I went back to the bridge today to pick up the DVD of my jump. To do this, we had to cross the border post again. When we came back into Zambia, a lady at the gate stopped us to pour some kind of strange brown liquid on our hands. I asked her why and what it was for, and she looked at me as if I was crazy and said, "it's a chemical...it's for the cholera."
It's so easy to forget sometimes that just across that bridge, in that beautiful, green lush country...there is absolute hell breaking loose. The shitty ecomony, the insane inflation, hunger and thirst, and most recently, the cholera epidemic.
It was a pretty humbling moment.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
All I wanted was a FREAKIN spinning chair!
**Apologies folks! I'm gonna have to skip a very important entry for now to allow myself the energy to write the following post. Forgive me and I promise to tell you more about our travels to Zambia very soon!**
I'm still shaking from the adrenaline!! Ladies and gentlemen, I just fulfilled a nearly life-long dream of mine...making me officially the coolest (and possibly craziest) person alive. Yes, it's conceited sounding, but come on--I JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE/CLIFF 3 TIMES TODAY INTO THE ZAMBEZI RIVER WITH BEAUTIFUL VICTORIA FALLS BEHIND ME! That's pretty damn cool. I also spent the morning atop an elephant in a game park, then got to FEED and PLAY with it!!
So yes, that is how my day began. Bright and early at 6:45, Aubrey and I got picked up for our elephant-back safari. We were part of a relatively small group of tourists and got to sit together on our elephant, Danny! He was the biggest of the group and the leader, so we were in front the whole time. Meaning we were the first to see and closest to the large group of giraffes we walked through! You know, I've been on a few safaris before, but nothing beats seeing animals without car windows or metal rods to block your view. To the giraffes, gazelles, baboons and birds, we were just a bunch of funny-lookin' elephants with odd lumps on their backs! We got very close to everything and it was cool enough just sittin on the elephant and having it reach back with its trunk to be fed/pet every now and then. When the safari was over, we then got to give our elephants treats...aka we got to sit in their laps and pour food pellets into their trunks! It was amazing! Danny was HUMONGOUS so feeding him so close to those giant tusks was definitely a rush :) Then, delight of all delights, we got FREE (well...included) breakfast! That was good cause we were starving at this point. After this, we got a ride back to our hostel, and we started trying to calm our nerves for the ridiculous afternoon we were planning for ourselves.
I was exhausted after having gotten rather sick from our dinner the night before and running to the bathroom at ungodly hours. So I decided to skip the walk to Zig Zag Coffee Shop and took a nap instead. I woke up refreshed and ready to head to Vic Falls for our adrenaline junkie extravaganza. We taxied over, got permission to cross the border to Zimbabwe without buying a visa, and began the short treck from the border post to the Vic Falls Bridge. It is at this spot 16 years ago that that first brave bungee jumper took a leap of faith into the gorge! We registered ourselves, qualified to do the activities, and then realized that no one except for me had brought enough cash to pay for it! So I waited for everyone to go pull out money, and in the meantime, watched as several Japanese tourists did the jump. Seeing them go squashed any fears I had, and by the time my friends got back from the bank, I was jumping with excitement! They finished up registration, and then we walked from the office to the middle of the Vic Falls bridge, aka the no-man's land between peaceful Zambia and F'd-up Zimbabwe. Hard to believe that two countries so close to one another (and linked by such a world wonder!) could be so very different. Aubrey had originally wanted to go first, but was a bit too nervous when the time came, so I happily volunteered to be guinea pig! I know...I'm nuts. But I just couldn't wait to be the one plummeting down into that gorge, only to bounce back up at allllmost the point of no return! So we got strapped in, I climbed onto the metal platform on the edge of the bridge, and the guys working there started attaching the various ropes and harnesses that would prevent me from plunging to my death. Pleasant thought...no? They wrapped my ankles in two sets of very thick towels to prevent the straps from cutting into my skin, then attached TWO safety harnesses before finally attaching the bungee cord! I was feeling very calm and cool...until about 2 seconds before I walked to the edge of the world. As I stood there, with my heart beating like a heart attack, I looked out over the gorge and saw just in the distance the Victoria Falls Hotel on the Zimbabwe side of the river. I had a total flash-back to 4th grade, when I had stayed at that very hotel with my parents (before Zimbabwe's government and economy went to shit). I clearly remembered sitting on the huge patio of that beautiful hotel and watching the bungee jumpers leaping off the bridge...and promising to myself that someday, I would do that too. Corny, I know. But that promise to myself is probably the main reason I didn't suddenly turn around and climb back over the fence like a wussy (or sane person, depending on how you look at it). So when the guys yelled out "5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BUNGEE!" I didn't stop to think about how crazy this was...I just leaped!
IT...WAS...TERRIFYING!
But so so soooooo good at the same time! I'm pretty sure I kept my eyes open the whole time, though its a bit hard to remember everything, it happened SO fast. I just remember screaming loud enough to break glass and seeing the rapids rushing at my face as I free fell the 450 feet into the gorge. Just when I thought I was for sure going to hit the water, the bungee cord caught and I absolutely FLEW back up into the air! I swear I nearly hit the bridge again! On the way up, I unfortunately flipped again so I wasn't upside-down anymore...which is not a good thing. When I fell the second time, I whiplashed so hard I thought my eyeballs would pop out of the sockets! My brain must've hit my skull at least 3 times in the process of bouncing up and down, and it definitely hurt my head a LOT...but it didn't matter. I was dangling over the Zambezi River. I had just jumped 450 feet into a gorge. I was freakin HARD CORE and AWESOME! Haha! So I just let myself enjoy the rush until the guys came to rescue me and turn me right-side up again. I was pulled back onto the bottom of the bridge, then climbed out of the maze of metal onto the very pavement I had just leapt off. WHAT A FREAKIN RUSH! I then got to watch my friends do the same crazy dive I had just completed, and afterwards, we went back to the office to recover a little bit with cold water (it was a very hot day!) and to see our pictures and video footage of the jump.
Andre and I, being the total crazy adrenaline seekers that we are, decided that cheating death once wasn't enough. So we signed on for the package deal...an extra $25 bought us both a gorge swing off the bridge AND a zip-line ride across the gorge. Now, if the bungee was a 10/10 (which it totally was) in terms of coolness...the gorge swing was a TWELVE. You get hooked into another harness and attached to some VERY heavy ropes, then from the same platform we did bungee, we walked to the edge again, and this time just simply stepped off the edge. Bungee supposedly gets you to a speed of 120 km/hr as you fall, but the added weight of the rope swing gets you to 180 km/hr free fall!!! I fell so fast, I LITERALLY left my scream behind me! I felt it catch in my throat as I plummeted to the ground and thought I hadn't made any noise as I fell...but the video Joey took of me swinging has me screaming as I walked off the platform. I actually beat out SOUND I dropped so fast! Lol! The drop is incredibly scary, WAY worse (or better, I guess) than bungee. But then you catch and you get to swing sitting comfortably in a harness...the right way up! It gives you the most amazing opportunity to look around you and realize that you're swinging above the Zambezi and it is absolutely beautiful down there. The rapids are raging below you and the cliffs surrounding you are perfectly green and alive looking and the falls are behind you. You can't see them, but you can hear them roaring and picture them with the ever-present rainbow hovering above them. Amazing.
I got pulled back to the bridge a 2nd time, then waited for Andre to complete his swing. Then we walked over to the cliffs on the Zambia side and took a nice, leisurely swing across the gorge on a zip-line. This was a great way to end the day because my head was still pounding from bungee...and I was ABSOLUTELY exhausted. No free fall involved, no whiplash from the ropes catching you, just a nice, breezy ride over the rapids to the Zimbabwe side of the falls. It was wonderful. This was also the inspiration for this entry's title, because as I flew across the gorge, I was spinning around and I just kept imagining Aubrey doing one of her many movie quote impressions (a game we LOVE to play on those long bus rides and probably do too much). But yes, as I slid across, that quote from Austin Powers just kept playing over and over in my head: Dr. Evil saying "all I wanted was a FREAKIN spinning chair!". Lol, too funny.
Still riding our adrenaline waves, we cabbed it to a nearby Indian restaurant Aub and I had heard about called Armadillo (strange name, no?). We celebrated (or recovered...depending on how you look at it!) with delicious Indian food and bottles of Savannah Dry cider. We called our families and boyfriends to assure them that, yes, we were still alive and well. Victoria Falls still had its 100% survival rate after us! Then we came back here to the hostel and took turns on this amazing amazing FREE internet to send out mass emails/blogs about our adventures.
I'm gonna have to crash like IMMEDIATELY because I spent nearly 5 hours today cheating death, and the other hours riding and feeding lots of huge elephants. But I had to tell you all about this experience before I wake up tomorrow and it just feels like one crazy dream. I still cannot believe everything I got to do today...and the fact that I actually was crazy enough to do it all! I will never, ever forget this day. Everything that has come before this is pretty much irrelevant. I am just 21 and I have traveled the world, crossed Africa by bus (and any other means necessary!), and now I have taken a leap of faith directly off a bridge! I think I can let myself lay back and enjoy Christmas in South Africa now. Tuesday afternoon, we head to Durban to stay with my family friends Mike & Christine, then I'm off to Kuwait to see my lover Tamara for New Years! Then back to Kenya to finish up my amazing year abroad with my man, Ken, and my fantastic friends and family here.
