Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I love Barrack Obama. Ok, I'm lying, I am not a big fan of politicians in general and am glad I will be living outside of the U.S. during the election simply because I will be spared all of the commercials that begin or end with "I'm (insert politician's name here), and I approve this message." But while I'm in Kenya, I love Barrack Obama. And you would too if you were here, even if you're a McCain supporter. Since Obama's roots are in Kenya, every Kenyan that we meet asks, after learning that we are American, what we think about Obama. And, while in Rome, do what the Romans do, so I love Obama. Why cause an unnecessary dispute, especially when I am at the mercy of their hands (i.e. in their taxi, eating at their restaurant, or when bartering for something I really want)? Yes, I even played the Obama card while bartering at a Maasai shop that sold all sorts of Maasai crafts (which were probably made in China). The salesman wasn't budging at 700 KSH which I was countering at 500 KSH. As I started to walk away, he followed and asked who I will be voting for. Of course Obama! Sold for 600 KSH. Like I said, I love Obama.
Steph and I survived our overnight bus ride on Thursday night to Mombasa, which thankfully was only 7.5 hours instead of 10. However, the fun began after we stepped off the bus in the early morning darkness in a sketchy part of town. I was immediately surrounded by 7 or 8 men all asking, "Taxi? Taxi?" This is a common occurrence here in Kenya, but what was unnerving is that the stench of alcohol loomed all around me. So, while I was bartering for the cheapest hour-long taxi ride south to Diani Beach, I was also trying to detect which drivers were sober. After agreeing on a price with a driver and concluding that he had not been at the bar drinking his sorrows away all night, we hopped into his car and headed to Stilts. Then Steph noticed that there were no door handles on the inside of the car. Not on her side, not on my side, or even on the front passenger side. Awesome. After we realized there was no way out unless the door was opened from the outside, Steph told me later that instead of her life flashing before her eyes, scenes from the Bone Collector movie were instead. If you haven't seen the movie, apparently there's a scene where someone got into a taxi and was led to his death. She watches WAY too many movies. My worries eased as we started talking about his family, and, what else, Obama.
After arriving safe and sound at Stilts, we dropped our bags and took a nap on our individual, mosquito-netted beds in our personal treehouse. The treehouse was awesome! A ladder led to the front "porch", which had a railing, table, two chairs, and a door leading to the bedroom, all covered by a thatched roof. We had complete privacy as we were surrounded by the dense African rainforest. While we couldn't see the neighboring treehouses, we were definitely close enough to hear one man relieving himself of his early-morning gas, which sounded hysterical as it echoed among the melodic chirping of the birds and the howling of the monkeys in the distance.
Upon waking from our short nap, we relaxed on the porch and breathed in the warm, ocean air. We began laughing as we took in our surroundings...here we were sitting in a treehouse in Kenya with monkeys leaping from tree to tree and lizards crawling along the tree limbs...and really, who does that? It was a feeling of pure exhilaration and enjoyment, which was cut short after I walked to the common bathroom and, after unraveling the toilet paper from the roll mounted on the wall, a hidden chameleon scurried quickly up the wall by my hand causing me to scream loud enough to wake the dead and simultaneously sprout 10 more gray hairs.
Afterwards Steph and I walked to the open-air pavilion where we ate a wonderful breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, grilled tomato, toast and jam, and tea. We chatted with the friendly cook, George, about their loss of business due to the violence after the elections, and of course, Obama. We pretty much had the place to ourselves besides another couple and two English guys (one which dated a girl that attended Macquarie University in Sydney...again, it is a small world!). After breakfast we headed to the beach and upon stepping onto the clean, white sand, we stared at the breathtaking beauty of the Indian Ocean. The turquoise color reminded me of the Caribbean and the perfect temperature of both the air and water added up to a wonderful day of swimming and sunbathing. To cap it off, we ate supper at Ali Barbour's Cave, hands down the coolest and most unique restaurant I've ever been to. After arriving, we descended the two flights of stairs into the naturally-formed coral caves, walked through a seating/bar area, and then into the restaurant area where the "ceiling" was the clear, starry African sky above us. The white-clothed tables, candles, and well-hidden lights among the crevices of the cave walls created an environment that we could not stop admiring throughout our entire meal.
Later that night, as we laid under our mosquito nets in the dark, a few monkeys began howling quite close to us in the trees. I laughed hysterically as Steph freaked out and demanded that I turn on my head lamp to scan the ceiling to ensure the monkeys were not invading our room. She was positive they were coming to look for more food since a monkey had stolen my orange off the table on our porch earlier in the day. Of course the monkeys were not bothering us, and we soon drifted off to sleep amid the monkeys howling and the bugs buzzing.
The next morning, after repeating our routine of slowly waking to the rising sun and lingering over another fantastic breakfast and tea, we strolled to the beach where we found a handful of camels laying in the sand! We were approached by the owners who asked if we would like a ride. I was thrilled and looked expectantly with raised eyebrows and a huge grin at Steph who knew she had no choice, simply because riding a camel was something I really wanted to do on this trip! So she willingly obliged even though she's afraid of riding horses, let alone camels. We each hopped onto a camel and I was surprised to find how high I sat after it stood up. Off we went down the beach, my camel following hers, and I laughed the entire way. Steph just shook her head and mumbled, "we are SUCH tourists." I had a great time!
Just off shore there were a number of old, battered wooden boats anchored which I photographed on Saturday thinking it would make a good picture. They looked like they were about to sink if the slightest wave hit them. On Sunday morning when we met the man on the beach who was to take us snorkeling, we assumed we would be hopping into the nice, white large boat with a motor that was anchored next to the old battered one. As we walked out into the water, he instead directed us to the old wooden boat. As we followed him into the knee-deep water, Steph and I looked at each other with an expression that read, "um, are you serious?" Note to self: always ask what kind of boat you will be taking out into the ocean before you sign up to go snorkeling. We hopped into the long, canoe-like boat that had wooden planks nailed across it for seats, and a vertical pole near the middle of the boat that was attached by string to logs floating on either side to keep the boat from capsizing. Instead of a motor or oars, the man stood on the back of the boat and used a long wooden pole to push off on the sand below the water. We moved slowly out to the reef and sand bar in the distance, passing fishermen using nets and spears to catch and kill their prey. Our guide told us that octopus was what a lot of them were fishing for. After we reached our destination, Steph and I hopped into the shallow water and snorkeled around the reef, which was not that impressive but there were some cool fish that seemed to be more interested in us than we were them. They swam all around us. There was one fish that I remembered seeing on "Finding Nemo." We also saw lots of star fish and sea urchins. After we had our fill of sea life, we hopped into the boat and sailed back to shore to again be bombarded by the locals who were determined to sell us their sea shells, scarves, bracelets, or whatever else they were carrying.
We are now back in Ngong after traveling overnight again last night and are heading to Sidai this afternoon. They began school this morning so I am excited to hear how that is going!
Hope all is well back home...
-Kristin
- comments