Happy New Years 2006
This last week has been pretty good. It's been low key and relatively laid back so I've had a chance to get things in order around the house, run a few errands for work, and swing down to Kisumu for New Years without too much of a hassle. Things will surely change tomorrow since the holidays are officially over and I'll be staying busy at the office, but it was a much needed breather between training and adjusting to life in Kakamega.
So anyway, I definitely had a New Years I won't forget for awhile. We camped on the shore of Lake Victoria at a place called the Kisumu Beach Club at a surprisingly nice campsite. I'll have plenty of pics to upload once I get them off my camera so hopefully I can post them later this week. The biggest problem with the lake (and pretty much all fresh water lakes and streams in East Africa) is that it's full of some kind of snail-borne disease called Schisto, which is something that's apparently a pretty nasty thing to have. Even though there's a beautiful lake beckoning us to swim while roasting under the heat of a near sea level equatorial sun, we were forced to do everything in our power to stay out of the water. I'm pleased to say that no, we didn't swim but we did finally break down and take a rickety, leaky old boat out into the bay. I'm sincerely hope the little bit of water that got on my feet and sprayed me from the side of the boat was Schisto-free.
The ride through the bay was fantastic though. We didn't go far but it was beautiful and it's incredible how big the lake is. Off in the distance are hills that seem dozens of miles away, and I assumed that was the other side of the lake, but according the the Kenyan I spoke with they are actually on an island and the lake continues further...amazing. After the boat ride, dusk began to set in and giant hippos starting emerging from the water. Where something that big can go during the day and remain unseen is beyond me, especially since the two hungry, hungry hippos nearest to us were bigger than anything I've ever come across in a zoo. From what I've gathered, although they appear docile, hippos are pretty stupid and have bad attitude so we did our best to keep our distance. We grew nervous when they came out of the water and started grazing in the grass about 30 yards from our tents, and even more so when one yawned and opened a mouth that had to have been 10 feet across. Amazingly, after about an hour of watching the hippos steadily munch their way closer to our tents a brave little dog that could easily have been trampled went charging after the hippos and chased them back into the water. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen.
So after that excitement the owner of the Kisumu beach club, who one of the volunteers had made friends with earlier, invited us out on his yacht, so at about ten thirty we boarded the yacht and went across the bay to the Kisumu yacht club. This club is apparently invitation only and very expensive, so since we weren't invited and didn't want to pay a cover charge we simply docked our boat off shore from the club house and danced to the music playing from the club on the roof of the boat. We even counted down the new year with the people on shore and blew the horn on the boat to bring in 2006. We called it a night and I woke up the next day to find that a hippo had been grazing just a few feet away from our tents while we were sleeping.
So that's my adventurous new year. I hate to admit that I drank a little more than I should of so my first day of 2006 wasn't the most welcoming, but a lot of time has passed since college and it was probably good for me to re-learn a valuable lesson about where my limits are.
So in other news, this week I hope to start looking into packaging and selling sweet potato flour and juice as opposed to simply shipping the raw materials, and last week I went to a VCT (testing/counseling center for HIV/AIDS) to speak with a nurse and I found out that treatment is readily available for the orphan girl sick with AIDS. However, she needs to have a signed document from the Chief of the village stating that her guardian (not sure who that would be) supports her in getting the treatment. So there's still plenty of hoops to jump through regarding that but hopefully I'll continue to make progress.
Happy 2006!
So anyway, I definitely had a New Years I won't forget for awhile. We camped on the shore of Lake Victoria at a place called the Kisumu Beach Club at a surprisingly nice campsite. I'll have plenty of pics to upload once I get them off my camera so hopefully I can post them later this week. The biggest problem with the lake (and pretty much all fresh water lakes and streams in East Africa) is that it's full of some kind of snail-borne disease called Schisto, which is something that's apparently a pretty nasty thing to have. Even though there's a beautiful lake beckoning us to swim while roasting under the heat of a near sea level equatorial sun, we were forced to do everything in our power to stay out of the water. I'm pleased to say that no, we didn't swim but we did finally break down and take a rickety, leaky old boat out into the bay. I'm sincerely hope the little bit of water that got on my feet and sprayed me from the side of the boat was Schisto-free.
The ride through the bay was fantastic though. We didn't go far but it was beautiful and it's incredible how big the lake is. Off in the distance are hills that seem dozens of miles away, and I assumed that was the other side of the lake, but according the the Kenyan I spoke with they are actually on an island and the lake continues further...amazing. After the boat ride, dusk began to set in and giant hippos starting emerging from the water. Where something that big can go during the day and remain unseen is beyond me, especially since the two hungry, hungry hippos nearest to us were bigger than anything I've ever come across in a zoo. From what I've gathered, although they appear docile, hippos are pretty stupid and have bad attitude so we did our best to keep our distance. We grew nervous when they came out of the water and started grazing in the grass about 30 yards from our tents, and even more so when one yawned and opened a mouth that had to have been 10 feet across. Amazingly, after about an hour of watching the hippos steadily munch their way closer to our tents a brave little dog that could easily have been trampled went charging after the hippos and chased them back into the water. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen.
So after that excitement the owner of the Kisumu beach club, who one of the volunteers had made friends with earlier, invited us out on his yacht, so at about ten thirty we boarded the yacht and went across the bay to the Kisumu yacht club. This club is apparently invitation only and very expensive, so since we weren't invited and didn't want to pay a cover charge we simply docked our boat off shore from the club house and danced to the music playing from the club on the roof of the boat. We even counted down the new year with the people on shore and blew the horn on the boat to bring in 2006. We called it a night and I woke up the next day to find that a hippo had been grazing just a few feet away from our tents while we were sleeping.
So that's my adventurous new year. I hate to admit that I drank a little more than I should of so my first day of 2006 wasn't the most welcoming, but a lot of time has passed since college and it was probably good for me to re-learn a valuable lesson about where my limits are.
So in other news, this week I hope to start looking into packaging and selling sweet potato flour and juice as opposed to simply shipping the raw materials, and last week I went to a VCT (testing/counseling center for HIV/AIDS) to speak with a nurse and I found out that treatment is readily available for the orphan girl sick with AIDS. However, she needs to have a signed document from the Chief of the village stating that her guardian (not sure who that would be) supports her in getting the treatment. So there's still plenty of hoops to jump through regarding that but hopefully I'll continue to make progress.
Happy 2006!
posted by KenyaJoe at 3:52 AM
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