Into Africa

Wow, I don't even know where to start. My entrance into Africa has been so different from my past experiences. The last two times, I've eased into the culture by starting in a more upscale place and moving gradually into living with the local people in their homes and adopting their lifestyles. This time, I traveled alone to Nairobi, then got in a land rover with my uncle/second cousin and rode through the back country of Kenya and Uganda for a week. Now I'm in the nicest compound I've ever seen in Africa and I played volleyball on a freshly mowed lawn the first night I was here.

To bring everyone up to date, I flew into Nairobi on August 11th and met Joe Holt who is my mom's cousin. Joe is about 6'7" and absolutely huge. As soon as I met him, I felt I was in good hands. He's loud and friendly and fits perfectly in Africa.

We spent the first few days in Nairobi shopping for our trip and saying hello to about a hundred different people. Joe knows pretty much everyone. We also visited the old train yard and saw the largest functioning steam engine in the world which was used on the original Kenya/Uganda railway during colonialism. For those Africa nerds out there, this railway connected the Indian Ocean at Mombasa with Lake Victoria at Kisumu. The project took years, millions of British pounds, and numerous lost lives. For those movie buffs out there, the film Ghost in the Darkness about a lion that kills a bunch of people who are constructing a railway...that's the one. Anyway, I got a taste of history and got to see the bowels of a working steam engine for the first time.

On Sunday we climbed into the land rover with Joe's friend Dave and his son Tim from Canada, and headed to a game park called Masai Mara. This time of year is unique in this area because the animals of the Serengeti are migrating across the park and you are guaranteed to see hundreds and hundreds of zebras and wildabeests. We camped for two nights and saw tons of wildlife, including an elephant and a group of monkeys in our camp. The monkeys were climbing all over the tents and subtely moving closer and closer to our food. Luckily, the elephant wasn't as bold.

On the second day, Joe hired a Masai guide to sit in the passenger seat and help direct us to the animals. We saw dozens of animals including: lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, gazelles, zebras, wildabeests, giraffes, a leopard, a cheetah, warthogs, a hyena, and waterbuck. We had incredible luck the entire time. We saw a lion hunting a pack of zebras, crouching and crawling through high grass. We saw a cheetah eat a Thomson's gazelle, then proceed to sit in the shadow of our vehicle right outside my window. The thing was so close I could have reached out and poked it on the nose. Boop. We also saw a baby gazelle trying to drink milk under its mother. The mom wouldn't have it so the baby went over to another adult and nudged it, only to get head butted and shoved away. The baby was wobbly on its new legs and cute as a doorknob (I really couldn't think of a good simile there). We also visited a Masai village and saw them make fire with sticks. The Masai people are a pastoralist group in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. They also performed a dance for us, which made me a little uncomfortable because I know the dance is specifically for tourists who have caused them to get kicked off their land. Overall, the experience was fascinating and I'm still trying to process everything.

After Masai Mara, we drove through the hills of Western Kenya up to Kisumu on Lake Victoria. My hotel room was on the fifth floor and had an incredible view of the lake and several islands. We basically just relaxed and enjoyed the area for a night before leaving the next day for Uganda.

We spent several hours trying to travel the several hundred feet between the Kenya and Uganda border. During that time, I talked with one of hundreds of begging children and showed him our guide book to Kenya. The thirst for knowledge and intense desire to learn here always blows me away. When we left, I gave him money to buy shoes and a picture of my family. That night, we arrived in Jinja at the source of the Nile.

The next day was completely absurd. I went whitewater rafting on some of the most powerful rapids in the world. We hit about eight level 5 rapids, which are the strongest that you can raft. Our boat flipped five times and I got sucked under more than once. I always resurfaced hundreds of feet downstream and never knew how close I would be to the boat. It was a blast. On most rapids you don't want the boat to flip because of the rocks, but the Nile is deep enough to be less of a hazard. We had lunch on the boat during a long flat stretch of river and I ate the best pineapple I've ever had.

From Jinja, we drove to Entebbe to spend the night and I caught a flight to Nairobi the next morning. Unfortunately, the engines on my plane were not functioning so I had to wait in the airport for four hours and miss the beginning of the study abroad program's orientation. It actually wasn't that big of a deal and I got a little extra time to unwind. And it didn't take me too long to get caught up and right in the swing of things once I got there.

The St. Lawrence University Kenya Semester Program (SLU-KSP) compound is in a wealthy suburb of Nairobi. It is the nicest place I've been in Africa. Maybe I'll post pictures at some point. My posts will be sporadic at this point because we are gone for weeks at a time without internet access. Anyway, the students on the program are wonderful and I'm already enjoying myself immensely. We went into Nairobi today and walked around in groups which was a nice orientation for me, even though I've been in the city twice before. There's something different about being on your own and knowing it will be your home for a few months.

I'm extremely tired right now, so I'm going to stop. I'm hoping to be able to go a little more in depth in future posts, but so much is happening so quickly right now that it's tough to keep up. Hope all is well back in the States!