Goodnight all. Love you so so much! XOXO
I'm still shaking from the adrenaline!! Ladies and gentlemen, I just fulfilled a nearly life-long dream of mine...making me officially the coolest (and possibly craziest) person alive. Yes, it's conceited sounding, but come on--I JUMPED OFF A BRIDGE/CLIFF 3 TIMES TODAY INTO THE ZAMBEZI RIVER WITH BEAUTIFUL VICTORIA FALLS BEHIND ME! That's pretty damn cool. I also spent the morning atop an elephant in a game park, then got to FEED and PLAY with it!!
So yes, that is how my day began. Bright and early at 6:45, Aubrey and I got picked up for our elephant-back safari. We were part of a relatively small group of tourists and got to sit together on our elephant, Danny! He was the biggest of the group and the leader, so we were in front the whole time. Meaning we were the first to see and closest to the large group of giraffes we walked through! You know, I've been on a few safaris before, but nothing beats seeing animals without car windows or metal rods to block your view. To the giraffes, gazelles, baboons and birds, we were just a bunch of funny-lookin' elephants with odd lumps on their backs! We got very close to everything and it was cool enough just sittin on the elephant and having it reach back with its trunk to be fed/pet every now and then. When the safari was over, we then got to give our elephants treats...aka we got to sit in their laps and pour food pellets into their trunks! It was amazing! Danny was HUMONGOUS so feeding him so close to those giant tusks was definitely a rush :) Then, delight of all delights, we got FREE (well...included) breakfast! That was good cause we were starving at this point. After this, we got a ride back to our hostel, and we started trying to calm our nerves for the ridiculous afternoon we were planning for ourselves.
I was exhausted after having gotten rather sick from our dinner the night before and running to the bathroom at ungodly hours. So I decided to skip the walk to Zig Zag Coffee Shop and took a nap instead. I woke up refreshed and ready to head to Vic Falls for our adrenaline junkie extravaganza. We taxied over, got permission to cross the border to Zimbabwe without buying a visa, and began the short treck from the border post to the Vic Falls Bridge. It is at this spot 16 years ago that that first brave bungee jumper took a leap of faith into the gorge! We registered ourselves, qualified to do the activities, and then realized that no one except for me had brought enough cash to pay for it! So I waited for everyone to go pull out money, and in the meantime, watched as several Japanese tourists did the jump. Seeing them go squashed any fears I had, and by the time my friends got back from the bank, I was jumping with excitement! They finished up registration, and then we walked from the office to the middle of the Vic Falls bridge, aka the no-man's land between peaceful Zambia and F'd-up Zimbabwe. Hard to believe that two countries so close to one another (and linked by such a world wonder!) could be so very different. Aubrey had originally wanted to go first, but was a bit too nervous when the time came, so I happily volunteered to be guinea pig! I know...I'm nuts. But I just couldn't wait to be the one plummeting down into that gorge, only to bounce back up at allllmost the point of no return! So we got strapped in, I climbed onto the metal platform on the edge of the bridge, and the guys working there started attaching the various ropes and harnesses that would prevent me from plunging to my death. Pleasant thought...no? They wrapped my ankles in two sets of very thick towels to prevent the straps from cutting into my skin, then attached TWO safety harnesses before finally attaching the bungee cord! I was feeling very calm and cool...until about 2 seconds before I walked to the edge of the world. As I stood there, with my heart beating like a heart attack, I looked out over the gorge and saw just in the distance the Victoria Falls Hotel on the Zimbabwe side of the river. I had a total flash-back to 4th grade, when I had stayed at that very hotel with my parents (before Zimbabwe's government and economy went to shit). I clearly remembered sitting on the huge patio of that beautiful hotel and watching the bungee jumpers leaping off the bridge...and promising to myself that someday, I would do that too. Corny, I know. But that promise to myself is probably the main reason I didn't suddenly turn around and climb back over the fence like a wussy (or sane person, depending on how you look at it). So when the guys yelled out "5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BUNGEE!" I didn't stop to think about how crazy this was...I just leaped!
IT...WAS...TERRIFYING!
But so so soooooo good at the same time! I'm pretty sure I kept my eyes open the whole time, though its a bit hard to remember everything, it happened SO fast. I just remember screaming loud enough to break glass and seeing the rapids rushing at my face as I free fell the 450 feet into the gorge. Just when I thought I was for sure going to hit the water, the bungee cord caught and I absolutely FLEW back up into the air! I swear I nearly hit the bridge again! On the way up, I unfortunately flipped again so I wasn't upside-down anymore...which is not a good thing. When I fell the second time, I whiplashed so hard I thought my eyeballs would pop out of the sockets! My brain must've hit my skull at least 3 times in the process of bouncing up and down, and it definitely hurt my head a LOT...but it didn't matter. I was dangling over the Zambezi River. I had just jumped 450 feet into a gorge. I was freakin HARD CORE and AWESOME! Haha! So I just let myself enjoy the rush until the guys came to rescue me and turn me right-side up again. I was pulled back onto the bottom of the bridge, then climbed out of the maze of metal onto the very pavement I had just leapt off. WHAT A FREAKIN RUSH! I then got to watch my friends do the same crazy dive I had just completed, and afterwards, we went back to the office to recover a little bit with cold water (it was a very hot day!) and to see our pictures and video footage of the jump.
Andre and I, being the total crazy adrenaline seekers that we are, decided that cheating death once wasn't enough. So we signed on for the package deal...an extra $25 bought us both a gorge swing off the bridge AND a zip-line ride across the gorge. Now, if the bungee was a 10/10 (which it totally was) in terms of coolness...the gorge swing was a TWELVE. You get hooked into another harness and attached to some VERY heavy ropes, then from the same platform we did bungee, we walked to the edge again, and this time just simply stepped off the edge. Bungee supposedly gets you to a speed of 120 km/hr as you fall, but the added weight of the rope swing gets you to 180 km/hr free fall!!! I fell so fast, I LITERALLY left my scream behind me! I felt it catch in my throat as I plummeted to the ground and thought I hadn't made any noise as I fell...but the video Joey took of me swinging has me screaming as I walked off the platform. I actually beat out SOUND I dropped so fast! Lol! The drop is incredibly scary, WAY worse (or better, I guess) than bungee. But then you catch and you get to swing sitting comfortably in a harness...the right way up! It gives you the most amazing opportunity to look around you and realize that you're swinging above the Zambezi and it is absolutely beautiful down there. The rapids are raging below you and the cliffs surrounding you are perfectly green and alive looking and the falls are behind you. You can't see them, but you can hear them roaring and picture them with the ever-present rainbow hovering above them. Amazing.
I got pulled back to the bridge a 2nd time, then waited for Andre to complete his swing. Then we walked over to the cliffs on the Zambia side and took a nice, leisurely swing across the gorge on a zip-line. This was a great way to end the day because my head was still pounding from bungee...and I was ABSOLUTELY exhausted. No free fall involved, no whiplash from the ropes catching you, just a nice, breezy ride over the rapids to the Zimbabwe side of the falls. It was wonderful. This was also the inspiration for this entry's title, because as I flew across the gorge, I was spinning around and I just kept imagining Aubrey doing one of her many movie quote impressions (a game we LOVE to play on those long bus rides and probably do too much). But yes, as I slid across, that quote from Austin Powers just kept playing over and over in my head: Dr. Evil saying "all I wanted was a FREAKIN spinning chair!". Lol, too funny.
Still riding our adrenaline waves, we cabbed it to a nearby Indian restaurant Aub and I had heard about called Armadillo (strange name, no?). We celebrated (or recovered...depending on how you look at it!) with delicious Indian food and bottles of Savannah Dry cider. We called our families and boyfriends to assure them that, yes, we were still alive and well. Victoria Falls still had its 100% survival rate after us! Then we came back here to the hostel and took turns on this amazing amazing FREE internet to send out mass emails/blogs about our adventures.
I'm gonna have to crash like IMMEDIATELY because I spent nearly 5 hours today cheating death, and the other hours riding and feeding lots of huge elephants. But I had to tell you all about this experience before I wake up tomorrow and it just feels like one crazy dream. I still cannot believe everything I got to do today...and the fact that I actually was crazy enough to do it all! I will never, ever forget this day. Everything that has come before this is pretty much irrelevant. I am just 21 and I have traveled the world, crossed Africa by bus (and any other means necessary!), and now I have taken a leap of faith directly off a bridge! I think I can let myself lay back and enjoy Christmas in South Africa now. Tuesday afternoon, we head to Durban to stay with my family friends Mike & Christine, then I'm off to Kuwait to see my lover Tamara for New Years! Then back to Kenya to finish up my amazing year abroad with my man, Ken, and my fantastic friends and family here.
Goodnight all. Love you so so much! XOXO
Friday, December 19, 2008
swimming in the rain
Our stay at Nkhata Bay, Malawi was short but wonderful. We stayed in small, wooden huts built into the cliffs surrounding Lake Malawi. And I mean SERIOUS cliffs. Don't attempt to stay here if you've got a bad hip or a sore leg, because you will be stuck in your room! Getting around the grounds of Butterfly Resort/Mayoka Village involved a mildly treacherous hike that could lead to a head-first plummit into the lake if you weren't careful! But it was gorgeous and so worth it. Everything was green and alive and the lake provided a beautiful setting to stare out at with a drink in hand, lounging on one of the wicker chairs at Mayoka Village lodge.
