[Kwg-list] tales from not yet weary travellers

[Julie Hard]

Hello Friends and Family,

Mike and I have left the Okidi's place after our 5 month visit to Rongo,
Kenya.  Before engaging in the tourist trek, Mike and I took stock of the
footprints left behind.  I managed to assess and treat over 250 clients in
the clinic and the community.  We coordinated and delivered 16 children for
surgery, hosted 2 training weeks for severely disabled children and their
caregivers, hired and sponsored a disabled man to the position of secretary
for the Disability Service Programme, reopened an income generating maize
grinding mill for the programme, financed a start-up sugar cane plantation
for a disabled person, sponsored a child to go to secondary school and our
last commitment to this community was to take responsibility for a boy
living on the street.

Mike and I met Witcliff, an 11 year old boy living on the street while he
was sniffing glue and begging for money. While I don't advocate giving money
to children begging on the streets, it is not enought to simply walk away
either.   We felt compelled to offer him more than fuel for his addictions,
with his permission and a large crowd of onlookers watching over him on the
street, we took him in, fed him and have located an amazing rehabilitation
home for street children outside of Kisumu town.  Witcliff now receives
counselling, medical care, protection and most importantly the knowledge
that people care about him and love him.  We call him often and are so
pleased to hear his little voice happy and loving his new school uniform.
In this regard, you could say that Kisumu area has also left behind
footprints on our hearts as well.

Mike's friend from work (Martin) and his wife (Viola) joined us for our last
week in Rongo and then for 2 more weeks of travel across Kenya.  You'll have
to excuse the length of this e-mail as it has been some time and at times it
felt like we were participating in "the Amazing Race" for all the places we
visited.

We visited the Masaai Mara, famous for the filming of "Out of Africa" and
vast expanses of open Savannah which allowed us to see scores of lion and
their cubs.  Our driver was excellent ensuring that we were able to have
private moments with lions, cheetah, African Buffalo and tonnes of other
animals.  We camped in luxury tents with outdoor showers, reminiscent of
something out of a Flintstones episode.  So close to nature, Mike and I came
back to our tent to find a dozen vervet monkeys in our bathroom and one of
the cheeky ones had eaten our toothpaste!  It would have been fine if they
scattered at our approach but instead they sat in our bathroom and waved at
us.

The camp we stayed at works wiith the local population of Masaai and employs
them to work in the camp.  In the evenings we were escorted by warriors with
spears to and from our tents.  Women from the area created high quality
beaded arts based out of traditional customs and sold them in the hotel gift
shop.   (I'm proud to say that I have heavily supported them in their
endeavor).  Local Masaai took us on a morning hike through the park with
instructions as to what we are to do when confronted by the various
dangerous animals.  Thankfully we did not come across any but saw hyena
cubs, a fresh leopard kill (an impala, dragged and drying up a tree), the
rear-end of a warthog high-tailing away from us and more varieties of animal
poo than you can possibly imagine. (As an aside, did you know that giraffe
poo looks about the same size and consistency as dog kibble?)

We drove to Lake Nakuru next.  A natural shallow soda lake, there were
literally millions of flamingos standing around and sqwaking. Kind of like
an over-blown wine and cheese party.  Viola was so funny because she pulled
a George Kastanza and ran smack into the middle of atleast eight thousand of
them.  Fortunately, they moved out of the way and we were not charged with
cruelty to the wildlife. We scoured the park looking for leopard but came up
empty and found several rhino instead!

We were at Lake Nakuru for Valentine's day and celebrated at a really posh
hotel called Sarova's Lion Hill where they went all out to fill the air with
romance and love.  (Leaving chocolate covered heart-shaped cookies in our
room, giving all the ladies red roses, special cocktail drinks and a
romantic pool side, torch fire-lit dinner).  I wore the red dress that the
Rotary Club of Homa Bay gave me and was honoured with cutting the huge
Valentines Cake for being voted "the finest dressed Lady in Red" thanks to
Rotary.

