leaving t-zed

So me and Tanzania are not the best of friends and i was ever so happy and eager to get back to Kenya. i spent the day in zanzibar which is like the most beautiful place ever. i wandered around stone town which is very persian and then caught a dalla-dalla traveling around most of the island to kiwengwe, which is a very posh italian resort beach front. there i managed to talk my way into a beautiful resort and ate lunch while dipping my toes in the amazingly turquoise waters. the way back i hitched a ride on the truck that transports all the people who work at the resort back to the main town. they loved me, they thought it was absolutely hilarious that a muzungu was cool with riding on the back of the truck with them. i thought it was quite entertaining and a free ride, which is exactly where my pocket book is taking me. back in town i was invited for tea at one of the workers house which i gladly accepted and was shown a little bit of the real life on zanzibar which is not glamorous to say the least, but still comfortable enough. wandering around zanzibar in the evening is absolutely beautiful, full of candle lights along the coast and people busy trying to persuade you to come into their shop and purchase stuff. then i took the night ferry which departed at 2130 for the mainland. they put all the muzungus in the same area, the whole ferry being turned into a hotel of sorts with mattresses everywhere for people to sleep. i slept quite comfortably actually the only problem being that i had to wake at 530 in the morning which really was not my idea of a good time


anywho, sorry i have to keep this short.

i'm at diani beach right now, totally a tourist hot spot full of germans. the weather is weird, sometimes it rains sometimes it's sunny....but my next destination should be the beach hopefully. will write more when it doesn't cost so much.

can't wait to get home.

heart.
-malaika

Tanzania

Thursday July 27 I left Nairobi and the amazing time I’ve been having on campus for Tanzania. Since my bus left at 6:30 you know it was impossible to sleep on Wednesday night so I hung out with the AIESEC’ers all night until the wee hours of the morning and walked to the bus station. Once on the bus I proceeded to sleep, sleep and more sleep, that is until we arrived at the border, which was even more shadier than the Ugandan border. Exiting Kenya is never a problem, they’re always very courteous, smiling…. But the short walk in no-man’s land to Tanzania is really difficult. There are no signs to direct you, it’s full of large vehicles undergoing inspection and you are forced to weave in and out of them in an attempt to make it to immigration. It’s not so difficult to simply walk across the border, but if you’re caught there is some serious hell to pay. Anywho, so after being misdirected by the infamous touts I realized I should just follow the other chicks that were on my bus, because obviously they know what they’re doing…once in Tanzania I had to find my bus again, which was actually somewhat difficult. Back on the bus I put on my headphones and watched the Serengeti go by. The foliage here is noticeably different, please don’t expect me to explain, it just is. Passing Mt Kilimanjaro, I know I have to come back if for no other reason than to conquer that mountain. It is an absolutely beautiful area. It was cloudy most of the day which made for amazing god rays of sunlight that forces you to remember what a beautiful world this is. I’m convinced that heaven must look like the East African plains because I’ve yet to see something better.

The rest stop along the way was very interesting because all the toilets were particularly clean but none of them had toilet paper, only buckets of water. So I’m thinking it’s something like a beday ?? either way it was a strange lavatory experience, although I should emphasize that it was probably one of the cleanest restrooms I’ve seen in a very long time.

The candle lights outside of shop windows lined the streets as we entered Dar Es Salaam at 2130. Probably not one of my best decisions ever, it worked out quite well nonetheless. I performed one of my best negotiating ever, managing to get a vehicle for me and the 4 other muzungu women I picked up on the bus. Unfortunately for us traveling Kenya style didn’t work out so well, mostly because the YWCA, YMCA and Jambo Guest house were all full, but nonetheless we all shared a room at the Safari Inn which was quite decent minus the really loud banging that started at around 5 am because of the construction going on next door. I have discovered that the reason the YWCA *which is the cheapest place to stay in Dar Es) was full was because the guard at the gate is friend with the owner of Safari and thus directed us there to help his business. Everything here is so tricky….

