Feeling the Rhythm – Samburu Kenya

The colorful tribes of Samburu in Kenya seems to always be dancing.  While on safari in Samburu Park, we stopped in one of the Samburu villages; an eye opening, music-filled experience.  Each of the women took our hands and brought us into their tribal dance adorning us with colorful necklaces.

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Lamu, Kenya

Pronounced – ‘la-moo’

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We arrived in Lamu yesterday via a small 20 passenger plane and a very good looking your pilot! When we arrived at the small airfield it was lightly sprinkling, but by the time they took our luggage out on a little 2 wheel wooden cart and wheeled it off the runway, it was pouring rain. We ran to the dock and onto the little dhow (wooden boat) and got under the make-shift cover/tarp for cover – but we were drenched! The island of Lamu is traversed by boat or by foot or donkey. The ‘airport’ is only reachable by boat!

The hungry mosquitoes were in heaven – it was 6:30PM , humid, and wet – it was feeding time for them (thank god for Malaria Meds!). We arrived at Kijani House (hotel) via the dhow. It was a beautiful bed and breakfast of sorts. The rooms were all designed in a traditional Lamu style. The furniture was ornate, the windows were open and had no screens and the décor was a mix of Indian, African and Turkish. Each room had a traditional Lamu door and lock…padlock that is. It was quaint – I loved it. We were in the village of Shela on the island of Lamu. The next day we hired a guide, Hammed, to take us to Lamu village via a dhow (about 4 km away). Lamu was a big step back in time. There are no cars there and not many bikes either. The roads (dirt paths) are much too narrow for cars – so they use donkeys instead.

Narrow streets of Lamu

They also use wooden hand carts – kind of like a large wheel barrow of sorts. The town is bustling with people everywhere. It is a mix of people and religion – African, Indian, Christian and Muslim. Hammed taught us about Lamu’s struggle for independence in the 1750’s and it relatively short, modern life. We learned about how the traditional Lamu houses were built so that women could go visit their female neighbors on the rooftops as they weren’t allowed to be seen by men except for their husband. Therefore a maze of ‘streets’ on the rooftops developed. Hammed educated us on arranged marriages, the accepted practice of polygamy, and the 7 days of wedding celebration that would occur. The wedding couple finally met each other for the first time on the night of the 3rd day and then the partying continued for the next 4 days.

Transportation in Lamu

The streets of Lamu were bustling. It reminded me of NYC in a way because if you weren’t aware – you’d most certainly get run over by a donkey – the little narrow streets were crowded and they didn’t have room or tolerance for a tourist stopping in the middle to take a picture. You had to match the rhythm and flow or risk being road kill! We spent the rest of the late afternoon on the isolated beach in Shela – there was nothing touristy about it – just beautiful soft sand – all to ourselves and camels (not the cigarette – then animal)!
 

The last day in Lamu we went sailing on a dhow and had a fish fry for lunch. The fish – white snapper – was caught that day and fried up on a make-shift grille. Six whole fish were put in a plastic bowl and we each picked each up and ate it with our hands picking the bones clean as they were so delicious and peppery. I felt like we were cast-aways eating fish with our hands.

My Kenyan traveling 'team'!

Our guide, Hammed took care of us well – and as a gift – I provided him a new piece of American slang to add to his vocabulary “My bad”. He was a big fan of American slang so he appreciated this greatly – it was the least I could do for the wonderful time that he showed us all in Lamu!

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Kenya was a real mix of classes – poor and ‘well -off’ – at times it was such a wide gap to take in – that it really kind of made your stomach turn. I can’t simply say that I just experienced this only in Kenya – I experienced it all over Eastern Africa. In the US – many people can go through their whole lives and never get exposed to the very poor/desolate or even the very rich. Heck – I must admit – in the US I went through my whole teenage years and never met a person of Jewish faith. Point being – you can be very sheltered in the US.

