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I just returned last night from a little Kenyan adventure that took me from the Coast to the Rift Valley to Lake Victoria in one week's time.It was a busy week of traveling but a lot of fun.I was on the Coast from May 3rd to the 7th with a friend who has since left for Europe.We spent the first 3 days at a place called Tiwi Beach south of Mombasa.One day we traveled to Shimoni about an hour and a half further south of Tiwi Beach (almost to the Tanzanian border) on the way I had my first experience driving in Kenya.The taxi driver let me drive, since I have soooooo much experience driving on the left side of muddy "roads."It also helps when the steering wheel is on the right and you have to drive stick shift with your left hand.It was an experience and I am happy to say I didn't run anybody over thanks to the horn.Once we arrived in Shimoni, we took a dhow (boat) over to Wasini Island.On the way we saw dolphins and were able to do some snorkeling on the reef off the coast of the island.Afterwards we toured the village on Wasini that houses about a thousand people.The island was used a lot in the past for the Arab slave trade before the slaves were shipped to Zanzibar.It was interesting to see the history and many of the old Arab buildings and cemeteries were still there.Wasini Island is also unique because it also has an above ground coral reef garden from when the island used to be underwater.After having the best seafood (crab, whole fish, coconut curry, seaweed, the works) I've ever tasted we went back to Tiwi Beach for our last night.Tiwi Beach is one of the more underdeveloped areas on the South Coast so there's usually not as many tourists as other areas, plus the tourism industry is still pretty dead here so we were literally the only people there.Actually, we were two of seven total people staying at the lodge.There were definitely more monkeys staying there than people.
The night and day was spent browsing around Mombasa. On Wednesday morning we visited Old Town and Fort Jesus in Mombasa. Old Town Mombasa is the oldest city in East Africa and that was pretty clear after we found out that a few buildings fall down there everytime there is a storm. Fort Jesus was a military base first built by the Portuguese way back when and has since changed hands numerous times. People from Oman took it over for awhile and then the British did and now its back in the hand of Kenyans. So it has some Portuguese, Arab, British flare to it which is a very interesting combination. The foundation of the fort was pretty cool to see as well since it is entirely carved out of coral.
On Friday I went with Mama Mary to her rural home about an hour outside of Kisumu.The drive there was beautiful but long since the roads in Western Kenya are horrible due to unequal resource allocation by the Kenyan government.We had two flats on the way from the bad "roads."The route takes you directly through the Rift Valley which was an awesome site but also pretty sad. It goes past Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakura, the home of flamingos. Parts of Lake Nakuru just looked pink, because there were so many, but also on the way I saw the IDP (internally displaced people) camps.Last week they started to give people armed escorts back to their homes but most people don't want to go back because they are still scared or they have absolutely nothing to go back to.It was very sad to see how a bunch of homes and businesses could be left absolutely unharmed but a select few would be ashes because everyone knows exactly who belongs to what tribe.You could see that people were starting to come back though and try to rebuild because we saw some smoke on the way that shows people are returning.Raila Odinga also returned to his home in Kisumu this weekend where they had a big homecoming celebration for the new Prime Minister.Kisumu is Kenya's third largest cities and one of the worst hit by the violence.The effects are still pretty apparent with the number of torched homes, hospitals, and businesses, but from what I could tell people were starting to return, and it was picking back up.
On Saturday we went to the home of Victor's (Mary's son) girlfriend's family for negotiations.Negotiations are a part of kicking off the marriage process in Kenya.On the first meeting the parents meet the parents…without the bride and groom present.It's part of officially recognizing the relationship and also some money, cow, and goat issues.A lot of the details I didn't catch since they were mostly done in mother tongue (Luo) but there were some envelopes exchanged.They need to bring a goat, and Victor needs to bring as many cows as he can afford. On the way back we of course had to stop near Siaya, where Mary was born so that she could show me the land of her cousin, Obama. It was pretty cool to see and everybody had to have snaps in front of the sign of their cousin's school (pretty original: Senator Obama Primary and Secondary School). So I now believe Mary to some extent, maybe not first cousins or her brother as she says, but probably related somehow since most people from the same village are related in some way or another.
On Sunday we stopped by Lake Victoria on the way back. Certainly not a place I'd want to lay out on the beach or go swimming but still good to see the famous lake.When we arrived there in the morning the fisherman were coming back and a few boats had just arrived from an island in Uganda where they get coal from.I can honestly say I've never seen so much coal in my life.
Now I have a few days to chill in Nairobi before I leave on Thursday night.I will arrive back in the States on Friday afternoon which equals a 22 hour trip with time changes taken into account.I didn't really mind the long trip here though, but maybe I won't have 3 seats to myself like I did on the flight here when everybody else was staying clear of Kenya in January.
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