Wandering around Dar Es worked out quite well, except for the two, count ‘em 2 times I almost got pick-pocketed. The ironic thing is that the guidebook says Dar Es is one of the safer cities in East Africa. I think I shall write a letter…. Either way nothing was taken because I am an all-star and they were obviously afraid that I would kick their tail! ; P anywho, so I was walking around the bus station and managed to book travel all around T-zed (t-zed is what Kenyans call Tanzania). So tonight I stay in the YWCA, which is small but decent and dirt cheap which is just the way I like it.

The game plan for those of you that are interested:

Tomorrow morning 630 pick up from YWCA, drive to ferry, catch ferry to Zanzibar, wander around the tourist places for a couple hours, catch a dalla-dalla (public transportation) to the beach!!!! So excited about the beach. Come back to stone town, catch a ferry back to Dar Es, hang out there for most of the morning, catch an afternoon bus back to Kenya, Mombasa to be exact, hit up the beach and then meet up with friends in Mombasa. I’m coming home soon, which I am also ubber excited about. So anyone in the NYC area on Monday August 6, let me know.

Little else, sorry to be short.

Much love,
-Malaika

Kampala:

I spent all day Wednesday (July 17) wandering around Kampala. I really love that city, it reminds me quite a bit of Haifa, many hills and a generally welcoming and busy atmosphere. I literally walked from 1030 to 1830 around that town. People were very baffled by me I think, because I went into the market place there that is hardly ever visited by muzungus apparently. The women there were very friendly and kept wanting to talk, which I thought was really nice. I was offered free food from many of the stalls which I gladly accepted and enjoyed a really good passion fruit juice in one of the ‘restaurants’ there. These stall market places are full of haggling and a lot of people who work in the area apparently go there for a quick lunch, it was very much a local hot spot…

At night I went to this very nice Italian restaurant on the outskirts of town. Did I mention that I absolutely love riding on the boda-boda’s in kampala. The location of the restaurant made for an amazingly beautiful night boda boda ride, there was one hill in Bokota that provided an exceptionally amazing view of the entire city. Riding on the back of these motor bikes that weave in and out of traffic at ridiculously fast speeds is soooo much fun. Don’t worry, there are no boda boda’s in Kenya, so I’ve ridden my last motorbike for a while and survived to tell the story.

Homeless:

Traveling from Kampala back to Ukwala on Thursday (July 18) was simple and uneventful. But arriving at the town just before I got home, I really felt like I had established myself as a local in the area, because the matatu drivers didn’t try and over charge me and I even saw a handful of people that I knew around town as I was grocery shopping at market. It’s crazy to think that I have friends and acquaintances in such a small rural area. I felt quite loved. The only short coming was that once back in Ukwala I found that we had been evicted from the large house where we had all been staying. Luckily, all the muzungus except for Amy had already made their departures from Ukwala, but it was still strange not returning to ‘the house’. I would just like to say we were not evicted for any good reason, it was simply that the landlord realized after the fact that the house would be occupied by muzungus and decuded he should charge more money then had already been agreed upon- which was total bullshit. When discussion began over the money issue they were quite offended by the fact that we did not want to spend the money, apparently they didn’t realize that us ‘rich’ muzungus weren’t the ones footing the bill and that they were essentially ripping off a growing non-profit organization that is in the town providing free health care services and a free youth friendly center.

So me, Amy and Mercy ended up living with a host family which was way better than our house anyway. Comfortable home that is in the process of being built. I really enjoyed the one night I was able to stay there, we all worked together to make dinner which included chipate (sort of like thick flour tortillas), gedhari (bean and corn combination) with nyama choma stew (roasted meat in a juice). It was quite delicious and I fully intend on making chipate at home.

Leaving Home:

On Friday (July 21) morning I said goodbyes to everyone in Ukwala. As silli as it may sound to some, there were actually tears. It’s very strange to say goodbye to people that have been so intricately involved in your life even if it was only for a short time. Imagine living and working with the same people for two months, that’s a lot of time when you think about it and I really felt like I was leaving very close friends, and to make it worse friends that I will very likely never see again. It’s a strange sensation and it creates such a large sense of nostalgia and homesickness. Ukwala really will be considered one of my ‘homes’ in the long run, perchance not as important as Silliman or Escondido, but very high on the list nonetheless. People there were quite upset with me for leaving so suddenly after getting back from Kampala, but it had to be done because it would have been much more difficult if it had been delayed.

