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November 30th, 2009
12:53 pm - Back to the Kalanki Hostel
After two days of shopping and good eating in the Thamel area I decided to pack up and head back to the volunteer hostel on the outskirts of town. I felt I experienced as much of Thamel as I needed and really couldn't take much more. Plus I was really craving some human interaction beyond ordering food and haggling with street vendors. It looks like there are a few other people's bags in the hostel but they are not in the house at the moment so perhaps I will meet them later. I was also paying 900 rupees a night for an uncomfortable bed and no hot water up in Thamel, a change of hotels was happening one way or another today. The hostel is free with free food and a comfortable but not private bed and no hot water. Just two days left now.
While I was in Thamel I ate at pretty much all the top restaurants. Two of which were pizza restaurants. The decor in all the restaurants was nice but at very best the pizza is mediocre by American standards. The sauce is universally different, light orange and very watery, typically mixes with the cheese to form almost a soupy layer of mush on top of a well textured but ultimately tasteless crust. Toppings can be tasty here though, like smoked chicken and big thick salami, yum. I will miss one of the local beers, Everest Beer. It was a very smooth pils served in 650ml form that always hit the spot.
There might not be another post this trip, as I expect the remainder of my stay to be quite blissfully uneventful.
Current Location: Kalanki, Kathmandu, Nepal
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November 29th, 2009
10:03 am - Back in Kathmandu
Made it back to Kathmandu yesterday. Instead of shacking up in the free hostel provided by my volunteer organization I decided to shell out a few rupees for a room in Thamel, the tourist area. My flight isn't until Wednesday so I have a few days to kill. Only have a couple more shopping requirements and the rest I suppose I'll spend on sightseeing and lounging around in cyber cafes and coffee shops.
I've bought a total of 7 Khukuri knives since I've been here and I plan to grab a couple more. only 2 or 3 for myself, promise. So if you're a guy and are expecting a birthday/christmas present from me.... you're getting a sweater.
Its much easier to shop for women around here, lots of nice cashmire and pashmina garments and scarfs, tons or tibetan and nepali jewelry, neat little bags and stuff. So if you're a girl and you are expecting a birthday/christmas present from me.... you're getting a knife.
started researching my volunteering trip for next year, currently examining the opportunities in Mongolia.
Current Location: Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal
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November 28th, 2009
04:10 pm - Back from the Trek
I survived.
The trek was fantastic, though very challenging. If I had known just how high we would be climbing and how steep it was I might have turned back early in the trek. The layout of the terrain keeps the top of the hill just out of your sight so you always feel as though you're almost at the top. I actually did it day ahead of schedule too. I'm extremely sore and just relaxing and recouperating here in Pokhara for a day before I jostle back to Kathmandu. Here's my recap of each day of the hike:
Day 1
Two hour car ride to the start. about 4 hours of walking, up a total of about 500 meters. Very easy day, I wasn't tired or sore in the slightest. First truely hot shower I've had in Nepal. I kicked back a beer and tried not to stress out about the difficult day I knew I had ahead tomorrow.
Day 2
Hell day. 8 hours of hiking, up a total of 1300 meters. Back home I would consider it a fairly active day to walk over a kilometer, but UP over a kilometer... just... no. I was shacked up overnight at the base of a large hill which we proceeded to scale first thing in the morning. The steepest part of the journey was at the very beginning. It was steep enough that you could use your hands to help climb the steps without bending over. I'd be weezing after every few minutes of it and stopped probably 50 or 60 times for breaks on the way up. Finally reaching the hilltop town of Ghorapani was a nice relief to one of the most exhausting days I can remember. Oh, it was freezing cold in Ghorapani (2,800 Meters elevation). The lodge had a nice cozy little fire going and it was fun to meet the other trekkers there.
Day 3
Alarm goes off at 4am. I'm walking up Poon Hill by 20 after. Seeing the sunrise on top of Poon Hill is the goal of the trek, so this last 400 steep meters in the freezing cold pitch black morning was as rewarding as it was taxing. My muscles were getting sore and the air was much harder to breath. I was the first one in the morning to begin the climb but another group passed me so I was only the 5th one to the top of the hill. By sunrise around a hundred people would be there. Poon Hill is famous for its wonderfull view of the Annapurna mountain range as its higher than the surrounding hills. It was beautiful. It was freezing cold. After sunrise and a few photos we descended back to the lodge at Ghorapani where I proceeded to nap for a few hours. After I awoke from the nap we proceeded back down the hill. Going downhill is easier athletically (don't need to stop to catch your breath) but tougher on the joints. By the time we walked about 3 or 4 hours down the hill my legs were buckling and I was losing control and stability. I was glad we stopped because I felt I was about to faceplant and tumble down the hill. French people singing at the guest house kept me up for a few hours with their singing. Makes me wish we had left the Vichy in power.