After leaving Nakuru, we went to Tsavo West which is another large game park
further east in Kenya.  The landscape in my opinion is much more interesting
than the Mara and you have to work harder to see the animals through the
trees and shrubs.  The roads also wind and you can come barrelling around
the corner to surprise an elephant or two.  This park also allowed us to
walk across molten lava from a volcanic eruption just over 100 years ago and
to see hippos under water at a nearby spring.  In the evenings, leopards
came right up to the dining balcony to feast on the carcass of a goat that
the hotel puts out every night as bait.  I wasn't too keen on the baiting
gimmic.  We figured the hotel started feeding the leopard in response to
having one of the waiters eaten 10 years ago (true story) and would be
unable to stop for fear that the leopards (who have grown accustomed to the
feeding ritual) would start eating the tourists who stupidly want to get as
close as possible with their cameras.

We left the game parks to seek sun and beach on the coast in Mombasa.  We
were told it is where all the muzungus (white people) go and so did not want
to disappoint.  We walked through Fort Jesus and  the museum to get a better
feel for the struggles that the town has gone through and the different
occupiers that have shaped its unique culture in the old Swahili
town.  Beautiful wooden carved doors reflect the stories of Mombasa's
history.  Antique markets and bead shops built out of stone and coral,
linked by narrow pathways found us wandering around the old town following a
local guy who decided he was our guide.  I stopped into one shop and had my
hands and feet decorated lavishly with Hina by muslim women.  We even stood
in the stone court yard and alongside the stone well where thousands of
slaves were cleaned, paraded bought and sold. I found the
experience hauntingly shameful having just finished reading the
book "Roots".

We didn't experience a sense of full appreciation for traditional muslim
swahili culture until we travelled to Lamu.  Before doing so, we stayed a
few nights in Malindi in a beach resort.  Typical of any beach resort, we
saw sun, sand, comfy couches, tropical drinks and a few old,
over-weight Italian men in Speedos.  Mike partook in snorkling among a
billion zebra fish while I cheered from the side-lines of the boat.  We
visited a falconry and were fortunate enough to be able pet
owls, handle a kite (looks like a hawk) as well as a lemur, snakes and pet a
giant tortoise.  We were so impressed with the falconry which is a small,
privately owned property we just happened to be walking by.  The rest of the
time in Malindi was spent haggling in the curios market or buying souvenirs
to send home.

Lamu was probably my favorite place to visit on the coast.  It is a small
island that is inhabited mostly by people of muslim faith.  It does not have
an infrastructure to support vehicles and instead, transports goods and
people using donkeys!  The narrow passages between the stone and coral
buildings form a maze of pathways with only two main streets wide enough to
allow 2 donkeys to pass.   We took a donkey tour for about half an hour on
our last morning there (which was about all my bottom could take) and at one
point got caught in a donkey jam.

We sailed on a dhow (traditional sailboat) to Manda Island from Lamu and
lounged on the beach for a day. We met up with a really lovely lady named
Jill from Toronto who was travelling by herself and invited her to come
along. I felt like the crew from Gilligan's Island as the spot was so
perfect and isolated from any other people.  Our captain and crew barbecued
fresh fish on the beach for lunch while we waded in the Indian Ocean to keep
cool and picked up mollusks from under our feet.  (Jill, a primary
school teacher had recently been teaching her class a lesson on mollusks vs.
crustaceans from which we also benefitted).

Returning to Nairobi from Lamu we said good-bye to our friends Martin and
Viola and tried to wrap up some things in Kenya before leaving.  We caught a
bus yesterday and crossed the border into Tanzania where we are now in
transit.  We decided to stop for a few days in Moshi, at the base of Mount
Kilimanjaro.  It is a good thing too, because the rains have just started
and apparently the bridge on the road to Dar EsSalam, our next destination,
has been washed out.  So we will wait here a day or two until the road is
passable then carry on to Dar.

Hope all is well with you and hope you have not dozed off reading my
ramblings.
Life is an incredible adventure.

God Bless,

Julie and Mike
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