Conference in Nairobi:

Friday evening I arrived in Nairobi and went straight to the Swara Safari Park Lodge for the leadership conference taking place there through the Kenya AIESEC Organization. I was already a day late and had missed out on much fun, so after taking a wonderfully amazing hot shower in my room I jumped right into the festivities. Much of the conference centered around world and technological issues that they felt were important as well as leadership skills that were considered vital to succeeding in a leadership role. Generally I despise “how to” seminars because they drive me crazy and my general understanding of things is simply that if you want to do something then do it. But here they are constantly focusing on these sorts of things. One of the seminars was on mentorship and how to choose an appropriate mentor and why they are important. It was quite an interesting insight into the way things get done in this country and I can’t help but feel that this idea of the old boy network has been taken to extremes here, value being placed on who you know and how you present yourself all the time, ultimately leading to a lot of the corruption that exists in this country- well at least this is the theory that me and the frenchman came up with and it seems quite plausable to me.
I know how you present yourself is important but I really don’t like the idea that you are always on stage, that everything you say will ultimately affect whether or not you get the job you want. The lecturer actually said that you should always keep contacts, even if they’re people you don’t particularly care for, because you never know when you might need them. The idea of that really bothers me. I hope that is not what success in this world depends on because otherwise I am quite convinced I will fail. I don’t want fake friends, I want a professional and private life and don’t want to worry about the things I say off the record. But that was just one seminar. Then dinner with soooo much yummy food, especially those fabulous little red pili pili chillis mmmm. And of course the night ended with a bon-fire and huge party.

Saturday (July 22- HAPPY BIRTHDAY NADINE!!!!) at the conference I could not help but sleep through morning sessions and woke up in time for lunch, from which we went to a discussion group talking about the middle east, apparently most Kenyans are pro-israel because sometime in the ‘90s Uganda was attempting to invade part of Kenya and Israel came to the rescue right quick. A lot of people are ill informed about the history of what’s going on, but nonetheless the huge ubber religious Christian groups here support Israel, so discussion was interesting, especially since there was also a Frenchman (tom) and a Turkish girl (Duygu) there. The debate on stem cell research, test tube babies, and abortion was very interesting and mildly disturbing if I do say so myself. Most of the conversation was centered around the bible, few people new the reality of the science being discussed and the most common argument heard from people was ‘not playing god’ and ‘god created us the way we should be’ it was quite frustrating but very eye-opening. The role that religion plays here is so subtle among university students, but all consuming when you look at the reality of it. We had ‘global village’ after dinner which consisted of different booths with representatives from their respective countries: Denmark, Kenya, Turkey, France/Scotland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Nigeria, Uganda, Botswana, Germany and the good old USA. It was really interesting to try all the different foods and liquors from these countries. People were dressed crazy either in traditional cultural clothes or in only their flag. It was loads of fun and people were very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Then of course the night ended again with a party. I did not end up sleeping at all again this night because I was locked out of my room by my friend Nina who needed it for unmentionable purposes, so me and the other rejects (about 8 other people) ended up sleeping on chairs in the dinning area of the hotel. Always entertaining, I got chai, showered and then went to morning session while helping put together the final powerpoint presentation with oodles of pics from the conference. It was great fun to say the least.

Uni Life

Last night I stayed on campus in a ‘hostel’- as they call their dorms, called the ‘box’ which is an all girls part where boys must exit rooms by 22:00. the rooms in this particular ‘hole’ are very small, nothing but a room, 2 beds, 2 small closets and 1 large desk table. Communal bathrooms without hot water aren’t the worst things I’ve seen here, but that’s not particularly saying a lot. Central is the pub where all the students go, which is named after the fact that it is the central Kenyan police station in Nairobi. I suppose the safest place to get drunk would be with the police? I mean at least then you don’t have to worry about getting mugged on you’re way out. Senses is the 24 hours snack joint that people head to where there is actually a pretty large selection of junk food and typical Kenyan food. I like campus life quite a bit, although it is still a spectacle to see a muzungu staying in the dorms and around campus. O well….

