Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Good Life....


Just finished week 1 in Kenya. When I booked my flight to Nairobi it was only supposed to be a transition city on my way to Tanzania, but has turned out to be so much more. Landed in Nairobi at about 130 am after a stop in Ethiopia and a bittersweet goodbye to great friends in Ghana. At the airport in Ghana it took everything I had and a few tears not to board the Delta flight to New York. Christmas with my loved ones was only a flight away, but thanks to positive thoughts from Sioned I boarded the scheduled flight to Kenya... it was already paid for after all. On the flight to Ethiopia I met a lovely gentlemen who lives in Spain and does work for Global Fund in Ghana and Zambia with malaria, HIV, and TB. He has contacts in Tanzania so I'm planning to email him this week and hopefully work out a time to volunteer with them whenever I make it to Tanzania.

Getting the Kenya visa was surprisingly easy... most of the countries I plan to visit want some sort of verification of departure and since I have no departure details that was a bit of a concern. Fortunately I was welcomed with open arms and big smiles, paid my $25 USD and arrived at the hostel around 230am... after passing zebras in the taxi! The first day I was too exhausted to face the bustling city of Nairobi, which is dubbed Nai-robbery in the travel guides. Hung about the hostel, walked to the bank and the market, had an overall relaxing day. Met 3 guys from the US who have started an NGO called Books Build Hope (booksbuildhope.org). I had planned to spend the holidays in Mombasa on the beach, and after a few phone calls found out everything was booked so the boys were nice enough to offer me a place to stay in Lamu, provided I was up for the 16+ hour journey. Lamu was a place I had planned to make it to anyway so I headed to the bus station the next day. My making it there must have been in the cards because after trying about 10 different bus stations looking for a ticket to the first stop, Mombasa, I got lucky and found a ticket departing about 2 hours later... the only ticket available until after Christmas. Rushed to the hostel, packed up, and headed back to the bus station for a 10 hour journey which fortunately I slept through. The bus arrived in Mombasa at about 530am and me being the planner I am, didn't even consider the fact that I would have the same issues finding a bus from Mombasa to Lamu. But again, luck was on my side. One of the security guards at the bus station took me under his wing (with the ulterior motive of marriage and me bringing him back to the states of course) and ran me all around town trying to find a bus to Lamu. Once again, everything was booked until after Christmas.... things were not looking good. Then, in broken english Omar kept saying “staff seat”... with no other options I agreed to find out about the staff seat. He sat me in a chair and ran off, only to bring back the conductor of the 9am bus to Lamu. After some shady talks I was snuck onto this bus and was on my way to Lamu... the first of many Christmas Miracles!

Another 8 hour brutal bus ride and 30 minute boat ride to the island of Lamu... made it around 5pm. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Lamu is absolutely gorgeous. Soft white sand, water so blue it's nearly black, and accommodations so amazing they should cost at least double the $20USD/night I paid. The next 5 days were the stuff dreams are made of. There were 6 of us plus 3 French people staying at Abdul's EcoNest and we all exchanged names for Secret Santa, so on Christmas Eve when the boys had work to do at one of the school's, Jolene (one of the guy's girlfriends) and I did some shopping. First stop was to buy me a scarf to cover my shoulders... the town is mostly Muslim and my exposed chest and shoulders felt extremely uncomfortable for everyone. For dinner Abdul and his crew cooked us a delicious Lobster dinner, we exchanged presents, decorated the tree, and enjoyed each others company until the wee hours of the morning. Woke Christmas morning to mango and banana pancakes and made our way to the beach. Stopped for what we all thought was just a drink on the way home at Lamu House and after glancing over the menu decided to splurge on one of the best meals of my life (plus 3 glasses of wine)... mind you the splurge was a whole $25USD. Dare I say it... best.christmas.ever.... don't tell mom!

The day after Christmas we were all feeling lazy and only really had enough energy for a good ol' fashion Sunday Funday! Sat at Petley's bar overlooking the town and drank one too many Tusker's chatting with other travelers. From what I remember it was a great day. Came home to one last phenomenal seafood dinner... the best calamari I've ever eaten and huge delicious crab.... again with a hefty $6 dollar price tag.

The fun came to an end on Monday when we began the journey back to Nairobi. Arrived last night around 830p. Spent the day enjoying the cooler Nairobi air... read, napped, drank, and ate. This is the kind of life I imagined during all those 12+ hour work days... 

Life is a ticket to the greatest show on earth - Martin H. Fischer

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Final days of Part 1

Day 62

My last post was 5 weeks in, now almost a month later I'm only days away from starting the second phase of my journey.  Flying out to Nairobi, Kenya on the 20th!  My original "plan" (not sure that word even registers in my vocabulary anymore) was to spend 3 months in Ghana.... as its been well established, plans change.  My two months here have been wonderful, a learning experience to say the least.  The most disappointing and frustrating part about my time in Ghana has been my project, or lack thereof.  There is an abundance of help in the clinics and hospitals by local people (better staffed than any of the hospitals I've ever worked in), which is a great thing for the community, but leaves little need for volunteers.  So, I decided the money is already spent (hopefully some of it made it into the community and not just the pockets of execs at Projects Abroad hdqtrs), I don't want the time to be wasted as well... better that I move on with an extra cushion of time to either volunteer longer at one of my other projects or spend it exploring!

The past 2 weeks have been amazing.  I've been traveling the eastern and northern regions of Ghana with Elin, a Welsh volunteer and one of her girlfriends, Sioned, who came to tour Ghana for a few weeks.  Exploring the more rural areas where fewer travelers go... away from internet, phone signal, and on occasion running water and electricity.  There are proper mud huts inhabited in the north which we were able to visit a few of.  Saw shea butter made, freshly picked cotton turned to thread, pottery being made, intricate basket weaving, rocks turned to beads.  Visited a couple monkey sanctuary's... we got to feed them peanuts and bananas, some of them would jump onto our arms and stand there and peel the banana!  Hiked to a couple of waterfalls, visited a pineapple farm.  Survived what I think was potassium overdose, as well as the numerous death traps we traveled in along the way.

It's amazing how fast money goes, even here.  We managed to keep lodging down to an average 7 USD/night per person, and some meals only cost 1USD... but between the tours, snacking, transportation fees, more expensive meals at lodges where there was no other option etc. I guess it all adds up.  I did break my "no buying anything I don't need" rule on 2 necklaces and a piece of fabric which I had hemmed to be a sarong... which I realized would be invaluable here as a cover all for dirt roads, to put on top of plastic seat covers on sweaty bus rides, after a shower, etc.  The no shopping rule has been my biggest challenge, the artwork and jewelery is absolutely gorgeous and ridiculously cheap, and when I'm a grown up I'll be making a specific trip back for them!

I'm working on an EVERYTHING GHANA post to hopefully finish in the next couple of days.  It's no wonder Ghana has been dubbed the friendliest country in West Africa.  The hospitality and genuine friendliness of the people is inspiring.  With the exception of the post office... possibly my least favorite place on earth...

Still no luck with the photos... I have my fingers crossed for better luck in Kenya!

Hope everyone's enjoying the holiday festivities... you can write off the overindulging as contribution to what I'm missing, guilt free!  The peanut butter cookies with a hershey kiss in the center are my favorite...

Lots of Love. xx

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end" Seneca