As you probably know by now, I am in Kenya! I am here for
work but am very excited to be in my 30th country and on my 5th
continent! This is my first time in Africa. I am here to help with trainings
for work; we train medical professionals how to manage obstetric and neonatal
emergencies. My journey here (of which I am currently in the midst) was going
to be arduous and drawn out even if everything had gone to plan, which included
three flights, a night in Dubai, a night in Nairobi and then overland transfer
to our site, which would have me arriving Thursday PM after leaving Seattle
Monday afternoon. But, when do things ever go as planned with me?
I flew from Seattle to Dubai on Emirates, which is a lovely
flying time of 14.5 hours, which equates to pure hell aboard a small metal
flying container. I have flown this flight before and wasn’t looking forward to
it because it is so hard on your body. After my flight to Dubai, I overnighted in
a hotel provided by Emirates before leaving the next morning for a morning
flight to Nairobi.
Upon arrival in Nairobi, the plan was that I was to meet my
private driver who was to have a sign with my name on it and he would be
waiting at the exit. It should also be noted that the Nairobi airport recently
experienced a fire (about a month ago) in the international terminal, and it is
now completely unusable. As such, we exited our huge plane via the stairs and
waited on the tarmac (while other planes were taking off!) for tons of buses to
shuttle us all to the temporary immigration area.
After getting through immigration and getting my luggage, I
left the airport to find my driver. Except that I couldn’t find him. So I
waited. And then I waited more, and then for good measure I waited some more. A
very nice Kenyan shuttle driver called his number for me but he told them he
didn’t know what they were talking about. They told me to get in a taxi and
assured me I would be safe. I didn’t have any other options and I was tired of
waiting in the beating sun, so I got in a taxi. I knew I would likely be
perfectly fine, but I have been warned about being careful with taxis in
Nairobi. I tried to stay alert and awake, but I was so damn tired from so much
damn travel and Dramamine, that eventually my eyelids got the better of me and
I fell asleep; not the best idea, I know.
At one point he explained he was going to take shortcuts
(Note: The traffic in Nairobi, also known locally as “a jam” is INSANE! I
thought Mexico City was crazy, but it has NOTHING on Nairobi. There are no real
apparent lanes, rules or directions on any given street). I hoped shortcuts
wasn’t short for me getting robbed or worse as he was taking me through some
shady ass areas of the city, so I just tried to have faith and kept thinking
positive thoughts. He eventually got me to my hotel safe and sound! I finally
got in contact with one of my colleagues here in Kenya who I work with in
Seattle and her first words as she answered were: “OH MY GOD YOU ARE ALIVE!!!!”
No one knew I took a taxi to the hotel, they only knew that I was missing for
hours, lol. She said she thought I was wandering around Nairobi lost or worse.
She then said if it had to happen to someone on this trip, she is glad it was
me because, “you are the only one who could deal with that crazy shit.” Gotta
roll with the punches!
My coworker also convinced me to bring my old cell phone
from Korea and that she would get me a Kenyan simcard when she arrived and
leave it at the hotel for me. Thank god for that! It allowed me (once arriving
at the hotel) to communicate with the outside world. I spent the rest of my
night eating pizza and watching 19 Kids and Counting on Amazon, because what
else does one do after traveling for two days and arriving in Kenya?
My first full day in Nairobi (Thursday) was to have me go to
two places called the Giraffe Center and Elephant Orphanage where there are
TONS OF BABY ELEPHANTS!!!! I was quite excited and booked a private driver to
take me to each place and then to the airport for only $60! Sweet.
My first stop was the Giraffe Center, which is home to a
number of giraffes and a new-ish baby! Most are rescued from the wild as babies
who are orphaned or adults who are injured, and they live the rest of their
life out on the reserve. You can feed the giraffes and they take these kibble-y
bit things right out of your hand!!! A giraffe tongue is like nothing I was
prepared for. First off, they are unbelievably rough and freaking strong!! I
can’t really adequately put into words what it felt like…but strange and a
weird sensation none the less. I preferred feeding the baby as his tongue wasn’t
so creepy feeling. Giraffes are such majestic animals! I have never had the
opportunity to be up close and personal with them, they really are so beautiful
and just amazing to watch. It was a wonderful experience. As I was leaving a
group of young Kenyan school children showed up (I would say 5 or 6 years old).