Day 4
Climbed down the really steep part of the hill first thing in the morning then all the way back to the starting point of the trek. I was sick on this day as well, not fun. By the time we arrived to the taxi I was using my walking stick practically as a crutch.
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November 22nd, 2009
12:42 pm - On with the chillaxing...
I finished my volunteer project on friday and yesterday morning I took the local bus to Pokhara where I will begin my trek. The bus ride was... interesting. It took 2 hours once we were on the bus for it to actually leave town. They wait to try to pull in more passengers, really annoying. then it proceeds to stop at every little town along the way, sometimes wrangling even more passengers. All in all, about an 8 hour journey for a distance you could probably cover in around 2 to 2.5 hours back home.
Pokhara is a really nice town. There is a lot of tourist money here just like Kathmandu but it is a much smaller town so it seems the tourist money goes farther. The streets are very clean and the houses in the area are gorgeous. The shopping area is a much more relaxed atmosphere than Thamel in Kathmandu. I'm actually up here a day early and I'm glad I chose to, its a wonderful place to unwind. I had a warm shower and slept in until 10:30.
My Australian friend Neil was along on the bus ride yesterday and spent the night in Pokhara as well. We walked the town, having a few drinks, looking for trouble. He was trying to find massage parlour's with extras. I enjoyed the spectacle. Despite all language barriers, people of all cultures seem to understand what "boom boom" means, as in "we want boom boom", or "I would like a massage, how much for boom boom". The night ended with me puking into my sink back at the hotel, but I'm still a little hungover :(
Current Location: Lakeside, Pokhara, Nepal
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November 13th, 2009
04:48 pm - Exhausted
I arrived at my project down here in the lovely Chitwan area on monday. The drive down was interesting. You snake your way through mountain roads etched thinly into the side of the steep slopes. There are actually guard stones in some areas to make sure you don't slip off the side like one bus did two weeks ago, kill all 12 people inside. The rest of the areas, meh, pavement ends at death.
The villiage I'm in is nice and peaceful. The house is clean, friendly and I have a room all to myself. The work is exhausting. On tuesday we tilled a field with just a ho. My legs were a little sore the next day, when we tilled the same field a second time and planted lots of vegetables. Yesterday (thursday) I could barely walk. Bending over is one position I'm proud to say I don't often find myself in and many of the muscles supporting my rather heafty upper half were quite sore. To top it off, I started developing a cold yesterday as well, which I'm currently battling at them moment. At least I can walk again though. Its a 30 minute walk to the town here where there is a cyber cafe and about a 50/50 chance of there being power in the town when I get here. It will get me in shape for my trek, which I start week after next.
The food is good, but they eat the same thing every meal. Daal Bhaat. Lentils and Rice. They serve me so much of it (the same portion they eat) that I feel like I'm about to throw up the last quarter of it or so. So I haven't been hungry since I got here.
Tomorrow is a holy day and the only day of the week Nepali people take off (no two day weekends). Looking forward to chillaxing.
Current Location: Rampur Bazaar, Chitwan, Nepal
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November 8th, 2009
11:53 am - Day of Rest
I've been a complete tourist these past few days. The first day of sightseeing we saw three temples around the city. We were chauffeured around in a car from point to point so it wasn't a very exhausting day.
The first temple was a Hindu temple with a name that is far too long and far too foreign for me to pronounce, much less remember for this journal. On our descent into the valley of the temple we assailed by a drifting cloud of white smoke, I'll come back to this in a moment. The temple had a large inner area that only Hindu's are allowed in but all tourists were allowed in the surrounding areas. We proceeded across the river behind the temple and up a hill which provides a nice vantage point to see the inner temple area. The primary utility of the temple though was the river, and what goes on at the river bank. Cremation. All the dead bodies in the area are taken to this temple to be burned at the side of the river. The burning of the bodies produces large plumes of white smoke that drift in the direction of the road we came in on... (gulp). There were two areas for burning bodies, one for regular people and one for important people. At the top of the hill as a park for the monkeys and deer, which was quite and nice. In an odd twist of reverse discrimination, they only let westerners in the park.
