Adventures in East Africa Part 1

Pheewwww this past month has been hectic! I've seen and done so much I am going to need to break these posts up into several editions. As for now I am back and ready for my second year at St. Luke's! I love to travel but it feels great to be right where I belong. Karibuni Ginnie's Safari!

With the school closed it was time to head out on my adventure. My friend and myself planned to go to Western Kenya and Uganda, to get a sense of the other side of the country and visit a country I have been interested in for some time.

Driving through the Rift Valley I am always amazed, not only is it the birthplace of humanity—its beautiful, and now that the rains have begun, it felt alive. As we continued west the farms that lay on top of one another became infrequent, the land turned greener and greener; trees, forests, rivers, small mud huts and grass roofs passed by. Kericho was filled with tea fields wet with rain and people gently picking each leaf all along rolling hills and forests set the backdrop. Finally we arrived to Kisumu the third largest city in Kenya, beside the great Lake Victoria. The streets were filled with “boda bodas” or bikes fixed with cushions for passengers to sit on and the streets were clean and unlike Nairobi or Mombasa not filled with honking horns and traffic. We enjoyed some of the best fish I have ever had, and caught the tail end of the sunset on the lake. The next morning we walked down to the lake which was covered with lily pad type plant that extended out into the lake for at least a kilometer, I was told this was an invasive species and millions of shillings were spend on removing it. The lake is massive, and borders three countries.

We headed out towards to Siaya the home of Barrak’s father and where much of his family still lives. We met another Volunteer in the area who showed us around. Since the election she has become a local celebrity, and accepts visitors everyday. I could see from the sign in sheet filled with thousands of visitors from Kenya and all over the world. We passed the primary and secondary schools that Barrak opened. Her house was as big as mine in Embu and we sat under an expansive tree and waited. Finally Barraks stepsister, informed us that Mama Sarah had malaria and was resting. We chatted for a few minutes with her and wished Mama Sarah a quick recovery and headed out for another delicious meal of fish!

The next day we headed out to Kakamega, the last little circle of what used to be the Guineo-Congolian forest ecosystem stretching to central Africa. Today it looks like a small island within a sea of farms and towns. Within the park you feel closed off from the encroachment ( although during one hike we could hear the consistent hum of a chainsaw in the forest). The rainforest is cool and bursting at the seams with life! Everywhere you look there is life, trees killing each other for the suns gaze, termites eating the left over’s, ants underground tunnels, and of coarse the monkeys! Colobus monkeys are black and white have long white tails, walking into the forest , you see a shake in the tree and you can guarantee it is monkey gathering, they jump from limb to limb with acrobatic ease. The main source for anxiety and sense of “ were not at home anymore” was the baboons. These guys are everywhere, and they are big! The first day we decided to hike up to the “ viewpoint” to get a view of the rainforest, the hike was simple enough and we situated ourselves on a rock for a moment only to discover baboons surrounded us. We were reassured that these baboons were afraid of humans, and did not attack but seeing these guys up-close bulging muscles, and 2 inch fangs, I didn’t want to take any chances. We had planned to climb higher to a wooden perch but each path we took we were greeted by baboons, who didn’t look as if they were going to move! So we made our way back down to trail only to be greeted by more baboons! My friend’s theory was that my singing could scare anything away and it work a rousing version of “ hakuna matata” did the trick! The baboons walk into the thick bush and literally disappear. We stayed in bandas which were identical to those used by people in the area, mud and thatched roofs, we were beat and fixed some PB &J and slept to chorus of forest night.

The next day we took a long hike to a small waterfall and trail along a river. Miles through the rainforest I just gazed at the hugeness of these trees and life within this ecosystem. The trail wasn’t marked very well, and at times I was sure we were doomed to walk the rainforest for years, but we jumped, climbed, and crawled our way through the forest. We had yet another meal of PB&J a quick gaze at the stars, and dreams of Kisumu fish.

