Malindi + Mombasa

The view from my tent

What a nice change of pace it has been to get to the coast. At Mpala I was beginning to feel as though we were seeing the same, beautiful nonetheless, but largely the same, scenes over and over: scorched earth with pale green thorny vegetation and intense, dry heat. As soon as we neared the coast the vegetation switched to palm trees lazily swaying in the wind, growing out of the sand-covered ground. The palm trees all have pseudo-ladders hacked into them so that palm wine tappers can climb up and tap their wine. In Malindi we camped on a private beach and would fall asleep listening to the waves of the Indian Ocean crashing into the beach. It was absolutely surreal. The beach was owned by a German man and his family. His home was there and he had a restaurant and bar on the premises too. The beach is perfect white coral sand and the ocean water is the temperature of bath water and the colour of perfect turquoise. The variation between high tide and low tide is quite dramatic as well with low tide retreating far out into sea and high tide threatening to drench our tents and producing amazing waves that we’d spend our afternoons body surfing on. Besides playing in the water, during our time at Malindi we did assignments, had lectures by the beach, and visited locals farms and had lectures by the farmers. My favourite part of this class is that my prof always buys samples of traditional African fruits and vegetables for us to sample. The best one we’ve tried is baobab fruit from the baobab tree also known as Rafiki’s house.

Map of the sacred forest in relation to Mombasa

After four days in Malindi we drove to Mombasa. On the drive there my class stopped in Kaya Rabai forest. This is one of a collection of forests that are considered sacred to the Mijikenda people who live on the coast of Kenya. The dress for a male Mijikenda is limited to a blueish-green sarong tied around his waist. We were greeted by an elder Mijikenda who escorted us through the forest. Rules of the forest: no shoes or socks (to ensure proper contact with the sandy forest floor which has healing and cleansing properties) and no running (so as not to disturb the ancestors and so as to prolong your foot’s contact with the healing, cleansing sand). Keep in mind that our visit took place at 1:30 in the afternoon under the hot midday sun. I don’t think we’ve ever experienced so much pain. Our feet were numb for hours after. It was absolutely scorching. The elder was so sweet and said we did a great job and thanked us for not complaining at all. He said that it’s OK to leap around a little bit. I would argue that “a little bit” is a gross understatement- we were jumping around in between patches of shade and speed walking through the tour. In all though, the forest was beautiful and I appreciate that we were allowed to visit given that only recently people other than the Mijikenda have been allowed to enter the forests. It was fascinating to hear about their beliefs and traditions. The Mijikenda are also very special because they’ve been especially successful at maintaining their traditional lifestyle and practices, no doubt in some part due to the fact that they and their forests are protected under UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.

We arrived at our Presbyterian (a.k.a. dry) hotel in Mombasa in the afternoon and spent the night working on projects and essays. The next morning we said goodbye to our beloved Bunduz staff and trucks at the Mombasa airport and boarded our flight to Zanzibar. 

Welcome to Camping Paradise + Voi

The most incredible hot sauce I've ever had!

Mpala Research Centre, to the North of Nairobi with Mt. Kenya not far off in the distance, was described to us a few weeks ago as camping paradise/heaven. I tried not to let my imagination get ahead of me and build it up in my head so as not to be disappointed when we finally arrived there. But it’s hard to be disappointed by anything that Mpala has to offer. The tents were huge canvas tents with real beds inside- think Meryl Streep and Robert Redford’s tents in Out of Africa. My roommate Brianna and I would often open up the front doors so that we had a view of the river in front of our tents. The river was a beautiful sound to fall asleep to- it reminded me of being home by the mighty Mississippi. Each morning before we woke up, the staff at the site would come around with warm water and filled two buckets outside our rooms so that we could wash our faces with warm water as soon as we woke up. There was a FREE laundry service included in our stay which was a total treat because I am woefully inept at hand washing my clothes- they never get quite clean again. The food at Mpala was absolutely sublime. I should mention that the centre is where Princeton academics come to do research in East Africa. This means that it is completely funded by Princeton alum. While we lowly McGillians were absolutely blown away by the food, the Princeton students there had been keeping a comment book that had suggested improvements to all of the meals. My favourite meal there was a dish of excellent beans, a delicious veggie rice pilaf, and a beef stew. Dessert was perfect pineapple slices. The crowning glory was an amazing hot sauce that I think was simply ground up chilies. There were also jugs of cold water on all of the tables at every meal (cold water is unheard of here) and tea, consisting of a coffee cake and biscuits, was served everyday mid-morning. Another great thing about the site was a bonfire pit ringed with a bench with oversized colourful pillows. Amazing. Mpala is close to Laikipia National Reserve meaning it has a very high density of wildlife. During our stay we saw hippos and giraffes, as well as heard hippos. There were hippos right outside our tent one night which might sound cool but is actually pretty scary considering hippos can be just as dangerous as lions.

