Day Trip to Lake Naivasha
On Sunday six of us traveled to Lake Naivasha to go on a walking safari and a boat ride on the lake. I woke up at 5:45 in the morning to shower and get ready. We took a taxi from our apartment strait to the stage where we were told we could get a bus to Naivasha. The bus company told us they did not go to Naivasha and as we walked out of the gate we were swarmed by several people telling us they would take us. We haggled with prices and were definitely sketched out by their behavior. I called Victor to ask him if it was legit and what a reasonable price was, and at one point waved somebody down on the street to ask them before he was swarmed by the guys and I lost all chance of an objective opinion. Three of our group got on the first shuttle and then we ended up settling and getting on the second, empty, shuttle. The guys were standing outside the van smiling, laughing, and winking at the girls. Two girls got in the van and sat in front of us reading newspapers, I think to make the van look fuller so people would get on expecting to leave soon. I asked one of the ladies to ask if the three others of our group in the van in front of us could get into our van. She told me it was no problem, went outside and talked to the men, and came back with no results. All that was going through my mind that all these people were up to no good and we were going to end up in a very bad situation. Expecting the worse I slipped by knife I had in my bag (because we were considering camping), and slipped it into my pocket. I watched very carefully the people getting into the van – their appearance, how they presented themselves, and where they came from. Once we pulled out of the lot and I felt everybody in the van, except the driver, was legit we felt a little more comfortable.

When we arrived in Naivasha (about 1 hour away) we got out of the van not knowing where the others were and people started coming toward us. Then this younger guy came up and goes, “You must be Marco, right?” We all just looked at each other like, “No, not here too!” because over the last couple of weeks people have come up to me at bars knowing me already apparently, or even one bus driver stuck his head out of the window and yelled “HEY MARCOO!!!” When he said he was George, the guy we called to take us around, we laughed and sighed in relief. We went up and met the other group who had arrived about 30 minutes ahead of us. For 1,600 shillings each, George took us on a walking safari, out on the lake on a boat, and to lunch – food, beverage, and transportation in a private matatu included.

Our walking safari was amazing. We were the only people out there, accompanied by an armed ranger incase one of the animals caused trouble. We hiked through the brush trying to avoid all the poop, but were literally 10-15 feet away from Giraffes, Zebras, Gazelles, and all sorts of little creatures I have no idea how to call. We were standing taking pictures of a Giraffe and started to walk away when somebody went, “Marco, turn around.” I turned and slowly approaching us with curiosity was a lone Zebra. We all stopped and started taking pictures of it and then more of them came toward us looking at us as if we were some kind of spectacle. I mentioned that to somebody and they replied, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re looked at like we’re a spectacle everywhere here.”

Our boat ride on Lake Naivasha was a neat experience. There weren’t any hippos, because they were all hiding in the brush. But you could see people from the nearby village at the public “beach”. The children were playing around waving at us and the women were washing their clothes in the water, because there is no running water in the village. George bought three fish from a boat of fishermen and we went down the lake a bit to where the African Fish Eagles were perched on the trees. He stuffed their mouths with a plant off the water to make them float after he threw them. He whistled to get their attention and then tossed the fish into the water. Just moments later the bird circled and then swooped down and snatched the fish. I got some awesome pictures. The first fish was perfect. The second, the eagle came down circled and didn’t see it and went back to its tree. The third fish, the eagle swooped down but then dropped it, went back to its tree, the made a second go for it and got it. I got a great picture of the bird dropping the fish.

Afterwards I treated George to a beer at the open-air bar by the lake where all these little monkeys were running around freely. We then went to lunch where we had chicken and rice at a restaurant overlooking the lake. Alan had asked George where he lived and he pointed down the road. After lunch he took us to see his place, which was a small studio-like room down an uneven cement ally with clothes lines we had to navigate through. In his room/apartment? he had squeezed in a bed, 2 couches, a desk and armoire. The roof was the same corroded tin-roof you see in the slums, although he did have sturdy cement/stone walls. He had a TV and sound system for his bootleg music-video DVD’s that put out some serious sound. We asked how they neighbors felt about it, but he said the walls were made of stone and pretty soundproof. One of his neighbors was walking by and saw a bunch of white people in his place and probably thought we were robbing him or something so he stuck his head in to make sure George was there. The mans son, sat down next to me and hung out with us while we watched the music videos and chatted. When we left all the little kids came up to us asking “how are YOU?” and posed for some pictures for us. We gave George money for the trip home (half of what we paid to get there) and he negotiated with the busses that stopped for us as we waited in the private matatu alone. As we sat there people were coming up to the windows trying to sell stuff. One guy opened Ashley’s window and I told him “No go, dude” and shut it on him. All of a sudden this guy we didn’t know ran up to our van, slid open the window, unlocked the door from the inside, and opened it shouting “Let’s go!”. We were a little confused but figured if we were getting kidnapped…well whatever. About 8 guys swarmed us telling us to get on the bus while we were looking around for George. They told us we were paid for and it was okay to get on. Then we saw George, said thanks, and got on the bus. It was a pretty awesome day, despite the strange and stressful events on the way there and back. We’re planning on going back at some point and doing Hell’s Gate with George sometime before we leave.