They were all in matching uniforms and spoke in unison when asked questions; it
was so freaking cute! The main giraffe guy would ask them questions like, “How
many legs do giraffes have?” In unison: “FOUR!!!!” “How many eyes?” “TWO!!!!” “How
many colors do you see?” “YELLOW! BROWN! YELLOW! WHITE! YELLOW!” It was so
cute, especially with their ridiculously cute Kenyan accents. I don’t care the
accent, hearing it come out of a tiny little human just melts my heart and I
can’t help but smile.
As I was leaving, another school group of similarly aged
children showed up and every single one of them shook my hand or gave me a high
five! It was adorable. They were mostly speaking Swahili to me, which I of
course don’t understand, but there were a few, “Hello!” and “Nice to meet you!”
I said hello, hi, or nice to meet you to all 30 or so of them. It was just a
really wonderful and happy experience. I left with my heart very happy and a
smile on my face.
After the Giraffe Center we headed to the Elephant
Orphanage. I was so excited for this place! I freaking love elephants, and baby
elephants? Just stop. Too much cuteness. I knew it would be cuteness overload and
such an exciting thing, but I had no idea.
The orphanage is only open to the public one hour every day
to protect the babies. It is a very reputable place and most of their babies have
been victims of poaching via losing their mother’s. Heartbreaking! Each baby is
assigned a keeper and they have the same person for the three years they are in
the nursery. They have 24 hour care so that they get milk every 3 hours just as
they would if they were with their mothers.
The nursery is broken up into babies under one, one – two,
and two – three years old. After age three, they spend the next five years on a
reserve, adjusting to the wild and eventually are released and become part of a
heard.
The first group to come out was three tiny babies that were
all under one. My god. I cannot explain the cuteness as they galloped uncoordinatedly
down the hill towards us (they were in an area roped off from us and were with
their keepers). They were only out for about 10 minutes and the keepers were
showing them how to put dirt on themselves to protect their skin from the sun.
This is something that in the wild their mother teaches them (and does for the
first year of life) so here the keepers do it. Ridiculously cute doesn’t really
convey the cuteness overload that was happening. They were so TINY! I just
wanted to hug them and love them forever. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming
all at the same time. The keepers and babies are clearly bonded and love each
other.
After the “baby babies” left, out came the “waddlers” as I
called them (one – two years old). There were 27 of them. Good lord those baby
elephants coming down the hill was ridiculously cute!! There were so many and
they were clearly excited because they knew it was bottle and play time!! They
each got two bottles from their keeper and then played in the mud and with
soccer balls. They were out the longest, around 30 minutes. Watching them play
was literally one of the most amazing moments of my entire life. I kept
remember thinking, “This is amazing, this will always be one of my favorite
days.” It was just magical and so precious. Drinking water and spraying it and
watching them put dirt on their own backs (they had clearly mastered this skill
unlike with the baby babies). There was a mud pit and some would just totally
submerge themselves in it. It was fascinating to see all of their different
personalities and some of the dominant elephants in the group.
Just the day before an elephant had been added to the “waddler”
group. She had been rescued and had been found standing over her mother’s dead
body. Ugh. So unbelievably sad!! Just devastating. If you read about it, it is
well established and known that elephants mourn just as humans do, and will
stand over their loved one’s body for days and each year when they pass the
spot will visibly mourn that loss through crying, jumping, laying down where
they died and etc.. This particular baby was SO skinny! She was also a
different gray color than all of the other guys because her pigment had changed
because she went so long without food and had been sunburned : ( Her keeper was
next to her almost the whole time because a big fat guy kept picking on her. I
know it is part of nature but was so sad to watch. There was one elephant she
kept cuddling with and rubbing up against who didn’t seem to mind, it was nice
to see she had already made a little elephant friend.