I will be staying in Nairobi just hanging out with the University of Nairobi students until Wednesday when I plan on traveling through Arusha and Mt Kilimanjaro to Dar el Salaam in Tanzania, staying there a night, then to Zanzibar, staying there a night and then back to Kenya. I’m just writing to let people know where I’m at and please do not take this as an invitation to worry about me. It’s unnecessary, I’m traveling quite safely. Plus people don’t really want to attack a muzungu because then tourism goes down. Since pickpocketing is the only real concern don’t worry at all, ok?

I’m coming home soon! Anyone in the New York area on August 6-7? I have almost a day layover in the city so if you want to get coffee or something send me an email/message.

Much love,
-Malaika

I Survivedthe Bad Place

On Tuesday July 18, 2006 I traveled to Jinja Uganda, the source ofthe nile. With a rather rowdy group of tourists i braved the rapids of the nile with battle scars and pictures to prove it. We started with a boat of 9 tourists and 1 experienced guide, and ended with 5 tourists and 2 guides. it was quite the adventure, i somehow managed to fly out of the sometimes over turned raft 3 times, two of the times being on class 5 rapids, which means pretty freaking crazy waters. i think i drank about 5 liters of the nile, which may or may not have come out of my nose as well. it was such a freaking blast. we covered 31 km in about 6 hours, stopping for lunch on an island midway. there was also about a 5 km break where we didn't have to row and i basically suntanned and lounged around on the raft, there were also times where we were allowed to swim and just play in the river, which was unfreakining believeable, so yeah, i swam the nile! anywho, my best battle wound is a nice purple bruise underneath my chin, which i think was caused by a someone's oar when our raft capsized on the last class 5 rapid on the trip named "the bad place" at the end of the day we were totally exhausted, sunburned, dehydrated and what was the first thing everyone seemed to request? a Nile Special, the Ugandaan favorite beer which is actually brewed in Jinja. Needless to say it was an amazing day, and my body is sore all over from it.

today i'm just wandering around kampala, seeing the few things there are to see here. i love the boda-boda taxis here which are basically motorbikes, i could ride them around all day. but my time is running short here on the net, so much love, will write more this weekend.

yours,
-malaika

Uganda

I am currently writing from the suburbs of Kampala Uganda. This place is so interesting, just 4 hours from kenya it has a life entirely it's own. i can't write much now, but know that i am being a backpacker for the next two days and so far so good. i am staying at a very nice hostel 'backpackers' hostel and tomorrow will go white water rafting at the source of the nile. so neat! anywho, much love, will write more soon.

heart.
-malaika

Monday July 10, 2006:

HAPPY BBIRTHDAY VANESSA!!!

I’m so sad to be missing Vanessa’s birthday.
I woke up this morning in a bus station this morning with17 other university students who were waiting to catch a bus to Nairobi after spending the weekend at this mansion just outside of town. This weekend has been an endless series of contact making, problem solving and effectively communicating about misunderstandings. Sorry, I suppose I should backtrack and tell you how this weekend came to be….

So last week I left Nairobi on a night bus which placed us into Kisumu at 5inthemorningwhichwas not the most pleasant time ever, but we were very gracious about it. i traveled with Michel, Hae-in, JJ, and Cat. In Kisumu we went to one of the hostels that we were familiar with and paid for one room in which everyone attempted to sleep except me because I thought it would be pointless. So I showered and began working on the new revised structure that is in the process of being put in place for CSG. I felt sort of like a business woman, sitting and drinking tea early in the morning, finishing up a proposal, listening to the news…felt nice for a change. I then organized for our transportation home and helped push the car when it got stuck in the mud later that morning.

At work this past week we began training all of the employees at the friendly center and ran different workshops on things like communication and motivation etc. I absolutely hate these sorts of workshops, they drive me bats, but I realized how very vital they are to people here. Some of these guys just don’t get how the whole thing works, the talking to one another bit. People here just don’t grasp the concept of asking questions, debating, logical deduction…I hate to say it, but to a certain extent it might be useful if someone began a program teaching people how to think for themselves instead of constantly being lead around by the nose. The meetings for the most part ran smoothly, with interesting arguments and debate, but they were also the source of major frustration for quite a few days in our house. Luckily after all was said and done I felt like the people in the yfc are much more comfortable talking to me about what they think, not just about stuff regarding work, but about what they think about me and the other muzungus, about how they perceive life etc which I really am greatful for. I really am glad that they’re opening up about things, it’s almost as if I have real colleagues and we’re friends even outside of work.

