Kenyan Christmas

Well, here it is. The long-awaited details of my recent trip to Kenya. I left for Nairobi a few days after our December holiday began. The flight was rather unadventurous, and I soon found myself in this place called Africa wondering what in the world it would be like. It turned out to be an adventure I never could have planned for. I met up with friends from college, which was a real blessing. When you spend all your time with new people, it's amazing how refreshing it can be to fall back into familiar relationships. We lost no time catching up and swapping stories. We spent the first few days in Nairobi, a modern, bustling city. While in Nairobi we did go to a very nice market that sold crafts and other items. It was packed on the side of a little hill right next to a major road. As I quickly found out, Kenyans have a much smaller personal bubble than what I am used to. The aisles were so small two people could barely pass one another. I picked up some nice things, but not being much of a city slicker, I was soon ready to move on to a quieter setting.
The next stop on our trip was a four day safari. We drove in a safari van along some pretty rough roads to the game park. The area near the park is inhabited by the Masai people, a very distinct tribe in Kenya. We actually got to visit one of the Masai villages near the park. I've never seen such a non-western culture in my whole life. The people are herders, so they roam the land with their cattle and goats. The wrap themselves in bright red fabric to scare off the lions that might attack the herd. As you can imagine, the bright red of the fabric stands in stark contrast to the tan and green landscape, making the people very easy to spot. The village is surrounded by tree branches. The interlocking branches create a dense sort of fence that keeps out lions and other predators. Inside the fence are the houses, made of a wooden frame covered in dung and mud. The doorways are very low to keep out mosquitoes. Inside the ring of houses is another fenced in area where the cattle sleep at night. The Masai people eat corn, which they walk 2 days to Tasmania to get, and meat. They drink milk and blood. Seeing their lifestyle was a very interesting experience, and I'm not sure what I think of the whole thing yet.

We camped outside the game park in what turned out to be really nice accommodations. The tents are permanently set up, so there are beds in them. We even got hot showers, quite a luxury in Kenya. :) The next day we went on our first tour of the game park. There really are no words to describe that experience. If you've ever seen the Lion King, it was pretty much just like that. Thinking back on it, it all seems very surreal. We saw 15 lions, zebras, giraffes, elephants, gazelles, warthogs, vultures, hippos, and crocodiles. The top of the van opens up, so we could stand and look out at all the animals. The next day we went to Nakuru, a different park. That one was my favorite. There was a huge lake with one million flamingos standing in the shallow water along the bank. The rustling feathers and squawking sounds of one million flamingos is an experience in and of itself. We also saw baboons that tried to steal our lunch, rhinos, and hyenas.

After the safari we headed into the Western Province of Kenya. To get there we needed to take public transport, which amounts to a mini bus packed with people traveling over the worst roads I've ever seen in my whole life. Six hours later we were finally there, dusty, sore, and completely exhausted. My stay in the village turned out to be the holiday break I needed. There is a saying that things run on "African time," which basically means there is no time frame for everything. No one is ever in a hurry and even the simplest tasks take hours. We spent our days sleeping in, reading, and walking the 2 miles into "town" to get fresh vegetables for dinner. Once in town we would sit for a few hours just watching people and sipping Cokes. Then we would make the 2 mile trek home. The lazy days provided plenty of time to rest and think and sit; things I really needed.
Christmas itself was very quiet. We waited all day for church only to find out that the people who were supposed to take us, forgot to tell us they were leaving. We caught them as they were coming back.
After Christmas things got a little tense with the elections. We were completely safe in the village where we were, but the surrounding areas were pretty dangerous. Completely unrelated to the rioting, we lost water (for the last 6 days) and power (for the last 4 days), so our already slow lifestyle just got a little slower. I feel I got the true Africa experience in those days of hauling water from the river and cooking supper by the light of one candle. :) To make a long story short, we were stuck in the village a little longer than expected and were eventually flown out by a little 6-seater plane to Nairobi. I got back to Bahrain at 3 am on Saturday and had to go to school on Sunday. Needless to say, my slow-paced, relaxed lifestyle came to an abrupt end. :) Overall, I really enjoyed Kenya. It truly was an experience of a life time.