However – regardless of who we met along our journey – everyone was always hospitable and seemed genuinely happy and low stress. Granted – I looked around the ‘shanty’ towns and wondered how anyone could be happy there – but they were. It was simply a way of life. We came across many different people as we moved across Kenya. In Nairobi we were welcomed with open arms from all of Mungai’s family (aunts, uncles, grandmother, cousins, godmothers, friends). We were constantly having dinner with someone who wanted to meet Mungai’s ‘posse of women’! We even had the opportunity to go outside of Nairobi to meet Mungai’s grandmother (pictured to the right). She did not speak English – but she wanted to have us over for lunch. It amazed me how her farm and life reminded me of my grandparent’s farms in Nebraska. She provided us with a great lunch and then we went out and looked at her field of coffee beans, farm animals, etc. We were also treated to sugar cane for ‘dessert’ – chopped down right in front of us while we waited.

In Samburu we went to visit a local tribe of of Samburu people – they had an amazing primitive life in which they lived in mud huts, drank cows milk and blood, practiced pologymy, and made extra money for their tribe by having tourists come and see their life on display.  The kids were fascinated by us – we went into their school (the only real building in the area) and they proudly sang their A,B,C’s and counted for us.

They were as fascinated by us as we were by them – I’m not really sure who was on display more! Some of the tribe people and kids are pictured here and above.

 
Everywhere we went we saw Kenyans wearing tshirts that were hilarious to us – some were for American sporting teams, American bands, bars in Idaho, D.A.R.E tshirts (Nancy Reagan would be proud!) – these were all obviously things that other visitors had brought with them and donated. But it was mildly entertaining seeing an adult man wearing a varsity cheerleading tshirt – but they didn’t care – it was clothes.

When we went to Mombassa we met a local couple there. Erin’s father has a global business and he was in the early stages of doing business with a company in Mombassa. So we met up with the couple who ran the company there – Mohammad and Layla (pictured below). They were ship channelers (no – this is not some wierd form of predicting a ship’s future or bringing it back from the dead) – they served as a ‘middle-man’ of sorts to the various ships that were in port in Mombassa. Selling them food, transportation, goods – whatever they needed. It was an amazing experience in hospitality – we were welcomed with open arms. They came out with us every night and had dinner and drinks. They were very excited to show us Mombassa and all it had to offer. In fact they were so eager – my New Yorker attitude woke up and at first wondered “ What do they want from us?” It was eye opening to see that the rest of the world doesn’t operate in this way. Granted – you do need to keep your guard up – but I have to re-tune my radar a bit. They brought along a friend who was a guide that showed us around and taught us the history of Mombassa, they took us to clubs, and the last night they took us out to dinner – all of us – and invited us to come back and visit. They provided Erin gifts for her family. This is all similar to the hospitality we are experienced in the various hotels, from our various guides, and in Lamu.

I had to leave Kenya early in the morning and didn’t really get the chance to thank Mungai’s family properly – so I’ll take this opportunity now – To all of Mungai’s family/friends (and Mungai of course!) – thanks for the hospitality, the food, the drink, the safey, the education, and your smiles! You made Kenya a very positive, fun experience – and a great way to start off my trip!
The whole experience simply gives you faith in the kindness of people – people all over the world!

Our WONDERFUL host! Mungai (on right) and his cousin Moshohi

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We’ve seen some amazing animals here – you can get so close with no boundaries.  When I was young we used to go on field trips to Wild Life Prairie Park outside of Peoria – there you see animals in their ‘natural habitat’.  It offered the animals large areas to roam – larger than your average zoo basically.  It was a kind of Central Illinois Safari I suppose.  However – there were fences.  We loved to go to the place – it seemed dangerous in a way – which made it exciting.  You had to walk a long way to the animals and the animals eventually got smart and they just hid from you. 

