So Last Sunday was actually pretty cool. We went to the head teacher of Muringato Primary’s parents home in the Aberdare region about a half hour outside of Nyeri. We drove out there with the deputy teacher, into the mountainy area. It was so pretty not really at all what I’d picture as rural Africa. The people there are pretty well off because many of them own really fertile land where they are able to grow plenty for local use as well as export. We met the teacher’s mother and father on their homestead. His father was polygamous and only the one wife still survived and she is in her 70’s and still really active. His father is this tiny little man with one eye and can hardly walk- considering he is 97 I figured he is doing pretty well for himself though. We wandered through the farm plots and saw the different things they grew everything from maize (which I have realized is really tough not as good corn), to flowers they export to Holland, to cabbage, kale and fruits like guava, plums and all kinds of other stuff…We also saw tea fields .. they are really pretty and lush. It was only traditional black teas so I’d be curious to see what green tea and other kinds look like when they grow J What was cool is that they insisted that we try all the food while we were there so we had roasted maize and guavas while wandering around. We then went to see the local primary schools in the area, as well as wandered through the little town area. We met 3 of his sisters (between the 2 mothers there are 16 kids) and they made lunch for us. One of the meals that I enjoy of traditional Kikuyu food is Mokimo- whish is like mashed potatoes that have been boiled with pumpkin leaves or stinging nettle to make it turn green, then they add in onions, beans and maize… its good and you get it in something that looks like a mashed potato lump which is kind of fun J After lunch, we hung around a bit more, the family gave us some guavas, kale and a pumpkin to take back with us to town, so we walked for like an hour down the winding hills through fields and plantations and forests to get to the matatu stand. Then like 25 people crammed into a 14 seater matatu (which is just a big van), which is always fun on a hot and sweaty day where people don’t wear deodorant. J Anyways, that was my Sunday adventure... pretty fun…
The following Tuesday and Wednesday were spent having my very first working holiday J I have to admit that I really enjoyed having a paid for trip with extra cash given for food where we get to go check out a series of ecotourism sites within the region in order assess the opportunities for Kimathi’s proposed eco-sanctuary and lodge. We were told Monday night that we had to be ready for 7am on Tuesday (while It was really short notice, I’m learning not to be too surprised by things like this anymore). We met at Kimathi at 7am where around 40 other people including head administrators from Kimathi as well as other community groups and tourism. This group and trip are a result of one of the big events which were held in October, The Tourism Stakeholders Day, which broupgh together all the important people within tourism to discuss the idea of converting 350 acres of forests on Kimathi land into an eco lodge and wildlife Sancturary. So the trip was organized by Kenya Wildlife Services ( those who handle all the parks and such in Kenya), which was great because we got to visit a bunch of different places that otherwise I would have had to pay for J
We left by 9am and drove up to this location called Laikipia who are a group who help to organize and establish community based tourism ventures. So they work with a bunch of ecolodges and market for these groups and act as a starting point for a lot really nice safaris since they have an airstrip there. Then we got to go to the Ol Pegeta Conservancy which is in the center of a wildlife sanctuary, with a nice and expensive lodge called Sweet waters. This was the work part of the trip because then we go to go and pet the only black Rhino in the world who will let you pet him … yes I said PET J it was so cool. He was enormous and it was like petting a rock. The conservancy has black and white rhinos ( the difference is not in their actual color but in their mouths… blacks have pointy lower jaws and white have square ones) . Then we drove around the park a bit and I finally saw elephants!! They were so cute! We also got to go to a museum with skulls and bones and man, the elephant legs are like as big as my waist are… and their skulls are like the size of… well okay they were really big…We also go to go to their chimpanzee rescue center, which is pretty much chimp rehab for the chimps who have had a really tough life. They were adorable and played like people do. It was so funny to watch. Part of this parks success is their integration of education and community within the tourism components. They also help by giving back to the community by helping develop health centers and build roads within the community. After that, since we were running behind schedule (what else is new) we drove north, around mount Kenya, towards Isiolo. There was one stretch of the road that really made me feel like I was at home and not in Kenya. It had nothing to do with the smoothness of the roads (because they weren’t) but it was because in this little region, they grow wheat everywhere. It was so cool to see it growing, because besides the mountains in the back ground, you felt like you were in the Prairies driving (not Saskatchewan because it was way too hilly J) It was gorgeous though. So cool. We arrived at Isiolo pretty late, just checked in, had a bite to eat then crashed.
Day 2 of the free tour of the Central province started out by going to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. First it was too wet, as it had rained the night before and so the roads were too wet for our bus to get to the information center, but eventually we got there and spoke to the community director about the projects and successes that they have had running community projects and eco-lodges in the area. They helped to mentor and establish Il Ngwesi, a beautiful eco-lodge which we visited next. So after this little info session, the roads were still wet, so we had to go an hour and a half drive out of our way to take a different route to Il Ngwesi. So driving we went.. it was fine because I had my i-pod on and just watched out the window, the scenery and the people, but about an hour and half drive in, nearly all the way there, our bus got stuck on this crap road ( well not really a road, more like a path that just went thru the savannah) . So it takes us an hour to maneuver this huge bus out of this hole (which was essentially a dry riverbed), and then not 5 minutes later, we get stuck again, and go thru the same process which only took us half an hour to get out of this time. We finally arrived at Il Ngwesi, go on a little 5 minute hike up the mountain from where the bus drops us off at, and we arrive in Paradise. Honestly, if you have 300$ per night/person to spend, this is the place to go. In fact, this is where Prince William comes. It only sleeps 17 people and has a spectacular view of the mountains, the valley, the wildlife and everything in between. It is nearly impossible to describe so I would just suggest Google-ing it to see their web site. Everything rns on solar power, it has a pool that just drops off to the valley, the bedrooms are all open air on half of it, which over liking the valley and mountains, the showers are outdoors, and the toilets are open and have the same view as the rest of it, that it really gives some incentive to take a book to the bathroom J It was seriously beautiful. And Its really cool because it is community owned, community run, and the profits all go back into helping to develop the community by providing bursaries for secondary school and university, building schools, developing health dispensaries and things like that. Its really wonderful to see a place that rich tourists are contributing to which is really helping those in the area, rather than getting cycled back to some huge corporation. Also, this place has won a number of international awards for being one of the world’s best eco-lodges, and from visiting for an hour or so, I can totally see why. So then after that, we left the lodge, traveled back to Isiolo, drove back to Nyeri, and arrived back home by midnight ( did I mention that we were supposed to be back by 5pm… and that planning is not exactly their strong point here in Kenya?)
Last Friday, myself and 3 of the other interns went to Muringato Primary school who I work with and made recycled paper with some of grade 6 and 7’s . It was really hard actually, but a lot of fun to do with the kids. We then returned on Monday to decorate the cards with those classes again J The results were really good. We are now going to sell the cards and some of you might be lucky enough to get them for Christmas ( likely not many as the # of cards made was not as high as we had thought it would be so I only got to buy like 4 cards, so we will have to see how fast they all sell J but they are really cute and even though we spent a bunch of $ getting all the supplies and decorations, it was totally worth it, as the money is going to go back to the school so that they can by desks or whatever they need J
SO those have been my adventures for the last couple of weeks. Its been a lot of fun and I’m trying not to think of how little time I have left. Every time I look at a calendar, it seems like there is next to no time left. Frightening actually J How will I accomplish all I set out to do ?? :s guess we’ll just have to see how much gets done in the next couple of week. Things are getting pretty interesting here too since the National Elections are on the 27th of December.
