(English version) Adventures in Africa - 1

Jambo!

We will tell a little bit of what we lived in those 2 weeks in Kenya.
We’ll split in parts, so you don’t get too tired…

If we had to summarize Kenya in one word, it would be caos.

If you’d like to have a better idea of what we’re talking about, we recommend watching 2 movies.
One is old, it’s called "Out of Africa", with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (when both were still yound). It was dilmed in Nairobi and it’s a romantic version of Africa in the beginning of the century. It’s the true story of Danish writer Karen Blixen.
The other is "The Constant Gardener", with Raph Fiennes and Rachel Weiz. It was filmed in the Kibera slum, also in Nairobi. It’s about how the drug companies are testing their drugs on the people there.

Well, now about our experience. Where to start?

We arrived there Sunday night (April 29th), after aprox. 18 hours travelling (with a stop in London).
We went to a host family in a slum area called Dagoretti, in Nairobi.
Since it was dark, we didn’t see anything around.
The houses were separate (men in one, women in another). Bucket bath (cold water, of course, collected from rain), mattress and pillow older than we are.

All beds have mosquito nets, for practical purposes (not aesthetic).

The anti-malaria medication causes nightmares and vivid dreams.

Next morning, as I went out to take a look at the surroundings, I notice a grave in the backyard (could it be grandpa buried there?).
It was a big plot, where there are the family houses (one for the grandmother, and each son with their families in other ones), a place for the chicken, another one for the cow.

At the women’s house living room, 32 images of Jesus and saints (from what we understood, the grandma was something similar to a nun).

The area is extremely poor, just the main road is asphalt, the rest is all plain dirt. Sewage running open. Small stands selling fruits and other stuff.
Goats are free, walking everywhere, even in the middle of the road, between the cards.Everything is very poor, old, ugly and dirty.

Children follow us smiling, waving and screaming "how are you?". So cute!
It’s the only thing they know in English. They only learn English when they go to school.
Before that, it’s only Swahili.So no matter what you answer, they keep saying "how are you?".

The adults say "mzungo" or "wazungo" when they see us, which means white (singular and plural).

Since we had the whole day free, we hired a taxi to take us to some interesting places.
First we went to the elephant orphanage.
Sponsored by an American NGO, they take care of elephants that lost their parents, until they are ready to take care of themselves and be released into the wild again.
The babies (already weighing 80 Kg/160 pounds) have a very sensitive skin, so the staff places blankets on the babies’ backs, to protect them from sunburn.
They like to play with ball, smell our feet with their “tromba” and pull things with their heads. They only drink milk (a lot of milk!!)
Their skin is soft (I touched the tail and Andre under the paw).then come the bigger ones, that already know how to take their mud bath (their sunscreen lotion), eat leaves and are heavy enough to crush us.
Elephants are very emotive and need constant attention.
The keepers even have to sleep beside them. So, it’s not an easy job.
The age to be released back in the national parks varies and depends on the elephants themselves. When they feel ready, they can go. The youngest that was released back in the wild was 5 years old, but some others reached 18 until they were mature enough.
It was very cool!
We also saw some giraffes there, and warthogs (just like in the Lion King Disney movie!), that bettle that roles s… balls and some deer-related animals (impalas).

Then we went to the giraffe center.
It’s a place where they take care of endangered giraffes.
They are so calm, pacific and used to humans that you can feed them! They ate from our hands! We pet them! We hug them! Soooo cool!
If you want, you can also “kiss” them. You can place a piece of the dry food between your teeth, and the giraffe will come and pick it up. But it will also lick you with its long, grey, sticky tongue!
Not something for us…their saliva is extremely anti-septic and “cicatrizing”, because their favorite food is acacia leaves, a tree full of big sharp thorns.

After that we still went to the grocery store, where we bought lots of water (the tap water is even risky to brush your teeth with) and other items.

Next day was orientation day.
There were about 30 other volunteers. All younger than us, mostly from Canada, but also some from USA and Australia.

We learned some of the local habits and expectations (you should always shake hands, wear conservative clothes (not allowed to show more than 1/3 of the body. No skirts over the knee, cleavage, tank tops, etc)), the rules, security (always be back indoors before it gets dark, considerations about the "matatus" (vans used as mini buses), having to bargain every time you buy anything.