However, here in Samburu National Park – the animals can’t really hide – you go to them.  This is a great in theory – until one of them doesn’t really want you around chasing it.  We drove right up to giraffe eating,  we parked 10 ft. away from water buffalo, and even raced other vehicles to the cheetahs.  We drove right up to a family of elephants and watched as mom and son crossed the road not more than 20 ft. in front of us.  We watched them eat and rub against trees.  They seemed so harmless and happy.  We noticed that as they walked away across the road – a younger elephant was still on the other side of the road and seemed to be forgotten.  It seemed to be a rebellious, teenage girl elephant that was trying to assert her independence and stay away from her mom and brother.  Our guide made an elephant call/noise/grunt (it seemed convincing to me).  The teenage elephant looked up and slowly came toward us – click, click, click – I’m getting some great shots of it coming towards the truck.  It gets closer and closer and starts to run – I peak from behind the camera to see where it really is in relation to me and realize it’s about 10 feet from us – and it doesn’t look happy. 

It stops and stares at us and starts making elephant noises.  I realize that the motor of the truck is not even running.  In my mind – this was the time to move the truck as I’ve got a mad teenage elephant staring me down.  I keep staring at the rebellious teen and say to the driver “Ummm – are we going to move now?” in a calm, yet concerned even tone – never taking my eyes off the elephant.  The stare down continues, there’s no sound of the engine starting – I feel like I’m in an old western movie at a standoff.  It then suddenly walks away to it’s mom and brother.  I guess our green truck looked pretty menacing.  It was at that time when I decided that I may not ever make a great ‘field photographer’ as I was ready to bail at the first sign of a charging elephant. 

As we drove around the rest of the morning hunting for the elusive lions – I was sickened by the thought that ran through my head – Disney really did a great job on depicting Africa in the Lion King.   I hate the fact that my only visual reference of African Safari is a Disney movie – that’s just silly.  But I have caught myself referencing back to the movie many times in my head.  But this is the real thing – and it’s beautiful and impressive and most importantly – real.  As real as that angry teenage elephant.

The food here is a vegetarian’s nightmare as well as a Atkin’s dieter’s nightmare – luckily – I’m neither of these so I am enjoying this meat heavy, carbo loaded Kenyan diet I am on! The food is hearty with many stew-like dishes with rice – yet the sauces they use have a distinct Indian flair as many Indian spices are used. This equates to yummy food! Many root vegetables are also used – I honestly never knew there were so many variations of potatoes. They have some that look just like a banana but taste like a potato. They also have sweet potatoes that are white – but taste just like our orange ones. Speaking of color – their oranges here are green…go figure. Since we’ve been here we’ve been eating 3 meals a day mainly consisting of meat, rice, potatoes, and chapati (a type of yummy tortilla). My favorite is the breakfast pancakes which taste exactly like my grandmothers recipe. They simply roll the flat pancakes up and eat them plain – they are delicious!

In the US – a T-bone steak is a real treat – here I feel like it’s an everyday occurrence. The first day we were here one of Mungai’s uncles brought in 2 T-bones on a platter with a big knife. He proceeded to cut it up in small pieces and we snacked on it like an appetizer with our fingers. It felt rather primeval in a way – there’s something about eating meat with your hands that makes it taste that much better – it’s back to the basics. Mungai and his uncle picked up the bones and ate them with their hands…there were no leftovers for the dogs! Next he paraded out a platter of sliced, grilled meat. As a side note – when I travel I take the strategy of eat first and then ask what it is later. Else you visualize and mentally process what it is that you are about to eat and your brain will talk yourself out of it. I utilized my strategy in this case and grabbed the first piece and chewed. Good taste – hot of the grill – not bad. After everyone inquires about it I found out it was tripe – not something I would normally eat if my brain had been allowed to make the decision . (maybe I should be employing this strategy for men I date too) So – would I have tripe again…sure.

Everyone seems excited to see the 6 women from the US that Mungai brought to Kenya – we seem to be in demand – more so than I ever was in NY! We were invited to dinner at a friend of his family’s – Ginna. It was a unique dining experience that made me feel grown up beyond my years. The house was large and ornately decorated with animal pelts and other African designs. We sat down in a dining room as large as my apartment and had a very formal dinner while conversing with Ginna’s kids who were in college. It was fascinating talking politics with them. I was surprised to find out that many people here are thinking that Hilary Clinton should be our next President. I was a bit shocked. In fact – one person said that the US needs a bit of a feminine touch after Bush. The view of the US is so different than our own self view – it is eye opening to hear what other countries think and a bit disturbing at the same time. Regardless – the food was outstanding – ribs, chicken, beef, rice, and veggie mash. I find it interesting that there is always a variety of meat. Normally my mom would simply make chicken. That’s it – one meat, and a vegetable. Yet here – it’s a minimum of 3 different kinds of meat – it seems like so much effort. For dessert we had our first Kenyan ice cream – yum!