While at Mpala we continued with our classes. We did lectures in the airy library at the station and went on trips into the field with local guides. We looked at different plants and learned about the many multifarious ways in which people here utilize their plants.

After a luxurious five-day stay in Mpala we loaded up the trucks and embarked on a thirteen and a half hour (!!!) bus ride to Voi- a town in between Tsavo East National Park and Tsavo West. Google Map it- we went from Laikipia National Reserve (north of Mt. Kenya) to Voi in one day which means we travelled across half of Kenya in one day. We arrived at a beautiful lodge run by a lovely German proprietress with dinner ready for us. The lodge had a bar and a pool so we unwound from our dusty bumpy ride in the pool under the stars. It was perfect. I’m writing this as we drive away from Voi eastward toward the coast. We’re all very excited to get to the Indian Ocean, although our excitement is a bit tainted because the coast means that the end of the program is imminent. I’m trying not to think about that too much though and am still loving every minute of this adventure. Love you all! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!      

Nairobi, Take two!

James and I in Kibera

Back in the organized chaos that is Nairobi and it’s good to be back! Our first day back was comprised of winding up session two projects and doing final exams and then for a treat they took us “out on the town” for dinner. Because of the strict risk management rules we aren’t allowed to do much on our own. So in order to give us some free time they took us to a huge country club-esque compound that had five restaurants, pools, karaoke bars, and dance clubs. I am fairly certain that we were the only people there except for a few white families out for dinner. A night out, indeed. In any case, it was a very fun night out given that we had no school work to worry about.  I split a delicious thin crust pizza and the cheapest bottle of red with the beautiful Anne Jeffery J We had the next day off and so they let us loose in a mall called “Westgate”. We spent the day shopping for a few necessities that we’d run out of, as well as souvenirs and ice cream! It was a bit surreal coming being in this bustling, air-conditioned mall after weeks of camping away from civilization.

The next day the real stuff started- we spent the next two days back in Kibera slum working with a few NGOs and CBOs doing very informal work and research. This visit was much better than the first one at the very beginning of the trip. I think it’s important to think of these communities simply as you would any other community instead of over-thinking it and defining it as some horrible, desolate place. I went in with that mindset and really enjoyed our visit this time. That may also have been due to the fact that I made a friend named James one day who walked around with us as we walked around Kibera. We visited the sanitation blocks in the neighbourhood of Soweto East- the neighbourhood that is acting as a test tube for slum upgrading projects that will be scaled up to the rest of the neighbourhoods in Kibera.

After this two day Urban Module we started classes for third session. This is the class that I am most excited for, the one I’ve been eagerly anticipating for the entire trip. It’s called Nutrition and Society, an enthobotany nutrition class taught by Professor Tim Johns. Tim reminds me exactly of Sean Connery except that he is exceedingly knowledgeable about plants and always has a laugh right below the surface ready to come out. The course looks at nutrition and also traditional African knowledge about nutrition and wild plants. It is right up my alley because it is at once a tough science class and a revealing anthropology class about the people in the communities that we visit. I appreciate its holistic look at nutrition and food security- studying either of these issues in a straight science OR arts way is extremely limited in use. 

Elangata Wuas

Our last camping site for the next little while is called Elangata Wuas. It’s in the Great Rift Valley, just like Nguruman was, but because the valley is narrower at this point, the escarpment walls act like a wind tunnel at night as the air cools and falls down the sides of the escarpment. We stayed at Elangata Wuas for five amazing days and did things like listen to lectures by local Maasai people about land issues in the area, had a “gender discussion” in which the girls (33) and boys (5) on our trip split up and talked to a group of Maasai women (or men in the case of the boys) about specific gender issues. That was probably the highlight of my stay in Elangata Wuas- it was especially interesting to hear their questions for us. They asked us about when people get married in Canada, when they have kids, and other more personal things which I’ll leave out to spare any men reading this post. Another highlight was when we visited a school and played soccer against the school’s soccer teams. Although we had a lot of work to do it was so nice to take a break and exercise. And it was such an amazing way to interact with the kids here. 