We went for lunch in a restaurant inside the Karen Blixen property.
Her house is still there, and it’s now a museum (but we didn’t visit it).
We were seated outside. Suddenly a giant hawk came and dove, stealing food from the tray the waiter was carrying!

On the next day we were taken to the "Nairobi Safari Walk", which is like a zoo, but with designated areas for the animals, instead of cages.
The best part for me was that we could touch and take pictures with a cheetah. I looove that animal, I think it’s so elegant and slim! The fur is thick and rough, and not soft as I imagined it.

We also spent some time in downtown Nairobi. It’s a city with 3.5 million people, and only about half a dozen traffic lights! And the cars drive on the right side (after all, they were a British colony).

We had lunch at a very humble restaurant and shared our table with some nice and friendly kenyans.
They recommend we tasted the ugali with beef stew, a typical dish. Ugali it’s like an Italian polenta (white corn flour cooked with water), very thick and totally tasteless.
We drank a Stoney, a very strong ginger soda.

In the afternoon each volunteer was taken to their posts.For us, it was an orphanage in a rural area, near Ngong town, about 1 hour from Nairobi.

Children were on holiday, and when we arrived they were all outside, doing homework.
We are introduced to all of them and gave each one a pencil. They were really shy.
We were the first volunteers to stay at the house.
We were lucky, because they have electricity, toilet (for us) and running water (not in the shower, though). We had a bunk bed.

Every Wednesday night they have Fellowship (like a mini worship) and a pastor from their church comes, they sing, pray and read the Bible.

On Thursday the kids were free to spend the day with us.
The first activity we did with them was the “throw a water balloon” game. We filled ballons with water, that they, in teams of two, have to throw to each other. Then they take a step back, and throw again. And so on. Until the last team standing without blowing the balloon.
They laughed a lot, it was really fun.
After that we distributed crayons and paper, and they did drawings.

But the greatest part of the day was when we gave them a soccer ball. They went crazy!
We organized teams and they played a lot, until the ball hit the huge thorn bush fence... We had a pump, but it was never the same again.

The big ones then proceeded to play baseball, while the little ones decided to "analyze" us. They were touching our hair, surprised that our scalp was also white, intrigued by the fact we have hair on the arms and legs (they don't) and specially fascinated with Andre's tattoo!
And boy, were they surprised when they saw that white people become red after too much sun exposure!

The orphanage is well organized, there's a schedule with each day of the week and who does what.
The children hpel in all the chores and things work well.
There are 32 children. The house is small and there are a few other "constructions".
The big girls sleep in a shack separate from the house. The boys (only 9), sleep in a room built in the garage. The "aunties" (cook, maid, teacher), in another shack. The last construction are the washrooms (squat toilets and rooms for bucket bath). There's also a poultry coop (that name is actually too fancy for it).

The meals are served in the living room. There are no tables. Children sit in plastics chairs, all in queues, facing the same direction and arranged per height size.
Family and visitors sit in the chairs/couch in front of them (facing the children). So all of them are looking at us when we eat.
We all eat in plastic dishes and using only a spoon. Napkins are a luxury they can't afford.
During the holidays, after dinner they watch a Mexican soap opera (The Gardener's Daughter) on a 14" screen TV with terrible reception.

The aunties cook in an open area outside the house, on iron structures that contain charcoal.
They have a gas stove in the kitchen, but it's only used for special circumstances (gas is too expenseive for them).
The dish washing is done also outside, in the floor, under a faucet (no sink).

Friday morning we woke up before 6:00 and took a bus back to the city, because we were going on safari!
It was a 3 day safari, of which 2 you spend travelling.
It was in the Masai Mara reserve, on the border with Tanzania. In Kenya the park is called Masai Mara, and in Tanzania is called Serengetti).
In the van with us were other volunteers: two very funny ladies from New Zealand, a serious Swedish girl, a girl from Nigeria that delayed our departure in 2 hours and an Italian guy. Also the driver and the cook.
We drove the whole day, stopping for lunch and at a viewpoint in a beautiful valley.
The trip itself was already an adventure. The 'roads' don't even deserve to be called that way (there are more holes than asphalt), the driver was nuts and there was so much dust our hair was hard and thick as a broom.

