LIVING THE AFRICAN DREAM!

Hello everyone!!

It´s been light years since the last time I wrote, and I just realized that I am half way through my African experience !!!. One of the reasons why I have not been writing lately is because this month of December we are on holidays J so I have been travelling quite a lot, and I never found time to sit in front of the computer.. Many things have happened lately, I have seen a lot, met many people and learned a lot. To make it easier for me to tell I am going to start telling the latest event and go backwards, I hope you can follow me!.


Today is the 24th of December, a national Christmas Day in Spain, my country. Today everyone is in Spain in running up and down buying food, presents to exchange tonight or tomorrow, making the final preparations for the nice suppers that families will share together, etc. I wish I were with my family these days to experience the X-mas spirit and receive their love!. But instead I am in Nairobi spending these feast days with Maine a Kenyan friend of mine that I met in the Netherlands in the university. Today is not a special day in Kenya, they have the main celebration tomorrow, so we will go to Maina´s parent´s place to have lunch with them and the rest of the family. They are fantastic people! They have welcomed me so warmly that I do not miss what I left behind so much or feel homesick. One of the things that I love about this country, or I´d better say about these people, is how friendly they are. They really try to make you feel welcome and comfortable; even when you meet people on the street and ask for directions they would walk half an hour with you to show you the place….it´s happened to me several times. People start talking to you in the bus, and at the end of the trip they give you their telephone number to visit them and their families J. It makes you feel good that people are so friendly, easy going and patient. I have a lot to learn from them! I hope I will be a better person after my experience here!.


Yesterday I went with my friend Maina and 3 of his siblings to Hell´s gate park. That is the only National Park in Kenya where you can walk or cycle freely everywhere, we were planning to do that, but it was raining quite a lot so we had to do it in the car. I loved it very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There where lots of zebras, giraffes, antelopes, gazelles, warthogs (the “pumbas” from the Lion King movie ;) ) , buffaloes, nice birds, etc. You could just walk out of the car and see the animals next to the dirt road grazing quietly…I even chased a family of warthogs with small piglets for a bit, and it was funny to see them running and turning their heads back to see what was going on!. In that park we also went down to a gorge with a guide, it was not carrying much water so we could walk through it for a long distance. It was almost dry, but the guide explain to us that during the proper heavy rainy season the water might go 5-6 meters up.. (I will post some pictures on facebook so that you can see it). On the little excursion we also came across a spring of hot water, it was very very hot! They say that it has medicinal properties. Later on in the day we went to lake Naivasha, a large lake with many hippos; we arrived there late so we didn´t see any L, but the view was very nice. In the surrounding of lake Naivasha you can find many flower farms, surprisingly Kenya is one of the main flower exporters in the world, sending most of his flowers to the Netherlands!!! On the way back home…when it was dark…we had a small car accident, the experience was not very pleasant because the car that hit us ran away and didn´t want to stop. We chased them for quite a long time until we got to a police check where all the cars where stopped, there we could talk with them. They did not recognized what they did, they even denied it so we had to discuss things a lot with them and the police officer (that asked for a tip after… ;) ). In the end things worked out fine, but I learned a some lessons: DO NOT DRIVE IN KENYA WHEN IT´S DARK! And apologize yourself sincerely when you do something wrong. It would have made things 10 times easier if those people would have at least said I am sorry for hitting you and running away…instead of trying to deny the whole thing. But anyway…we got home safe!!!


The previous days I have been visiting Nairobi. The more time I spend in it the more I like it! When I just arrived in November I must recognized that I felt a bit frightened and surprised at many things. But now I even get in the “matatus” the most common public transport in Kenya, that is a 7 people van converted into a mini bus for 15 or more, although sometimes they manage to fit more people in, they just sit people in you lap, and I wonder: Did I pay for a seat in the bus or only for the right to travel?.


Last weekend I went of a safari with my study team and also my friend Maina. We went to Amboseli National Parks, one of the most famous ones here in Kenya. This park boasts one of the country´s most spectacular backdrops, namely Mt Kilimanjaro, which is Africa´s highest peak. Most of the day the mountain was invisible, covered by clouds, but when the weather clears you can have stunning vistas. Maina had worked in the area for several years, so we were able to stay in a nearby place with some friends of his. Actually we did not stay at their place, but in a boarding school that was located in the same compound. We slept in the beds of kids that are now on holidays; to my surprise it was pretty clean and comfortable. But there were neither showers not toilets… so the first night when we arrived there I had to take a bath (with warm water from a bucket) in the open field under a sky full of millions of stars. That was for me one of the highlights of the day: just me and the nature. That was one of the most beautiful skies at night I can remember, it gave me a feeling of humility, there I realised how small I am among all many other beautiful creations. The safari was GREEEAAAT!!!! I got to drive the 4WD in the park and that added a lot of excitement to the trip. We drove from 6 in the morning, when it’s not very hot and the animals are more active, until late in the afternoon. We saw dozens of elephants, many zebras, a couple of hyenas, hippos, giraffes, many different types of birds like pelicans, ostriches, etc. We just missed the lions L they were hidden somewhere, so I think I am not going to see lions during this trip in Africa!. At midday we went to one of the fancy hotels inside of the park for lunch. The lodges are usually built near the water sources so you can see animals coming down for drinking. They offer spectacular views!. So, that was Amboseli!!!!!!