Our first day there (from where I wrote my last post) we spent by walking into town to find an ATM, only to discover that none of our cards worked at the ONE bank in the whole town! Poor Andre volunteered to take all our cards and PINs (I'm still cardless until Durban...bummer) and go allllll the way back to Mzuzu, the nearest big town 1 1/2 hours drive from Nkhata Bay. So around noon he headed out, and the girls lazed around and did a bit of shopping at some of the local crafts places. One of the nicest things we discovered in Malawi is that, for some reason, the owners of these small stores were not nearly as aggressive towards us as they have been in Kenya & Tanzania. They would of course call out as we walked by, "Hellos, Mzungus! You are welcome!", but no one attempted to follow us and when we smiled and thanked them, that was accepted also with a smile and a nod. It was so refreshing and gave us all a warm feeling about Malawi right from the start.
We then leisurely walked back up the hill/cliffs to Mayoka and (out of breath) took up seats at the lodge. We ordered Pineapple Fantas (our new addiction) and just lounged looking out onto the lake for the rest of the afternoon. It took Andre several hours to get to Mzuzu and back, so we he returned we just chilled some more, got dinner, and then crashed. That night there was a huge, amazing thunder and lightning storm. Not so good for us because we ALL got sick from the dinners and were running to the outdoor bathrooms all night in the rain! But it was pretty cool when we were safely sheltered under our porches.
The next day, I of course was desperate to secure plans for our travels to Zambia (not wanting to experience the stress of the Tanzania-Malawi trip AGAIN). So I ran around figuring that out, and then we tried to organize a kayaking trip for the afternoon for me, Aubrey and Andre. Joey and Ashley opted out and went back into town for more souvenier shopping instead. Unfortunately, the weather was still bad when we were supposed to leave on our trip, so it got cancelled. Not wanting to miss out on the chance to play in Lake Malawi, however, we just walked over to the small beach in front of Mayoka Village and swam out to a floating platform in the lake. There were significant waves and wind, and it was raining at this point, so we were the ONLY ones on the lake. It was an absolutely gorgeous view. The grey clouds swirled above our heads and the lake stretched on endlessly, and the rain was cool but not cold on our bodies on the platform. Andre swam around us and played while Aubrey and I reclined above water for a while. Finally, we started getting a bit cold from the wind, so Aubrey and I decided to head back to shore. As we swam away, trying not to swallow too much lake water from the waves that crashed into us, Andre felt the call of the wild and stripped down on the dock! He has developed an unfortunate skinny dipping habit on this trip...oy vey. Anyway, Aubrey was slightly mortified as usual because her boyfriend was standing naked on a dock in the middle of the lake, and allllll the huts surrounding the shores had a perfect view! I was just bummed because I'd been swimming backwards to avoid the face-first crashes into the waves, but now I had to turn around to avoid seeing Andre full-frontal! Damn him. When Aub and I reached shore, we were tired from battling the waves, but wished we'd had enough energy to swim back and steal Andre's bathing suit, stranding him naked in the lake. Haha. That would've been good payback!
When we all got back from swimming, THAT's when the kayaking guy decided to show up. At this point, Aub and I were too tired from the swimming to even think about a 4 hour kayak trip. So Andre went by himself. We sat and enjoyed chocolate milkshakes (which were too thin but good nonetheless!) and were there when Joey and Ash returned from their shopping. They got some really cool stuff, and I'm a bit jealous to be honest. But I did get some really pretty earrings the day before, so I'm set. I have another 6 months to buy purses and more jewelry!
That night we packed up for our taxi ride to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We planned to spend the night there, then catch a bus to Lusaka, Zambia on Thursday and finally continue on to Livingstone/Victoria Falls on Friday. We had specifically informed the taxi driver that there were 5 of us, so we needed a larger the normal car to fit us all. He assured us that this was no problem...but of course assurances mean absolutely nothing here! The car was normal sized, so 4 of us squeezed uncomfortable into the back and one in front for what SHOULD have been an easy 3-4 hour drive to Lilongwe. WRONG-O! To avoid police check points, the driver took a very roundabout road that made the trip an exhausting 5 hours instead. At the first check-point we hit, the policeman had to be bribed to let us go on because we were "over-capacity". We had no more trouble until the final check-point before Lilongwe. We got pulled over at 12:30am by a formidable-looking policewoman and made to sit there for at least 40 minutes. In this time, not knowing what the hell was going on and mildly afraid that we'd be sent to jail, our horrid cab driver tried to bribe the lady with 500 Kwacha of OUR money, which didn't work at all. She kept circling the car like a heyena circling prey. Poor Ash was getting some serious adrenaline rushes cause she started violently shaking! Aub and Joey just kept making jokes, which tended to piss of Andre. And I started trying to call my parents to let them know that there was a possibility we'd be sent to a Malawian jail. I left a mildly scary message on my dad's phone (sorry Dad!) and then finally got through to my mom. Haha, mom you are now a legend with my friends, because you're reaction was HILARIOUS! Here's a summary of my phone conversation with her:
me: Hi mom! Sorry to bother you, but we're in a taxi outside of Lilongwe and we've been stopped at a check-point. We have too many people in the back-seat of the cab and it's possible we'll be sent to jail.
mom: (calmly) Hmm...okay sweetheart. Well thank you for calling. Keep me updated, okay?
me: (also calmly) Alright, will do. Oops, gotta go! The policewoman is coming back! Bye! ::click::
Does anybody know any mom cooler than mine? Seriously, that was pretty awesome. I guess it's all those times you got arrested in college, right mom? You're not too worried about that sort of thing anymore!
Anyway, we did finally make it through without being thrown into jail (which would have SERIOUSLY derailed our trip). We got to our hostel just after 1am and crashed. But not before paying our idiotic driver an extra 1000 Kwacha to cover the cost of getting back his certifications, which the policewoman had taken before we were let go. Seriously, I don't think we should have had to cover his ass, considering we told him from the start there were 5 of us, so he needed to have a big enough car. But whatever. We were tired and just wanted to get away from him.
The next day, we set out for Zambia, which I will tell you about in another post. Take care everyone! Love you all!
Our first day there (from where I wrote my last post) we spent by walking into town to find an ATM, only to discover that none of our cards worked at the ONE bank in the whole town! Poor Andre volunteered to take all our cards and PINs (I'm still cardless until Durban...bummer) and go allllll the way back to Mzuzu, the nearest big town 1 1/2 hours drive from Nkhata Bay. So around noon he headed out, and the girls lazed around and did a bit of shopping at some of the local crafts places. One of the nicest things we discovered in Malawi is that, for some reason, the owners of these small stores were not nearly as aggressive towards us as they have been in Kenya & Tanzania. They would of course call out as we walked by, "Hellos, Mzungus! You are welcome!", but no one attempted to follow us and when we smiled and thanked them, that was accepted also with a smile and a nod. It was so refreshing and gave us all a warm feeling about Malawi right from the start.
We then leisurely walked back up the hill/cliffs to Mayoka and (out of breath) took up seats at the lodge. We ordered Pineapple Fantas (our new addiction) and just lounged looking out onto the lake for the rest of the afternoon. It took Andre several hours to get to Mzuzu and back, so we he returned we just chilled some more, got dinner, and then crashed. That night there was a huge, amazing thunder and lightning storm. Not so good for us because we ALL got sick from the dinners and were running to the outdoor bathrooms all night in the rain! But it was pretty cool when we were safely sheltered under our porches.
The next day, I of course was desperate to secure plans for our travels to Zambia (not wanting to experience the stress of the Tanzania-Malawi trip AGAIN). So I ran around figuring that out, and then we tried to organize a kayaking trip for the afternoon for me, Aubrey and Andre. Joey and Ashley opted out and went back into town for more souvenier shopping instead. Unfortunately, the weather was still bad when we were supposed to leave on our trip, so it got cancelled. Not wanting to miss out on the chance to play in Lake Malawi, however, we just walked over to the small beach in front of Mayoka Village and swam out to a floating platform in the lake. There were significant waves and wind, and it was raining at this point, so we were the ONLY ones on the lake. It was an absolutely gorgeous view. The grey clouds swirled above our heads and the lake stretched on endlessly, and the rain was cool but not cold on our bodies on the platform. Andre swam around us and played while Aubrey and I reclined above water for a while. Finally, we started getting a bit cold from the wind, so Aubrey and I decided to head back to shore. As we swam away, trying not to swallow too much lake water from the waves that crashed into us, Andre felt the call of the wild and stripped down on the dock! He has developed an unfortunate skinny dipping habit on this trip...oy vey. Anyway, Aubrey was slightly mortified as usual because her boyfriend was standing naked on a dock in the middle of the lake, and allllll the huts surrounding the shores had a perfect view! I was just bummed because I'd been swimming backwards to avoid the face-first crashes into the waves, but now I had to turn around to avoid seeing Andre full-frontal! Damn him. When Aub and I reached shore, we were tired from battling the waves, but wished we'd had enough energy to swim back and steal Andre's bathing suit, stranding him naked in the lake. Haha. That would've been good payback!