When we arrived at the camping, we were welcomed by monkeys and a nice surprise: showers with warm water!!! (fire wood did the trick)
We still went for a quick drive in the park, and we say a giraffe (that crossed the road in front of us very calm) and later a hiena. And a breathtaking sunset, with heavy rain and an occasional acacia tree in the background.

Back to the camping, we felt lucky because we brought a flaslight, because there was no electricity. The main problem is they didn't tell us we had to bring toilet paper or drinking water. so we had to steal some extra napkins during dinner...

Next morning, while we waited for breakfast in the main tent, one of the monkeys came in and turned the sugar bowl on the table. We collected the spilled sugar and put it outside for them, and in a mather of seconds there were several monkeys with their "whiskers" full of sugar.
After that we went for the game drive (the actual safari). The van's ceiling raises (lifts up) and you can stand and look outside.
The first thing we saw was a group of elephants. It was a big family, more than 10, including a baby!
they got very close to the van, specially a big female (about 9 or 15 feet).
We drove a little further and found a lioness having her breakfast, a kind of small deer (thompson) she had just hunted. We were surprised to see she eats everything, including guts and internal organs. Waiting for the left overs were some vultures and two jackals.

A while later we spotted a family of lions sleeping under the shade in some bushes. Females and cubs. We came so close we could almost touch them. They completely ignored us.
No males. There are about 20 females for each male.

We also saw buffalos many animals of the deer family (impalas, gazelles, topi, thompson, tik-tik, etc). The gnus (or wildebeest) only come back on the migration time, in July, but we saw a few lost here and there.

We took a restroom break in one of the luxury lodges inside the park (nice). Just outside of it, a cheetah crossed the road in front of us. It was ready to go hunting, and we waited a while for the action, but I guess we intimidated her with the vans.
Before lunch we still stopped by a river and for the first time could get outside the van. We saw several hippos in the river.
They are so huge!
They are the biggest killers in Africa. They kill more humans than all the lions, snakes and other predators together. And I thought they were nice, calm and pacific animals... You better keep your distance from them!
The main teeth have more than 12 inches and the bite has more than 1 ton power.

Then the driver stopped the van under an acacia tree in the middle of the plains, and that's were we had lunch.

In the afternoon we drove a lot looking for more animals, but had no luck.
We found the remains of an eaten buffalo, a bird with a funny mohawk hairstyle, warthogs (even with double sets of teeth!), more hienas, but nothing more extraordinary.

Back to the camping, we had dinner and went to sleep. But the monkeys were messing around the tents and woke us up several times.
Next day we were up before 6:00 for a some more game drive before the departure.
We were searching unsuccessfully for about an hour when the driver spotted a male lion sleeping.
Only our van was there. The king woke up, walked around a bit, showed off for us and disappeared into the bushes.
Other vans came (the drivers communicate via radio, letting each other know when they find something interesting), but the lion was gone already.
It's a very impressing animal. Eve from the top of our van, a few feet away, it's very imposing, demands respect.

When we were about to leave, I saw a group of giraffes on the distance. We drove towards them.
It was a big family (more than 10). Two males started fighting, which in giraffe style is not that violent (they lean on each other, move their necks)

The so called "Big 5" are: lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino and leopard. But we think the giraffe should be included.It's sooo tall!
But I think the big 5 are the most endangered ones.

On the way back we saw some zebras.

The safari was great.
We didn't get to see the rhino, or the leopard, nor the gnus migration, but we didn't have to share the park with hundreds of other vans (we saw less than a 12 other vans, but in high season there can be up to 200).

The scenery itself was already worth the trip. Those endless plains, with golden grass, one occasional acacia tree...
It's so rare nowadays to be able to look far away and see nothing but nature. And heavy clouds and rain in the distance. Very poetic!

That's the end of our first week. On the next post, we'll tell more about our experience in the orphanage.

Big hugs,
Lu and Andre