We toured old town Mombassa today and learned of the battles of the Portuguese and the Muslims. We walked through the town sticking out like clothed people in a nudist colony – 6 white women walking around a Muslim town in Africa. We told people we were from Canada…it was just easier that way. At the end of the tour we walked through the various markets. It started simple with many fruits and veggies stacked on blankets and carts on the street. We then went into the enclosed spice market. What a wonderful smell! Spices piled like colorful mounds of sand. Lemon grass, ginger root, vanilla beans, and saffron – it was beautiful in a 3rd world rustic kind of way – but the smell was like an Indian restaurant. 

Next we went to the meat market – and it was an experience like no other. I just wish that I could somehow bottle the smell and put it in a scratch and sniff sticker for everyone to experience because my words can’t really do it justice. First off – when I say market – it’s not like a local Kroger supermarket butcher counter. It’s a shack with dirt floors and individual people with stands selling things – meat in this case. However – this market also did the slaughtering. The smell and the flies were overwhelming, meat parts from every kind of animal were hanging from hooks at each stand. Camel, goat, cow, lamb, and every part imaginable. Liver, heart, and there hanging with a family of flies – intestine…my tripe from the other day. Let me tell you – it looked much more appetizing coming off the grill than hanging on a big meat hook raw – freshly butchered. We were all a bit horrified, as we breathed out of our mouths as to not get nauscious from the smell. 

 I think the men there were completely entertained by our reactions as they tried to sell us camel liver (which was the size of a watermelon). Some would think that this may curb our appetite – but we all happily went to lunch after that and had our traditional meat stew. I accept what I saw by rationalizing that meat markets like this one in Mombassa area exist everywhere – even in the US (though maybe a bit cleaner) – but we don’t normally see the inner working of them – we are sheltered from that. Today the shelter was removed a bit – as I expect it to be removed even more as I continue eating my way through this journey.

We’ve made it to Samburu National Park/Safari which is wonderful but half the fun was getting here from Nairobi.  It was a 6 hour drive through Nairobi and the Kenyan countryside.  We were able to see the bustling city of Nairobi on a Monday morning.  There were people everywhere – like an army of ants going after spilled Kool-Aid.  Most people seemed to commute by foot.  There are little red dirt paths along every road serving as a sidewalk of sorts.  There were some lucky people that had access to bikes and would ride them where ever they could.  Masses of people would wait for the Matatus – a minibus/van/taxi of sorts in which they cram people in like sardines.  They stop anywhere along their route and pick people up and drop people off – it looks like a clown car as you really can’t imagine how many people fit into a Matatu.  This picture really doesn’t do it justice – but it’s hard to take pictures as you are speeding down the hi-way!

The whole thing looked like mass chaos to me – yet you knew there was order to it in some way that I would never understand in my short time in Nairobi.  The picture of masses of people walking down the streets reminded me of the NYC blackout or transit strike.  But the Kenyans do this commute EVERY day…it’s part of their life, their culture.  All of us in the US complaining about crowded subways, backed up tunnels, the Bay Bridge closure, West Side Highway traffic – you truly have no reason to complain.  You are sitting in a car with AC and music or a phone.  None of these walkers in Kenya had an ipod. 

  We drove by farming and societies that revolved around agriculture.  Cows that did the plowing, men walking down the road with their hoes and pitch forks – this was all for self sustenance – not for business.  Pictured here are the cows just randomly crossing in front or our truck…thank God for good brakes!

The people here really lived off the land…it was their livelihood – their dinner.  They used every bit of available space to grow things – every shoulder by the road had little rows of beans or potatoes growing.