On our first morning in Elangata Wuas we hiked up the escarpment- another highlight of our time here.

 On the third night of our stay here in Elangata Wuas, we split into groups of three and were shipped off to homesteads in the region to stay the night. I stayed in a Maasai family’s compound which housed the grandfather, his two wives, all of his wives’ children (unless they were married women, in which case they move to their new husband’s community to live), and their spouses, and then all of their children. We slept in a house made out of cow dung, mud, and sticks and a bed of a cow hide stretched over sticks. Again, my McKenna sleeping skills came in handy- I slept through the night while other people in our group couldn’t sleep at all. While at their home we attempted to help them milk their cows and chopped veggies for dinner. Mostly though, we just played with the kids in the family and relaxed and chatted with the family members. The homestay was an amazing experience and it was kind of nice to be away from the group for one low-key night, but it was very nice to get picked up in the morning by one of our drivers, John (who greeted us all with big hugs and kisses on the cheek and saying, “I missed you guys so much!!”), head back to camp and have a hot shower and more familiar food. 

Speaking of food- on our second last night in Elangata Wuas the kitchen staff secured a whole live goat for us to have a goat roast. The meat was incredibly delicious- perfectly barbecued. I have no pictures of it though, it was consumed far too quickly!

Sam, Andrew, and Miranda studying on the lookout overlooking our campsite.

 After 17 days of “camping” (it’s hard to call it camping when there’s hot showers and running water and delicious hot food cooked for you!) we are heading back to Nairobi for about a week. It will be sad to say goodbye to the camping staff but we’ll be meeting up with them again when we camp on the beach (!!) in Malindi in a few weeks. That’s all for now! Hope everything is great at home and Happy Birthday Andre! 

Maddogs and Englishmen

The title of this post is, in retrospect, a total misnomer because in Nguruman the extreme heat isn’t restricted to midday. Nguruman is, as promised, extremely hot. It is about 40 degrees in during the day and drops to about 25 at night. We arrived in Nguruman after a long, hot, dusty drive in our trucks and quickly set up our tents in the fading sunlight. Despite the fact that we arrived at six a night the sun was still oppressively hot. Because we’re so close to the equator, the sun rises and falls very quickly and is very intense and high in the sky all day. It sets so quickly, though, that you can literally see it setting before your eyes. There is little refuge from the heat as the greenery is extremely sparse. What greenery there is is extremely thorny. To top it all off there are scorpions here! What a lovely place, eh? It is all bad though, actually. The escarpment walls of the rift valley make for absolutely breath-taking vistas. 

Courtney enjoying a delicious, fresh passionfruit given to us at Steven's farm!

 

 

 

Bluth and Steven at his farm

 Our activities in Nguruman include writing our midterm essay, listening to lectures by Maasai elders, our prof and also David Western- the revered wildlife conservation biologist and former head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service. He was quite inspirational to listen too- a nice break from many of the lectures which can tend to be quite pessimistic and gloomy. We also visited a collection of farms near the base of the Nguruman escarpment. In stark contrast to our campsite, the farm was beautiful and lush due to an ingenious irrigation system that utilizes stream that flow from the escarpment, even during the dry season. This system supplies water to 600 farms. The farmer we met, Steven, could have been a Bruce Springsteen song. His cautious, nervous smile and honest, open way of speaking coupled with his formidable farm- a product solely of his own inexhaustible work ethic were enough to make you weep. He spoke to us in a calm yet angry voice about the injustices that food-exporting companies subject farmers like him too- including forming cartels to force the price of their produce well below the market price. He was one of the first speakers who we spoke to who didn’t mince words and spoke in a straightforward way about the problems both with the Kenyan farmers, and the foreign companies. I really appreciated this and enjoyed our visit to the farm immensely.

Lake Naivasha

After the Maasai Mara we came to Lake Naivasha, a beautiful but overexploited lake that is just west of Nairobi. We stayed at a beautiful campsite/yellow acacia tree grove right on the shores of the lake and we could hear hippopotamuses snorting throughout the day. The campsite was called Camp Carnelleys and I would highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Kenya. Not only was the site idyllic, it had running water, great hot showers, and, best of all, an awesome restaurant/bar. We all decided to forego the camp food for one night (though it is absolutely delicious and healthy!!) to enjoy some food at the bar, including camembert, caramelized onion, and pancetta turnovers, samosas, delicious tacos with perfect guacamole, and perfect, fresh cheeseburgers with good cheese. I also loved the way that the bar was decorated- it had very low, lounge-type couches with huge, oversized pillows in mismatched, brightly coloured, print cottons.

