Blue Waters Please.

Being late to catch the morning bus aint what it used to be! Leaving Lamu running to the docs to catch the 10am bus (holding pre-purchased tickets) could be stressful, but thankfully, here things dont leave till theyre full! You wait on the "ferry" till every last person cramps on with their things (bags, chickens, whatever), wait till all their family and friends bring them whatever they need shipped off to the mainland, and leave an hour after the bus is said to have left on the other side...and so it is, no worries, Hakunna Matata (the words actually exist!). When the "ferry" bifurcates in the wrong direction heading towards another ship however...you think of Matata, just matata.

Nearly doubling a "ferry's" capacity with people and things, in mid-water is one experience difficult to forget as all going in our direction scramble to jump aboard all at once. I got worried, D's face was worth a million bucks. The old putter made it however, and we safely left in direction of a coastal town 5 hours south called Watamu.

Watamu is a very small town anxiously awaiting the floods of tourists to come within the next couple months. Good for barganing, bad cause everyone desperately wants, and needs, your money. D and I quickly made friends with a few of the locals our age and we had a great time. We went out to a beach party the 1st night where locals were celebrating the safe-keeping of the public beach from privatization by rich Italians...The rest of the time was spent relaxing on the beach....the BLUE, BLUE beach. Denise was overjoyed. Finally relaxing, making food with friends and decompressing. If it werent for the insane amount of mosquitos in our room, and the bed-bugs, it would have been perfect!!!!


On the last day we visited the Gedi ruins, an ancient booming coastal village between the 14th and 17th century deep in the forests with monkeys and....ants. Its old mosques and walls are covered in lush vegitation and huge tree roots. It was more modern in many repects than some of today's Swahili houses.




That day, we headed for Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city, an important port throughout history connecting East Africa with the Middle East, South Asia and the Orient. Mombasa is a nice city where colonial architecture rubs-up against mosques, all kinds of markets, people and traffic. Today was shopping, tomorrow we visit the old town.
I swear, I wont always write this much.Bye xxx.

The Journey to the Coast of Kenya

We've been in Lamu for 5 days now and we are not sure when we are leaving :0). It's so relaxing here and a huge contrast to Nairobi. We had spent two days in Nairobi and we were looking forward to getting out of the city and breathing some fresh coastal air.

The bus ride from Nairobi to Mombassa takes 7 hours - Ours took 13! About 30 mins outside Nairobi the bus broke down. JM and I took the opportunity to chit chat with the other traveller's - And as it turns out we had plenty of time to chat because the bus driver had to wait for a new tire to come from Nairobi (the traffic is insane!). 6 hours later we were up and running!! :0) By the time we got to Mombassa it was 3 am and we decided that instead of paying for a hotel we would sleep in the bus. 4 hours later we jumped on another bus for Lamu.

The bus ride was bumpy to say the least ( I bruised a rib on the way down!). But we met some really nice people and the scenary was really beautiful. I was especially taken by the Somalian women on the side of the road - they sell mangoes, peanuts, chickens etc. to the people passing by bus. Times are tough in Somalia right now and there are a lot of refugees near the Kenya-Somalia border (close to Lamu). These women are so beautiful with their dark, fine features and bright kangas (wraps).

Lamu is an interesting place to say the least. The streets are about 4 feet across with no cars only donkeys (and dung!). The architecture in Lamu is very impressive (lots of large hand-carved wooden doors and mosques ). 5 times a day you can hear the call to prayer throughout the town.

Lamu was built in the 13th century but people have lived here for much longer than that! The Arab, African, Portuguese influence results in an interesting culture (and food!). In Lamu you will see women wearing bwibwi's and ninjas (better known to us in the West as Burkas with only the eyes showing). Yet the town is coastal and very relaxed or in Swahili polepole (slowly slowly).

The Swahili people are descendants of Africans and Arabs and their language - Swahili- derives from Bantu rather than Arabic. It is spoken along the coast of East Africa - where the Swahili people predominantly live (there are also some Africans from other tribes that have travelled to the coast for work ). The people here are very kind and welcoming - and as it is a very small town of mostly practicing Muslims the streets are very safe to walk at night.

JM and I lucked out and after some hard bargaining we got an amazing room (basically the whole top floor ) in a traditional Swahili house (thatched palm tree rooves ). We also met a really cool guy named James from Texas (who totally reminded us of another amazing Southerner - our good friend Eamon).

Lamu was a hard place to leave but after 6 days we headed back down the coast in search of beaches and crystal blue water. On to Watamu!

"It's not the British Way! "

We spent four glorious days in London, England. We were fortunate enough to have a place to stay (with my friend Samantha) in East Croydon - a 1/2 hour or so from London. Sam was great she took us around to see the sights and even drove us out of London to go and see Stonehenge and the coast of England.

London is a beautiful city and true to its reputation - extremley expensive for the budget traveler (or any traveler for that matter!). The architecture is incredible and and it is really green with lots of parks intertwined throughout the city.

