Weekend Report

The past weekend was not particularly restful but it was great fun. Friday night began with happy hour with co workers, a delicious Ethiopian meal, and karaoke. My friends love karaoke and I believe the key reason is because they can sing. I partake as a “group member” in songs, but never attempt to launch my solo singing career. Saturday was a shopping day at the clothing market, where there are always great finds and the opportunity to make use of bargaining skills. I then went to get my haircut, arriving with a picture of Sarah Harmer that I have had in my wallet as a potential haircut, and I finally decided to give it a go. I handed the picture over to him and he said “No, you will look like a mushroom.” Hmmm…. Ok… well from my curly hair experience an excessive amount of thinning will result in the look I want, so I suggested he thin the mop and see what happens. Sure enough, it resulted in a great cut!! That evening there was a big party, hosted by an Italian guy great house/DJ music, outdoor atmosphere and a chance to meet more of the ex pat community.

While there, I began chatting with an Italian guy, Ugo, and together with Dana we are going to attempt to start up an events blog for Nairobi. The reason for this is because it is so difficult to find out what is going on in Nairobi, unless you have the contacts or you check out the posters at every shopping centre. I had heard through the grapevine that he was interested in starting this, so I approached him and asked if I could take part. We will be getting together the week after next to put together a plan and sort out who has which contacts- I think it will be great and definitely a useful communication tool for the community.

Sunday was Swahili lessons and then a fabulous performance of Porgie and Bess by the Capetown Opera.

In the week to come I will be extremely busy at work, as the BBC team is in town to have face to face meetings regarding the project we are all working on. This generally means long working days, which is not a problem at all since it means a productive work week and a chance to work with some incredibly talented people.

Pictures from Lake Baringo Trip

And... the town of Baringo comes to the rescue... sort of

And... we are pushing the car... again

A little Travel Scrabble to help us through the bad times.

Pictures from the weekend...and more to come

Here is the link to some pictures from the weekend. More will be uploaded in a few days!

enjoy,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandainkenya/

This is Africa (T.I.A.)

On Friday afternoon, Tia, Emily, Dana and I set out on our weekend trip to Lake Baringo. We had this "brillant" plan to rent a car and drive ourselves to the Lake, 5 hours north of Nairobi. We were all a bit nervous- after all we hadn't driven in Kenya before and we were now driving on the opposite side of the road. But "pole, pole" (slowly, slowly) and we knew we would get there safely. We left at 1:00 pm so we would get to the campsite before dark and decided that if we had to stop anywhere along the road it would be at a gas station. Many car jackings occur when people stop on the side of the road. So all in all we felt like we had things under control.

We arrived early Friday evening to a set up tent, with mattresses and bedding (love camping in Africa)! We then walked over to the "Thirsty Goat"- the campsite pub had supper, drank wine, and chatted. When we settled into our tent and fell asleep I woke up at about 2:00 am to the sound of munching, loud munching...and knew right away that beside our tent was a hippo- well actually more than one hippo. I woke Emily up and whispered "what are we going to do?"- her response "go back to bed- they only attack if we disturb them". She fell asleep and then I heard Dana giggle and say "Oh are those Hippos munching?"- for some reason it was so comical I started to laugh so hard and was worried that this would set off the Hippos. Fortunately it did not and we all fell back asleep.

The next morning we had a campside breakfast of delicious homemade muffins and a selection of fruit (thanks to Dana!) We then set off on our morning boat ride- where we went bird watching, saw hippos, and crocodiles. We watched eagles catch fish and visited a village- it was a great way to spend the morning. (video to come) In the afternoon we hunkered down by the pool where we relaxed until 4:00 pm, where we then went on a reptile walk. This wasn't that great as I have decided that I am not a reptile fan especially when it comes to scorpians and vipers... umm no thanks. But the views were breathtaking and we had an entourage of small children walking with us, so that was fun.

That evening I made spaghetti on the campfire and we had a ceaser salad with chilled white wine... yes like I said "I LOVE CAMPING IN AFRICA!" We then went over to the "Thirsty Goat" for more stories, chatting, some travel scrabble, and then went back to our tent.