The next day we headed out of the forest and our intended destination was Kampala the capital city of Uganda. This is were the beauty of traveling in Africa comes in; and this is a really abstract beauty, like those paintings where you pretend to see the meaning, but in your head you’re saying this makes absolutely no sense! We headed into the Kakamega town and enquired about how to get to Uganda, we were told three different routes to take and thanks to our masterful planning neither of us had a map, a guide book, or any idea geographically about which direction to go! I somehow remembered that Busia was closer to Uganda then Webuye, but were told that there was no direct route to the town we would have to board a matatu to Mumias and board another matatu there. Matatus were just as the always were—cramped and crowded. Due to the fact that I had a huge bag I had to take the first row of seats, not so bad but the engine is underneath you and on your shins which can melt your shoes. Of coarse in true Kenyan style I resembled Garfield stuck to the side of window as six people occupied the row! The matatu also broke down half way through and we had to wait for another one to switch into. I was stuffed into the front row again, but was disturbed when the door had some trouble closing. When another passenger got off I was moved to the front seat, luckily, because as we took off; so did the door. We waited as the driver and other villagers tried their best to reattach it, which worked! Finally we reached Busia the border town where we bought our Visas and reached Uganda! Once again we had no idea where we were in Uganda and which direction Kampala was, or how to get there, or Ugandan currency. We remedied our money woes at the bank and were lead to matatu going to Kampala full of hay literally! I had to hold my big bag on my lap for the 4 hour trip, I could barely feel my leg. We laughed at the differences in Uganda and Kenya, while stuck in traffic, we actually sat in the traffic and waited, in Kenya this would never happen, the side paths become roads and you can always get ahead! In general people of Uganda were relaxed, and very friendly.

We eventually headed out to Jinga to raft the mighty Nile River. Jinga is where the river take root from Lake Victoria, this place is the renowned by explorers for “the source” of the great north running Nile. We stayed at a camp on the banks of the river, which was beautiful. We enjoyed watching the sunset over the river and monkeys jumping from tree to tree. The next day we prepared ourselves for rafting. The rafting is regarded as some of the best in the world, having class 5 rapids, and pools of calmness. I am not one for really worrying but when I saw some videos of rapids before our trip I was a bit nervous. We teamed up with two other travelers, and had the craziest guide, who ended up being rather entertaining through out the trip. We were told to jump into the water to see if we could swim, handle the temperature, and basically not freak out. Then we were taught how to forward paddle, back paddle, and other commands on how to turn left and right. We hit the first class one rapids and we glided through, we continued through a few class 3, then finally to a class 5. My strategy was to stay focused on paddling to try not to notice the rapids flowing all over and jagged rocks. The first class 5 we were told forward paddle and I used all my might until a huge rapid like a wave was flying towards my face, a rush of water I could see the boat and my shipmates flip. In the water water I held on to my paddle with a death grip, the river pulled my down, and I could see greens, blues, black, then finally white, I wanted up, I wanted air! I popped up for a moment I sucked in the air, but was dragged down once again, I was washed pulled left and right until I was up again, AIR AIR AIR, I love air. I spotted the “rescue boat” and was pulled aboard. I tried to spot my friend and saw her on a “rescue kayak” she was on the other side of the river and I could only imagine the journey she was on!

We hopped raft to raft until we were finally back on our raft, the next rapid was called 50/50 because you have a 50/50 chance of flipping! We were given instructions to “forward paddle” and we headed straight into the churning water, any attempt at making it through was quashed by the rapids; we rapidly flipped. I held onto the boat but was mercilessly sucked down into the Nile, I was tossed around helplessly, I craved air! I tried to calm my mind but lost it when something hit me in the face ( a foot or a paddle) I surfaced gasping for air and could hardly get my mind to focus enough to hold onto the boat. Finally I gained compose and flipped the raft, again my friend was on the other side of the river, she told me a similar story of being caught under the river. The rest of the journey was more relaxed as we ate pineapples and crackers and enjoyed a bit of a swim. This leisure time was only momentary because in the distance we could see the sky turning black—rain. Behind us the sky was bright in sunny, yet here we were heading straight into a black abyss! The wind picked up and was blowing against us, we now had to paddle but we were all exhausted, but every time we stopped we were blown back, so we all resolved to paddle hard until we got there. The rain was pouring and made us all very cold, but finally we reached the next rapid.

This rapid was the most technically difficult to manage it involved leaning to one side and back paddling all to avoid—a waterfall. Well needless to say we were all exhausted from paddling in the storm against the wind, so when the time came to paddle hard we ended up beached—at the waterfall. Our guide then informed there was only one option at this point and it was to go down! The waterfall wasn’t so big but it was still a long drop, I was sitting in the back and as we went over I could see the boat tumbling vertically and in a big flop, we were down, in one piece, we all screamed and whooped at our success! The next rapids looked menacing but we went down an easier route because the water was low making everything more choppy, we ended our day with a uphill hike, in the mud, barefoot. The day concluded with a buffet of barbeque choma, which was needed! The whole day was loads of fun and something I would do again in a heart beat!

The next day we headed into Jinja town and enjoyed just wandering around the town, and drinking Mountain Dew (impossible to find in Kenya) and passion fruit Fanta (also not available in Kenya). The next day we were Kenya bound! I enjoyed Uganda, the people were friendly, the land was beautiful, I hope to return again and explore different parts.