When we all got back from swimming, THAT's when the kayaking guy decided to show up. At this point, Aub and I were too tired from the swimming to even think about a 4 hour kayak trip. So Andre went by himself. We sat and enjoyed chocolate milkshakes (which were too thin but good nonetheless!) and were there when Joey and Ash returned from their shopping. They got some really cool stuff, and I'm a bit jealous to be honest. But I did get some really pretty earrings the day before, so I'm set. I have another 6 months to buy purses and more jewelry!
That night we packed up for our taxi ride to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. We planned to spend the night there, then catch a bus to Lusaka, Zambia on Thursday and finally continue on to Livingstone/Victoria Falls on Friday. We had specifically informed the taxi driver that there were 5 of us, so we needed a larger the normal car to fit us all. He assured us that this was no problem...but of course assurances mean absolutely nothing here! The car was normal sized, so 4 of us squeezed uncomfortable into the back and one in front for what SHOULD have been an easy 3-4 hour drive to Lilongwe. WRONG-O! To avoid police check points, the driver took a very roundabout road that made the trip an exhausting 5 hours instead. At the first check-point we hit, the policeman had to be bribed to let us go on because we were "over-capacity". We had no more trouble until the final check-point before Lilongwe. We got pulled over at 12:30am by a formidable-looking policewoman and made to sit there for at least 40 minutes. In this time, not knowing what the hell was going on and mildly afraid that we'd be sent to jail, our horrid cab driver tried to bribe the lady with 500 Kwacha of OUR money, which didn't work at all. She kept circling the car like a heyena circling prey. Poor Ash was getting some serious adrenaline rushes cause she started violently shaking! Aub and Joey just kept making jokes, which tended to piss of Andre. And I started trying to call my parents to let them know that there was a possibility we'd be sent to a Malawian jail. I left a mildly scary message on my dad's phone (sorry Dad!) and then finally got through to my mom. Haha, mom you are now a legend with my friends, because you're reaction was HILARIOUS! Here's a summary of my phone conversation with her:
me: Hi mom! Sorry to bother you, but we're in a taxi outside of Lilongwe and we've been stopped at a check-point. We have too many people in the back-seat of the cab and it's possible we'll be sent to jail.
mom: (calmly) Hmm...okay sweetheart. Well thank you for calling. Keep me updated, okay?
me: (also calmly) Alright, will do. Oops, gotta go! The policewoman is coming back! Bye! ::click::
Does anybody know any mom cooler than mine? Seriously, that was pretty awesome. I guess it's all those times you got arrested in college, right mom? You're not too worried about that sort of thing anymore!
Anyway, we did finally make it through without being thrown into jail (which would have SERIOUSLY derailed our trip). We got to our hostel just after 1am and crashed. But not before paying our idiotic driver an extra 1000 Kwacha to cover the cost of getting back his certifications, which the policewoman had taken before we were let go. Seriously, I don't think we should have had to cover his ass, considering we told him from the start there were 5 of us, so he needed to have a big enough car. But whatever. We were tired and just wanted to get away from him.
The next day, we set out for Zambia, which I will tell you about in another post. Take care everyone! Love you all!
Monday, December 15, 2008
A bus, a bus, another bus, a walk, a taxi, a bus, another bus = Malawi
Hellooooo everyone! I'm finally getting a chance to write my first blog during my cross-continent trip to South Africa! Currently, I'm in Northern Malawi at a place called Nkhata Bay, but in the past week we have also hit up Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Kigomboni (all in Tanzania). It's been a crazy week, guys. I'm seriously exhausted, but having a great time and having a lot of experiences that will stay with me forever. Here's a bit of what's happened since we left Nairobi last Monday...
So after a few hectic days back in Nairobi from our internships (taking final exams, attending final seminars, etc) we finally got our rears in gear to go on this trip. Traveling with me are my friends Joey, Ashley, Aubrey and Andre. We had a bit of a rought time even getting ourselves out of Nairobi! But finally my man Ken stepped in and found us a great bus to Arusha, Tanzania, which is just over the border from Kenya. We took Impala Bus from the Silver Springs Hotel, which I can honestly say will be the easiest and most pleasant bus ride we take on this entire trip...meaning: comfy seats (relatively speaking), we all sat near each other, the windows were big and allowed us to see everything as we drove, it wasn't too hot or bumpy, and we got to our destination after a very easy and simply 7 hours. Upon reaching Arusha, we got picked up at the Impala Hotel parking lot by Gasper (pronouced Jasper), who drove us to our hostel for the night: the Ujamaa Hostel. It was a really pretty and cute house just outside of downtown area. We took our beds, had some (free!) dinner, drank a few beers on the patio, then went in for a really nice sleep under mosquito nets that actually had no holes in them! We were supposed to leave early the next morning to go to a place called Lushoto, where they have half-day hikes in the rainforest, but it turned out that Lushoto was an 5ish hour drive away, not the 3 I had originally planned for. So we decided to stay in Arusha for another night, rest up, then just chug away and get to Dar es Salaam straight the next day. Nothing much happened in Arusha, we just walked around a lot, changed money, etc. But we all really enjoyed the fact that Tanzania doesn't seem to have the serious trash issue that Kenya does. I don't know what it is about Tanzanians, but they don't litter! The roads were nicely paved and easy to navigate around, the sides of the roads weren't covered in rubbish, and it was beautiful and cool and green there. I think we all want to move to Arusha now and leave the dirt and trash of Kenya behind!
On Wednesday we caught a morning bus to Dar es Salaam. Now THIS is where the "real Africa" started to catch up with us. It had been much too easy and pleasant so far! We were taking Scandinavia Express bus lines, which is supposed to be a really nice, luxury coach. Yeah, luxury my ass. It was old and run-down looking, the seats were NOT comfortable, there was a toilet but it quickly began to overflow (which was disgusting to say the least), and though it was A/C capable, they didn't turn it on because the bus was literally going to fall apart! We were 30 minutes late leaving Arusha because they were repairing the bus from its previous trip. Then, about 2 hours into the drive, the fan belt broke again and we cameto a complete stand still on the side of the road....FOR 2+ HOURS! It was hot and there was nothing to do and no touts to buy any food from, so we just horsed around for a while, walked around the surrounding village area, played with some cows & goats, until FINALLY the stupid bus started working again. So with the late start, the frequent stops to let people on and off, and the 2 1/2 hour delay in the middle--what should have been an easy, comfy, express 8 hour trip to Dar es Salaam became a difficult, frustrating, 13 hour trip instead! We got to Dar hungry and exhausted. We had been supposed to go and camp on the beach we planned to stay at starting that first night, but it was so late and we didn't have our bearings in the dark, so we decided to hunker down at the YWCA instead for one night. It was cheap and some other travelers we'd met on the bus had said it was a decent place to stay. Well...what you pay for is definitely what you get. The YWCA was fine enough I guess. It was completely spartan and looked a bit like the remnants of a bombed out building inside, but the rooms were fine, there were mosquito nets and fans in the rooms, and the bathrooms were clean all things considered. Aubrey was not happy with the accommodation though, which I understand because it was in a rather sketchy-looking part of town and didn't feel all that secure. I don't think I mentioned this before, but Aubrey got violently mugged during her stay in Embu for her internship, so now she gets freaked out at night. Anyway, we had no other choice, so we stayed there. We got 2 other young travelers to take us with them to a really delicious pizza place, where we sat and exchanged funny travel stories for a while and fueled ourselves up after the long bus trip. Then we just went back to the Y and crashed. All in all, it wasn't so bad I guess. Just felt bad for Aubrey's nerves!
The next morning, we got up and discovered that the "free included breakfast" at the Y was in fact just a slice of watermelon and a small roll of bread. The other ACTUAL breakfast items, like boiled eggs or chapati or anything substantial, were extra. That annoyed us, so we decided to go out and get some food instead on our way to try and get our Zambian visas. We put our huge backpacks in storage at the Y and set out get some money from the nearby Barclays. Right across the street from Barclays was a huge hotel called Movenpick, which looked very fancy and therefore, we assumed, would have a restaurant or something. So we went there to eat. They had a little coffee shop at the front that we beelined to, which made us some delicious coffee (a rare commodity these days) and me and Aubrey got chocolate doughnuts, lol. It was very comforting to eat and drink as if we were home for a morning. Andre and Joey decided the place was too expensive and went off in search of a cheaper, African option. They came back with delicious samosas and water, so I guess we all won in the end, though me, Ash and Aubrey spent wayyyy more money. Then we went to get our visas. Unfortunately, it turned out they only accept visa applications at the embassy on Mon/Wed/Fri, and it being a Thursday, we were SOL. We decided to go just upstairs to the Malawian embassy really quick, to double check that we didn't need to pay to get into their country. When we got up there, me and Joey started speaking Swahili to the guy at the front desk, and he was so shocked by this that he didn't even answer for a minute! Finally, though I don't think he understood anything we were saying (he was just stupid, our Swahili was perfect for the record!), he just took my passport and walked off with it into a back room of the office, the motioned for me (only me......) to follow. So I did, reluctantly. In the room was a big guy with a huge gap in his front teeth that only added to his menacing appearance. I sat down and waited for him to get off the phone so I could get my passport back. I was a bit nervous, to be honest. I didn't know what they were doing to me, separating me from the group like that. But what could I do? So as soon as he got off the phone, I greeted him respectfully in Swahili, and then he got this HUGE grin on his face! We started talking in Swahili and he was so happy I could speak it, he just kept grinning and was incredibly helpful and nice. We had been right, Americans don't need to buy a visa to get into Malawi. So he gave me back my passport, handed me a free travel book about Malawi, and told me to have a great time in his country...and to tell Barack Obama that it should also be free for Malawians to come into America. I told him I would pass on the message.