The next morning, after Emily's fireside French Toast we packed up the car, all got settled in the vehicle and for some reason the car wouldn't reverse. So, we thought that if we pushed the car back and set it in drive then it might work. Tia, Emily and I pushed the car and Dana got it going in drive.... for a few feet. The car then stalled (it was an automatic, so why it stalled we have no clue). At this point we decided to talk to the camp staff who then brought a mechanic from the village over to look at it. Here were the determinations from the mechanic:

1. Air filter dirty because an animal was living in the air filter system (nice)
2. Spark plugs were shot
3. Something was wrong with the fuel pump

So, after he tells us this we ask "so you can fix it?" "Oh yeah- no problem 2 hours". We told him we would be at the pool if they needed anything. Five hours later, we are still sitting by the pool wondering what was going on. We then realized that we would not be able to leave on Sunday, so we called our bosses, explained the situation and decided that once the car was fixed Monday morning we would set off. That evening, while the mechanic continually told us "two more hours"- we hunkered down at the "Thirsty Goat" pub, spent the rest of our money on wine and food and went happily to bed thinking that the next morning we would be off on the road.

Monday morning, we get into the car and set off- yes! the car is now working. However, we had strict instructions to Dana- do not brake or slow down- hmmm... she was not that pleased. About 5 km into our journey the car begins to stall, and the comes to a dead halt. Once again, the car has broken down. We call the mechanic to come meet us and we wait for about 1 hour- playing travel scrabble and chatting. When the mechanic arrives he determines that the battery has died. So, Dana, Tia, the mechanic, and I push the car on to the side of the road. The mechanic is going to go fix the battery and "in two hours" will be back and no worries the car will be working. Tia then decides it is time to call our taxi driver Tom, who rented the car and tell him to come get us. So- as we begin to walk the 5 km back in 30+ weather, we flag down a car and get a ride back to the campsite, where we spend another day lazing by the pool.

All in all we did get back to Nairobi last night at 10 pm with Tom, the taxi driver, free of charge. The car came a few hours later with the owner, who we managed to give a good talking to. We had quite the discussion in Boringo with the owner saying "how could you rent a broken vehicle to 4 white girls to drive 5 hours north?!" We were not impressed and he knew it! Thankfully, we only broke down near or at the camp, so we were safe the entire time, but we did count our blessings.

Anyways we are thankfully back in Nairobi safe and sound. We were all planning on going camping this coming weekend to another park called "hell's gate" but we might wait another week before we hit the roads again!

Pictures and video to come!!

Emily's Zanzibar Adventure

Below is Emily's "write up" of her Zanzibar trip. On Friday night Dana, Martin and I went to check out a bar in town (Nairobi) called "Zanze- bar"... after reading Emily's adventure, I am sure you will know who had more fun :)
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How is everybody doing? Personally, I can’t complain at all—I just got back from the island paradise of Zanzibar, where the sun treated me well and I ate gobs of seafood. I went to Zanzibar on my own because I couldn’t wait for Amanda to get time off work, so I impulsively bought a plane ticket for 5 nights and 6 days in Zanzibar. I didn’t really know what to expect; I was mostly drawn by the exotic name. So after booking my ticket two weeks ago, I started to do some research and immediately knew I would be in for an adventure in this Tanzanian island of Arabic-African fusion.

I arrived in Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar, on a Thursday afternoon after barely making my flight from Nairobi. Kenya Airways oversold the flight by a long shot, so when I got there an hour ahead of time, all seats were taken. Through a stroke of good karma, I was given a seat by a traveler who was fighting with the desk to get her friend on the same flight, so I graciously accepted her seat and ran across the tarmac to the little propeller plane.

My first impression of Zanzibar: HOT. It was at least 30 every day, and sweating was inevitable and, thankfully, widely accepted. In Stone Town, I stayed at a great guest house, where for only $20/night I had my own room with a double Zanzibar bed (four posted wooden bed with decorative tiles and a canopy mosquito net...magical) and air conditioning. To get anywhere in Stone Town required walking through winding, narrow, unnamed streets where you were destined to get lost (but that was part of the adventure!). I spent my first afternoon walking the streets, and met an Italian/White African guy that recognized me from the airport, and asked if I had come for the music festival. “What, there is a music festival? I had no idea!” So, lucky me, I happened to have my planned my trip around one of the most happening times in Stone Town! The 5-day music festival was called ‘Sauti za Busara’ (Sounds of Wisdom) and was started by a British DJ four years ago, and included musicians from all over Africa and music lovers from all over the world. The festival featured everything from traditional tribal beats and dancers to Swahili rap to Arabic/African taarab music to modern folk-style guitar tunes. It was set in the Old Fort, an idealic location to combine the old and new world music and attempt to contain the awesome energy that the festival created.

