Kiea's Thoughts

My friend Kiea was here to visit me for a week and half and I wanted to share her impressions of Africa with you since I thought they were really insightful.
Here are her first impressions of Africa.


Mzungu:

Mzungus are what white people or foreigners are called here in Nairobi. From where I am staying with Kristin in town, mzungus are few and far between. Walking down the streets it is very clear that I am out of place. At least I have dark hair and tan skin so I blend in better that Kristin and her blond hair and pale skin but there is definitely no place to hide. When I was in Greece and Italy I could sometimes pass for a local on the streets or at least blend in with the tourist crowds but no such luck here. I do get a lot of staring though. I don’t think my casual attire helps much because everyone there seems to walk around in the nicest suits no matter how hot it is. Even the poorest of people are own suits and are more presentable than my dressed up of work days. Kristin’s house maid who lives the largest slum in Africa (about 1 million people) even is styling.

My first day here, after arriving the Nairobi airport at 4am, was mostly spent catching up on sleep and slowly exploring the immediate area. I wandered down to the nice hotel nearby to lay by the pool while Kristin has to work and I took in the Africa bit by bit. I was really happy to see Kristin and how she has settled into this different country. I admittedly was quite nervous about being in Nairobi since I did now know how I would be received. After about 2 days of culture shock, I feel much more comfortable.

This week for the most part has been checking out what Nairobi and its surrounding areas had to offer. Sadly, there has been a drought here (except today) and Kristin’s trusty taxi driver warned me that of the animals would be in the Nairobi game park if I went on an expensive tour. No cool wild animals. Therefore I spent a half of a day checking out the Elephant Orphanage, the Giraffe park and a place where single mothers are employed to make beads and necklaces. I passed by the rich part of town with houses comparable to the US wealthy neighborhoods and then I passed the African slum. Very strange to see them so close to each other. It makes me a little angry.

Today I went to the Nairobi National Museum to see a lot of stuffed animals birds and game- not quite the same but it will have to do. However the museum was packed with children on field trips and there were more than entertained by me, the Mzungo. So many smiles, hellos and hand holding. I love how kids can lack inhibitions
Tonight I am about to go pack up for our weekend in Uganda since we need to leave extra early tomorrow. Kristin and I and 8 other scholarship students and friends are headed to see some of rural Africa and life outside of the more westernized Nairobi. Im so excited. Additionally, we are going to do some rafting/floating on the Nile so that will be an adventure too.

Desensitized:

Desensitized, suspicious and a bit cynical is what you have to become as a westerner to live and operate in east Africa in my opinion. I had a conversation with one of Kristin’s fellow Fogarty scholarship winner who hosted us in Kampala, Uganda this weekend about this. It’s amazing what kind of environment your body and mental state can adjust to out of necessity. Anyone who has spent time in a less than stable, corrupt county or environment can understand….It’s hard to explain but I guess it’s like something that is consistent and uncontrollable like earthquakes or hurricanes. At first your terrified, intrigued or excited and your body is full alert- fight or flight. Then when news informs you of a category 5 hurricane headed straight for your house for the 3rd time, it’s just another fall day in Florida- your just annoyed at this point. Or when you (I didn’t) get arrested for 45 minutes by the corrupt policemen with large guns looking for extra cash at the end of their shift at a checkpoint in Nairobi because someone in your packed car doesn’t have their seatbelt on and you don’t want to pay the bribe- it’s another morning commute in Nairobi.

Or Malaria is as common as the flu- “Oh, she’s out sick again with Malaria, third time this summer”. It’s just how life is. Cynicism is a trait that is inevitable as well. All of the crap that people try and pull, like charging you more because your white and hoping you won’t notice, it’s hard to give people the benefit of the doubt. That comes with living in a city anyways.

Desensitized and cynical is what I was becoming for the short time I was in east Africa- truly Amazing. I really think it’s just how your body adjusts to such a culture change. What an adventure! I love it

Uganda:

East Africa is such a unique place. It’s people, the social system and the variety of ecosystems/landscapes. I was lucky to come and visit Kristin when she had planned a trip with fellow students to visit Kenya’s neighboring country Uganda to float the Nile river and check out it’s Capital city of Kampala.

Me, Kristin, Anne and Damian (the Nairobi crew) left Nairobi at 7am Saturday morning for a 12 hour bus ride to Jinja, Uganda. The 12 hours seems to fly by since there was so much to see along the way. I had a chance to see the small poor villages where people lived in straw huts and markets packed with people. I also experienced the countyside’s ever changing landscape going from dry and deserty, into an evergreen forest and out into a jungle that would resemble a South American jungle. We even passed right through the equator line.