We spent most of our time , walking around, taking pics and sampling local beers. The 5-7 in London is nuts - every pub is bursting with 9-5ers- the British hold true to their reputation as avid drinkers! We visited Camden market - wow what a place! If I had money to spend I would have been broke. The best part of the market is the FOOD ! They serve food from all over the world.

Probably our funniest experience so far involved trying to have breakfast in East Croydon. A lot of the pubs advertise that they serve British breakfast (eggs, bacon, saussage and beans). We walked into this one pub at about 10 am for breaky. I went over the barman and ordered 2 breakfasts with coffee - The guy behind the bar stared at me for a minute and then said - "Coffee? We don't serve coffee!" and I said "Okay, can we have orange juice?" And he just looked at me with disdain and said in his heavy British accent."humph, well it's NOT THE BRITISH WAY!" Apparently, the British way is to have two pints of beer with your breakfast!

JM and I pride ourselves on being pretty relaxed travelers' -But like most people we aim to show up at the airport 2 hours ahead of time. On the day of our departure, Sam had made a delicious dinner of Jerk chicken and rice and peas. According to JM our flight was leaving at 7:50pm. At 5:15 we left SAm's place - which is quite late because it takes at least 45 min to get to the airport from there. We were driving along and close to the airport when I decided to look at the ticket to see what gate we should be heading to.

As it turns out, our flight was leaving at 7:15 not 7:50pm! At this point we were quite worried but trying to stay calm. Sam speeds the rest of the way the airport - with the plan that I will jump out of the car, run to the desk and start begging (the gate usually closes 45 mins before the flight leaves..6:30pm) - while JM follows with our luggage.

I cannot tell you how close we came to missing that flight - We were the last people on the plane and luckily our luggage made it on as well!! 8 hours later we landed in Nairobi!

Keep in touch!!!

our e-mail addresses are:
dr_jmk@hotmail.com
denise.brennan@gmail.com

DONATIONS: Denise & I have been asked by PARDI (the community-based organization with whom we will be working in Uganda) to raise funds in order to alleviate many of the ailments linked to HIV/AIDS in the Rakai district. There is no amount too big or small...Every penny counts. Attached below is a letter sent by Richard Hagaba (PARDI) describing the present conditions in this district. If you choose to make a donation, you can do so on their website: http://www.pardiusa.apictureaday.com/

Monetary donations are made using PAYPAL (click ont the donation link on the left-hand side of the main page). If you do not have such an account or dont want to create one, there is another link on the later page making it easy to e-mail PARDI and find out the best way to do so. Alternatively, please contact Denise or myself so we can make other arrangements.

DONATION MADE ON THE WEBSITE ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!

ALSO: PARDI's website is a great place to find out about the organization, the work it does and the work that needs to be done. It is also a great way to learn more about what Denise and I will be doing in Uganda (the Field Report is great!!!). CHECK IT OUT!!!

Here is part of a letter sent to us by PARDI:

While before you come to Uganda and while in Canada it is our humble >request>that you help look for some one who may help donate a second hand/used>rechargeable Laptop Computer to our organsation and come along with it,>otherwise at the moment we are going through a very difficult time most>especially in the field without a laptop computer and if you happen to find>one, it will be a great boost to our organizational field work and every>thing will be made easy for us.

More so, At the moment our orphans are>facing an acute food shortage and most of them are going without food for>many days in a week, this has increased death rates most especially among>the young kids leaving in the child headed households or families as you>will observe, this follows a heavy rain down power which left many food>gardens destroyed and many children shelters destroyed and flattened>respectively. Leaving them without food and shelter

So incase its is only>possible with you, it is our prayer that you approach your friends,>relatives and colleagues and any well-wishers, organizations or churches,>that may be willing to donate to us any amount be it one Dollar, it will be>able create a remarkable change among these vulnerable orphans to save >their>innocent lives and it will also make them regain their lost hope. Clothes,>blankets and bed sheets and shoes are also greatly needed by these kids. Is>it also possible for you to find some one who may donate a simple small>used/second hand DVD Player to our organization, this will help us to>strengthen our video shows among the community, aimed at educating and>making them aware of the HIV and AIDS disaster and how best we can control>and reduce its prevalence among our community. Used mobile telephones, and>Cameras, one or two are also kindly needed, to make our communication with>remotely located field workers easy and improving our image records>respectively. We are very sorry for any inconviniences in this but incase>you are able to help our organization in any of the above challenges, it>will be a blessing to us most especially the orphans.

>>We pray to hear from you as soon as possible and thank you very much Denise>for choosing to volunteer with us.>>Best Regards>Richard Hagaba>Fields program Manager-PARDI

2 Days to Go !

JM has just arrived in Mississauga. Very Exciting! And we've just created a blog . So please visit this site for updates on our experience and to check out our photos!

Lots of Love