On this first night in Stone Town, I had a sunset drink (so picturesque!) with my new-found friend and his friends, and ate dinner at the infamous Fodohari Gardens. Every evening at dusk, fishermen bring their catch up to the docks, set up grills and stalls, and sell fresh seafood for a fraction of the price you would pay anywhere with a table and chairs. It truly is a seafood extravaganza—squid, octopus, lobster, crab, tuna, kingfish, marlin, barracuda, and more—and you just browse the stalls until you see the selection you like. Needless to say, I ate here every night but one! After a plate of squid, lobster, and tuna, we went to another spot that would become a regular stop during my stay in Zanzibar—Mercury’s Bar. Mercury’s is named after Freddie Mercury of Queen fame, who was born in Zanzibar and is their local hero. No kidding--Queen’s music is played non-stop!

For my second day in Stone Town, I organized myself to go on a Spice Tour. Zanzibar was a hub of the spice trade back in the days of Sultans and explorers, but now only exports cloves and coconut oil. However, the island also grows vanilla, nutmeg & mace (from the same fruit), cardamom, cinnamon, curry leaves, peppercorns, tamarind, etc. The tour basically takes you back into the fields of Zanzibar to see the spice plants first-hand, and my favourite part by far was smelling cinnamon bark cut right off the tree! On the Spice Tour, I met up with 4 American girls who were living in Tanzania for internships and volunteer positions. Traveling solo really gives you the opportunity to go out on a limb and meet a diverse crowd of people.

The following day, we (me and the 4 Spice Tour girls) rented a dhow (a traditional fishing boat) and went for a day-trip to Prison Island for some snorkelling and to visit the giant tortoises. Our dhow was affectionally called the “Gladiator” and captained by two Zanzibarians with the same name—Halindi & Halindi. The giant tortoises were very cool and eager to be fed, and the snorkelling was colourful and relaxing. We sailed back to Stone Town in time to make it to the seafood gardens, and of course into the music festival for the night, where we befriended some Zimbabwean musicians to chill with.

When I was originally planning my trip, I was going to spend only 3 nights in Stone Town and then head to the secluded beaches for 2 nights. However, with the music festival and a great group of people to hang out with in Stone Town, I was easily convinced to stay an extra night! It proved to be a great decision, and I spent the day shopping, getting lost in the streets and the culture, and back at the seafood gardens and music festival. (See the trend?)

Finally leaving Stone Town behind, I traveled to the east coast of Zanzibar to Jambiani, where I was drawn by the description of the long, white sand beaches and the Rastafarian atmosphere. I stayed at a Rasta-run guest house, which made me really appreciate the luxury of my lodgings in Stone Town! For the sake of saving money after having far too much fun in Stone Town, I stayed in a dorm-style room with 7 single beds and a fan. It was like staying a frat house run by (at least) 6 Rasta guys, where chilling with ganja and a guitar was their daily existence. Don’t get me wrong—these guys were very friendly, and overly chill, but not totally my style! I spent the day walking the beach and working on a tan, and kinda missing the excitement of Stone Town.

And that brings me to the end of my trip…I forgot to mention that I lost my bank card somewhere in Stone Town, and quickly learned that Master Card is not the one “excepted the world over”, so I was counting my shillings pretty religiously towards the end of the trip (hence, the cheap Rasta accommodations). It was a little stressful, but when in Zanzibar, stress is not worthwhile and doesn’t suit the traveler, so I just dealt with it when I got back Nairobi. Hakuna matata, rafiki! (No worries, my friend!)

As always, check out the pictures at http://emcoolidge.shutterfly.com/. (Uploading taking forever...) I’m not sure what the next adventure will be, but I’m feeling the vibe to go raft the Nile River in Uganda or hike Mount Kenya. Stay tuned, and take care!
-Emily

Kenyan positivity and trip to Lake Baringo

One thing I love about Kenyans is that they always have a positive attitude about everything. Stress does not seem to enter their daily life and if it does, you would have no idea that they were stressed because they walk around with a smile on their face. I know some people might consider this a "false presence" but I see it as a great way to live life. As the book title goes "Don't sweat the small stuff".