Giraffe Centre
Last Friday we had a class field trip to the Giraffe Centre in Karen. We got a handful of little treats and one at a time the Giraffes would lick it out of our hands. The crazy people of the group put the snacks in their mouths and let the giraffe take it right out of their mouths – gross. I found a giraffe that new how to catch and we got an awesome video clip of two of us throwing treats into its mouth back and forth – honestly probably deserves to be on America’s (?) Africa’s Funniest Home Videos. We took taxis from there to a nice little restaurant, definitely upper-class, with a garden and monkeys in the back. It was nice to just sit outside, have a beer and some hummus, and be able to breathe air not polluted by burning trash and car exhaust.

Interesting Observations
Power outages are a regular “phenomenon” here in Kenya. I remember writing a paper last Fall about US development assistance in sub-Saharan Africa and reading a Center for Global Development paper talking about how the number of power outages affect business output, but I guess I didn’t really expect it to be as widespread and frequent as it is here in Kenya. The power in our apartment has gone off multiple times, and there is a generator in the back that kicks in to power the perimeter lights and the gym. And even while I was posting my last blog entry in the internet café in the posh Sarit Center mall the power went out. We spent an evening at a previous student’s boyfriend’s house in the very posh neighborhood of Lakeview (the house was literally across the street from President Kibaki’s son, who is apparently wealthier than his father so I’ve heard) and even there the power went out. And Kenyans are conservative as it is with power because of the expense.

Going along with power and the power structure, in Naivasha there is a lot of development with KenGen plastered on it: bus stops, restaurants, bars, etc. I asked George about it and he explained to us that KenGen is a company that utilizes the hot springs in Hells Gate to generate electricity. When I asked him if that electricity benefited the local community, he explained to me that it was sold to Kenya Power (a, and I think the only, part private/part public central power company) that then sold that electricity back to the town and throughout Kenya. I forgot to mention above, George doesn’t pay for electricity to power his sweet entertainment system. Instead he invested in a solar panel that sits on top of his tin roof and is connected to what may as well be a car battery that then provides him with the electricity he needs.

Oh, and I didn’t mention the flower farms earlier that we saw in Naivasha. I was sitting in the living room talking to Kim about how all the flowers in our apartment died so quickly and I attributed it to the typhoid-infested water, to which she asked where the flowers came from because they were so cheap but she hadn’t seen flowers being grown anywhere, which triggered my memory of the flower farms in Naivasha! It was truly amazing. There are literally miles of greenhouses along the side of the road and it seems to be an economic “clutch” for the community. First of all, I’d never seen that extent of “flower farming”. I wish we could have gone inside to take a picture of the miles of flowers. I did get a picture from the side of the road that I’ll probably never post. But a larger part of the community seemed to be built around it. We drove by what looked like a long cement Motel 6, that George pointed out as being the housing for the flower workers. After telling Kim about it I thought it was kind of sad the living conditions these workers were living in, but then I thought…what else would they be doing? They’d be living the day-to-day struggle (more so than they are now) that so many people are stuck with. Here they have a community built around this industry and there is a hospital I noticed about mid-way through the length of the “housing development.” I remember reading about the flower exporting business in China I think it was. It’s a pretty intense business! Somebody will have to look up the stats for that as a percentage of Kenya’s exports and e-mail me.

USIU
Classes are getting worse as time goes on. Actually, I don’t really want to talk about it.

MamaMikes
My internship this semester is with an online business called MamaMikes.com. They provide a way for those with loved ones in Kenya (wink, wink) so send vouchers to stores and restaurants, products, pre-paid phone minutes, pay children’s school fees, and much more. I came in with several ideas of where I want to take the company and am currently working on pursuing those. My current projects include designing the MamaMikes blog so people can keep up to date with the company and services provided and a social outreach program so people can make donations to local organizations. It’s a great environment to work in: free (yet slow) internet and the people are fun to talk to about politics, culture, Kenya, and about anything that comes up. I’ll be sure to post the link to the blog once we’ve finished – which should be within the week. I’ve taken on the social outreach completely by myself and have realized, it’s a whole lot more work than I expected. But I’m excited for the final product. We’re starting small to test the service, and I won’t say much more until something is actually up and running: until then it’s classified.

Upcoming Events
October is our month of traveling. The weekend after next we will be going to Lake Turkana for a week (and everybody has been telling us there is NOTHING to do there). Then we are back for another two weekends then we are flying to Lamu, on the coast, for a weekend. Then two weekends after that a group of us are planning a trip to Mombassa.

Yesterday marked our one-month Anniversary and we had a group pot-luck dinner in one of the apartments. It’s hard to believe, and scary to think about how much there is to do in such little time. I don’t think it will be too hard to leave, though. Some of the girls have been saying how in love they are with Kenya and they never want to leave…I’m over it (for now) haha. It just wares you down, the transportation, the stress, the food (or lack thereof when I’m feeling stingy and nobody is feeling generous). It’s an interesting life, but hard.

Oh, I forgot to mention…
I went to the park today close to where I work and stood around listening to what is called “The People’s Parliament”. You can walk around the there are circles of mzee(s), or elder men, talking about politics and issues. They got very excited to see a mzungu, white person, interested in what they have to say. It’s truly neat to see something of the sort where democracy has not become as complacent as it is in the States. Men stand around in the park debating issues and expressing opinions for all to hear and challenge. And apparently on Fridays it’s aired on National television. I get a picture of ancient Greece in my head when I see it. Alright, that’s all.

Oh, and I have some pictures…the Giraffe Centre was the first place I actually took out my camera, but I’ve collected a few from others. I tried to post them at work, but the connection is too slow so maybe over the weekend I’ll take my laptop to the internet café and try uploading them there. I’ll post the link to them here.