UKWALA GALA

After the series of workshops ended and we were all exhausted from so much work, we threw a huge party in our house. We had samosas, spring rolls, roasted pumpkin, tropical fruit punch, guacamole and homemade chips (crisps as they call them here), salsa, and oranges. Lots of local music was played and we’re all definitely getting more familiar with the raggae artists here. We danced and laughed and had a grand old time, even after the electricity went out and we were listening to music from my laptop thanks to a fully charged battery. It was a huge success, people didn’t stumble home until after 6 in the morning. It’s official I am now an international party planner. J

On Saturday I slept most of the day and then boarded a bus for Kisumu, where we met up with the other household members and then were forced to back track to Siaya where we met up with a really fun group of about 20 University of Nairobi AIESEC’ers.

MANSION:

So one of the local supporters of AIESEC Nairobi is this independently wealthy old man who owns this huge mansion in the middle of no where, it has at least 11 rooms, 4 bathrooms, 2guest houses, a huge kitchen and pantry and a helping staff of some 15 people. We arrived and were immediately treated like royalty. They fed us and essentially gave us everything we wanted. It was amazing, also there are several hot showers to be taken, which felt absolutely delicious.

Once the sun set, the bon fire was lit and everyone sat outside just chatting until the local band showed up. So there’s this local band of 6 guys, from all ages, the youngest being 14, the oldest like 52 and it’s a series of different drums made out of things like cow hide. They played some seriously fabulous music with great rhythms. I actually got to play with the band at one point, which was one of the most amazing things ever. At first I was really slow on my drum, unable to catch the beat of the group, I really enjoyed it. My hands were sore afterwards but it was definitely one of those priceless moments.

Sunday we had a series of meetings and minor crises amplified by Cat’s ridiculously stressed out viewpoint on life. I love her, but she seriously drives me crazy too often. I’m not worried about it though, because they’ll be leaving soon. I’m officially actually friends with all the AIeSEC’ers now, having bonded over so many silli things this weekend, including watching world cup (p.s. very happy about italy’s win over france, although the Frenchmen we have working here now was very upset about it) and seeing sunrise, and not sleeping for 2 and a half days…..

I have officially completed 6 weeks in Kenya….amazing.

I ate talipia (the local fish) yesterday in the traditional manner, with lots of ugali and a huge mess on your hands and face. Well, I have to catch a matatu home by myself for the first time, thank the gods. If I don’t write until the 20th or so don’t be surprised.

Love and miss you mucho.

Sorry to be missing so many birthday back home!
-Malaika

Back in Town

Well, I suppose you all thought that I had fallen off the face of the planet by this point, but alas i am still alive and kicking. So, where to begin with the past two weeks of my life...

PARTY TIME UKWALA:

Last week there were quite a few visitors staying in our house in ukwala, which may i remind you has no running water. So, Cat (Yallie, Berkeley '08), Mercy (Kenyan, University at Eldoret, 22y.o.) and Inbal (Canadian/Israeli, 24y.o., working in Uganda and Tanzania, on her way home to attend Harvard Law) arrived almost 2 weeks ago in Ukwala. They were all given a small tour and hung out with us at the house. Inbal left after only 2 days, but she was a very interesting source of information about Uganda and refugee camps there and working for the Red Cross. Mercy is has been living with us and i sort of get along amazingly well with her. The unfortunate thing is she can be abbrassive sometimes, not realizing that she keeps making comments about how she perceives us to perceive Kenyans, ie racist. she doesn't realize that she is con stantly talking about how the muzungus only hang out with each0ther and that this is the reason that there have been so many problems with running the Youth Friendly Center and within the organization, or lack thereof that exists here. she keeps me grounded though and we've taken to jogging and the crack of dawn together, which is absolutely beautiful. Cat only stayed for a short time, and then returned to nairobi, but is leaving here with me to go back to ukwala again. so 5 days after their arrival, we received ivan (italian, 34y.o. operates a tourism company out of uganda, previous accountant in london, developing the market for 'cultural' tourism, great story teller), dan (founder of csg/matibabu), jurjen (another dutchman), and sheila (kenyan, 22yo, works for csg and aiesec, i stayed at her house two nights ago). it was a very full house. after their arrival and a series of incredibly stressful and somewhat unproductive meetings with all thedifferent coordinators, our house turned into the main party place in ukwala last saturday night (june 22/23?) we turned up the ipod, enjoyed a few drinks, danced around and thoroughly embarrassed 2 of our bosses who happened to make a house visit. it was great fun. the following day we went exploring and rented a matatu just for us, rode to port victoria (a spot on lake victoria where people take boats to and from uganda) and then hired a small fishing boat/canoe thing and proceeded to paddle through the lake. i am proud to say i have waded in and paddled through lake victoria, probably not the safest decision but i haven't developed any symptoms from the water, so no worries. it was the first day of holiday for us essentially, everybody hung out in their swim suits and enjoyed the sun, food and general goodness.