The next temple we went two was a Buddhist temple in the part of town named "Boudha". Buddhism is big money here since it attracts the majority of the western travelers, who seem to be disproportionately bohemian. Its basically the same crowd that only eats organic and protests the World Bank. White kids with dread locks, upper middle class upbringing and fighting "the man" ever since. In a related note, I've been offered marijuana by street urchins at least 10 times since I've been here. Anyway, The temple was shaped like a muffin top with a gilded spike on top. Complete surrounded by some of the most touristy shoppes I've yet seen in Kathmandu.
The third temple was the famous "monkey" temple. It sat on a high perch on the edge of the Kathmandu valley with a spectacular view of the city. This was the first building in the area. Back when the valley was a lake this temple was actually an island. The Nepali culture must have respected the religious holdings of the Buddhists for a long time as this spectacularly defensible location would have been the perfect site for a palace. As far as the temple itself its was nice, monkeys were everywhere. So were dogs. Dogs chased the monkeys. Monkeys teased the dogs. There was even a swimming pool for the monkeys, though the water looked horrid.
Yesterday we visited a canyon nearby, which was really more of a local hangout than a western tourist destination. There were mostly local couples there, making it like the "makeout point" of Kathmandu. There were a lot of steep stairs going down the valley and back up, then down, then back up, then back down into town when we were finished. Exhausting day.
I wanted a nap but the girls were going out to dinner and I can't pass that up. Last night we ate a restaurant in downtown Kathmandu and I ate a massive delicious plate of chicken fried rice and a plate of Buffalo MoMo (meat dumplings, local cuisine). Completely stuffed, the food cost just under 2 dollars. The Thamel district at night is really gorgeous, I enjoyed it much better than in the day time. This is a surprisingly safe city. None of us have been pickpocketed or harassed in any way.
Its my last day here in Kathmandu and I head out for my project in the morning. Its in the rural area named Chitwan and I'm really looking forward to the peace and quiet.
Current Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
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November 4th, 2009
12:50 pm
So far so good. Living at the hostel this week isn't exactly roughing it. It does help ease the culture shock though, like an old man slipping into a hot bath. I'm just learning the Nepali language this week which is just a few hours of lecture in the morning then free time the rest of the day. The cook at the hostel feeds us a variety of food stuffs because once we get to the project and live with our host family we eat pretty much nothing but daal bhaat (lentils and rice). The cook leaves a lot to be desired in terms of catering to a western pallet. One of his most bizarre concoctions the other night was noodles in mayonnaise. To be fair, its usually not bad.
There are a lot more volunteers in the house now, 7 women and me (no so bad eh?). Plus the hostel seems to be a veritable cross-roads for people coming to and from their work projects and trekking/sightseeing. Everyone volunteering here seems to be in a transitional period in their life, unlike me. Most of them just finished college and don't know what to do with their lives after they get back from the trip. Many of them finished advanced degrees in fields they have no interest in working in. I think I'm the only one here who's parents didn't pay for the trip either ;)
After class yesterday we went to the area of town called "Thamel" (pronounced TOM-EL). Its the tourist area where you can buy trinkets and all the trekking gear you'd imagine. If you plan on trekking in Nepal its WAYYY cheaper to get all your north face swag here, FYI. If it is cheap chinese imitations then it feels just like the real thing, which is also made cheaply in china. Thamel isn't entirely for tourists, its busy with locals as well. As you walk down the tight, crowded streets motorcycles and rickshaws hurl past you with reckless abandon. Its quite an experience, once. I think I'll avoid it for the remainder of my stay and sanity.
Tomorrow is sightseeing day! We're going to hit a few temples I think, which seem to be everywhere here. This place has to up up there in the temples per capita statistics. I'll try to post pictures on my facebook if I can but the internet connection is quite, quite slow.
I am really looking forward to heading down to Chitwan where I will be working for the next few weeks. The volunteers who just returned from there on a sightseeing trip raved about it and called it "the perfect place". Apparently elephants roam around in the area.
Current Location: Kalanki Mandir, Kathmandu Nepal
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November 1st, 2009
05:30 am - Just Arrived in Nepal
I'm off to another volunteering trip this year. Nepal, my first excursion into the continent of Asia. I'll be taking a one week language course here in Kathmandu then I head down to the Chitwan to do conservation work for two weeks. I cap off the trip with a 9-day trek. Trekking is "the big thing" to do in Nepal.
