We left Mombasa's bustling city life after a couple days spent walking through the "old city", viewing its colonial architecture, narrow streets, and ocean view. The rest of our time was spent in the center of the city roaming around and doing a little shopping (Africanizing if you will), albeit, some more than others.
Back in Nairobi, we left the next day, joining 2 other muzungu (Europeans, or white people) from Denmark on a safari to the Masai Mara national park. Aside from sitting in a car for most of three days, it was jaw-dropping...not that you would really want to hang in the "WILD" as Denise put it, for too long. The park is a dry and vast expanse of land (in the great Rift Valley) parcelled with trees and bushes, with tall savana grass rolling all the way to the distant hills. The sky a radiant blue by day, and shinning bright by nightfall with the full moon and stars. Very lion king (especially with D humming Hakunna Matata in the background a few times a day).
Needless to say, observing the incredible diversity of wild life concentrated in this area, in its natural habitat (aside from a number of white vans Creepin' on the animals), is estounding.
We saw giraffes, lions, elephants, hippos, corocs, zebras, buffalo, ostriches, baboons, and the list goes on...Most of these at a an arm's length. 
What made our time in "the bush" even more special were the evenings when we would gather round the fire place outside some tents with a couple Masai men. We would exchange stories and questions, do some singing and dancing, and mostly laugh a lot. The Masai are a pastoralist tribe living throughout southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are said to be one of the few remaining who still live as they always 
have (in Kenya, and obviously with some encountering tourists and using cell phones, kind of). Cattle is their most prised possession, used as food (milk, blood, and meat), as well as a signifier of status and wealth (in numbers), and money used to purchase one or many wives.
Our journey from Masai Mara to Uganda included yet another 3 days on buses or its various smaller counterparts. Moving westward, the land became lush and green, the soil richer and the people darker. Kampala, Uganda's capital, has won both of us over. It is nestled between and over a dozen hills. Here, its friendly inhabitants are eager to ask questions, engage in conversation, and hold your hand for great lengths of time! Though their smiles and laughter are infectious, they do not betray the extremely difficult conditions each of them face. In fact, they seem to me the outcome of solidarity and compassion for a shared story: limited educational opportunities, premature burden of responsabilities (due to early parental death, disease or poverty) and total lack of employmen. It is not unusual to hear someone respond to 'how are things' with the reply 'struggling you know'. It is survival.
Denise and I have just met with the members of PARDI, the community organisation we will be working with, and have familiarised ourselves with the surroundings of our little town. We are excited, overwhelmed, and bubbling with ideas and plans...all stuff well share later.
Back in Nairobi, we left the next day, joining 2 other muzungu (Europeans, or white people) from Denmark on a safari to the Masai Mara national park. Aside from sitting in a car for most of three days, it was jaw-dropping...not that you would really want to hang in the "WILD" as Denise put it, for too long. The park is a dry and vast expanse of land (in the great Rift Valley) parcelled with trees and bushes, with tall savana grass rolling all the way to the distant hills. The sky a radiant blue by day, and shinning bright by nightfall with the full moon and stars. Very lion king (especially with D humming Hakunna Matata in the background a few times a day).
Needless to say, observing the incredible diversity of wild life concentrated in this area, in its natural habitat (aside from a number of white vans Creepin' on the animals), is estounding.
We saw giraffes, lions, elephants, hippos, corocs, zebras, buffalo, ostriches, baboons, and the list goes on...Most of these at a an arm's length. 
What made our time in "the bush" even more special were the evenings when we would gather round the fire place outside some tents with a couple Masai men. We would exchange stories and questions, do some singing and dancing, and mostly laugh a lot. The Masai are a pastoralist tribe living throughout southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are said to be one of the few remaining who still live as they always 
have (in Kenya, and obviously with some encountering tourists and using cell phones, kind of). Cattle is their most prised possession, used as food (milk, blood, and meat), as well as a signifier of status and wealth (in numbers), and money used to purchase one or many wives.
Our journey from Masai Mara to Uganda included yet another 3 days on buses or its various smaller counterparts. Moving westward, the land became lush and green, the soil richer and the people darker. Kampala, Uganda's capital, has won both of us over. It is nestled between and over a dozen hills. Here, its friendly inhabitants are eager to ask questions, engage in conversation, and hold your hand for great lengths of time! Though their smiles and laughter are infectious, they do not betray the extremely difficult conditions each of them face. In fact, they seem to me the outcome of solidarity and compassion for a shared story: limited educational opportunities, premature burden of responsabilities (due to early parental death, disease or poverty) and total lack of employmen. It is not unusual to hear someone respond to 'how are things' with the reply 'struggling you know'. It is survival.
Denise and I have just met with the members of PARDI, the community organisation we will be working with, and have familiarised ourselves with the surroundings of our little town. We are excited, overwhelmed, and bubbling with ideas and plans...all stuff well share later.
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