Yellow House

It seems.. I have internet at Sam's. From past experience I suspect it is a brief tantalizing connection.. but here is the post I was looking for earlier..

April 18, 2007

Like all good ex-employees, still on pay roll, I went to Leap’s farewell cocktail reception for Perry at the Union League club last night. What a good time it was, but I struggle to recall a bad time I have ever had when there was an open bar. Anyway, the conversation came around to me.. as most those I am involved in do. ha.. and my blog. I was informed that while this is all very entertaining, it is hard to know what Kenya’s really like, and so allow me please a Karen Blixen moment. I know my Kenyan writer friend will be appalled and indignant (I may be treated to a barrage of colloquial English mixed with Swahili swear words), but here I go.

Kenya (the country). An overview. According to me. Based on nothing but those vague hours on my travels when I have been awake.

Because all things seem to begin and end in Nairobi, I will start there. I never thought I would like Nairobi. I certainly didn’t want to move there, and wasn’t tempted by Mike Terry’s speech job at all, primarily because it was located here. Per Phil Connell, the capital was based here because it was not a malaria area, but with the changes in weather patterns, this is no longer true. I also read (or did I dream this, because in the depths of my cranium I can not recall the source at all.. hhmm) that Nairobi was built on this location because it was a camp back in the rail building days, but fortuitously it happens to be an area that straddles the tribal land of the Akamba, Kikuyu and one other group. Anyway, I will look into that and get back to you, and basically Nairobi is better than I was led to believe, and is preferable to Johannesburg on the whole, in every which way. Nairobi is still completely dodgy, and yes the random violence is deeply unsettling, but there are lots of fun things to do there and it truly is an eclectic kind of city. It is rather compelling in many ways, but I don’t know the place all that well. In fact I have spent more time in night clubs than anywhere else. If Nairobi is the heart of the country, then surely Kassarani (where I usually stay with Tanya and Sarah), is the armpit.

Heading west from Nairobi along one of the main highways .. after a while the road climbs up an escarpment and you can see over the rift valley (is this the rift valley??) who knows.. but anyway you can see for miles, and it is stunning. There is a very dramatic drop off beside the road, so that the landscape (facing south) is spread before you quite literally at your feet... Still going west.. you will eventually hit Nakuru, which has been described to me as a ‘dusty plain’, but I like it. Certainly it is drier and less beautiful than other parts of the country. Nakuru is famous for Lake Nakuru National Park and its plethora of flamingos but often you can see their pink haze in the distance on several other lakes along the highway (therefore Jason thinks paying to go see the stinky birds up close is completely unnecessary).

Beyond Nakuru, you eventually start to get into a very lush agricultural area. Around Kericho (which appears to be entirely owned by Unilever) are all the tea plantations. It is picturesque. Although some might argue that people working for pittance in the hot Kenyan sun so I can drink premium brand hot beverages is evil, I have no adequate retort. North of that area I believe there is a lot of dairy land (or why is Eldoret known for its cheese? – I am there in September I will let you know)? Still going west the land flattens as you get to Kisumu and Lake Victoria, but then about 5 miles beyond my neighborhood, it rises into rocky hills and rolling vistas. As you continue west and perhaps north it gets into the Kakamega forest, and then as you go towards Mumias and the border of Uganda, sugar is the main industry. Per Martin “I know when I am getting close to home when I see sugar cane.”

The Masai Mara on the southern border as you might recall from pictures last summer is rolling Savannah grasslands.

Going east from the capital on the train or the Nairobi – Mombasa highway, you head through lovely landscapes that are much flatter. The Tsavo game parks are in this general direction and the pictures you may recognize from this area are those that show Kilamanjaro presiding in the distance. I am much less familiar with this route, but I do know it ends at the Indian Ocean and the coast is beautiful. Have I ever met a beach I didn’t like? Well yes, let me just say, there is a reason that the North Sea is not a fashionable holiday destination.

Up towards Lake Turkana the country is supposed to be incredible and completely different. Those who have been highly recommend it. But I am a scaredy cat and don’t prefer travel that requires an armored escort. I am never going to be a great adventurer it would seem. So.. apparently Maralal in Samburu is also wonderful.. like a real frontier town (and has the cattle rustling to boot). This is actually where one of my EARC’s is based, but VSO has travel restrictions on it so we will see if I ever make it.

I have definitely seen wild zebra, monkeys and baboons. You not ever likely to stumble upon a lion (outside of a game park), but maybe I am wrong. I don’t worry about wildlife. Wild life I spend a lot more time considering.

I don’t hang out with a bunch of white people (“mzungu”). Mainly because I don’t know a bunch of white people to hang out with (not because I am such a discriminating friend). However, in Nairobi there are 3 white volunteers .. that I like and spend time with. In Kisumu, there are apparently many wzungu (plural.. but I must admit this is about the extent of my Swahili), and you can see them all at the Simba Club for Indian buffet on Friday nights. Apart from the two Danish boys I see periodically in the internet café and at Lutheran School I don’t run into them and don’t know them. I don’t know if there are these colonial outposts, or American schools. I suspect there are both. Or maybe there is not.

So. The American government has travel advisories about going to Kenya. Apparently they haven’t the capacity to respond to terrorists in the event of an attack. And the United States have been so adept at this in the past. I recommend you respectfully ignore said warnings and come visit, because the country is beautiful, the sky very large and Kenyans extremely welcoming. And.. after listening to people whine and bitch on a daily basis about small and petty things, having watched people create dramas because they have everything they could possibly want in life, and stillness may allow space for introspection and the realization that they don’t like who they are, or, that they could be happy if they chose to be.. visiting somewhere different is all rather refreshing.