We got out of there, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon writing the papers that I hadn't yet finished for my program at an internet cafe down the street. The others went out to explore Dar a bit. Four hours later, I finally finished and went to meet everyone at a restaurant a few blocks away. Unfortunately for me, it was what I call "siesta time", so all the restaurant kitchens were closed until dinner. I was starving, so we went off in search of an open restaurant for me to eat at. We ended up walking around a slightly run-down part of Dar and thankfully stumbled on a Chinese restaurant that was willing to serve us. So we went in...and it was DELICIOUS! That was a surprise because I figured it would be mostly or total crap. There was an amusing incident with a birthday cake, and then we caught a cab back to the Y, got our stuff, and headed off to catch the ferry to where we'd be staying that night.
The ferry took us to an island just off the coast called Kigamboni, where we caught a taxi to a resort called Sunrise Beach. It was there that we camped on the beach for the next 2 nights. It was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. When we got there, it was late night and the moon was shining down on the ocean and lighting up the beach with this beautiful irridescent glow. We had a big, canvas tent under a thatched roof shelter right on the beach. It was amazing. And the water (being the Indian Ocean) was so warm and perfect. We waded in the surf for a while, then headed over to one of the restaurant's thatched roof huts and sat looking out on the water with some drinks and some incredible samosas. It was a perfect night. We spent the next day laying on the beach, alternating between sun and shade because it was SO hot. Then that evening I went on an adventure with Aubrey and Andre to find this hotel that some of Aubrey's family friends were staying at. It took about an hour to find the place that was only 20 mins away, but it was GORGEOUS there aaaaaand we were invited to stay for dinner and drinks: aka the world's most delicious and well appreciated medium-rare steak and coconut ice cream dessert EVER. You guys have no idea how good it was to eat a piece of meat that a) was not goat b) was not cooked to death twice over and c) had none of the grizzly fat pieces that Africans like so much. AND they had tequila at this place!! I don't know why, but it is nearly impossible to find tequila in Africa. Anyway, we left there slightly comatose and VERY very happy. :) The next day we went on a boat ride to another small island for the day. Andre had bargained the price down w/ a local guy to really cheap....but you get what you pay for. Lol! The ride over in the leaky, hollowed out hunk of wood that served as a boat of sorts should have taken about 30 mins going in a straight line......but we zigzagged across the small expanse of water for FOUR HOURS. We finally got there and found there was an additional charge of 6000 TSH (we paid 14000 for the boat and food) just to stay on the island, which was a reserve of some sorts. So we were cranky, sunburnt, and annoyed at our boat guide. But the beach over there was the kind you see only in perfect movie scenes, so it was kind of worth it......I guess. Oh well. Then we had to go back into Dar for the night cause we had a 6am bus to Malawi the next day. We stayed at the Econolodge this time, which was in a shady area but had A/C in the rooms and was quite nice inside. I had another frustrating time trying to buy some medicine for an infection I had at the hospital because, not only do they not accept or even KNOW about credit cards outside of Kenya or South Africa, but the damn emergency room was CLOSING right when I got there! It was 8pm on a Saturday night and they were CLOSING!!! I threw a fit in the waiting room and eventually got them to give me the medicine at a discount because it was all the cash I had on me at the time (and I'd lost my ATM card by that point, so I couldn't take anymore out). I hate African hospitals.
So THEEEENNNN we had the worst of our experiences yet. The trip from Dar, Tanzania to Nkhata Bay, Malawi. We had put a down payment on express bus tickets to a town just north of Nkhata Bay called Mzuzu with a bus company called Mohamed Coach. It was set to leave the bus terminal outside of Dar at 6am on Sunday. We got there at 5am, only to learn that the bus we had supposedly bought tickets for was already full, so we had to take a bus to the border and then catch the original bus from there. I smelled a scam. I pulled my best Swahili and started arguing with the guy there. I told him this sounded like a rip off, this was no way to do business, he needed to help us take care of EVERYTHING, etc etc. He seemed pretty unfazed, I was just a crazy white girl who was overreacting...like most Americans do. I wont go into too much detail because I'm already mad just thinking about it! But basically what happened is I spent the next hour running around like a madman, taking down phone numbers of people at the border & of the conductor of the bus we were SUPPOSED to have been on (which incidentally never even stopped at the terminal we had been told to go to!), telling the Mohamed Coach people that no, we would not pay the rest of the ticket price until we safely reached the border and got on that bus to Mzuzu, and then making sure we actually got seats together on a bus that was in fact going to the border and wouldn't drop us in some nothing town out of our way. When that was finally achieved, we set out on our journey, along with a pastor and a South African guy who'd also been jipped by Mohamed Coach. The bus to Mbeya, the Tanzania/Malawi border town, was actually a lot nicer than the one we'd be set to go on...AND it didn't break down on the way, unlike the Mohamed Coach one! Haha, our karma was very good. So that was a relatively pleasant 12 hour ride, except for the 3 or 4 times the pastor got up to preach to us VERY loudly from the aisle. I ignored him (politely) and read my book/listened to my iPod.
We reached Mbeya, only to find that it isn't actually ON the border. We had to take another minibus there. So about 5 or 6 people escorted the 7 of us from Mohamed Coach to a minibus that would take us to the actual border. All along the way, the pastor kept warning us about talking to anyone because we could easily get robbed. Hmm...thanks father. Very comforting. Then when we actually got on the minibus, the touts were unusually aggressive in trying to sell us their fried bananas, samosas, razors, apples, head scarves, etc...Instead of just banging on the windows and shouting, they actually opened our windows from the outside and stuck everything in our faces and grabbed our arms. I spent a fair amount of energy shutting my window on their hands when they tried to open them. We got on our way and it was a 2 hours drive to the border from Mbeya. Except that we stopped somewhere halfway and switched to yet ANOTHER minibus. When we finally reached the border, it was 9pm and pitch black out and the border station was closed. So with our 8 person entourage escorting us, we went in search of a guest house to spend the night. Most of them were full, but we did find one absolute shit hole to stay in. We also ate some rice & chicken at a local restaurant...aka a shack with some plastic chairs. I shared a twin bed with Ash and Joey in a room absolutely crawling with bugs. We laid next to each other across the width of the bed and propped our feet up on our backpacks. The toilet was an experience best forgotten...I actually preferred the stop we made earlier in the day in the middle of nowhere to pee in some thorn bushes with an easy view of our bare assess from the road through the thorns. So after absolutely coating ourselves in bug spray, we spent a very restless night at the border. The next morning, we paid for our "hotel" (I say this lightly) and decided it had been a very funny experience...now that we'd made it through alive and with all our stuff still in our possession and no deadly bug bites that we knew of. We also paid for the pastor and his friend, which sketched me out a bit because we'd already paid for their dinner the night before and I thought that was the extent of the necessary cultural politeness called for. I warned Andre after that not to accept paying for anything else for them. Then we walked across the border, caught a taxi to Karonga town, caught another minibus to Mzuzu, and finally caught our final minibus on to Nkhata Bay. Our 18 hour trip had turned into a 33 hour saga. But thankfully we made it in one piece, we didn't get mugged, we only got mildly ripped off exchanging our money from Shillings to Kwacha, and even though the place I had planned for us to stay had given away our rooms (we were 2 days later than expected), we found a place right next door that's just as beautiful and cheaper!
So that's the story. It was insane, but we saved a ton of money by not trusting that stupid bus company. And now we're spending 2 days here on Lake Malawi in this beautiful little town! On Thursday we are yet again attempting a difficult cross-border bus trip to Zambia. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes a little easier for us, and when I write from Victoria Falls in a few days time, we will all still be in good moods and fine spirits! It's turning out to be an amazing adventure trying to get across Africa by public transport, and not always a pleasant one, but I'm proud of us for doing it. I feel way cooler than all these other travelers we meet who are doing it easily by plane or with a well-organized and planned out overland bus trip with a tourist company. We rock. End of story.
I love you all and I'll write again from Victoria Falls in Zambia! XOXO!
Alana
So THEEEENNNN we had the worst of our experiences yet. The trip from Dar, Tanzania to Nkhata Bay, Malawi. We had put a down payment on express bus tickets to a town just north of Nkhata Bay called Mzuzu with a bus company called Mohamed Coach. It was set to leave the bus terminal outside of Dar at 6am on Sunday. We got there at 5am, only to learn that the bus we had supposedly bought tickets for was already full, so we had to take a bus to the border and then catch the original bus from there. I smelled a scam. I pulled my best Swahili and started arguing with the guy there. I told him this sounded like a rip off, this was no way to do business, he needed to help us take care of EVERYTHING, etc etc. He seemed pretty unfazed, I was just a crazy white girl who was overreacting...like most Americans do. I wont go into too much detail because I'm already mad just thinking about it! But basically what happened is I spent the next hour running around like a madman, taking down phone numbers of people at the border & of the conductor of the bus we were SUPPOSED to have been on (which incidentally never even stopped at the terminal we had been told to go to!), telling the Mohamed Coach people that no, we would not pay the rest of the ticket price until we safely reached the border and got on that bus to Mzuzu, and then making sure we actually got seats together on a bus that was in fact going to the border and wouldn't drop us in some nothing town out of our way. When that was finally achieved, we set out on our journey, along with a pastor and a South African guy who'd also been jipped by Mohamed Coach. The bus to Mbeya, the Tanzania/Malawi border town, was actually a lot nicer than the one we'd be set to go on...AND it didn't break down on the way, unlike the Mohamed Coach one! Haha, our karma was very good. So that was a relatively pleasant 12 hour ride, except for the 3 or 4 times the pastor got up to preach to us VERY loudly from the aisle. I ignored him (politely) and read my book/listened to my iPod.
