Similar to Gulliver's: my travels into several remote nations of the world
Nov 12th, 2010 by Meredith
I discovered a new blog that I will surely be following over the next year: http://fishersinafrica.blogspot.com
I came across the blog on Epicurious, one of my favorite foodie Web sites. This family (a doctor, nurse, and high school student) have decided to move from Seattle to Kenya to work and volunteer in medical facilities. They talk of a love for Kenyan people and a distaste for Kenyan food… oh how familiar it feels!
Nov 12th, 2010 by Meredith
I came across this organization through a UCL student newsletter and was excited to learn about the international networks being developed for students across the world. Check out the Web site and start dreaming of attending the biennial conference in 2011 in the United Arab Emirates.
May 31st, 2010 by Meredith
I had meant to post this while still in Kenya, but I apologize for the lengthy delay in posts!
May 5th, 2010 by Meredith
In Mombasa, the town on the coast, the music, the food, the people all follow the rhythm of jua kali- the extreme sun. As with most coastal cities the sun seems to slow everything down. The people use the phrase hakuna matata to remind us that life is slow, we have no worries, and just enjoy. I was shocked that even the matatu drivers and conductors take a slow pace.
Although only a 6 hour overnight away, it’s like another world from Nairobi. A popular European tourist attraction the beaches are spotted with amenities foreign to most Africans. But the most noticeable difference between the two largest cities in Kenya is the ease of life- Mombasa Raha. Spending a week in Mombasa was like a special treat and a great way to begin saying kwaheri to Kenya.
Sunrise on the beach
The fishermen set-out early
Fresh mango juice- YUM
I arrived at 5:30 a.m. on Friday, after a restless night on the bus. It was just in time to watch the sunrise on the beach. My travel companion, Pablo (believe it or not he’s German) has been to the coast many times over his past year in Kenya. He knew the inexpensive places to stay and eat which was greatly appreciated by this budget traveler.
Outstanding beach performers
Camels are not native to the coast, they reside in Northern Kenya
But attractive nonetheless
After our first day at the beach we moved to Mtwapa, a small coastal village just minutes from Mombasa town. Our hotel, the Beach Bar, is a 30 minute walk or 5 minute piki-piki ride from the main road in Mtwapa and lacks all amenities one might consider as a tourist. But we slept in a hut on the beach and drank Tusker under the palms. I have to be honest, it was not completely perfect…it has been raining in Mombasa so everything felt a bit damp and we actually had one night without water in the taps. But these bumps in the road served only to give us a discounted rate on the accommodations.
The hut we stayed in on the beach
Our beach view from the hut, mangroves on the left
From the bar of the Beach Bar
The day the rains fell we spent in Mombasa town. First visiting the infamous Fort Jesus- known for its part in the Arab slave trade. Next we walked through Old Town. My love of anything old and full of character had me delighting in the twisted streets and patina architecture. Pablo found an English compass from 1885 in one of the many antique shops, and I a vintage postcard of Mombasa streets.
Daunting entrance to Fort Jesus
Old Town door knobs
The boys who were begging for their photo
Mamas on the streets of Old Town
As it rained we perused the spice market, smelling and tasting curries, fruits, and masala. I learned how very different the flavors of passion fruit are between Tanzania and Kenya (for the record Kenyan passion wins by a long-shot). Our market guides tested me on my spice knowledge as they shoved in my nose freshly ground ginger, saffron, turmeric, cardamon, garam masala, red/white/black/green pepper, and pili-pili (ground chilies). This foodie was in complete heaven at the spice market. We finished the day with an early dinner at a local Indian restaurant.
Can you place the spices??
The fusion of Arab, Indian, and African influences is very apparent in the food. We ate swhili street food one night and basked in the combinations of coconut and curry. Wali wa nazi, kuku wa nazi, wa nazi everything (nazi=coconut).
The mosques are singing morning and evening
One of Mombasa's few landmarks
My friend Celestine was also taking a holiday in Mombasa, visiting her cousin Edwin. On Sunday a group of us went to the south beaches, the most beautiful beaches on the coast. We took the ferry across the canal (Mombasa is actually an island in a bay) and spent the day with Tusker and live music. Because our hotel was difficult to access after dark, we needed to stay out all night when we hopped the clubs. Sporting my African dress and sunburn we danced the night away until 6 a.m.
2 Fishes, an old hotel that was burned by employees 20 years ago
My last few days in Mombasa were spent with Allan’s cousin Shadrock, his wife Margaret, and 1/5 year old son Cliff “CJ”. I was expecting Shadrock to look like Allan so you can imagine my surprise when a much larger man and muscular man greeted me. Shadrock is the trainer for Serena Hotel, Mombasa’s most exclusive resort. He and Margaret graciously opened their home to me –the Kenyan way.
Margaret and Shadrock
I forgot to take photos of Cliff until the very end, when I was leaving and he was sleeping!
The outdoor yoga stdio at the Serena Beach Hotel
After nearly a week of lounging on the beaches and discovering the local rhythm and flavors of Mombasa, I reluctantly returned to Nairobi. With only two weeks left at Wakibe and with all the wonderful people I’ve met in Kenya, I’m beginning to feel nostalgic. The time has been running and I likely won’t be sending much of my remaining time at the cyber! Speak to you in the States…
Apr 26th, 2010 by Meredith
If medals were awarded to the adventurer who conquers a travel feat, as a pilot earns his wings, I would surely have received my golden compass this weekend.
Jessie accompanied me to Nakuru for the weekend and by Saturday we were looking for nature. We decided to take a day trip to Lake Bogoria. Before embarking in the morning we were given the following advice:
And off we went. The matatu ride was pleasant, passing red wheat fields and pineapple plantations. Did you know each pineapple plant bears only one fruit per year? Hence pineapples are one of the most expensive fruits on the market.
More than two hours after leaving Nakuru we arrived in Marigat, only to be told this is the city the driver would be leaving us, not Bogoria. Because he had said in Nakuru that he was taking us to Lake Bogoria and we expected to be dropped just meters from the lake, we were given a free ride from Marigat to Bogoria- about 40km away. As traveling wazungu we needed to be cautious of not getting cheated, which is an all too common practice in Kenya as people here assume the whites have money to spare.
The distance between Nakuru and Lake Bogoria seemed to be growing by the hour. When we reached the small town of Bogoria we were told the lake is still 13km away from the National Reserve gate. This presented an entirely new set of complications…
A National Reserve or National Park are tourist hot-spots and quite costly to enter. This particular reserve charged 2,500ksh per adult non-resident. In addition, we couldn’t walk into the reserve and needed to hire a mode of transportation. Most people come prepared for this and bring a car or travel by tour bus. We were on foot with little cash.
Initially we were quoted 2,000ksh by a piki-piki (motorcycle) driver to take us to the lake, again, money we didn’t have. After much persistence, the batting of eyelashes, and a very frank statement: “you can take this small amount of money and let us into the park or we leave and neither of us gains” we were on the back of Abdallah’s piki-piki for 400ksh and 200 entrance fee.
But what a treasure the lake turned out to be! Between the galloping gazelle, thousands of flamingos, and stunning hot springs, it made our longer-than-anticipated journey well-worth the trouble. Traveling through the reserve we were quite a sight to see. As Land Cruisers and tour buses zoomed past us we puttered along the gravel path on the back of Abdallah’s piki-piki. The three of us enjoyed a delightful picnic of boiled eggs from the hot springs, sat under an acacia tree listening to African music, admiring our surroundings.
Well-worth the ride
Volcanic hot springs
Abdallah cooking our eggs
Getting back to Nakuru was just as interesting as the morning excursion because by the time we were able to leave Bogoria we experienced a severe shortage of matatus and the mwingu (dark clouds that bring rain) were descending.
People hanging from the already-full matatu
In Marigat we waited for a matatu, only to be shoved into the only remaining vehicle which was already full. Matatus uncomfortably seat 14 people; this one held a record number of 27 passengers for the two hour ride. I’m quite certain it’s the most awkward position I’ve ever held and I kept wishing my ass was just a few inches wider. I was between two seats, with two people on either seat next to me. Most people in this position would have partial cheeks on each seat but I wasn’t quite wide enough and kept slipping between the two!
We arrived in Nakuru after dark: a little dusty, sweaty, hungry, and tired. But more than anything we felt exhilarated by our accomplishments of the day. We traveled to Lake Bogoria to see stunning wildlife and returned on such a budget that would make any avid traveler proud.
Apr 23rd, 2010 by Meredith
Something I’ve really enjoyed about Kenya is that its people are well-informed. Kenyans from all walks of life read the paper and watch the news. They all have an opinion about the new draft constitution andd the political powers. They keep up with matters of corruption and insist things will change. So while I know a great deal about Kenyan politics and news-worthy events, I really miss being informed about my home country and the rest of the world!
Before coming to Kenya I assumed the BBC broadcast would be easy to find and Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal readily available. Or that Kenyan papers would have a healthy scope of world updates. Wrong. The world section is dominated by African politics and I’m missing the information overload we accustom ourselves to in the west.
It took me awhile to learn of Europe’s volcanic erruptions which paralyzed international travel this week. What I have heard much about is the $10 million lost from halted flower sales to Europe. In Naivasha, a small city between Nairobi and Nakuru, many of Europe’s flowers are grown and exported. The volcano has had devastating effects on many sectors across the world, and is hitting hard in this major part of the Kenyan economy.
Naivasha has also had its fair share of bad press in recent months as the flower farms have been accusted of polluting the waters of Lake Naivasha with fertilizers. Thousands of fish and other wildlife have parished, leading environmentalists to launch a campaign against the growers.
Apr 22nd, 2010 by Meredith
Sunday, April 25 marks the annual World Malaria Day, to raise awareness about the disease and boost preventative measures in high-risk areas.
Malaria kills thousands of people each year, especially in the malaria-belt of Africa. In Kenya it remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in most parts of the country. In some districts it accounts for 30-40 percent of outpatient and inpatient attendants in most health facilities. While I am not in a malaria-prone-zone in Nairobi, other parts of Western Kenya are at heightened risk following floods and heavy rains in the past month.
The Kenyan Ministry of Public Health, Kenya Red Cross, the Global Fund, and the US government are all supporting an anti-malaria campaign to dispense insecticide nets and free medication. Currently the anti-malarial drugs cost between 500-700ksh, a cost too high for residents in poor rural communities, some of which are living in the highest-risk areas.
Malaria is particularly debilitating for the people with HIV whose immune systems cannot fight the infection. Many times death is attributed to malaria or TB although HIV is the underlying cause.
Before coming to Kenya I was prescribed Malarone- a strong anti-malaria preventative medication that I take daily. However, the Malarone does not fully protect me from the disease if bitten by a malaria-carrying mosquito, and I would still need a local medication if infected. For this reason I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the Western meds for visitors to Nairobi, especially because malaria in the city is fortunately not common.
Another option would be to drink tonic water, which contains quinine, a very mild but more natural anti-malarial. This is why gin and tonics became so popular for British colonists in Africa and India!
One of the beds at the Wakibe clinic- most people in Kenya have mosquito nets, even in Nairobi where malaria is not usually found
Apr 17th, 2010 by Meredith
I was forwarded this article by a long-lost friend and thought it was very interesting/depressing.
A reality I have come to learn more about in the last month: with the exception of few, African governments are squandering much-needed aid for health care and development. The book in my recent post, The Shackled Continent, highlights this fact poignantly. Most recently in Kenya we learned of misappropriated funds that should have been used for free primary education.
Apr 17th, 2010 by Meredith
London Tube Map, easiest way to navigate the city
Unrelated to Kenya I wanted to share the good news with my readers that I’ve now been accepted to three graduate programs (or “postgraduate programmes” as they write in the U.K.)!
Before traveling to Kenya I applied for programs in London to pursue my masters in health psychology. When I thought I had completed all the leg-work before leaving the U.S. I was soon notified of small set-backs to my perfectly planned timeline- a gentle reminder to be flexible when traveling across the world. But first came my acceptance to the British Psychological Society for graduate membership (a critical first step in the process) then soon after letters of acceptance from the University of Westminster and Middlesex University.
Today I had a phone interview (of course after much trouble with international calling) and was accepted to London Metropolitan, the same uni a close friend is attending this year! Monday will be another phone interview with City University and then the decisions fall into my lap. I’m thrilled to be this much closer to my dream of living in London and long-awaited goal of graduate school.
I also feel as though my experience in Kenya has absolutely given me new goals and interests to pursue in the field of health psychology. I’ve learned so much about women’s health and empowerment in development work. I can now fill some of the gaps in my future plans that have felt a void for some time. As I told Dr. Murray in my interview, I believe each experience directs future paths. So while I have many goals (like working on my PhD.) I refuse to dedicate myself to one way of achieving the goals. I expect that the masters program next year will further point me in the best direction and shape my future in psychology.
I also know that I have a lot of headaches and fragile nerves awaiting my return as I take time to secure finances and my student visa…
Apr 17th, 2010 by Meredith
A young man stumbles out of a Nairobi slum bar and drunkenly drops to the ground. At first glance one might assume it’s just another case of too much beer and he will soon awake with little more than a pounding headache. But in the slums of Nairobi this scene may have a drastically different ending- complete with blindness or death of the young man.
The illicit brew chang’aa has found more victims than usual in the past week, resulting in police raids of chang’aa bars across the city. Its brew masters, unable to afford the typical ingredients for making alcohol, resort to methanol, jet fuel, and even the chemical used to preserve bodies in the morgue for the fermentation process. Hidden in the bushes so as to not give away its makers, the barrels of chang’aa can also be easily tampered with.
When more than 13 people were found dead in one slum last weekend the media coverage erupted. Something tells me its taste cannot possibly be appealing and I will stick to my Tusker, asante sana (thank you very much).
