In my last blog, I forgot to share my experience at the Giraffe Center! The Giraffe Center is about 40 minutes outside of Nairobi by bus and foot (after the bus, you have to walk for a good 20 minutes) and I traveled there two weekends ago. This Giraffe Center is famous because it is a giraffe petting zoo! The Center breeds a type of giraffe that is endangered and then brings the animals back into the wild after they have been protected at the Center for a period of time. At the Center, the giraffes are not kept in cages, but roam free in a large preserve. However, they are still very friendly: there is a tall-ish overlook that you can climb up on and the giraffes will come and eat food from your hand and you can pet them, etc. as long as they are eating! This seems to be a win-win situation for both tourists and giraffes. This was a special experience for me as I love giraffes!!
Pic: The giraffes come up to the overlook where tourists can feed them.
Pic: Here's me with a giraffe!!
Uganda
This past weekend, I went to Uganda to raft the Nile! We left on a Thursday evening as we didn’t have school on Friday and took a night bus to Uganda. Most of us slept for most of the 14 hour ride, so it didn’t seem that long, although I was nervous about this to begin with as the 14 hours was only two hours less than both of our flights combined to get here, which I thought were long on the way here! Anyway, parts of the ride were VERY bumpy as a result of poor roads, especially near the border. Many roads here have gaping holes so that it is actually a smoother ride to drive on the dirt next to the road than on the road itself. Also, because traffic accidents are such a problem in Kenya, there are speed bumps even on main roads to slow down traffic, which also makes for a bumpy ride. Depending on how well you know me, you may know that I can usually sleep anywhere, so the bumps weren’t too much of an issue for me! I actually noticed them more on the way back to Kenya, when we drove during the day.
There is one more story I have to tell about the commute to Uganda: the border crossing! In most countries in Africa (and maybe elsewhere), you actually have to walk (probably about ¾ of a mile) to get across borders; the bus meets you on the other side of the border. This normally wouldn’t be that big of a deal aside from the fact that it was four in the morning and pitch dark (no street lights) when we reached the border! We all lumbered off the bus and followed others to check out of Kenya and then into Uganda. Along the way, there are people who want to exchange currencies with you (“Uganda shillings?”), but we didn’t know the exchange rate, so we didn’t exchange as it was likely that we would pay too many Kenyan shillings for too few Ugandan shillings if we chose to exchange informally rather than through a bank. A few times, my group lost the rest of the group going across the border and we had to guess which dark path to walk down . . . somewhat nerve-wracking, but we found the bus in the end, so it worked out.
Saturday in Kampala
Saturday morning, we got off the bus in Kampala and took a taxi to our hostel for the night (Red Chili if anyone is traveling to Kampala anytime soon- I would recommend this place). Two other students and I wanted to explore Kampala, so we visited downtown for the afternoon.
Traveling around Kampala was the first time we had been on ‘bota bota’s, or basically small motorcycles that serve the same purpose as a taxi would. Most of the time, we rode two to a bota bota; the drivers are always friendly and they are inexpensive (about $1.50 a ride) if you know how much they cost. The first time we took one, we ended up paying $10 because we didn’t know the price . . . ooops! In Kenya and Uganda, higher prices are called “mzungu prices” or white people prices as locals can convince mzungus (white people) to pay more as we are usually not from the area. I think I already talked about the term ‘mzungu’ but it just means white person, it is not derogatory at all and most people are actually excited to see us, even if it is just because we are usually good customers.
Pic: Downtown Kampala.