We reached Mbeya, only to find that it isn't actually ON the border. We had to take another minibus there. So about 5 or 6 people escorted the 7 of us from Mohamed Coach to a minibus that would take us to the actual border. All along the way, the pastor kept warning us about talking to anyone because we could easily get robbed. Hmm...thanks father. Very comforting. Then when we actually got on the minibus, the touts were unusually aggressive in trying to sell us their fried bananas, samosas, razors, apples, head scarves, etc...Instead of just banging on the windows and shouting, they actually opened our windows from the outside and stuck everything in our faces and grabbed our arms. I spent a fair amount of energy shutting my window on their hands when they tried to open them. We got on our way and it was a 2 hours drive to the border from Mbeya. Except that we stopped somewhere halfway and switched to yet ANOTHER minibus. When we finally reached the border, it was 9pm and pitch black out and the border station was closed. So with our 8 person entourage escorting us, we went in search of a guest house to spend the night. Most of them were full, but we did find one absolute shit hole to stay in. We also ate some rice & chicken at a local restaurant...aka a shack with some plastic chairs. I shared a twin bed with Ash and Joey in a room absolutely crawling with bugs. We laid next to each other across the width of the bed and propped our feet up on our backpacks. The toilet was an experience best forgotten...I actually preferred the stop we made earlier in the day in the middle of nowhere to pee in some thorn bushes with an easy view of our bare assess from the road through the thorns. So after absolutely coating ourselves in bug spray, we spent a very restless night at the border. The next morning, we paid for our "hotel" (I say this lightly) and decided it had been a very funny experience...now that we'd made it through alive and with all our stuff still in our possession and no deadly bug bites that we knew of. We also paid for the pastor and his friend, which sketched me out a bit because we'd already paid for their dinner the night before and I thought that was the extent of the necessary cultural politeness called for. I warned Andre after that not to accept paying for anything else for them. Then we walked across the border, caught a taxi to Karonga town, caught another minibus to Mzuzu, and finally caught our final minibus on to Nkhata Bay. Our 18 hour trip had turned into a 33 hour saga. But thankfully we made it in one piece, we didn't get mugged, we only got mildly ripped off exchanging our money from Shillings to Kwacha, and even though the place I had planned for us to stay had given away our rooms (we were 2 days later than expected), we found a place right next door that's just as beautiful and cheaper!
So that's the story. It was insane, but we saved a ton of money by not trusting that stupid bus company. And now we're spending 2 days here on Lake Malawi in this beautiful little town! On Thursday we are yet again attempting a difficult cross-border bus trip to Zambia. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes a little easier for us, and when I write from Victoria Falls in a few days time, we will all still be in good moods and fine spirits! It's turning out to be an amazing adventure trying to get across Africa by public transport, and not always a pleasant one, but I'm proud of us for doing it. I feel way cooler than all these other travelers we meet who are doing it easily by plane or with a well-organized and planned out overland bus trip with a tourist company. We rock. End of story.
I love you all and I'll write again from Victoria Falls in Zambia! XOXO!
Alana
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Kwa heri Mombasa, Karibu Nairobi!
I am back in Nairobi now and so relieved to be here with my old host family and all my MSID friends! I love being back in my living room with the saggy red couches and armchairs and having Ashley, Joey, Aubrey and Andre coming and going and drinking chai and laughing and chatting. The house is so full of energy and life and I'm so comfortable here. It's like heaven after the discomfort I experienced in Mombasa. Things with my host dad improved quite a bit after he was spoken to, and I actually thought it had worked. Wishful thinking. As I was walking out the door to catch my bus, he decided it would be an appropriate time to bring up the issue.....in front of his 2 boys AND my friend Octavius! I tried to ignore everything he was saying by goofing off with my 7 year old brother, but he didn't take the hint. He just kept talking, and it was clear he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. He thought that my friends were the ones who had gotten the wrong idea! Oh man, I just got so mad when he started saying that, and how he wanted "to be free" with me. How he hadn't been able to be free with me the past few weeks and he wanted to apologize for that because it wasn't his choice. I wanted to SCREAM at him that the past few weeks had been the best yet because he hadn't tried to touch me or talk to me or ask me to go out with him! But all I said was that I wasn't comfortable talking about this in front of his children so he needed to stop mentioning it. Then he finally backed off, I got on the bus, and I hope I never have to see him again.
Octavius and I had booked the nicest overnight bus back to Nairobi because the program would reimburse us for the cost. The bus was brand spankin new with air conditioning and a DVD player and comfy seats...for a minute I actually felt like I was back in America...untillllll the air conditioners started leaking freezing cold water onto us! TIA (This is Africa) haha. They turned off the A/C and we used the window curtains as barriers against the water, which worked relatively well. And by 8am we were back in downtown Nairobi. Alhamdulillah!
So today I had final exams, I have a few papers to finish by tomorrow, and then on Monday we are off to South Africa! Our overland trip will include stops in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia on the way, then Christmas in Durban, South Africa...then flying to Kuwait for New Years with Tamara again! I'm so excited for this to start. We have a plan of where we want to go, but we're going to kind of play it by ear along the way. Things are going to be unpredictable and exciting and fun and hilaaaarious! I will try my best to update this blog along the way. Hopefully I'll catch up with you guys from Dar es Salaam.
Kwa herini loves! Bahati njema for exams and enjoy the start of the holidays. XOXO, Alana
Octavius and I had booked the nicest overnight bus back to Nairobi because the program would reimburse us for the cost. The bus was brand spankin new with air conditioning and a DVD player and comfy seats...for a minute I actually felt like I was back in America...untillllll the air conditioners started leaking freezing cold water onto us! TIA (This is Africa) haha. They turned off the A/C and we used the window curtains as barriers against the water, which worked relatively well. And by 8am we were back in downtown Nairobi. Alhamdulillah!
So today I had final exams, I have a few papers to finish by tomorrow, and then on Monday we are off to South Africa! Our overland trip will include stops in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia on the way, then Christmas in Durban, South Africa...then flying to Kuwait for New Years with Tamara again! I'm so excited for this to start. We have a plan of where we want to go, but we're going to kind of play it by ear along the way. Things are going to be unpredictable and exciting and fun and hilaaaarious! I will try my best to update this blog along the way. Hopefully I'll catch up with you guys from Dar es Salaam.
Kwa herini loves! Bahati njema for exams and enjoy the start of the holidays. XOXO, Alana
Friday, December 5, 2008
Welcome to Lamu: Beach wear and scanty dresses not desirable in the town.
For my final weekend at the coast this semester, I cut out of work a few days early and headed to the veeeeerrrryyy far north-east corner of Kenya, aka Lamu :) Every year they have a major cultural festival and this tiny island town is overrun by thousands of visitors who come to see ancient Swahili culture replayed in dhow races, donkey races, Swahili food, Swahili music, Swahili dress, etc. The island has managed to stay almost untouched by modernity--there is only one car on the whole island and it is for use by the District Commissioner only. Other than that, your only mode of transportation is walking or....DONKEY ride!! The stone streets are narrow and unlit, so at night the town is almost completely dark but for a few porch lights here and there. All the houses and streets are made of stone blocks, and some are even covered by thatched roofs. The waterfront of the main town is bustling with small fishing dhows (traditional Swahili wooden sailboats), motorboats, small ferries to the mainland, kids swimming out to the sandbars, etc. It is really beautiful just walking along there. And just a short motor boat ride around the island is Shella Beach, a stretch of white sand and blue blue water.
The entire trip from beginning to end was fun and VERY eventful, starting with the bus ride from Mombasa to Lamu port. We took a discount bus line for the 8+ hour journey, and such buses in Africa mean that they will pack it as full of people, animals and goods as physically possible without tipping over. We were lucky enough to have seats at the very front, and lucky to have seats at all! I managed to grab a window seat and spent a pleasant 8 hours with a nice breeze blowing on my face........and the red dust of the road blowing onto me too! At one point, the driver must have gotten pretty bored because he actually began drag racing with another Lamu bus on a rural dirt road! The other bus creamed us and we were (literally) left in the dust!! It came in all the windows and every tiny open space and absolutely COVERED us all. Maryam and I were breathing through our washclothes to keep from swallowing it! I also had a lovely experience with traditional African flora & fauna--meaning that I had two whole pineapples rolling around at my feet (and pineapples are spiky!!) and a box full of baby chicks happily chirping away above my head. I just kept waiting for someone to bring on a few goats and complete the picture in there. In the aisle next to me were also 3 giant sacks of rice and beans, which eventually turned into a seat for a very old man who threw a temper tantrum in Swahili because he wanted someone to give up their real seat so he could sit there instead.
