The first half of June featured some excellent travel.
I’ve burned through the majority of my leave time (all that remains is going towards my parents’ visit in August), but I had a great time doing it.
The adventurous Whitney (who told me I could not write about her without always placing an adjective before her name) is a friend who occasionally works at the Brittany James orphanage in Migori. She loves Kenya and will be working as a trainer of Kenya social workers next year. Meanwhile, she wanted to visit and I arranged to take some time off to show her around. She helped out at my site for a few days and we took off to wander around in the rainforest and explore the Kenyan coast. Amiable Whitney grew up as a service-oriented missionary kid in the Philippines, and as such she makes an excellent travel partner. Third-world travel doesn’t faze her and we had a great trip.
A jet-lagged Whitney arrived at the Nairobi airport on a red-eye 5am flight. Lucky for me I didn’t have to collect her. She was greeted by her friend Dero and brought to the Migori orphanage, where we met up. That worked out well because I needed to be in Mirogi anyway to tie up some loose ends concerning my wheelchair project. We spent a day there before heading off to my site, where I spent several days trying to square away my projects so I could spend some time on the coast.
While I worked on my various projects, enthusiastic Whitney worked a bit with my Peace Corps friend Jessica on a Public Heath presentation. She also spent the day working with the Wake Up Women’s group harvesting the very spicy Bird’s Eye Chilies the women are growing as a cash crop. She had fun working with my group and when we had everything finished we traveled to the rainforest for a few days before making our way to the coast.
The rainforest, as always, was a great experience. We stayed at the bandas (thatched-roof huts) which are not bad for the money, but I am counting down the days until I am at the Rondo Retreat, where I will relax in a beautifully landscaped all-inclusive resort with my parents in late August. While in the forest I did the usual; we hiked to the platform overlooking the natural clearing in the middle of the dense jungle, walked along several trails cutting through the forest, and woke up early for the sunrise hike to the highest point. I think I’ve exhausted my descriptions of the rainforest in previous posts. I’ve been there more than a dozen times now so I won’t go into too much detail this time around.
One thing worth mentioning is that, although the last group of monkey-watchers has come and gone, two new researchers have arrived along with the professor that heads up the program. Sociable Whitney got along with the primate researchers well, and we spent the evening talking with them in their cabin. The professor, who teaches at Columbia University, is remarkable. She knows literally hundreds of blue monkeys by name, and visits the forest every summer to meet the latest younglings, which she inevitably will remember the following year.
Following our trip to the forest we traveled to Kisumu to spend the day relaxing at Kiboko Bay with my Peace Corps friend Adrienne. Kiboko Bay is a tented camp right on Lake Victoria with very good food and a pool right on the water. Like Rondo, it’s a place I visit regularly but have never managed to stay at, and I am looking forward to bringing my parents there soon.
I have been wanting to take off for the coast for awhile. We opted for a flight to Nairobi, as our schedule was tight and a there wasn’t time to fit in a hellish 9 hour ride on what remains of the road. There are plenty of airlines competing with each other in Kisumu and the prices aren’t bad, and the 30 minute flight was wonderful. After flying it's very difficult to convince myself to board a matatu for that route. The Kisumu airport consists of one small building to wait for the flight and a single strip of tarmac for a runway. School kids are often there on field days and it’s always funny to see hundreds of children identically dressed with their faces pressed up against the fence to watch the airplanes take off and land.
Our time in Nairobi was short as we made it to town, grabbed a bite to eat, and booked a bus to Mombasa. I don’t enjoy night travel and feel it is dangerous (because it is), but the road from Nairobi to Mombasa has recently been paved and as such it is a much safer and more pleasant ride than night travel to Kisumu. The bus ride was fine and I actually managed to sleep a bit, and we arrived in Mombasa early in the morning.
We met up with another Peace Corps friend in Mombasa and spent a half day wondering around the old Swahili town. Narrow, winding roads pass by plain white buildings made beautiful by ornately carved Arabic doors, windows, and balconies. The entire area is Muslim and the streets are filled with men in white robes, women in black burquas, and young girls with colorful head wraps. The coast is the only place in Kenya with any kind of culinary culture, and the food, as always, was delicious. The air is scented with the savory fragrance of kebabs and chicken tikka from the many street vendors, and we enjoyed Chicken Biriani, a chicken curry in yogurt sauce served over fragrant rice. No coastal meal is complete without freshly squeezed juice, which got progressively better as we made our way north towards Lamu.
The main reason I wanted to go to the coast again was to visit Lamu. Prior to Kenya’s unification, Lamu was an independent Swahili state with a very unique culture. It is considered the jewel of the Kenyan coast and everyone I know that has visited loved it. As such, the agreeable Whitney and I decided to make our way North from Mombasa, with Lamu as our final destination.
There is plenty to see and do on the coast between Mombasa and Lamu, so we took our time getting to Lamu in order to visit various sites along the way. Our first stop was Kilifi, where my Peace Corps friend Soren was willing to take us in for a night. Soren’s site is basically paradise, and as such he is extending his Peace Corps service for a third year. He is within walking distance from the beach, and we went with him and his Kenyan friends to a point where a wide channel feeds into the ocean. It is an excellent place to swim and we decided to swim across the channel to the shore on the other side. Soren does this regularly, but one of his Kenya friends had a difficult time. I was unaware of her swimming abilities and surprised to learn that this was her first time to attempt to cross the channel. She was only able to doggy paddle, and by the time we reached the other side she was exhausted. Soren and I had to swim back across the channel on either side of her, helping her to stay afloat until we finally made it back to the shoreline.