The Netherlands lost to Portugal that night. Michel and Jurjen almost cried.

Fiona had to stay in the hospital. apparently, what we thought was her reacting to malaria was actually a bacterial infection in her jaw/lower cheek area and she had to be placed on antibiotics and given an iv and all sorts of craziness. she was in the hospital for 2.5 days, and then came home. we were really happy to have her back. everyone that is actually living in my house has been sick except me and mercy, the kenyan. michel, emily, amy, & cat all had malaria- no serious problems, except one person staying in bed for 2 daYS, and another throwing up one night. hae-in has the strangest cold/cough of all time, fiona had the bacteria thing, and then there is healthy, can eat kenyan food without getting the runs-me :)

HOLIDAY:
so, thursday morning june 29 everyone in our house departed on some adventure. emily, amy and fiona went to uganda, mercy to eldoret, and me, michel, hae-in, and cat all came to nairobi. there was a formal dinner with corporation reps and aiesece-ers, the minister of finance an other government officials all attended this fancy and over priced dinner, which i had a blast at. so the whole day was spent on pampering just a bit, we went and got pedicures and then ran around all of nairobi trying to find an outfit for cat to wear. i get along well with this girl but she is a little princess of sorts. so we ran around town trying to buy a dress, which is actually impossible because girls here dont really buy new clothes, they buy used clothes and new shoes, so there are only second hand stores except at the over priced 'mall' which only has 3 womens clothes stores. it was quite the adventure. we then rushed to the hotel where hae-in's mom is paying for all of us to stay, got our hair did, and then went to the dinner. i'm convinced that our table of muzungus had the most fun out of everyone there. we ate and drank red/white wine, babbled about nothing and then proceeded to the after party held at the club within the hotel. it was really fun just being a spoiled little girl for a night.

WANDERING THROUGH NAIROBI:

so yesterday was spent mostly wandering through nairobi by myself. i can officially navigate the streets of the city centre !! even the taxis have stopped asking me whether or not i need a ride somewhere- i'm so proud of me. i went swimming at the hilton hotel, because cat has a membership there, which was fun ,except for the fact that the weather here sucks. it has been cloudy and cold for the most part since we arrived. it is officially winter here, and while i expected the rains i really had no idea that it would actually be cold here. i forgot that i was in kenya yesterday, it was the strangest sensation coming back to reality. we ate at a very modern and typical italian restaurant yesterday called trattoria and i honestly forgot that i was in kenya. the only thing that made me realize it was pulling the shillings out of my purse instead of dollars. i enjoy most of these little luxuries, but it seems so strange to me to be living in such a western manner. i love the hot shower most. i think ukwala would be perfect except for the lack of hot water. i've taken 9 hot showers in the past 3 days. :)

there are so many other things that have happend that i really cant think of all the little bits to expand on. tomorrow i will have been in kenya for 5 weeks. half way done. i really can't believe it. it feels like it's been so quick up to this point, but at the same time i also feel like i've been away from home for such a long time. blah.

anywho, know that i miss home, that i am having a blast, quickly running out of money and not worrying about it (at least not right now), making friends with all sorts of people while constantly thinking about the friends at home.

hugs and kisses,
-malaika