While at Naivasha we learned about the ecology of Kenya’s lakes including Naivasha, but my favourite thing was learning about the ornamental flower industry in Naivasha and then visiting one such factory. The flower factories are huge complexes in which they grow, harvest, and package flowers to be exported the next day to Amsterdam to be distributed throughout the European market. We learned and read about the terrible conditions and labour practices in the factories- forced overtime, firing or overworking pregnant women, poor safety standards, and sexual abuse of women workers by male supervisors who held the keys to promotion and more benefits. Don’t be too discouraged though- the situation has improved somewhat due to European consumer pressure. We visited the factory and it didn’t appear all that bad on the surface- the factory was full of natural light and breezy. Upon closer scrutiny, this varnish started to crack. People weren’t wearing protective gloves- it slowed down their work and they were paid on a per stem basis. When asked about maternity leave, employees were only allowed three months, not four months as is Kenyan law (still not great- I know).  We took everything our peppy tour guide said with an sizeable grain of salt as she reported some wholly implausible things like only ten people per year quit, and people are never fired. She also said that the factory had good relations with the Maasai pastoralist which is also highly unlikely since the factory’s presence cuts off the Maasai’s access to the lake which is crucial for their cattle’s livelihood. The whole visit reminded me of my dad- I know he would have loved to be there at the factory drilling our tour guide with tough questions, and getting mildly outraged about the lack of adherence to labour laws.

Off to Nguruman next, which is in the Southern Rift Valley and is supposed to be extremely hot! Wish me luck!

We stopped at a lookout on an escarpment on the side of the Great Rift Valley on the way to Nguruman. The view was absolutely breathtaking!

Is this real life???

This post is named as such in order to express how surreal our experience in the Maasai Mara was. As we drove around the park, that is the Kenyan extension of the famed Serengeti National Park in Tanzania,  in our safari trucks we were frequently taken aback by the park’s breathtaking beauty and amazing wildlife. As the sun set over the savannah we would frequently ask each other, “Is this real life???” I suppose this also speaks to our status as the YouTube generation. 

While in the Mara we went on two game drives per day- one in the morning (truck leaves at 6:15 AM!!- my uncle Pat won’t believe me but I’ve turned into a veritable morning person during my time here in Africa), and one at night. We saw lions- three massive males lazing in the sun beside the remains of a buffalo (reminded me of an enlarged version of Percy!) and two momma lionesses with five lion cubs. The cubs were so adorable and playful, jumping on top of their mothers. We also saw a few families of elephants, hippos (we made a special trip to a known hippo pool to see them), many birds, goofy giraffes, gazelles, hyenas (which are actual fuzzy, adorable, and sweet looking- I know agree with the hyena enthusiasts who were in an uproar after the Lion King’s portrayal of them as stupid, mangy, and vicious), and an adorable family of cheetahs. The crowning glory to our stay in the Maasai Mara was a gorgeous leopard lounging in a tree that we saw on our last day in the Mara. This sighting rounded out the “Big Five” for us. The big five are the most sought after and dangerous animals in East Africa: elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros.   

The misunderstood hyena. Photo courtesy of the amazing Bluth

In the Mara we camped at a research field station where elephant herds walked by only 100m from where we slept and ate.  Adorable vervet monkeys are always running around our site, using the tents as trampolines and driving the cooking staff crazy. The second session has officially started and this session I am taking an anthropology class called Environment and Development in Africa. My professor here is the inimitable John Galaty who has been coming here to do his research for nearly 40 years. We did our extremely stimulating lectures under acacia trees. The highlight of my time in the Mara was when our class went on a field trip to a nearby Maasai village where we talked to some of the villagers and interviewed them. Our translator was a young Maasai man with a very quirky personality. The Maasai seem to be a very proud and dignified people. They do not inspire pity in the least despite what we’ve learned about the land tenure issues that they’re facing that we’ve been learning all about. The Maasai are one of the tribes that stretch out their earlobes. They typically wear very bright reds, blue, and purples, in all different prints. They wear lots of multi-coloured bead work too. It may sound awful and garish but the Maasai are incredibly beautiful and their style is very esthetically pleasing. They have an incredible natural grace and style.

Lala Salama (“good night” in Swahili and also my favourite Swahili expression)!