We got to the Lamu port and grabbed a motorboat to head to Lamu town. It was a nice, refreshing 15 minute trip after that long, stuffy, dusty bus ride. And then suddenly we were back in 18th century! The town is just so beautiful--I can only imagine what it must be like when there aren't so many tourists. It was such a reprieve from the horror that is Mombasa most of the time. People were genuinely friendly, no one hit me up for money the ENTIRE weekend! And even though there were thousands of people, life definitely felt a lot slower and more relaxed. It was like taking a huge, deep breath after feeling suffocated for so long.
Our hotel was a verrrry quiet villa outside of the main town. It was actually quite a trek through those tiny little streets to get there! I didn't like how far away it was and how we got lost every single time we tried to walk to or from there (especially at night!). But it was refreshingly quiet, and as you walked to the front gates through the sand, you could look up at the sky through the palm fronds and see more stars than I've ever seen before in my life. That was the most beautiful night sky--so romantic. Too bad I was there with my sister and friend rather than boyfriend! Haha.
Our first night there we were so exhausted from the traveling, we got an early dinner and then headed straight back to our hotel to go to sleep. Around 11, my phone rang and I groggily picked it up, only to realize that it was my parents calling to wish me a happy Thanksgiving!! I had COMPLETELY forgotten it was Thanksgiving back home! I was too tired and the connection was bad so I couldn't stay on the phone (sorry guys!) but it was interesting to realize that I'd forgotten that holiday. I have no concept of the time passing by here because the weather is getting hotter rather than colder. It feels like summer every day, so the fact that it's now December is shocking to me!
We spent our first full day in Lamu taking advantage of all Maryam's connections there, getting free boat rides, visiting beautiful beach homes, sailing on a dhow around to Shella Beach side of the island. Our venture to the beach house was interesting because we took a motorboat to the shore, but the tide was out so the shore began with about 30 feet of deep, squishy black MUD. Maryam is petite and our boat guy was able to carry her across to the sand no problems. But my sister Mariam and I were both about 4 inches taller than this boat guy, so being carried was not really an option!! I used him as leverage to get into the water and instantly sank about 5 inches into the mud. At least I managed to keep my balance though! Mariam wasn't so lucky and dealing with her buibui caused her to trip and get the mud alllll over her hands. We made it to the beach house without getting TOO covered in the matope (mud) and got to wash off and then chill looking out over the water. It was definitely the coolest house I have ever seen. It was huge and spacious, made entirely of wooden posts and woven straw mats for walls and floors! And there was a nice porch swing that we chilled on (and I eventually fell asleep on, haha). That night we also had quite an adventure trying to find me some shampoo & conditioner. I suddenly know what it feels like to not have any hygiene products designed for your type of skin or hair! Those who were in my MLC Seminar will know what I'm referring to. Anyway, there was only one store on the whole island that sold products designed for white people, and we spent like 45 minutes going back and forth trying to find it. We finally realized that we'd passed it about 3 times already and it was just closed so we hadn't noticed it! And it was supposed to be open 20 minutes before we got there, so we figured it would be acceptable to bang on the doors and yell at the people inside to open up :) which they did. Aaaaah Africa. I got my (overpriced) products and we made our way back to our hotel. I desperately needed to wash & condition my hair cause I had allowed Maryam to put henna in it the night before we left for Lamu, which made it a really pretty red color but also made it crunchy as straw! Then we went back to town to meet with my friends Octavius and Shalinda from the program and we got an unimpressive dinner at Busch Gardens on the waterfront. Make a note, if you go to Lamu, that restaurant is NOT as good they say it is in the guidebooks. Go to Hapa Hapa or farther down at the Waterfront Cafe (or something like that).
Our second full day started with watching the FANTASTIC donkey race down the center of the waterfront boardwalk!! It was too funny seeing that. Then I got real coffee & fresh lime and a HUGE American-style breakfast at the only coffee shop on the island. That was refreshing. And theeen Octavius, Shalinda and I chartered a motorboat to go to beautiful Shella Beach for the afternoon. We spent the day sunbathing and swimming in the perfect water, then went back and chilled on their guest house rooftop for a while.
On Sunday we were scheduled on a 7am bus.......or so we thought. After getting only about 4 hours of sleep and racing to catch the ferry at 6am, we got to the port and discovered our tickets were actually for SATURDAY...and the bus was full! We had a hopeless moment, then pulled ourselves together and figured out that we could get ourselves to Malindi at least, which is only 2 hours from Mombasa. So Maryam took the only available seat on the 7am bus, and me and Mariam took the last 2 seats on the 1pm bus. We ended up with the seats in the VERRRRY back of this ramshackle bus that looked like it was falling apart. And it kind of was! 5 minutes into the ride the tired popped and we spent 45 minutes fixing it. And the bus had zero shock absorbtion so 4 hours on the worst road I've ever been on went straight to our asses. I think we were actually airborne for about half that time. It was hilarious at first--nearly being thrown out the window every few seconds as we hit pothole after pothole. But it soon got exhausting and all we could do is try to keep a positive attitude about it all. I mean, what could we do? No use getting upset about it! Definitely the most uncomfortable trip of my life and I was so psyched to get off in Malindi. We stayed there on Monday to rest up a bit because the ride had completely worn us out. Maryam's family is from Malindi so we stayed with her mom and younger sisters, which was nice. And we got food at I Love Pizza, which I recommend to everyone who makes it to Malindi. SO delicious. And I got to go snorkeling among the reefs at the Malindi Marine Park! We headed back to Mombasa that night, and the next day I was back at work.
That was a fantastic trip and I would recommend Lamu & Malindi to anyone who makes it to the Kenyan coast. STAY AWAY FROM MOMBASA IF YOU CAN. It is not a nice city to stay in and there's really nothing to do there anyway, except maybe visit Fort Jesus, which is kind of cool but only worth a day trip. But the smaller towns are gorgeous.
Kwa herini loves!
The entire trip from beginning to end was fun and VERY eventful, starting with the bus ride from Mombasa to Lamu port. We took a discount bus line for the 8+ hour journey, and such buses in Africa mean that they will pack it as full of people, animals and goods as physically possible without tipping over. We were lucky enough to have seats at the very front, and lucky to have seats at all! I managed to grab a window seat and spent a pleasant 8 hours with a nice breeze blowing on my face........and the red dust of the road blowing onto me too! At one point, the driver must have gotten pretty bored because he actually began drag racing with another Lamu bus on a rural dirt road! The other bus creamed us and we were (literally) left in the dust!! It came in all the windows and every tiny open space and absolutely COVERED us all. Maryam and I were breathing through our washclothes to keep from swallowing it! I also had a lovely experience with traditional African flora & fauna--meaning that I had two whole pineapples rolling around at my feet (and pineapples are spiky!!) and a box full of baby chicks happily chirping away above my head. I just kept waiting for someone to bring on a few goats and complete the picture in there. In the aisle next to me were also 3 giant sacks of rice and beans, which eventually turned into a seat for a very old man who threw a temper tantrum in Swahili because he wanted someone to give up their real seat so he could sit there instead.
We got to the Lamu port and grabbed a motorboat to head to Lamu town. It was a nice, refreshing 15 minute trip after that long, stuffy, dusty bus ride. And then suddenly we were back in 18th century! The town is just so beautiful--I can only imagine what it must be like when there aren't so many tourists. It was such a reprieve from the horror that is Mombasa most of the time. People were genuinely friendly, no one hit me up for money the ENTIRE weekend! And even though there were thousands of people, life definitely felt a lot slower and more relaxed. It was like taking a huge, deep breath after feeling suffocated for so long.
Our hotel was a verrrry quiet villa outside of the main town. It was actually quite a trek through those tiny little streets to get there! I didn't like how far away it was and how we got lost every single time we tried to walk to or from there (especially at night!). But it was refreshingly quiet, and as you walked to the front gates through the sand, you could look up at the sky through the palm fronds and see more stars than I've ever seen before in my life. That was the most beautiful night sky--so romantic. Too bad I was there with my sister and friend rather than boyfriend! Haha.
Our first night there we were so exhausted from the traveling, we got an early dinner and then headed straight back to our hotel to go to sleep. Around 11, my phone rang and I groggily picked it up, only to realize that it was my parents calling to wish me a happy Thanksgiving!! I had COMPLETELY forgotten it was Thanksgiving back home! I was too tired and the connection was bad so I couldn't stay on the phone (sorry guys!) but it was interesting to realize that I'd forgotten that holiday. I have no concept of the time passing by here because the weather is getting hotter rather than colder. It feels like summer every day, so the fact that it's now December is shocking to me!