12 hour flight to Doha from DC, 12 hour layover, 5 hour flight to Kathmandu. Lost an additional 8 hours due to time zones. I left on friday night and landed sunday afternoon. Doha airport wasn't as bad as I was imagining, luckily.
After leaving the airport I was greeted by the familiar look and feel of the third world: corrugated metal storefronts, dirty roads with no lines and no rules, people everywhere. I feel distinctly safer than here than in Nairobi though as the one thing that I took note of being absent from the picture was groups of unemployed young men and boys clustering on street corners. Lots of young people with nothing to do is a necessary component of a high crime rate.
For the next 7 days I'm holed up in a nice little house in, from what i can tell, is one of the quiet parts of Kathmandu. Its cozy and the people seem friendly. The women here are also quite beautiful. Another volunteer arrives tonight followed by a third in the morning, for now I am alone.
Current Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
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April 5th, 2009
06:05 pm - One last story from Africa
I was nearly arrested on my last day Kenya.
Shortly after I posted the previous blog post I left town and headed back to the village. I was expecting to meet up with the family elder, Peter, who would be giving me a buffalo horn as a going away gift. There were some transportation delays because it took a while for the driver to hoist all the goats on the roof of the bus. I returned a little later than expected and didn't get to meet up with Peter in person. He did however make sure that one of his sons gave me the horn.
The buffalo horn was magnificent. A true colossus. Perhaps a meter long and I'd say 35 pounds would be a conservative estimate. I must also point out this this was only one horn, half of the entire spread. I instantly took to the task of packing it in my luggage. It took up an entire duffel bag, I just padded around it with some clothes to avoid damage.
I changed into my last set of clean clothes. I had been saving one set of clean clothes for the flight back so that I could feel . After saying my goodbyes and being hugged by everybody my nice clean dress shirt was filthy. So much for looking clean. It is awkward walking around the sleek, pristine Zurich airport with dirt smeared across your stomach and chest.
Charles the cab driver picks me up for the drive to the airport and a few of the family (three of the elder girls, perhaps they liked me?) piled in the cab to see me off. The cab was blasting "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas as we worked our way around the endless minefield of potholes and crevasses that is rural Kenyan dirt roads.
Just inside the door at the airport you pass your baggage through scanners, thus beginning the customs process. Just after passing my bags through the scanner I was singled out and asked to step to the side where the uniformed man with rubber gloves asked me to open the bag. It was the bag with the horn in it. I somewhat expected this. Soon thereafter, another man in a cheap suit came over and asked me a series of questions about the horn, how I came to possess it and so on. The I was taken to a room where I suffered a gauntlet of interrogations from men in increasingly nicer suits. With each new interrogator I gave the full story of how I lived with the Maasai and was given the horn as a gift.
The Buffalo is one of the "Big 5" game animals in Africa. I didn't research this fact, nor did I research any anti-poaching laws prior to my trip. Legally speaking, I might as well have been carrying an Elephant tusk. Poaching is one of the most serious crimes a westerner can commit in Kenya. Not that it needs mentioning, but Kenyan prison is not a place you want to be.
I was quite worried. Not only were these men of authority, which in Africa means corruption, but specifically these were Kikuyu and held no love or respect for the austere Maasai ways of which my possessing this contraband was a direct result. At this point I was glad that I was filthy and partially bearded. Had I looked like the clean cut, affluent westerner that I actually am I think my story would have been less believable.
I was absolutely convinced that I would either go to jail or most likely, pay a hefty bribe. After a couple hours of pleading my situation I was eventually let go. They kept the horn of course.
So thats how I was nearly arrested for poaching in Africa.
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January 2nd, 2009
03:02 pm - The Final Hours
I fly home tonight. I just finished helping the MEAC office (the charity I work for here) re-write just about all their documents. They needed some english and stylistic help. It was easy work but they were very grateful. Kenyans don't type as fast as they run.
It was a little difficult to say goodbye to Danny. We had become friends. He was the one who took me up Ngong Hills and I took him to the restaurant Carnivore two days ago. It is hard to make local friends here because just when you think you are on good standing with them they will often flat-out ask your for something like money, and ipod, a playstation, my watch, my cell phone or constantly ask to borrow your stuff. Danny is quite poor and yet does none of this, instead he freely offers up his time and friendship.