I had lunch with Dana and our coworker, Everlyn, today. We started discussing the differences between Western culture and Kenyan culture. Both Dana and I commented on how we appreciate the way in which Kenyans prioritize their lives. Kenyans are much more "people conscious"- always assisting a family member or a friend, and much more comfortable discussing their spiritual life. They seem to worry less and appreciate what they have versus always wanting more. I think there are a lot of lessons to be learnt by the way in which other people live in this world. Something I really noticed today at our lunch.
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Emily returned from Zanzibar last night and we had the chance to hear all of her stories over supper at a great spot called "Moonflower". Sandra, Dana, and I have decided that we must go to Zanzibar over the Easter holiday because Emily had such a great time! So of course this morning we were investigating flight prices, places to stay, etc.

This weekend Tia, Dana, Emily and I are heading to Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley. It is a 5 hour trip, north of Nairobi and we will be camping- check out the site below for information on where we are staying.

http://www.lake-baringo.com/RobertsCampHomePage.htm

Delightful Blogs, Swahili Lessons and Dive Class.

Habari za asubuhi! (Good morning)

Great news! My blog is featured on the following site: http://www.delightfulblogs.com/travel/
I submitted it and sure enough it was selected as a "favorite"- pretty exciting :)
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In other weekend news: Had a nice weekend relaxing, hanging out with friends, and reading. On Saturday I managed to buy more items for the orphanage!! Thanks to everyone who continues to send funding for this great cause- it has amazed me how generous everyone has been and the orphanage is thrilled everytime I go visit. When I went to drop the items off, it happened to be the 13th anniversary of the orphanage, so there was a big party. Kids and families who had adopted children from New Life Home Trust were visiting- so it was great to see how many children have found great homes.

Saturday night Sandra and I had a great evening checking out a new Thai restaraunt in town and then heading next door to a small bar called "Mercury" for some delicious Mojitos!! The next morning was dive class and I got "top scores" from the Instructor.

• He said, "WOW your confidence has really improved and you did a great job- what was different?"
  
• My response : "Well... I did have an abundance of mojitos last night- think that helped?" :)

Diving has become a really fun event on the weekend, the people at the club are great, and the atomsphere of being by a pool, sitting in the sun and lounging after dive class is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The weekend concluded with Martin, Dana, and I having our first Swahili lesson. We hired a Swahili tutor, Oloo (Oh-low), for 2 hours per week. Last night we learned greetings, polite words, and welcoming guests. We have already been practicing on coworkers- who answer with vocab that we haven't learned yet, so we smile and nod :)

El rascacielo = sky-craper, he he

So... Roland and I are 15 years old and in Spanish class together in Pakistan. Our Spanish teacher has Bangladesh heritage, but is from Holland (isn't that vierd?). One day we were learning the new vocabulary word, "el rascacielo"- which means Skyscraper... however our teacher says, "el rascacielo" means "Sky-CRAPER". Of course Roland and I had a field day with this and ensured her that yes indeed, it was a sky-craper. Roland sent me this email today with the attachment... apparently the Hindustan times also refers to tall buildings as "Sky-CRAPERS"- either that or Mrs. Morrenhof is working for the Hindustan Times :)

Don't Panic this IS my blog

I needed to update the look and feel of my blog- just because... well... I wanted a change :) Still the same content, still the same pictures... just different look.

Diving and physics- argh!

Having had much to update this week - so thought I would just share a few stories. Money keeps coming in for the orphanage, which is just so great!! I am going on another shopping spree this weekend so should have more pictures for everyone to see the exact goods and products you are contributing. Emily goes to the orphanage about 3 times a week and has managed to befriend a number of the little kids- they are so cute.

Last night was another Dive Theory class. Unfortunately the first half of the lecture was completely lost to me as it was all about the Physics of diving- aye caramba!! I now know why I failed Chemistry in University, well almost failed. I completely tuned out at one point, thinking of other things, and noticed Emily frantically writing notes about the equation for Atmospheric Pressure. I leaned over to her and said "wow you take such great notes" and her response was "Well the difference between your notes and my notes is that the first thing you wrote was the name of the Instructor's family members". - which he did put on the board :)

Afterwards we went to the bar downstairs for the social event. Our dutch friend was asking me questions about pressure systems- to which I began to outline the pressure I sometimes feel at work. Emily was rolling her eyes at this point and was like "Ummm...Amanda she meant pressure in the water, relating to DIVING!".... ooops.

So apparently I will need to study the physics portion of diving.

Emily's email re: our Rafting Trip

FINALLY PICTURES (well some of them):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandainkenya/

Here is Emily's email she sent out to everyone about our rafting trip. She went into way more detail then me so I thought I would insert it for ya'll!!
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Hi All!
I hope everyone is doing well and having lots of laughs whatever you are doing. Amanda and I got back from India last week, so I guess that means that it is now time for me to send the report on fabulous River India trip!