Exhausted, we went to a sea front café for a pizza dinner. Due to the Italian influence from a regular stream of tourists, the northern half of the Kenyan coast has excellent Italian food, which is yet another reason I am very envious of coastal volunteers. After dinner we made is back to Soren’s house before taking off early for Malindi, the next leg of our coastal adventure, in the morning.
Malindi has a negative reputation. People claim it is crawling with Italian tourists, who frivolously spend money in private resorts and have little regard for cultural sensitivity or the well-being of the locals. Furthermore, drug use is rampant and Malindi is well known for its child prostitution, as sex tourism is apparently very popular among many Malindi tourists. As such I was not particularly excited about spending time there, but I was pleasantly surprised that I did.
The good-natured Whitney and I were fortunate to travel in unusually sunny weather during the rainy season. Because of the rain, this was a time of year when very few tourists were around, and as such prices were significantly lower and we were able to experience places like Malindi and Lamu without annoying swarms of tourists. Malindi sans-tourist is a very nice place to be. It is apparent that the influx of money from the Italians has done much to improve the city. The streets were well paved, the parks and sea front were picturesque, and the city itself was remarkably clean. We ate at a phenomenal restaurant called “I Love Pizza”, and the food there was in the running for best pizza I’ve ever eaten. The people were very friendly and laid back and I think the entire town was relaxed and in low gear until the tourist season began.
We also took an excursion to the nearby Gedi ruins. Gedi was an Arab trading city built on the coast more than 800 years ago. As the ruins testify, the architecture and infrastructure of the city were very advanced. However, for reasons unknown the entire civilization was abandoned sometime in the 17th century; it was not a gradual decline either. Whatever caused those people to leave made them leave in a hurry. Valuables such as silver, jewels, and imported Chinese pottery and chests were left behind with disregard. Also, because the local Swahili people considered the place cursed, it was all left virtually intact until it was discovered by the British. However, the strangest part about Gedi was that, although it existed for centuries and obviously had thousands of wealthy inhabitants, there is no written history that it ever existed. I found the history (or lack of it) fascinating and the ruins very intriguing. Gedi even had a running water, baths, and latrines that surpass those in use by the majority of Kenyans today.
Following our visits to Gedi and Malindi we took the bus to Lamu. The original plan was to spend a few days in Lamu, visit a Peace Corps friend on the nearby Island of Pate, and sail onwards to explore Kiwayu Island before coming back to Lamu in time to catch our Nairobi flight. However, after the travel to Lamu (A six-hour bus ride on a miserable road followed by a ferry overloaded by about a hundred people), we decided to stay where we were. A big part of the reason was we no longer felt like travel was Lamu itself. The Island has a way of sucking people in, and I was in no hurry to leave once I arrived.
Lamu is beautiful. The people there live a centuries-old way of life that has changed very little, and it felt like an Arabian world from the distant past. The streets that maze through the town are far too narrow for automobiles, and in fact there is only one car on the entire island. The majority of people choose to walk or ride donkeys, which are the main means of transport and the work force on the island. Donkeys are everywhere and walking through the streets was an entertaining challenge, as we would weave around street vendors, donkeys, children, men wearing kikoys, and women dressed in traditional Muslim attire.
Lamu did not feel like anywhere else I have been. The culture is entirely Muslim and most people there appear more Arabic than black African. It is the only place in Kenya where I have felt completely safe walking at night, and I fell in love with Lamu. It seems to have that effect on nearly everyone, as Kenyans called it “Lamu Tamu” (“Sweet Lamu”)
Lamu town does not have a beach, but Shela Beach, on the other side of the island, is spectacular. The beach goes on for miles without any man made buildings, and as we looked down the coastline there was nothing but sand dunes and palm trees. It took considerable effort to pull myself away from Lamu town, but Shela was worth it. Although I did not make my way to Pate, my Peace Corps friend decided to join us in Lamu, and we had a great time relaxing on the beach at Shela and fighting the waves in the ocean.
The downside of such beauty and isolation is that it has become a second home (or third, forth, fifth...) for some of the wealthiest Europeans. They buy large plots of land, fence them off, build gargantuan houses, and leave them vacant for the majority of the year. Many of them hire Masai to guard their property. I wonder how the Masai feel, considering how their way of life is so contradictory to guarding homes that are not even lived in. Thankfully, the majority of this takes place in Shela and nearby Manda Island, leaving Lamu town itself relatively intact.
Lamu also has amazing seafood for very good prices, and the fruit drinks were incredibly good. Nearly every restaurant on Lamu offers fresh juice, and the varieties include banana, passion fruit, avocado, coconut, papaya, orange, and pineapple just to name a few. You can mix and match as you please, and I found coconut pineapple banana to be my favorite.
There were also many very talented artists. Wood carvers create beautiful chests, plates, and ornately designed furniture. The beaded jewelry is extraordinary, and the colorful kikoys, often worn my Lamu men, can be made into bags, shirts, trousers, or left as they are for a sarong or a beach towel. A sunburned Whitney and I spent a lot of time just wandering from shop to shop, looking at the crafts, and making friends along the way.
Ok, I think I’ve written about my travels and raved about Lamu enough now. It was hard leaving the place but I was very grateful to have a plane take us back to Nairobi as opposed to days of overland travel. I love the Kenyan coast more and more every time I visit.
