. When I came here I not only wanted to experience as much of Kenya as I could with traveling and learning, but I also wanted to dig as deeply into the culture and experience what real Kenyan life was like as much as I could. As a mazungu (white foreigner), that serves as an obstacle mostly, because how could I have a real Kenyan experience. However, on that Saturday I felt that I really had. Being in Kogelo, seeing the traditional Luo huts, (watching a guy in the process of thatching the roof) in the process on the walk back from Sarah Obama’s homestead all helped contribute to this. As did meeting Barack Obama’s grandmother, who is just a simple Kenyan woman and still lives like that. But going to Andrew’s home, eating sugar cane and a slaughtered chicken, and seeing how he grew up really made me feel like I got the experience that I wanted to have but did not see how was going to be possible while here.

The next day was the day to experience Kisumu. The lake is the dominating feature of the area so we headed down to it at mid-day. The first time I saw the lake I did not think it was a lake, but a green field. This is because in the bay around Kisumu, it is dominated by water hyacinth that has completely eaten up and taken over that part of the lake. You can not even see the water from the part of Kisumu closest to the lake. It is all plants that even are flowering. I thought this was really sad and asked about treatment. Andrew said that you could kill the plants, but that would also kill the fish (which is a huge industry in the area and historically the way of life of the Luo people, much like the Massai are pastoral herders, the Luo are known as fisherman). Andrew also explained to me that they hyacinth are strong and used to make baskets and what not, so at least they have made a functional purpose out of this unfortunate pollution to the lake. Along the lakefront bay, or hyacinth bay as it looks, are numerous fish shacks which I was excited to go to and one of the things that I wanted to do most when I was planning a Kisumu trip. So we had fried fish for lunch. When you walk into the shack, they have fish displayed on a table that are fresh from the lake, and they bring more in as they are caught and cut up and fried (all fish on display are already freshly fried lightly once). So you pick your fish and choose to have it friend again or fried or cooked in a stew with sukuma. It all comes with ugali as well. I have to say that the fish that we got was the best fish I have ever had in my life!!

After the amazing fish feast, we headed out for an hour and a half walk or so through Kisumu and up the lake to an area called hippo point that is the best view of the lake in the area, and way past all the plants to the real part of the lake. The last thing that I wanted to do before leaving Kisumu (as we had a 9pm bus back that nite), was watch the sunset over the lake. So we got there in late afternoon and stayed a couple hours until sunset. OJ, Tony, and I all ventured out onto some rocks on the shore and sat among some kids who were fishing. For me this trip was coming full circle. Here I was in the Luo region, on the most important and vital feature of their region Lake Victoria. I had met with a prominent family member of the most famous Luo on Earth the day before, and now was sitting here watching some Luo children fishing. These kids were practicing the same heritage that their ancestors had as well. Then I watched as OJ (also a Luo) took their rod and began fishing. On this trip I had had the whole Luo and Luhya (the Lake Tribes), and full Kenyan experience. I had met and spoke with the elderly and parental figures, was with the youth, my friends the whole time (in Kenya, the youth age group is defined as 18-35), and was sitting here watching Kenyan children play around the lake, much like their older family had I am sure when they were younger. The sunset over the lake was absolutely beautiful, and as the sun was setting, I saw a fisherman’s boat pass right under the sunset, returning to the dock for the evening. The last thing that I did in Kisumu was get a bota-bota (the bicycle type), from Thetu’s house to the bus station. Andrew said he couldn’t let me leave with Kisumu without getting one, as it is a pretty distinct part of Kisumu.

The trip was a very quick one (I was only in Kisumu from 5am Saturday morning-9pm Sunday nite), but there was really no other way to do the trip with my time constraints. It was the best trip that I have had so far and the most amazing weekend here. I feel very fortunate to have these Kenyan friends that I did to give me the real Kenyan experience I dreamed about but did not think would be possible. I am forever grateful to my friends the ISSA guys OJ, Andrew, and Tony, as well as to Andrew’s girlfriend Melissa for coming on this trip and making it so much fun, and the former ISSA girl Thetu for showing me around Kisumu and letting us crash at her place and use it as a base. When I came to Kenya, I knew that it would be the trip and experience of a lifetime, and I am sure that this trip will be up there as one of the biggest causes for this remarkable experience.