After one full Kenny Rogers video (hilarious right?) shown on the bus and 3 really bad African movies, we arrived Jinja about 7 pm and met with the 7 other students gathering there. Summer and Miriam booked us a cabin in a westerner filled campsite on the banks of the Nile River. There we grabbed some food and a few Ugandan beers and got ready to raft early the next morning.

We left about 830 and the ride to the drop off point for the rafts was an experience itself. In an opened top van we were offroading to the river through some villages and were chased down by their extremely excited children waving and shouting hello. I felt like a celebrity! Very cool.

The van dropped us off at the beginning of the floating route which actually is the VERY start of the Nile river. Kristin and I had a blast floating, swimming and playing in the river and seeing all kinds of monkeys swinging alongside the river and people washing their clothes. It was surreal that we were actually there! After leaving the river we recooped near the river and hiked around river falls until it was time to head to Kampala a few hours away.

The Nairobi crew had one more day to spend in Uganda so we checked ourselves into a hotel that night in the larger city of Kampala. I really liked Kampala. Things weren’t as crazy as Nairobi, it was much safer at night and they actually had more civilized things like sidewalks, nicer buildings, normal looking stores and street lamps. We spent most of the day navigating the city by foot, checking out the craft market and eating. We even went to a Mexican restaurant for HH Margaritas- Crazy! The familiarity was nice.

Side note: East Africans LOVE Obama! Barack and Michelle are the leading baby names in Kenya and Obamas grandmother, who lives outside of Kisumu- which we passed through, is a celebrity. I even considered getting an Obama scarf with his face on it.

Birthday Week

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes last week! You will all be happy to know that I had a great time on my birthday celebrating here in Kenya. For lunch, I went out to traditional Kenyan food with the administrative staff manger for the pediatric study I help with. It was really fun and she took me for my first ugali and matatu ride (surprising that I haven’t done either yet given that I have been here for 2 months now). Afterwards, I headed to the spa at the gym I belong to and got an hour massage for only $18! You know me, always one for the bargains! That evening we headed out for Indian food with a group of people from the UW, which was really fun. Anne, Bhavna, and Lisa organized for an amazing chocolate cake to be delivered after dinner (thanks ladies!). It came with lit candles and was served on a giant pizza looking tray. And, of course, everyone sang (don’t worry grandma, even though I missed your individual birthday song this year I was still sung to).

We had two interesting adventures last weekend. First, we went in search of Halloween costumes to this used clothing market that was absolutely crazy. It was a huge structure of tiny little 8ft by 8ft little wooden/plastic booths all right next to each other, each filled with clothes and shoes from all over the world. The floor in between, and often of the stalls themselves, was dirt and because it had just rained, the ground was nice and muddy. Some shops had boards you could stand on and they would put plastic down on the floor when you tried clothes on. The vendors were fairly good at guessing your sizes, most of which I had no idea since a lot of the clothes were from Europe. It is easiest to try on clothes if you dress in the appropriate attire. For me, this meant wearing a skirt so I could try on pants and a tank top so I could try on tops. The inside was packed with people and everyone was trying to search for clothes. I managed to get a shirt for 30 shillings (50 cents) and was pretty proud of the find! I think we managed to get fairly decent prices even though we were mzungu. I never thought I would, but I even finally gave in and bought my first pair of skinny jeans. I was trying to buy them for $10 and the guy was really resistant so I left. He ended up chasing me down at another booth later on and agreeing to my price. I guess he really wanted to sell those jeans. One thing that was really funny about the market was how the guys in it tried to specifically pull clothing brands you would know. They kept pulling old navy for me, haha! Also, they have no idea what cheaper and more expensive brands are back in Europe or the US. I was trying to get a used pair of shoes that were Target brand and the guy was trying to charge me $20 while Anne managed to get a pair of some really nice brand for only $5. Oh well!

Last weekend we also went to the MAMA’s (MTV African Music Awards). It was hosted by Wyclef and had a guest appearance by Akon. It was held in this huge arena and it was actually really cool to see Wyclef in concert. He gave a half hour performance before he hosted the awards, which was absolutely amazing! It was just crazy to think that I traveled to Africa and that’s where I saw Akon and Wyclef in concert. We also got to see guest performances from all the top popular singers in Africa. Most of the African artists were from South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya. It was also funny to watch all the MTV interns running around with their cameras interviewing people and to see the crazy outfits people arrived in. We saw a LOT of very interesting outfits and people watching was a definite highlight of the evening.