After the waddlers left, the toddlers (2 -3 years old) came
out. These guys were HUGE!!!! There were only 7 of the big guys. It was crazy
to see the size difference between the waddlers and toddlers. There was also a marked
difference in behaviors; more independent, more forceful around wanting food
and clearly more stubborn when they were prevented from fighting or going
somewhere (like into the crowd). Just like human toddlers : )
It was a wonderful day. Like I said, one of my favorites. If
you ever have the opportunity to come to Nairobi, please, please, please, stop
by this place. It sounds cliché, but is literally life-changing. My heart left
very full, it was a very cathartic experience for me.
My next stop was the airport. Once at the airport I realized
I somehow messed up counting my money and had spent too much on damn elephant
statues and didn’t have enough to pay my driver! SHIT. Thankfully his company
has an account with my work so the rest will be charged to that. However, that
left me with zero cash and no ATM exists in the domestic terminal of the
airport. I thought, oh well, I will be in Kisumu in a few hours, it is fine.
The plan was to fly out at 3:00 to Kisimu (in Western Kenya) and then take a
two hour overland shuttle to Kakamega, where we are holding trainings. Kisumu
is not a very safe city so it was very important that I arrived before it got
dark so I could travel overland in the daylight.
As I was checking in, there were like 5 gate agents huddle
around the computer looking at my reservation quizzically. I asked if there was
a problem, and they all said no. They gave me my boarding pass and told me my
boarding time was 4:40 (it was 1:30) and I said, “What?!? I am on the 3:00
flight to Kisumu. They said, “no, that flight is,”closed.” I asked for
clarification as to what the hell that meant and they just kept saying closed
and that the next flight was at 4:40. Ok….so I called my colleague (a Kenyan
travel agent arranged all of our domestic travel) and she was as puzzled as I
was and also freaking out as I was because this would now get me into Kisumu
much too late to travel overland to Kakamega that night due to the danger with
driving in the dark and would mean overnighting in a fairly dangerous and
unstable city. Thank god I just bought all of these stone elephants and wood
giraffes that I can use as weapons!!
She suggested I go attempt to buy a ticket on another
airline. Unfortunately, there were no other flights between now and then!!!
After many frantic phone calls, it was decided that they only course of action
available to us was for me to take the flight and I would have to overnight in
Kisumu. It took a couple additional calls to figure out where I could stay that
was safe and who could pick me up and take me to the hotel. Eventually a known
driver was found to take me to a hotel that is safe to stay in. As she explained
to me: “TIK: This is Kenya” Which was hilarious to me because that is exactly
what people say about crazy shit in Korea! I can’t even tell you how many times
I said, “TIK, TIK” while leaving in Korea.
After figuring all of the crazy cluster f*ck out, I walked
my ass way over to the international terminal (They are not connected) to get
cash so I could eat. I should also mention I am fairly certain I got mild heat
stroke at the elephant orphanage (was standing in the direct sun, and it is
very, very hot here). I felt like shit, like I was going to throw up and had a
terrible headache. I got some money, and then proceeded to buy a Coke, bag of
chips and chocolate croissant as they were the only vegetarian items. The
croissant was disgusting and was thrown away after one spit out bite, the chips
were ok. I am now thankfully feeling much better and am writing this from the
tiny ass domestic departures “lounge” in Nairobi. I had three hours to kill, so
I thought what better to do than blog about my crazy (mis)adventures?!?
I would like to say, that Kenya is a wonderful place. The
people here are probably the most friendly I have encountered anywhere in the
world. Everyone is so helpful and greets me. I have never felt unsafe (except going
through the etch-a-sketchy neighborhoods with the taxi driver, but that was unnecessary)
and have thoroughly enjoyed my short time here thus far. I understand why so
many people fall in love with this place. Don’t worry family, I have no plans
to relocate!