A lot of new volunteers have showed up in the past few days due to school starting next week. The atmosphere has been different there for sure. On new years night there was booze. The Maasai don't seem to hold their liquor very well. It was funny to see them tipsy.
To people I haven't called yet, I'll try to get through to you before I leave tonight. My Kenyan cell phone is a piece of junk. I don't even get the relief of smashing it on a rock before I leave as other volunteers have requested it.
The past week or so I have felt pretty comfortable with the life here. I feel confident to travel by myself and generally feel like I could live this life for as long as a year with no trouble.
Current Location: Ngong, Kenya
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December 30th, 2008
10:09 am
So going up the Ngong hills nearly killed me. I can't recall ever being so tired. It was five hours of hiking up and down very steep hills. It was great to be up there though. You can see all the way to Tanzania on one side and way past Nairobi on the other side. The wind is fierce up there as the hill ramps the gentle winds in the valley below sharply upwards. Kindof like the Himalayas, it creates a wet side of the mountain and dry side. I have a nice picture of the top showing the polarity of climates divided by the hill. I live on the dry side where it is very dusty. The wet side looks like a lush and fertile paradise.
I got a little frustrated on the way up the hill. Ahead of us were about 50 or so locals who simply walked straight passed a guard shack beside the road. As our group attempted to pass we were stopped and told that we had to pay to climb. The Guard told us it cost 100 shillings per Mazungu (white people) and 20 shillings per African. They actual cost is 0 shillings for everybody, but nothing starts the day better than a little racism, corruption and greed. I'm getting pretty used to people trying to rip me off at every opportunity here, but this I found just a little intolerable. I'm getting shrewd with haggling. I count my change carefully.
I got to herd the cattle yesterday. Not the easy cowboy way on horseback with a bull whip., but just on foot. I moved along the rear of the herd, singling out the stragglers by flanking them in a predatory pose. That's how sheep dogs do it. All the grazing creatures seem to understand the universal, head-crouched stance which conveys the clear message "I intend to kill you", and do their best to stay clear of you. The Maasai just pelt them with stones and whip them with a stick.
Somebody broke into our goat pin last night and stole 3 goats. I saw them talking this morning to a man whom I can only speculate is the Maasai Sherlock Holmes.
Current Location: Ngong, Kenya
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December 27th, 2008
10:41 am - Getting ready to hike
We're about to climb Ngong hill here in a few minutes with Danny, our Maasai guide. Its dangerous for white people to go alone and the people who live on the hill are afraid of the Maasai so we should be fine. The view from up there should be spectacular.
By request, I shall explain beverages in Kenya. Water: bottled, local water is dangerous to westerners. Coffee/Tea: Chai tea. They drink this with breakfast and throughout the day. Its DELICIOUS here, better than starbucks. Fresh milk from the cows who are 20 feet away from you is nice as well. Alcohol: Technically forbidden in Maasailand where we are staying mostly, but the local Kenyan beer is called Tusker. Mostly found in the basic Pilsner form, they also make a variety of ales. The best thing to drink here in my opinion is Guiness Foreign Extra Stout. Its a real rich true-to-style stout unlike Guiness Draft, and is even better than the domestic Guiness Extra Stout. Foreign Extra Stout is only Brewed outside of Europe and North America I believe.
Christmas in Kenya is far different than the U.S. We started the day by slaughtering a Goat. I watched intently. I have butchered meat before in culinary school so I was familiar with the basic approach but had not yet seen the actual killing process or the skinning. Apart from that there is no real ceremony to the day. It is just set apart from other days by a surplus of food and meat. They make a fried dough called Mondazi and eat it all day long. It is basically a doughnut without the sugar. I would shank somebody for a real doughnut right now.
Last night we had an intruder in our compound. We don't know for sure if it was a Human, Cheetah or Hyena but it was definitely out there. It took a while to get to sleep with the thought of you being seperated from that by only a think sheet of tin. Luckily I was armed with two Rungu war clubs, two Maasai spears and two machetes and our Manyatta was totally locked from the inside. When we woke up all the Maasai young men were posted in sleeping positions strategically throughout the compound in addition to the Night watchman John, who is I believe the eldest and most muscular of the bunch. It seems the night shift here is where you post your toughest cat, and I am starting to see why.
I haven't shaved since I've been here. Just getting that wilderness look though, my beard doesn't seem to be terribly thick.