Now we have to go back one more week. I spent it in Nairobi again with Maina, I came for his sister wedding, the 12th of Dec. The wedding was fabulous, there was a lot of singing and dancing during the church ceremony and that was so much fun. It was much different from the type of weddings that I am used to, but definitely I enjoyed it very much. The rest of the week I did a lot of sightseeing in the city, I went to the giraffe centre, a very important giraffe breeding centre where you can get close to the animals, hand-feed or even get a kiss from them (I got one!! But they have really long sticky tongs, so it was a bit weird!) . One of the purposes of the centre is to create awareness and provide environmental education aimed to encouraging visitors to appreciate Kenya´s biodiversity. Definitely is a must see place if you come to Nairobi!.
I also visited the Bomas of Kenya, a cultural centre that shows the different types of houses used by the more than 50 tribes in Kenya. The houses have been built by members of their correspondent tribes, so they are 100% authentic. A tour guide takes you through the different villages and explains to you the history, politics, customs, etc. I liked it very much, and I understood the Kenyan-tribe system much more. There you can also enjoy a performance of traditional dances and songs from the country’s various tribal groups: warrior dances, Arabic influenced Swahili music, drumming and circumcision ceremonies!. During my time in Nairobi I also went to the fabrics market! I got lost in the countless shops that sell all shorts of fabrics in different colours and materials! I got many J to get some clothes done here. I was like going shopping in Europe, but much more fun: you fin the fabric you like, negotiate the price, choose the style you like and they make it for you at a very good price ;)


If we go back another week we get to the beginning of December. That week I week to the southern coast of Kenya with Myriam, the other girl working on her thesis in the same project, and her boyfriend Joppe. We went to Diani beach, which is in the South of Mombasa. We had a great time there! The beach was totally gorgeous! We were able to rent a boat and go to Robinson Island to do snorkelling. The reef was not very large, but still we saw many different types of fish, corals, sea stars, etc. The water was very hot! Really, I think you could not really believe it if I show you when I am back. It was almost like pouring hot tee on your body…!!! Ajajajajajaj, well, maybe not that bad, but the truth is that if you were hot outside going in the water made it worse!. Of course in the morning it was not as hot, so you could swim nicely. Ah!!!!!! I also did windsurfing!!!! Although the wind was not very strong it was still nice to navigate in the Indic Ocean!. Pretty much everyday we had lunch and dinner at the same restaurant right in front of the beach, it was specially nice when the sun was setting in the evening (not behind the sea because that is East ;) ), but just the fact that it was getting dark and cooler, the pinkish crabs starting coming out of their holes in the sand and you could see them running everywhere, and that was also a beautiful setting for having nice and animated conversations. One of the days at the coast we went to the Shimba Hills National Reserve. In contrast with the many other open savannah-type parks, this one is very hilly and has a tropical forest where you are allowed to walk if accompanied by a ranger that holds a gun in case an animal shows up in the trail. The gun is not for killing them ;) but to scare them!. In our walk we where taken to a nice waterfall, and we were allowed to go under it in our swimsuits!. The experience was a bit like being in a spa, with all that amount of water falling over your body. After it we felt all renewed!. We had lunch in lodge that was in the middle of a forest and facing a lake, there and elephant came down for drinking, we saw giant lizards (not crocodiles L), eagles coming down to the lake to hunt, turtles; we also had a lizard ate from our hand. We saw plenty of buffalos and big mammals in the park, small forest elephants and giraffes. When on top of the high hills you could see the beach and the distant cities far away. It was definitely a gift for the eyes.


I now I just have to talk about the first safari we went on at the end of November. That was the Chyulu Hills National Park. The hills are a collection of volcanic cylinder cones and elaborate underground caverns. This is not a park where you see animals constantly, actually we only saw hartebeests, so we were a bit disappointed because it was out first safari and we were hoping to more animals But the views were splendid! So at the end of the day everyone enjoyed very much the beautiful green landscapes and also the more rough and rocky volcanic areas. Ah! And we also got to get into a lava tube. Within the Chyulu Hills is the Leviathan, believed to be the longest lave tube in the world, which was formed by hot lava flowing beneath a cooled crust. We did not explore it completely because you need a full caving equipment, but still it was nice to go down a walk a bit in the dark, and quiet tube.



There is still a lot that I could tell about the lifestyle in Kenya, or I’d better day the way I perceive life in Kenya; but I think it was enough for today! Next time I will tell you more about the way I experience things here, my thesis, projects, people I’ve met, etc.




To close, I just want to wish Merry Christmas to everyone. May peace, forgiveness and love be present in your homes these days and the following ones!.