My friends and I toured Kabaka’s palace in Kampala, which is also home to the place where Idi Amin and the leader after him killed many Ugandans while he was in power. From the beginning of the tour, my friends and I had to wear skirts while touring the palace as I guess it was improper for us as women to wear pants while on the sacred ground, but I didn’t mind, mainly because our tour guide, Tom, was very kind to us during the tour. I’ll talk a little bit about Kabaka’s palace because it has a lot to do with Uganda’s people and culture. Uganda is home to 52 social groups (even more than Kenya’s 42), but most of these groups are a part of the larger Buganda group (the namesake for Uganda). These groups are still strong today, which is why there are actually two governments in Uganda: the official Ugandan government and the Bugandan government, run by the Bugandan king. Kabaka’s palace is historically the home of the Bugandan king, although this is the same palace that Idi Amin used as a military base when he ruled the country. During Amin’s rule, the Bugandan king fled Uganda to Scotland as Uganda was not safe for him under Amin. This may be review for those of you who have seen The Last King of Scotland, although I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know how much history is involved in it. The killing fields, as they are called, is actually a dungeon with four rooms. There are still writings on the walls from prisoners. During the tour, I also learned about Jack fruit, a huge, rough, green fruit that is a little bigger than the biggest head you can think of with little fruits on the inside. You will hear more about Jack fruit later.
Pic: Kabaka's Palace. Below: My friends and I (Kiersten, Danielle, Me) wearing skirts in front of Kabaka's Palace. Tom, our guide, took this picture.
Pic: This is the entrance to the dungeon where people were killed during Idi Amin's rule. There are fields on all sides of the dungeon. Kabaka's Palace is up the hill from here (left in the picture).
Pic: This is the dungeon. It is not very big- you can see the four cells on the left of the picture, although of course many more than four people were in the dungeon at a time.
Pic: These are prisoners' writings on the wall in the dungeon.
Pic: On a lighter note, this is a jack fruit!
After Kabaka’s palace, we took bota botas (they’re so fun!) downtown where we sat inside to wait out some rain. We also ended up going to a craft fair, which sits in the city center. There were many beautiful baskets, bags, tapestries and material for sale.
Pic: I was debating about actually putting this one on here due to the cRaZY look on my face! . . . This is me riding a bota bota.
As we got home, it was pouring rain and we went to bed as we were leaving in the morning to travel to Jinja, Uganda, where we would raft for the day.
Saturday
When we woke up in the morning, it was pouring rain again. I have found so far in Africa that when it rains, it absolutely pours. Part of the hostel was actually flooded as we walked from our rooms to the main office to check out! We were picked up at the hostel by members of Adrift, the rafting company we were going to raft with, and started the drive in the rain.
About 30 minutes into our commute, we encountered a road accident that changed the course of our day. A bus, filled with other people going to raft at Adrift, had crashed into a truck, which had slid on the road because of the rain. No medical help was at the scene yet, so most of us jumped out of the truck and started to help. We soon heard that there were two people stuck in the bus and one person still stuck in the truck. Then, we learned that some people with bad injuries would need to be taken to the hospital in the van we were taking to Jinja. We got our things out of the van and proceeded to wait in the rain while many people helped with the accident. We stayed at the scene for around four hours before taking a matatu to Jinja. The police came after one hour and some fire trucks came after two hours. Many people were injured, but luckily no one died. We were glad to be able to help, although this meant that we wouldn’t be able to go rafting this day.
Saturday afternoon, we arrived at Adrift. The camp overlooks the Nile from far up and you have to go down many stairs to actually reach the river. It is a beautiful place! It was exactly what we needed after a stressful morning, to say the least. We went out to lunch in downtown Jinja and in the evening, a few of us went to a local bar to play pool with some Ugandans. My team lost twice, but it was nice to talk to some Ugandans as most people at Adrift are from Western countries.
Pic: View from Adrift where we camped for two nights. The platform to the left is where people went bungee jumping (ahead).
Rafting!
Sunday, we finally went rafting! Well, rafting and bungee jumping for some people. Four people from our group (not me as I am afraid of heights) went bungee jumping and jumped 20 stories headfirst into the Nile! After this, we started down the river in a raft where we encountered Class 3,4 and 5 rapids. There was also a class 6 rapid, but people do not normally raft this rapid as it is too dangerous. All of the other rapids are very safe, however, and we were instructed about what to do if the raft flips or if we fall out. I didn’t fall out, but the raft flipped twice during the day! The water was welcome in the hot sun . . . it didn’t rain at all on Sunday. We also went swimming a lot, which was usually started by the guide pushing me out of the raft. Lastly, I should mention that we went rafting with a British person that our group had met at Red Chili. We had fun comparing language together and we missed him when he left that evening.