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December 24th, 2008
11:21 am - Post-safari, a return to normal
So the last day of safari was really great, White Rhinos, Flamingos, Storks, Baboons. We saw a leopard devouring its pray up in a treetop. We got charged by a 2000 pound male buffalo. We stayed the night in Nairobi prior to heading back to Kimuka village.
We ate lunch at a place called Carnivore in Nairobi. This is probably the most famous restaurant in all of Kenya. If you've ever been to a Brazilian steak house, its pretty much exactly how this place worked. Except they served Crocodile and Ostrich. We stuffed ourselves with delicious meats. To name a few of the meats currently digesting in my guts: Pork short ribs, port sausage, beef sausage, roast beef, lamb, Ostrich roast, ostrich meatballs, crocodile, turkey dark meat, turkey white meat, chicken. They apparently used to serve giraffe as well but got stopped by the government. The restaurant is in a compound with security guards and a gate house. If you're in Kenya, you simply must stop by.
On the trip back to Kimuka I picked up a small wooden toilet seat as a gift for my host family. You just place it over the hole in the ground they call a toilet and you get to sit instead of squat. Such a simple piece of technology but improves the quality of life for westerners like me by a large amount. My host family is utterly confused by this device. The concept of not squatting to use the toilet is simply unthinkable.
I bought a local cell phone (~$20) so I'll be calling some folks over the next few days. Its important here because you have to know cab drivers by name and call them up personally when you want a ride. That being said, the local Kenyan cab experience is better than back home. Fixed price, cheap, and they'll stop when you need to stop and get out to shop or they'll wait for you indefinitely.
We were building a house today, my shoulders hurt a little from carrying wood.
How many people can you fit in the back of a pick-up truck in Rural Kenya? 22. Myself included.
Current Location: Ngong, Kenya
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December 21st, 2008
05:02 pm - mid-safari
I'm in the town of Nakuru right now on the last night of the Safari. Tomorrow morning we head down to Lake Nakuru for our last day of wild life. The previous three days have been at the Maasai Mara game reserve. There we saw the "big 5", which I think is elephants, giraffes, rhinos, lions and leopards. we also caught a cheetah this morning, they only hunt from 6:00 to 6:30 so we had to be up early. We where incredibly lucky to see the Leopard though. Maybe one out of a hundred safari groups catch a glimpse of it. We saw a family of Warthogs getting out of dodge and the guide suspected that it might be the leopard. Sure enough, we drove right up to it. I couldn't get a picture of it because it was on the move and we were off the "road" and it was incredibly bumpy. All in all, I took over 500 pictures over the last couple of days.
I have some *great* lion shots, they are very photogenic. The prize winning shot though is when three zebra's literally posed for us in the middle of the road. I can't wait to post the pics.
Tomorrow at Lake Nakuru we should see white rhinos, flamingos and a whole lot more. The tour guide didn't know anything about hominid fossil sites though, so I'll have to do my own research and and try to see some before I leave. We are in the Rift Valley though, where our upright ancestors developed and it is a treasure trove of paleoanthropology.
People usually think of Safari as "roughing it" but to us it has been luxury. They have toilets and you don't have to sponge bath yourself in a few ounces of water from a bucket.
Current Location: Nakuru, Kenya
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December 19th, 2008
08:54 am - Temporary Relief
Just sitting here in the Cyber cafe waiting for the safari to depart. We spent the night with a host family near here in Nairobi. When we came here yesterday we went to a little enclave of western capitalism called the Nakumatt junction. It has western restaurants, stores, food court and a super walmart style store. What was the first place we made a bee-line for? The restrooms. To use the bathroom again on a toilet was just heaven. Even the host family we stayed with last night had a toilet (didn't flush well). We have both gone three times since yesterday afternoon as compared to the twice sofar at the Manyatta back in Maasailand. I call it psychological constipation. At this Nakumatt they have pizza. Its too bad we can't take a little detour over there to stuff our face. We only had time there yesterday to find me a hat, better sunscreen and some aloe vera gel.
Current Location: Nairobi, Kenya
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December 18th, 2008
11:11 am - Off to safari
We've been doing some manual labor at the school grounds recently. The sun is brutal, 2 gallons of water a day brutal. The Kenyans don't sweat and don't seem to drink much either. In addition to their other magical powers I spoke of they can see in the dark. At night it gets pitch black and they can get around perfectly fine without a flashlight. In a land covered in bushes with 3 inch thorns and a virtual minefield of cow patties it is a dangerous undertaking.