Then, Kiea arrived early Monday morning and it has been so great to have company! This weekend Kiea is tagging along with the East Africa fogarty crew and heading to Kampala with us where we are going to visit the beginning of the Nile River, whoo-hoo! We have to take a 13 hour bus ride to Kampala, so we’ll see how that goes J Taking the bus one way will be fun because we get to see all of the country as we drive through it, however, doing the drive again on the way back is not something I’m really looking forward to.

Camping in Naivasha

Last weekend we headed to Naivasha for a weekend of rock climbing, camping, and boating. It was great to get out of the city, breathe somewhat clean air, and see more of the country. Naivasha is about an hour and a half drive from Nairobi and we rented a car Friday evening and set out on our road trip adventure early Saturday morning. Along the drive we hit a great overlook for the rift valley, and it is gorgeous. We had great weather that day and could see what I guess is more than usual from the lookout. The lookouts can be a little terrifying to stand on, given that some are merely planks of wood somehow attached together and sticking out of the hillside above a major drop off. But, I guess they didn’t collapse on us while we were there, so that was good.

Because we don’t yet have our residency cards, once we arrived at the Hell’s Gate park entrance we spent a good 45 minutes trying to negotiate our way in for a residents fare. As usually occurs with price negotiations (or most anything for that matter) in Kenya, if you are persistent enough and don’t give up, you will eventually get what you want. And we did! Thanks to Anna (our friend from Manitoba) and Damian’s negotiation skills and patience, we ended up only paying $7 to enter the park instead of the listed $25, victory!

Once we arrived in the park, we met up with a mountaineering club that was climbing some of the rock cliffs surrounding the valley. They had ropes, harnesses, helmets, and all the appropriate rock climbing gear. Many of them were very experienced climbers so they were able to show the completely inexperienced me how to tackle the climb. I’m not really sure how tall the cliff was where we were climbing, but maybe somewhere between 30 and 60 feet? Anyway, I made is almost all the way to the top on my first try but had to quit because it started pouring down rain and rock climbing in the rain is a no go! I had been very afraid to try climbing, but realized that once you get started, you forget that you are actually climbing high above the ground and are much more focused on making the next strategic placement of your foot or hand to keep going.

Because it started pouring down rain, we had to give up on the rock climbing adventure early and also the afternoon hike we had planned to take into the Hell’s Gate Gorge. I’m looking forward to doing the hike next time since I heard that there are boiling mud springs and that the locals who take you on guided walks like to paint your faces with the mud. The rain continued to pour down all afternoon and while it was raining we did a short drive down the road to observe the scenery and various animals. We saw zebra, buffaloes, and a couple kinds of antelope looking animals. We had the end the drive early because the roads became too washed out for our little Toyota car. But, the rain did finally let up enough that we were able to get to our campsite and get everything set up without getting wet. It did, however, ruin our plan to roast hot dogs over the fire for dinner. But, thankfully, the campground had a nice restaurant at it with some of the best food I’ve had since I arrived.

Right before we went to bed, we went looking for the hippos that are supposed to climb out of the water and come right up to the fence (the barbed wire fence that surrounds the campground so that they don’t come all the way up and trample the campers while they are sleeping). But, the drought here has caused the water in the lake to recede so far out and has created these mud swamps that the hippos get stuck in, so the hippos didn’t make an appearance. It’s actually quite sad that the hippos are getting stuck in the mud. I guess there was an article about it last week that mentioned how all the hippos are getting stuck and the locals are killing them (and I think eating them?). Anyway, it was one of my first experiences actually witnessing how little water is here in Kenya and it was really eye opening.

We successfully made it through the night without getting wet (yay new REI tent) or getting attacked by hippos or having monkeys break into our tents. The following day we took a boat ride out on the lake and walked down the long muddy makeshift path to get to the boat because the boat dock ended at least 50 or 60 feet before you hit the water. After the dock was this interesting path of boards, cut down plants and empty grounded boats to help you navigate around this awful mud that I swear would swallow you whole if you missed a step.

The boat ride was great, we saw the hippos (finally) and pelicans, flamingos, heron, and many other birds. We bought fish from local fisherman out on the water and had our boat driver whistle and call eagles out of the trees to swoop down and pick up the fish from the water right next to the boat. It was an amazing sight and I know Brandon (Mr. “I can’t miss the birds of prey exhibit” every time we go to a zoo or aquarium) will be very jealous.

Well, that’s the update on the weekend adventures for now!