Even with the insanity that has been my afternoon, I am
still kicking. Sometimes crazy shit happens (in life and in travel) and you
just have to roll with it. I could get bogged down with the details and freak
the hell out being stressed out and worried, but why? What is the point? It
will get me nowhere. There was a moment while I was walking with my food, I was
hot as shit, felt like puking, had a migraine and was tired. I thought, “This
fucking sucks.” I immediately corrected myself and reminded myself it could be
worse and to be grateful for this amazing experience very few get to have. We rarely
have control over what happens to us, but we do have control over how we react
to it and how we think about it. The mind is a powerful thing, choose different
thoughts.
Life is too short, just learn to roll or you will never make
it out alive. I never would have had one of my most favorite experiences ever
without the craziness that is Kenya, life is all about tradeoffs. It (life) is
also short and guaranteed to no one, I refuse to let fear get the better of me
and prevent me from experiencing everything I want to experience (many people
assumed I would cancel my trip after the shootingsin Nairobi last month). As my
colleague said, TIK, I say TIT (ha!) as well, as in ‘This Is Travel’,
particularly in developing countries. Things are nearly guaranteed to go wrong,
particularly when I am involved. There will be delays, things will get screwed
up and I will likely puke at some point, but ya know what? This is traveling,
this is my life, and I love it.
Stay tuned…
__________________________________________________________________________________
I wrote the above portion of this blog entry in the airport
waiting to take off for Kisimu. I am now on the other side of the crazy ass
evening that happened and am at the site we are working at! It only took 5 days
for me to get to Kakamega, Keyna; but here I am!!
I arrived at my hotel and shortly after received a security
briefing call; my first official security brief! Many people might have been
freaking out hearing the information I was hearing, but I was more excited. I
guess that is why I do what I do, this stuff excites me instead of scares me.
There is no place for Nervous Nellies in Kenya! I was essentially told that the
city I am in has become increasingly unstable in the past few months (I wasn’t
supposed to be here, just fly in and leave) and that there has actually been a
few murders and bad robberies right on the street I was on---crazy! I was only
called in an abundance of caution and as I was in a gated hotel for the night
and literally being escorted out of the city with two Kenyans, I wasn’t in the
slightest bit worried. Needless to say, I survived to tell the tale.
I finally arrived at site mid-day and the three colleagues
waiting for me were very happy to see that I was alive! They were all puzzled
as to how I could be in such high spirits. One literally asked if I was anxious
or had experienced a panic attack after everything, which seemed crazy to me,
but anyways…I just shrugged and said, “It takes a lot to rattle me while
abroad. I think living in Nicaragua greatly heightened all normal reactions to
stressful or scary stuff.” But, also? TIK and TIT, shit happens.
Now that I am in very rural Kenya (I am in the Western part
of the country) food has been a struggle. I was already warned of this and
brought literally over five pounds of food. Some people might think that is
ridiculous, but I am a vegetarian and cannot eat a lot of foods. My coworker
who has spent a considerable amount of time here during the past few years
working on our project highly encouraged me to bring food, lol. Lunch was
something called Ooogali (that is spelled phonetically, I have no idea how to
spell it), which is like a cornmeal made into something resembling grainy
mashed potatoes, without a lot of flavor, with a side of something I can’t
remember the name of that was like a spongy flat bread type thing (the only
thing I finished) and a green vegetable mixed with something my super taster
mouth just couldn’t handle. I topped off my lunch with nuts I brought. The
Ooogali is not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination, but not the worst
thing I’ve had, the flat bread was pretty good and the greens were unbearable
to my mouth. I am told I will eat this again, everyday. Yay!
As I write, it sounds like there is a monsoon happening
outside! I haven’t heard rain like this since Nicaragua. Those instantaneous
rainstorms that erupt in the tropics, love it. Kenya reminds me very much of
Nicaragua, from its overall level of development, the countryside, and the very
happy and welcoming people. It is making me miss it very much.
Tomorrow we are all off to a place called the Kakamega
forest to explore! It will be nice to see more of the countryside of Kenya.
Off to dinner…wish me luck!