I got sunburned yesterday (30spf doesn't cut it for a pale Mazunga like me). I found an Aloe plant and rubbed the sap on me to stop the stinging. The Maasai had no knowledge of this plant's ability to heal and treat sunburns so I felt proud to be able to teach them something about natural medicine. They don't know this, of course, because they don't get sunburned. The Elder father of the house I am staying in was a medicine man. Aloe is sticky and tastes horrible should it slip into your mouth.
On the truck (called a Matatu) ride into Ngong this morning I sat down indian style on the truck bed. The other Maasai riders in the truck including Virginia my host mother found this fascinating. Apparently this pose is extremely painful for them. I was quite the spectacle.
The Maasai man in charge of our work is a man named Daniel. He rocks. He took us out to see Giraffes yesterday after work. They let you get about 30 or 40 feet away then they move to keep their distance. There were a ton of them, maybe 15 or 20 around us. I got pictures. Two were about to mate, but I couldn't last long enough for a photo op. Not much market for Giraffe Porn anyway.
Daniel is taking us on a hike up Ngong hill probably next saturday. It will be tough but the view will be amazing. You can see well past Nairobi and all the way into Tanzania from up there. Can't wait.
Another volunteer named Emil and I are going on a little safari staring tomorrow and lasting through the weekend. Everyone is really encouraging us to do this, it is apparently *the thing* to do here.
Last night we had diner with a man named Moses Ole Sakuda (website)who was one of the men who should have been elected in the recent contested election. If the police and government hadn't stolen the election by force, he would be the parliment leader for this whole area. He was educated in America and was fascinating to talk to. He said the ONE thing he missed the most was.... The Big Juicy Burger King Whopper. They are in court right now to properly count the election.
Current Location: Ngong, Kenya
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December 16th, 2008
10:39 am - The first few days
Africa time is the expression. It means that you don't need a watch, everybody is always late and things last longer than you'd think. I waited in the lobby of the Nairobi Hilton for two hours waiting for my contact. I wasn't sure who I was looking for so it was up to them to find me. On one of the hottest days of the year in Kenya, a young man wearing two shirts and a jacket comes up to me with a plaque with my name on it. His name was Joseph and he is the Treasurer with MEAC, the local agency I work for down here. It is bizarre, all the Maasai I know go by their biblical names (i.e. Moses, Joseph, Peter, etc..) and they call us by our Maasai names. My Maasai name is Sonadai, which apparently means handsome.
So Joseph and I hopped in the cab which was waiting for us. The driver was Charles, who knows everybody. Living around Ngong (pronounce with a silent N, just like the drum) is like living in a small town back home where everybody knows everybody. Even still Charles the Taxi driver seems particularly well connected. Inside the cab I saw a few pro-Obama stickers, he is *quite* well liked here. Even small children know his name. We first picked up Dan, another volunteer who had been here for a few months. He was in town booking a flight to return home to Canada. Then we headed out for Kimuka.
I may have already mentioned the roads in my last post. It is really something else. You dodge people, cattle, goats, pot-holes, chickens. Kenyans walk everywhere. The entirety of the 1 hour drive to Kimuka was a constant stream of people walking along the road in all directions. We stopped in Ngong to pick me up a large container of water. Ngong feels like an old west frontier town. Dirt streets and shabby shopfronts, indoor darkness prevails as electricity is in short supply. It is illegal to take pictures in Ngong, which is a shame because it is quite a site to behold. Initially shocking to my western senses, I now see Ngong as a shining bastion of civilization. It is an hour and a half walk to here and it is worth it.
Just past the Ngong Hills is the patch of Savannah planes known as Maasailand and Kimuka village is luckily the nearest town to Ngong. When I arrived I was greeted by a young girl named Namunyak. She was very playful and full of energy. I dropped my bags in the room where two other male volunteers are sleeping and went into the main room in the Manyatta (house) for some lunch. The lunch was surprisingly not bad; rice, potatoes, spices and a little goat meat. Flies. Everywhere. They are really a pest here. It was still Sunday and a lazy day in Kimuka. Most people are at church throughout the day. I spent most of the day playing with the kids and went for a walk down to the village center and bought a Coke (warm). Coke tastes different here. I think they use only real sugar from sugar cane, which grows easily and cheaply here instead of using mostly the cheaper High Fructose Corn Syrup like they do back home. Before bedtime there was another meal followed by *movies*. The main Manyatta at my host family has a generator that they crank up at nights to watch dvds on a small television. The DVDs are not as great as it sounds. They are local movies in swahili and consist of mainly people screaming at each other for an hour or so.