We spent our first full day in Lamu taking advantage of all Maryam's connections there, getting free boat rides, visiting beautiful beach homes, sailing on a dhow around to Shella Beach side of the island. Our venture to the beach house was interesting because we took a motorboat to the shore, but the tide was out so the shore began with about 30 feet of deep, squishy black MUD. Maryam is petite and our boat guy was able to carry her across to the sand no problems. But my sister Mariam and I were both about 4 inches taller than this boat guy, so being carried was not really an option!! I used him as leverage to get into the water and instantly sank about 5 inches into the mud. At least I managed to keep my balance though! Mariam wasn't so lucky and dealing with her buibui caused her to trip and get the mud alllll over her hands. We made it to the beach house without getting TOO covered in the matope (mud) and got to wash off and then chill looking out over the water. It was definitely the coolest house I have ever seen. It was huge and spacious, made entirely of wooden posts and woven straw mats for walls and floors! And there was a nice porch swing that we chilled on (and I eventually fell asleep on, haha). That night we also had quite an adventure trying to find me some shampoo & conditioner. I suddenly know what it feels like to not have any hygiene products designed for your type of skin or hair! Those who were in my MLC Seminar will know what I'm referring to. Anyway, there was only one store on the whole island that sold products designed for white people, and we spent like 45 minutes going back and forth trying to find it. We finally realized that we'd passed it about 3 times already and it was just closed so we hadn't noticed it! And it was supposed to be open 20 minutes before we got there, so we figured it would be acceptable to bang on the doors and yell at the people inside to open up :) which they did. Aaaaah Africa. I got my (overpriced) products and we made our way back to our hotel. I desperately needed to wash & condition my hair cause I had allowed Maryam to put henna in it the night before we left for Lamu, which made it a really pretty red color but also made it crunchy as straw! Then we went back to town to meet with my friends Octavius and Shalinda from the program and we got an unimpressive dinner at Busch Gardens on the waterfront. Make a note, if you go to Lamu, that restaurant is NOT as good they say it is in the guidebooks. Go to Hapa Hapa or farther down at the Waterfront Cafe (or something like that).
Our second full day started with watching the FANTASTIC donkey race down the center of the waterfront boardwalk!! It was too funny seeing that. Then I got real coffee & fresh lime and a HUGE American-style breakfast at the only coffee shop on the island. That was refreshing. And theeen Octavius, Shalinda and I chartered a motorboat to go to beautiful Shella Beach for the afternoon. We spent the day sunbathing and swimming in the perfect water, then went back and chilled on their guest house rooftop for a while.
On Sunday we were scheduled on a 7am bus.......or so we thought. After getting only about 4 hours of sleep and racing to catch the ferry at 6am, we got to the port and discovered our tickets were actually for SATURDAY...and the bus was full! We had a hopeless moment, then pulled ourselves together and figured out that we could get ourselves to Malindi at least, which is only 2 hours from Mombasa. So Maryam took the only available seat on the 7am bus, and me and Mariam took the last 2 seats on the 1pm bus. We ended up with the seats in the VERRRRY back of this ramshackle bus that looked like it was falling apart. And it kind of was! 5 minutes into the ride the tired popped and we spent 45 minutes fixing it. And the bus had zero shock absorbtion so 4 hours on the worst road I've ever been on went straight to our asses. I think we were actually airborne for about half that time. It was hilarious at first--nearly being thrown out the window every few seconds as we hit pothole after pothole. But it soon got exhausting and all we could do is try to keep a positive attitude about it all. I mean, what could we do? No use getting upset about it! Definitely the most uncomfortable trip of my life and I was so psyched to get off in Malindi. We stayed there on Monday to rest up a bit because the ride had completely worn us out. Maryam's family is from Malindi so we stayed with her mom and younger sisters, which was nice. And we got food at I Love Pizza, which I recommend to everyone who makes it to Malindi. SO delicious. And I got to go snorkeling among the reefs at the Malindi Marine Park! We headed back to Mombasa that night, and the next day I was back at work.
That was a fantastic trip and I would recommend Lamu & Malindi to anyone who makes it to the Kenyan coast. STAY AWAY FROM MOMBASA IF YOU CAN. It is not a nice city to stay in and there's really nothing to do there anyway, except maybe visit Fort Jesus, which is kind of cool but only worth a day trip. But the smaller towns are gorgeous.
Kwa herini loves!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
hakuna matata
Hey everyone. Just a quick update that my host dad was spoken to the other day by my program manager in Mombasa, and it seems things will be much improved now. It was an unpleasant thing to have to go through, but definitely a valuable learning experience. Additionally, my health is now much improved and I hope to never step foot in an African hosptial again! (At least not as a patient). I think I'll stick to traditional methods like that medicinal oil rub I got from my mom! =P
Also, I've been wanting to write about the work I got to do this past week for SOLWODI. I've finally found something that I can be quite useful at. Some of you know that I worked for the Rape Crisis Line in Madison this past year, so I received some (very minimal) training in crisis counseling for rape victims. I've begun putting that skill to good use by providing non-official counseling to some of the women in the TiP program (Trafficking in Persons). This past week I found myself at Mewa Hospital in Mombasa town every day visiting with a SOLWODI cilent who'd been admitted there. For confidentiality reasons, I cannot give her name or too many details of her story, but I can say this: she was a former sex worker in Nairobi who was trafficked to Germany by a German national who promised to marry her and give her money for starting a business. When she arrived, however, he confiscated all her documents and locked her up in an apartment where he would go daily to rape her, torture her, and all around degrade her. He also got 2 Turkish guys in on the scheme. Through some smart thinking, she played along with him until he began to trust her a bit. Then he provided her with a cell phone and she immediately contacted a friend of hers, who contacted the police in Germany and they stormed the apartment and set her free. SOLWODI Germany picked up her case and gave her counseling until they could come up with the funding to send her back here to Kenya to restart her life. She got back and, through the help of SOLWODI Kenya, was able to start a good business. But then the post-election violence occured and her business was looted and everything was taken. She started over with a small vegetable stall in another town, but then learned that the case against her rapist was going to be dropped due to "lack of evidence"(a blatant dodge if there ever was one!). She was plunged into a major depression by this news and sold the business and disappeared for a while. Now, she was in hospital with uterine bleeding from an unknown problem. And that's when I came in. Of course, her situation is very serious and she will be receiving professional counseling. But in the present, she feels abandoned (both by her family, who only want her to send them money that she doesn't have) and by the justice system (which dropped her case against her aggressor). The second I met her, I felt such a connection to this woman who has been through so much tragedy, but is still surviving somehow. And I could tell that the most important thing is just that she has someone who will listen to her, validate her feelings, and help her regain a sense of control over her life. I spent a few hours every day at her hospital bed, just listening and guiding her, and in a week she went from sad and depressed all the time to occasionally smiling and adopting a positive attitude towards her healing process. It was amazing to see the transformation that such a simple thing as listening could do and I'm so grateful I got a chance to meet her. I will be continuing to work with her in the future now, and the TiP Program director, Winnie, saw what I was able to do and decided I could continue doing that work with English speaking members of the program! I'm so excited to have a real purpose in the organization, and I think I will continue to pursue the counseling route...maybe someday in Kiswahili (though I doubt I'll be that good fast enough). I've also started finally doing my own interviews with potential new clients and writing a few reports. It's all falling into place!
Okay, miss you all much!! Kisses and hugs
Also, I've been wanting to write about the work I got to do this past week for SOLWODI. I've finally found something that I can be quite useful at. Some of you know that I worked for the Rape Crisis Line in Madison this past year, so I received some (very minimal) training in crisis counseling for rape victims. I've begun putting that skill to good use by providing non-official counseling to some of the women in the TiP program (Trafficking in Persons). This past week I found myself at Mewa Hospital in Mombasa town every day visiting with a SOLWODI cilent who'd been admitted there. For confidentiality reasons, I cannot give her name or too many details of her story, but I can say this: she was a former sex worker in Nairobi who was trafficked to Germany by a German national who promised to marry her and give her money for starting a business. When she arrived, however, he confiscated all her documents and locked her up in an apartment where he would go daily to rape her, torture her, and all around degrade her. He also got 2 Turkish guys in on the scheme. Through some smart thinking, she played along with him until he began to trust her a bit. Then he provided her with a cell phone and she immediately contacted a friend of hers, who contacted the police in Germany and they stormed the apartment and set her free. SOLWODI Germany picked up her case and gave her counseling until they could come up with the funding to send her back here to Kenya to restart her life. She got back and, through the help of SOLWODI Kenya, was able to start a good business. But then the post-election violence occured and her business was looted and everything was taken. She started over with a small vegetable stall in another town, but then learned that the case against her rapist was going to be dropped due to "lack of evidence"(a blatant dodge if there ever was one!). She was plunged into a major depression by this news and sold the business and disappeared for a while. Now, she was in hospital with uterine bleeding from an unknown problem. And that's when I came in. Of course, her situation is very serious and she will be receiving professional counseling. But in the present, she feels abandoned (both by her family, who only want her to send them money that she doesn't have) and by the justice system (which dropped her case against her aggressor). The second I met her, I felt such a connection to this woman who has been through so much tragedy, but is still surviving somehow. And I could tell that the most important thing is just that she has someone who will listen to her, validate her feelings, and help her regain a sense of control over her life. I spent a few hours every day at her hospital bed, just listening and guiding her, and in a week she went from sad and depressed all the time to occasionally smiling and adopting a positive attitude towards her healing process. It was amazing to see the transformation that such a simple thing as listening could do and I'm so grateful I got a chance to meet her. I will be continuing to work with her in the future now, and the TiP Program director, Winnie, saw what I was able to do and decided I could continue doing that work with English speaking members of the program! I'm so excited to have a real purpose in the organization, and I think I will continue to pursue the counseling route...maybe someday in Kiswahili (though I doubt I'll be that good fast enough). I've also started finally doing my own interviews with potential new clients and writing a few reports. It's all falling into place!
Okay, miss you all much!! Kisses and hugs
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