To bring you all up to date: our friend, Roland (from Pakistan, Acadia, and UBC days), started his own company organizing river rafting trips down some rarely-rafted rivers in Northeastern India. The company is “River India” (http://www.riverindia.com/), and I recommend that you all go check it out! Amanda and I joined Roland for the inaugural public trip of his company, rafting down the Siang River in the corner of NE India near the Tibetan border. In total, there were 7 rafters (including Amanda and me) and 6 guides (including Roland).

We spent two days in Dehli, and that is one hustling-bustling city! I had been to Dehli back in 1992 and 1994 with my parents, but Dehli as an adult on your own budget is a very different experience! We stayed at a quaint little guest house off a main drag (or at least it seemed like a main road considering it was 3 lanes turned into 5 plus rickshaws and tuk-tuks). Amanda and I tried to spend our first afternoon exploring bazaars and walking seemingly familiar streets, but stepping out in Dehli was completely exhausting for our overnight-traveling bodies, so we opted to sit in the courtyard of our guesthouse and read books. J Day two in Dehli proved to be more successful, and this time we were prepared for the constant rush and noise of the fighting traffic, as well as the mobs of people, cars, and cows. We spent the day sightseeing Hindu temples, a world peace temple (Aksharamdam), and a Ba’ahi temple. (Katy, I was thinking of your grandmother!)

So, Dehli aside, let’s get to the heart of the trip: We met our group of rafters at the Dehli airport, and after introductions and a search for coffee, it was apparent that this was going to be a great mesh of people to spend 10 days with. To give you an idea of how remote our rafting trip was, we had to take a 5 hour flight from Dehli to Dibrugarh (Assam), overnight in Assam, take an 8 hour ferry up river to Pasighat (Aranachal Pradesh) (where we met up with the river guides and our rafting gear), overnight in Pasighat, and then drive 8 hours through winding roads to Pingkong (Aranachal Pradesh), where we set up our first camp and eventually launched the boats on the Siang river the following morning. Basically, if I had travelled directly from Vancouver-Siang River, it would have taken 6 ½ days to “put-in” (extremely technical rafting term for the first launch of the rafts).

If I were to just tell you what we did on the rafting trip, then it would be a pretty regular schedule for 6 nights/7 days of rafting and camping. So, here it is: 6:30am wake up call to coffee, chai, and breakfast, take town tents and pack dry bag, launch boats off beach by 10am. Paddle, paddle, snack, paddle, hit a rapid (Class 2), paddle, find gorgeous beach to dock for lunch and fill bellies. Then, paddle, paddle, rapid (Class 3), paddle, bigger rapid (Class 3-4, paddle, find even more spectacular beach to set up camp for the night. Unload rafts, set up tent, collect firewood, start Happy Hour, build fire while guides cook up a delicious dinner, sit by fire with some rum and attempt to discover the secret of life from the guides and rafters. Asleep by 8:30pm. Repeat as desired.

While the rafting was great and exciting, what made the trip so memorable and amazing was the group of 13 people we were with for the 10 days. We were a journalist, a travel writer, a probation officer, a novelist, a windmill technician, a chemical engineer, a vintage BMW collector, an entrepreneur, a yoga instructor, a corporate developer, an educational technologist, and a post-MSc trying to find herself. As you can imagine, conversations were never dull, and everyone was genuinely interested in each other. Everyone had a story to tell, some great insight or quote to offer about living your life, a good laugh to share at the end of the day, and a great attitude about the constant presence of sand and lack of showers. Unfortunately, I can’t recap all the inspirational and enlightening moments we had in just an email, but believe me when I say that it was a wonderful group to be surrounded by!

So after 6 nights of camping and living out of a shared 40 litre dry bag (affectionally known as “Mom” because Amanda and I were teased that we were hiding another family member in there), we ended the inaugural River India Siang River trip back at the base camp at Pasighat. The next morning, after hugs and email address exchanging, we hopped back on the ferry to Dibrugarh, and then flew to Dehli and went back to our respective corners of the world. However, goodbyes did not come without talk of a reunion trip, possible meet-ups here and there, and promises to keep in touch.

And there you have it—a little belated, but the River India recap! Oh yes, and check out the pictures: http://emcoolidge.shutterfly.com/. Stay tuned for the next instalment of Emily’s Adventures, when I go to the island paradise of Zanzibar by myself for a week!