My host family's compound has two manyattas, a pin for cattle, a pin for goats and a coup for chickens, a kitchen, an outhouse and the eldest son (18 years old) has just built himself a small one-room manyatta just beside the cattle pin. Most buildings in Maasailand are built of Mud and sticks in the traditional fashion. Our host family is fairly well off in comparison and have many buildings made of tin and lumber. The outhouse is a hole in the floor, I'm not fully adjusted to it yet. Maasai food is heavy, starchy and lacks fiber though so I probably won't need to fully utilize the outhouse on a daily basis. For anyone who thinks I'm going hungry I assure the opposite is true. There is ample food and everybody eats vast amounts here. Kenyans here are lean because of all the walking and running I think, not for the lack of food.
On the road we've passed many, many runners. In town we ran into a man who is a champion marathon runner who runs a 2:10. I think the only reason that the sport of distance running isn't totally overrun by these fellows is that the vast majority cannot afford to get out of Kenya to race.
There is a little down-time this week so us volunteers are heading for a little trip to the beach tonight. I've seen pictures, it looks like an amazing beach. It is supposed to be cheap too, now that the tourism industry in Kenya has taken a nose-dive since the election violence.
Current Location: Ngong, Kenya
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December 13th, 2008
08:42 pm - And it begins...
Right now I'm sitting in the business center of the Hilton in Nairobi, Kenya. Tomorrow I will leave the westernized downtown and head for a small village in the Ngong Hills just west of here. I am volunteering there for three weeks as a teacher. I do not yet fully know the details of where I'll be or what I'll be doing/teaching. What I do know is that it is with the Maasai tribe who have been mostly unaffected by the tourism boom here in Kenya. I'll be living with a host family in the village and needless to say I'll be without my usual luxuries such as running water and electricity. It is certainly the first time I've been away from my laptop or computer since basic training for the Air Force over ten years ago. I will try to update this journal as much as possible. Most of my notes will be hand written and I will try to upload them on the weekends or whenever I can get into town.
The flight over here was nice, lots of meals and they don't make you pay for drinks. The layover was in Zurich, which is a blanket of snow this time of year. It was overcast through most of Europe so my window seats didn't help too much. There was a break in the clouds over greece and I could see the most of the Peloponnese Peninsula and a good sight of ancient sparta, messenia and crete. It was a treat for history buff like me.
The airport in Nairobi is decent, halfway modern. No air conditioning.. anywhere.. in.. Nairobi. except my hotel room luckily. Just one of those things I never really thought about till its gone. The taxi ride to the hotel was an experience as well. While I have been in far worse cabs stateside, the roads themselves were a new adventure. No road lines. Its a free-for-all. People walking all over the roads too.
I need to figure out the exchange rate, I have no idea if i'm getting ripped off.
I brought my nice Canon 12.1 Megapixel Digital SLR camera to capture my experiences, however I may have to wait until my stint here is over before the pictures get posted. The issue is my high-end camera takes SD-UC cards which only relatively new computers have and its not supported yet by photo kiosks such as those at Wal-Mart. Chance of a public terminal that supports it in Nairobi: %0.08
This is only the second time I've really been out of the country (I don't count canada). I forgot what it feels like to be a foreigner. Its kinda lonely and scarry, especially when you stick out like a sore thumb... or fat white thumb. The last time for me was almost ten years ago when I visited my brother in Germany, which was awesome. Even there though, I new I wouldn't draw attention as long as I kept quiet.
As far as culture shock goes, Nairobi isn't bad at all. If it wasn't for the lack of road lines and throngs of people leap-frogging their way through highway speed traffic, it might almost feel like a DC suburb.
The fun begins tomorrow at 10am when my contact here picks me up from the hotel. She is a native Maasai woman who runs the program I will be teaching through. I think the normal plan of attack is that she picks people up straight from the airport. I'm getting too old for that though, I need time to decompress on a nice pillow with air conditioning after I've been traveling for almost 24 hours. Not to mention ease myself into the culture like an old man slowly slipping in to a piping hot bathtub.
Current Location: Nairobi Hilton, Kenya
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/shock.gif) nervous
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December 11th, 2008
03:46 pm - Memories are meant to fade...
All previous journal postings have been made private.
For the immediate future this journal is going to chronicle my travels abroad.
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