After rafting, we were all exhausted, so we just stayed at Adrift for the evening. One of the Ugandans I met over the weekend, Bosco, brought us a jack fruit as I had wanted to try one. We had someone at Adrift cut it up for us and we all ate the huge fruit together. It is actually quite a process to eat a jack fruit. You have to cut it, wipe off a lot of sticky goo from the cut and then separate the fruit that you eat from the seeds and the other fruit innards that you don’t eat. The whole process is very sticky; the taste is a muted sweetness, kind of like a mango that we would eat in the US (mangoes here are sweet), but it is very good! It was a good way to end a memorable weekend.
Pic: On the way back, we got to see more of the scenery. These thatch houses were very common along the drive, in Uganda as well as the Western part of Kenya.
Habari nymbani . . .
This Swahili phrase means “news at home.” For the past two weeks, my host parents and cousin have been gone due to a death in the family. It was a sad event and my parents took charge of the funeral arrangements, which made it a very busy time for them. However, they returned yesterday and it is good to have them back. Because of the event, I have gotten a chance to meet some of my family’s extended family. Right now we have a 3 month old baby staying with us! We also had a guest this week staying for a school class. She was from Mombasa and helped me with my Swahili homework. It is common in Kenyan culture for extended family and friends to just show up at your house (no warning necessary) to stay for extended periods, although this last guest only stayed for three days. Some of my classmates have had more experiences with this than I have; people have stayed weeks or sometimes haven’t left in the time we’ve been here!
My host mom got her hair done today in little braids- she left the house at 2pm and got home at around 8:30pm, wanting pain medication. I love the way that braided hair looks, but it is painful and takes up most of your day. Most women alternate every 4-6 weeks with braids, no braids, braids, no braids. I believe you can also leave your braids in for up to two months and sometimes a little longer, depending on your preference. This is a huge time commitment (it is relatively inexpensive to have done), but it looks beautiful afterwards!
Habari wakenyaKenyan news: nothing much has really happened with the Constitution, although voter registration for the Constitutional referendum will begin in March. It is being introduced to Parliament soon if other issues do not get in the way, but no official actions have been taken. The main thing I wanted to talk about here was the recent fight between President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga in Kenya. Because of the election violence in 2007/8, Kenya has a coalition government with both a President and a Prime Minister, which I think I might have mentioned before. This past week, the Prime Minister suspended two ministers so that corruption investigations could take place: the Minister of Education who misplaced funds from the free primary education fund (this is why the US pulled out our education funding from Kenya recently) and the Minister of Agriculture over a maize scandal that has been in the news lately, but happened last year. However, President Kibaki said that Odinga did not have the power to suspend ministers, which resulted in Odinga calling on Kofi Annan, who brokered the coalition government in 2008, to come back to Kenya to figure out the situation. There was a large protest downtown last week against President Kibaki over this issue. I don’t think Kofi Annan ever came, although I am not sure about this, but the news yesterday said that the Parliament voted to in fact suspend the two Ministers. Although there has been a lot of corruption in businesses and government in the US lately, in Kenya there is normally impunity for stealing large sums of government money whereas in the US there is at least public recognition and sometimes leave of government officials in these cases.
What’s going on in my program?
This coming week is the second to last week of my time in Nairobi and the classroom portion of the program, afterwhich begins the internship phase. In two weeks, then, I will probably have a new family and be in a new city! I can’t believe that this is coming up so fast! I will be at my internship site for 6 weeks and then return to Nairobi for one week at the end, where I will stay with my family here for another few days.
I think of you all a lot and I hope that your lives are going well! Talk to you soon . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment