On Friday morning Lauren, Tim, Darryl and I set off with our driver/guide Steven to the Maasai Mara National Park. It is about a 6 hour drive down into South Central Kenya. Our campsite was actually about 40 minutes drive from the park but the surrounding area had tons of wildlife including tons of monkeys, baboons and bush babies at our site. Oh, and spiders the size of your hand that tended to hang out in the bathroom.
Friday afternoon we went for our first game drive and I could not believe how many wildebeest were there. I mean, you would look at the surrounding fields and hills and they would be covered with black dots- the wildebeest. They migrate up across the Mara River every summer from Tanzania to feed for a few months. Then in August and September, over 1 million wildebeest head back, traveling primarily through the Maasai Mara Park. One of the most interesting sites is seeing them cross the river, often trampling each other or falling prey to the waiting crocodiles. We didn't get to see this, but as we crossed the river we managed to see piles of stinking wildebeest carcasses being picked over by the vultures and marabou.
The guides and drivers communicate with each other over radios to let each other know of a sighting of some of the must-see animals. This is one reason why it was good that we didnt go on our own– most of our great sightings came from tips from other drivers who probably wouldnt share such information with a foreigner (muzungu). Another major reason why it would have been tough to drive on our own was the mud. I honestly dont know how these drivers can manage to get these vans through deep mud on the trails without getting stuck.
Memories that stick out:
- seeing a mother cheetah with her 6 baby cubs scampering after her
- there were lots and lots of lions everywhere but the nicest viewing was finding a pride of lions that included 3 or 4 cubs– they were staring at us for a while and then just went to sleep.
- the hippos with their pink bellies were actually out of the water sunning themselves. These are some of the most dangerous animals in the park due to their tendency to attack if you get too close or are blocking their path to water. For such tubby animals they are pretty tough.
- wildebeest everywhere– as you drove past them they would stare at you– their heads following your movement. Clumsy, stupid animals. A good argument why the pack mentality is bad.
- Finding another cheetah (and we were the only van there) who was so close to us– she walked down to the grass in front of our van as if to put on a performance, rolled around in the grass and then after we had taken enough photos, walked past us again and under a tree for a nap. What a beautiful animal.
- Dik-Dik– tiny little antelopes that look like mini-me versions of deer– but they are fully grown at about a foot tall.
- Giraffe– in varied colours and styles– including seeing a pack of 12 before we even got close to the park. It is always so strange seeing them– you feel like you are imagining it– they are just so huge seem like creatures from another time.
- Elephants– there are hundreds in the park– we saw a large herd of about 20 including some babies– although I am disappointed with the photos– they are hard to photograph and strangely enough difficult to see– the gray somehow blends in with the shadows.
- A lucky chance saw us encounter 2 HUGE elephants walking outside the park– we had been delayed with a flat tire but once we set off there they were– walking along side the road, and crossing right behind us– paying no real attention to us stopped there in awe. They were very close and they move so fast! I wouldn't want to be chased by an elephant.
- A jackal, some hyenas in the distance (and hearing them at night), vultures, marabou and other scavengers picking apart the rotting carcasses left by the predators. What a smell. YUCK.
- Lots of monkeys and baboons (big beasts who I am glad I was in the car when I saw them– they almost looked like gorillas they were so big)
- saw 2 rhinos (black, I think) in the distance on a hill– they were far from a track that we could have taken to see them. These are extremely rare and close to extinct.
- Warthogs and Zebras and strange birds and lots of antelope, gazelle, springbok, buffalo, impala, eland and oryx
It was a pretty incredible weekend. Just standing in the van with our heads out of the pop-up roof– driving around this beautiful park was an unbelievable thing.
Just got back from a 3-day weekend safari at Masaai Mara National Park. The wildebeest migration was happening and we saw so many animals. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I have about 50 photos to upload - here's just one for now. We managed to stumble upon this cheetah, thanks to our helpful guide, and got so close to her. She checked us out for a bit and then casually walked around us, rolled on the ground and then walked directly past us to go nap under a tree. I'm pretty tired and need to get up early for work tomorrow so I'll post more when I get more time. It was a great weekend.
This week has been a bit slow for exciting news. Monday and Tuesday we had our annual staff meetings. We also managed to land a new project in conjunction with a Dutch NGO. Good news for us. More funding means more fun. That is what I always say anyway...
The weather is beautiful here. So warm and sunny - finally. I haven' t worn my fleece in 3 days!!
There are little to no womens clothing shops. Lots for men though. I would really like to buy a few little things and havent been able to find any suitable places (other than an overpriced Woolworths store) to get anything. The problem is that you read and hear from everyone that you should bring very conservative and non-flashy clothes - so of course you bring really simple, baggy, frumpy clothes. Well guess what? People dont dress like that here!! I feel like I dress like someones grandmother! What I wear to work is not so bad for the most part (plus I dont really care if I look frumpy at work) - but walking around downtown and going out for a coffee or a drink somewhere - it would be nice to wear something that I feel nice in. Im not talking mini-skirts or tube tops - I would never wear that kind of stuff anyway. So I look around at all the locals and wonder where the heck they got their clothes. Do you know their response when I ask them? EUROPE OR SOUTH AFRICA OR NIGERIA - dagnammit!! This was very poor planning on my part. Maybe I will learn to hand sew some really cute outfits. Knit?? Yeah, thats it...
One other thing... why is it that no matter where you go in the world there will be a cheesy band that is singing a terrible cover of Hotel California? Imagine this with Kenyan accents. I had a similar experience in Majorca in Spain. And in Denmark. It is funny in a painful way.
Last night we experienced one of Nairobis most interesting and unique dining experiences (despite the fact that it was a TAD touristy). We went because Laurens office took her out to dinner so we decided to sit at a near by table and try it out too. The place? Aptly named "Carnivore". A restaurant known for for roasting not just chicken, goat, duck, turkey, beef, and other regular animals - but they also include "exotic" meat on the menu as well, including (the night we were there) crocodile (seen in this photo), gazelle, ostrich (all pretty good) and camel (kind of like chewing on leather). It was fun. You pay one price and all night the "carvers" rotate throughout the restaruant with freshly roasted meat skewered on swords or kebab holder thingys and offer you what they are carrying. Plus you get some side dishes and dessert. It was a fun experience. As a generally light meat eater - I was pretty impressed with myself and the fact that I ate SOOOO much. Although I managed to save room for 2 desserts. What?!? I wanted to get the full value for my shillings!!
This is my friend June (5), whose dad works in my office. They live in the house attached to the office with Junes mom and her sister Lynn (3, who is terrified of me). June doesnt speak any English, nor can I talk to her in Swahili but she still comes and visits me at my desk once in a while and writes out the alphabet and numbers and stuff. We draw... So today I had my camera at work and showed her how to use it and that she can take photos and see them right away. She was very excited about this. Eventually I showed her how to take photos (difficult with the language barrier) but this was one of the photos she took. She's such a cute kid. Maybe I'll make a photographer out of her!!
The gym is quite nice - sauna, cheap massages (about $10 for a half hour), pool, squash courts, etc. Today I did a spinning class. This is not really the way I pictured my stay in Kenya but it was actually really fun. Sometimes hard to understand the instructor who has a really strong accent when he is yelling instructions and encouraging us... the music was also quite interesting - a mix of your usual gym pump me up music and then some Kenyan beats mixed in for a few of the songs. The gym is filled mostly with western expats and people from the nearby Indian community but thats typical for the neighborhood. Besides, not many Kenyans go to the gym. They dont really need to - its not really an overweight community and its pretty typical for people to engage in heavy labour or youll even see office workers in suits walking both ways to work (sometimes over an hour each way) in order to save money. Its a different world. And here I am in a spinning class...
Photo after walking all day trying in vain to get to Nairobi National Park - it's Darryl and Lauren. Tim our fearless Dutch leader is somewhere off leading the way...
Sunday the four of us (possibly getting on each other's nerves as we only hang out with each other), went for Nyama Choma (roasted meat) at one of the places that Lauren & I went last weekend with her co-worker. It was good - roasted goat is delicious. But the power kept cutting out so we couldn't get any fries.
Then I hosted a wine and cheese party where we sampled some Kenyan cheeses (including brie, blue, and goat) and strangely enough - we had mostly South American wines. We even increased our social circle by inviting Nelly (the Quebecois intern who lives far from us and who we went out with last weekend).
I must say - this weekend I was feeling a little bit irritated with Kenya. I mean, the novelty of being in a new place has worn off a bit and the little things that are irritating that I used to ignore because I was excited about being someplace new are starting to hit me a bit more. I mean, I'm still really happy and excited to be here most of the time, but I've compiled a top 10 list of things that are starting to drive me batty. This is just to give you an idea of what my daily life can be like here... take them with a grain of salt. I do...
Things that irritate me:
1)Tiny ants crawling in my hair. (they are EVERYWHERE!)
2)When I forgot to turn on the water heater at least 1/2 hour before I have a shower – Brrrr!
3)People asking me if I want a taxi every five seconds. Taxi, madame? Taxi, madame?
4)Difficulty in acquiring change. No one ever seems to have the correct change whether I'm buying a bag of chips or taking a cab – it always seems to be a problem.
5)Denomination of bills – the largest bill available is the 1000 shilling – which equals out to about $16. When you have to take out $550 worth of rent money – that's a lot of bills to carry around!
6)Decent cheese is hard to find – and very expensive (we're talking a small cheddar for $8).
7)An oven that takes 45 minutes to heat up and elements that are equally as slow. I'm lucky if I eat dinner by 9.
8)Slow internet connections. I thought I would get used to it but it's hard when I'm trying to upload photos and it takes about 10 minutes PER photo (reduced size).
9)You HAVE to barter with cab drivers and street vendors and almost everyone. Sometimes you just don't feel like arguing – you know?
10) I can't eat goat for lunch every day.
Irresistible for its tackiness (with matching 1am floor shows). For the local ladies, this means grabbing drunken wazungu (foreigners). Wildly popular.
Saturday we had planned to go to Nairobi National Park but were waylaid by a matatu driver who waited until we paid our fare and were already far from where we were supposed to be to tell us we were on the wrong matatu. Really, it was our fault for not knowing the right number to get onto but it was still extremely annoying. We ended up taking a little stroll (1.5 hours) towards the park on foot, but in the end, the people who were supposed to be our rides through the park were even later than we were, so we ditched that plan in frustration and head to a bbq that Beatrice had invited us to on the research compound that she works at.
It was a gorgeous huge campus/compound with a nice pool, tennis courts, etc. It was someone's birthday - we kind of felt like we were crashing this party but everyone was quite nice and friendly - with a lot of expats and people here for a few months on research. Delicious food, cheese, desserts and wine and some beach volleyball and wall climbing (this compound has EVERYTHING!) and then home to collapse. I'm glad that the day that started out so poorly turned into something fun.
Happy Anniversary! Can you believe it has been a month already? So I bought myself some anniversary roses. Actually, they were dirt cheap and I have been meaning to buy some for a while but only finally did today.... They cost 170 shillings. That is about 3 dollars. I know! Pretty good, huh? How do they do that? Well, there are a bunch of Dutch flower farms around Nairobi and during the summer when flowers actually are growing in the Netherlands (and Europe), they dont need to export the Kenyan ones, they sell them in Nairobi for cheap, cheap, cheap. They smell so good.
One month in and it seems like its been so much longer. I feel settled here. I mean, it wasnt a huge adjustment - is that strange? One month of living in Africa - 5 more months of work and then a month and a half of travel after. It is really going too fast. Today in the matatu I was looking around and trying to really absorb where I am and all thats around me. Remind myself to look and notice. Its so easy to slip into routine and not see the amazing things that are everywhere. The people and the places and the smells and sounds.
On Sunday Tim, Darryl and I went to a town just outside of Nairobi called Karen to visit the Karen Blixen House Museum (author and subject of book/film Out of Africa). The grounds were beautiful but a little boring so from there we decided to walk to the seemingly nearby African Fund for Endangered Wildlife Giraffe Centre. The map in the guidebook made it seem to be only about 20 minutes away. Were we ever mistaken. Over an hour and 15 minutes later, we arrived. I am not sure how we did not perish from either the toxic, black exhaust fumes from the passing cars or the cars/trucks that caused us to nearly jump into the ditch to avoid them hurdling into us (despite the fact that we were on the side of the road). But the AFEW Giraffe Centre was totally worth the wait. What they do is act as a conservation centre for giraffes and in recent years they have substantially boosted the population of the rare Rothschilds Giraffe. The great photos come compliments of an observation/feeding tower where people can hold out hands of feed pellets and the giraffes sometimes come over for a snack. The grounds themselves are massive with giraffes wandering all over the place (with a few warthogs in amongst them) but we were lucky enough to have a giraffe come over and have a snack while we were there. VERY VERY COOL. I love those animals. They like to have their noses stroked while you feed them. Although watch out if they lick you!!!
We went for semi-crappy thai food and then out to sample some expat/mwzungu/foreigner nightlife. First was Gipsys - playing retro 80s music as we sat down to some drinks and people watching. Quite the mix - especially with the music - The Lion Sleeps Tonight? That 80s song about the Rain the Falls in Africa? What is this? Africa the Disney Ride? Funny stuff.
Then Nelly's cousin who lives here and a couple of his American friends came and met up with us. One lived in Nairobi, and his friend was there to visit. His pal was pretty drunk and couldnt stop telling us about this ebony that he found in the slums - and he bought it for like 200shillings and got them to make a pipe out of it with a naked lady on it and “I hope they don’t confiscate it at the border - because you know ebony is illegal!!”. He was so excited. I think he meant ivory, not EBONY. I am sure Michael Jackson gets confused too...
Then we went to this really, really swanky place that honestly could be in New York or Montreal. All hand made furniture (wood) - rich tones and tapestries and the drink list was amazing. Also the tapas. Plus they gave you olives on your table. I think that is what got me so excited! Very nice place. People triple air kissing each other all over the place. I felt slightly underdressed in my fleece but what are you going to do... I will have to head back there if I ever get a better wardrobe…
The rest of the week was spent doing my usual thing... getting up, going to work, leaving work and stopping at the shopping centre to pick up a few things and going to the internet cafe, coming home and watching tv, making dinner and going to bed. Ah, the daily routine has totally set in. I am still thinking about taking some Swahili lessons (I am missing out on half of the conversations) a few evenings a week. Trying to figure out other activities to do (I am not very good at staying home at night as most people know) but there are not many options available. No African cooking lessons. No dance lessons. No music lessons (other than a sign I saw for piano lessons but that is not what I had in mind). I will keep trying...
Still cold here. Apparently it is the coldest week they have had in August in years. I am starting to think it is never going to get warm. They keep saying "one more week"... What a fool I was to only bring 2 pairs of pants. FOOL!
Apparently when I use an apostrophe it makes a symbol like this "'". That is annoying. I have tried to think of what I can do to avoid it - changing fonts etc, but the best solution I can come up with for now is for me to not use apostrophes. Which means lots of "I am" and "are not". No more being lazy for me. I will try my best!
Really, the food poisoning is not much of a surprise. Hopefully it toughens up my stomach a bit because I think this kind of thing is pretty much unavoidable in this area of the world. Do you know what I blame it on though? STEAK! On Saturday night I was out for dinner with a couple of people at a steak house and with not much else to order from the menu and after a few un-episodic encounters with beef since Ive been here I thought it would be safe. Low and behold the next morning.... THE HORROR! At least now I can say that I gave beef a fair try but it is something that upsets it - badly - and I will have a solid reason to avoid it from now on. For those who dont know, I havent eaten beef in over 10 years but have been trying to eat it a little once here because it is so widely eaten and I didnt want to exclude myself from any parts of their culture (including the food eaten). But I dont really like beef anyway. And now I have just cause.
The only other thing I can think of that could have caused this is the ice-cream sundae that I had for dessert. But we all know that there is no way that Im giving up ice-cream! Im feeling better already and am enjoying an afternoon off work.