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World wide ramble
despite the usual hassles i felt strangely calm taking off from atlanta airport. i guess it stands to reason that the 4th time around won't be quite as nerve-racking as the 1st. for whatever reason, amsterdam passed by in a blur & before i knew it i was deplaning in nairobi. as i descended the stairs to the baggage claim the 1st thing i saw standing behind the security barriers were my 3 friends from japan. before i knew it we were packed 5 in a cab & bouncing our way down nairobi's mercilessly potholed streets. i found myself staying at gerald's friend jacks house along with my old friend shuji. jack is a kind, gentle guy who, nonetheless, comes up with a lot of energy when it's time to have fun. after dropping my gear off at his house we went out to a small nairobi bar where i was introduced to about 2 dozen people in 10 minutes. shortly after arrival one of nairobi's infamous & frequent black outs hit & was met with lots of laughs & shrugged shoulders. it didn't last long & before i knew it we headed down town to see what kind of action nairobi had to offer on a random tuesday night. considering how tired i was i got off easy with a couple of rounds of kenyan beer while listening to a swahili reggae band. leaving the restaurant i glanced up at the sky & even in down town nairobi the stars shine bright. having long anticipated the sensation of seeing the new stars of the southern hemisphere i was thrilled to find it to be everything i expected & more. the southern cross is smaller than i expected, but more perfectly shaped. the next morning we were lazy & slow but still made it back to the same small bar as the night before by 3pm. adjacent to the bar is a medium size hall where jack's group practices 3 days a week. all members of the group drum, dance, & sing interchangeably. the wild rhythms flying around the room were like speed for the soul but it wasn't until they all started singing in a chorus that the realization that i was indeed finally in africa finally hit me so hard i almost cried. the pure joy & confidence in their voices being as inspirational as any understandable words could ever be. i joined the dancers for their warm up routine but, though i had the necessary energy to keep up with them (barely) i had neither the natural rhythm or long-studied skill to really fit in & i unobtrusively sat down during a short break & from then on just soaked up the scene in wide-eyed wonder. 2 days later the group scattered as shuji & i joined jack & his friend ochido (along with his japanese girlfriend & her friend) on a 2 day trip to mombasa. this is the beginning of the swahili coast, as well as it's economic & administrative hub. though the muslim influence on swahili culture was much more obvious there, the numerous, overcrowded vehicles speeding around among huge pile of refuse & unfinished construction projects was a little bit too much like nairobi for shuji & i. our last night in mombasa was an eye-opening experience for me. we went to a dance club packed with people dancing to swahili reggae & hip hop. but as the drama of a world cup semi-final match unfolded in the back ground i found myself unable to relax & enjoy myself there because every woman there seemed to have her mind set on landing a foreigner that night & we made up less than 1% of the crowd. though some of these women were truly beautiful (or at least really hot) i found that the knowledge that they didn't care about anything but my skin tone was a major turn off. the fact that all my life i have treated women in america & japan the exact same was not lost on me. so many times i had been dead set on bringing home home any girl who looked good & i had felt resentment towards them if they didn't see things the way i did. but now, finding myself on the other side of the fence, i can see that i've been wrong all along & i wish i could apologize to every girl i've ever put pressure on to move faster than she was comfortable with. the next morning was going to bring with it another (but briefer) shock. as shuji & i sat jam-packed into a passenger van speeding it's way through the terminal gridlock that covers kenya's roads we spotted what, i imagine is an all too common sight. laying in a pool of blood in the street was a the body of someone who had not payed enough attention as they crossed the street. though the body had had a newspaper layed on top of it it was otherwise being ignored. i found out later that by kenyan law if you stop to give aid you are thereafter responsible for the victims medical and/or funeral expenses. not much incentive to help, i guess. though the ride north to malindi was bumpy it was not without it's thrills, not the least of which was the single gargantuan baboon i spotted fleeing into the underbrush. we arrived sometime after noon & quickly found a hotel with a beautiful view of the sea, as well as all of life's necessities. within no time we realized that any disappointment we had felt in mombasa was more than made up for by the genuine relaxed nature of malindi. sure, there were still pushy salesman & ladies of the night, as well as merchants ready to double their prices as soon as i walked in the door, but none of it was enough to overpower the good vibes blowing in with the sea breeze. the next day was unusual for 2 reasons. firstly, we went snorkeling among the coral reefs of 1 of kenya's most famous marine parks. & secondly, because i wanted shuji to get more practice speaking english i pretended to be bulgarian all day long. though i'm sure many of them most have known i was lying to them i still think it was probably good for shuji. however, it proved to be pretty difficult for me to pull off & we haven't done it since. that day, at the marine park, we met a japanese guy who has been volunteering there for a year. he hadn't met a japanese tourist before shuji (& i'm sure shuji was excited to speak some real japanese) so we became good friends quickly & even got to spend 3 nights at his place. after a visit to the crocodile farm, though, we felt that we had pretty much done everything we had to do in malindi & bought a ticket to the island of lamu. shortly after leaving malindi the bad roads grew immeasurably worse & an armed soldier got on the bus to deter somali bandits. after several hours of spine jarring travel we reached the small dock that served as the gateway to the island (& town) of lamu. once again we found a cheap room with an incredible view of arab-style buildings, sandy beaches, & mangrove channels. shortly thereafter we wandered into the narrow streets of lamu's old town where it is sometimes necessary to turn sideways to slide through the tight spots. because of this no cars are allowed on the island & all transport is by foot, donkey, or homemade boat. we took several of these boat tours & met some really nice people, including a couple of girls from england who we ended up following up to the next island of pate. forget no cars, pate had no electricity or running water. we had taken a ferry to get there but it might as well have been a time machine. we toured the swahili ruins before teaching the children to speak japanese & play hacky-sac. i found, of course, that i was not the 1st american that these people had met as the us army had been there before me. since i am someone who frequently & vocally criticizes the american governments foreign policy (especially as it regards the use of the american military) i feel compelled to give credit where credit is due. the us army had actually come to this tiny island in the middle of nowhere & built them a new well & a modern school building. i'm glad to know that not all us tax dollars are being wasted & i commend whoever gave the order for these projects to be undertaken (&, more importantly, completed). returning to lamu we had dinner at the house of a local man named ali hippy who makes a living inviting foreigners into his home for dinner & music. the delicious meal was followed his 10 youngest children performing exotic music (including 2 songs from gerald & shuji's cd!). the next morning we got up in time to make a 6am ferry back to the mainland & begin the long journey back to nairobi in the hopes of catching jack & his friends before they left for 2 months performing in italy. despite the fact that our bus from mombasa to nairobi ran out of gas about an hour short of it's destination we still got there in time to spend one last day with jack before he flew off in the middle of the night. what will happen now is still up in the air. the great rift valley, lake victoria, mt. kenya, & many other places are up for consideration. but i'll tell you more about that next time...uplevel everything,rob
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