These are my final thoughts on the last few weeks of my program as I’m sitting in the airport in Nairobi waiting to leave. So, since last time I wrote I had a lovely Thanksgiving at my friends’ apartment in Kisumu town. We successfully made mashed potatoes at our house on our hot plate.
Finished my ISP…it took a lot of last-minute writing but it got done. I ended up learning a lot about women fish traders at Lake Victoria’s beaches and the way they trade their bodies for fish. Yeah, towards the end I also went hippo spotting on Lake Victoria. On the last day of ISP, December 1st, I relayed the World AIDS Day Half Marathon in Kisumu with my friend Ryan. We each ran half of the half, and the best part was the baton. Not sure the baton is family appropriate for this blog but just think about what they could possibly make you use as a baton in recognition of World AIDS Day. Overall it was exhilarating to run with people again…running alone since the beginning of the summer is really starting to take its toll. The Kenyans were, predictably, incredibly fast. Maybe the secret is in their post-race food: when we crossed the finish line we got a bag of chapatti and mandazi. Ryan and I were slightly horrified. They had great tents set up after the race though, with every organization working to combat AIDS in the area doing demonstrations and free giveaways. That was my last morning and I headed back to the house to pack up and have our last meal of chapatti. It was very sad to leave Kisumu and my wonderful hosts, Onek and Isaac, who I already miss dearly.
We returned to Nairobi on the overnight bus and stayed here for a couple of days before bussing it to Mombasa and then Malindi for our reunion and presentation of everyone’s ISP. Nairobi itself was already a bit of culture shock because I forgot how many white people there are in this country. My two roommates were literally the only two white people I saw during the entire month of ISP.
Malindi was incredible. Kind of a shocking transition since we stayed in a beautiful resort thanks to our AD Jamal who has the hookups on the coast. I felt kind of guilty switching gears to resort life in Kenya. But, we had comfortable beds, hot running water, an amazing buffet with dessert at all three meals, and pools and a gorgeous beach. I got to go running on the beach every morning while the heat was still bearable. And we managed to fit 26 half hour presentations into 2 ½ days so that was an impressive accomplishment. Everyone ended up with really interesting ISPs and it was awesome to hear about all of them. Otherwise, basically we lounged all day and enjoyed each others’ company before we had to say goodbye.
We had our last day in Nairobi before almost everyone on the program left for home on the 10th. It was an awful and tearful goodbye as the reality that the 26 of us won’t be seeing each other again next semester is slowly starting to sink in.
But, in an attempt to keep the adventure going I decided to make the most of my 4 extra days by going white water rafting in Uganda with 3 other girls on my program. This would have been a lot simpler if all the buses to Uganda weren’t sold out from Nairobi. Instead, we ended up on one of the worst matatus of all time to Kisumu. Basically, most things that could go wrong with our transportation on this trip, did. The matatu could not accelerate, and the engine spontaneously shut off twice, the 2nd time on a hill while we started rolling backwards into oncoming traffic. To get it going again we all had to jump out to lighten the load, and push it uphill until the engine caught. The exhaust pipe also feel off halfway through the ride. And then, 7 ½ hours into what should have been a 5 hour shuttle ride, we popped a tire in the dark and had to chill on the road for an hour while they replaced it. We finally got to Kisumu at 11pm and stayed overnight at a hotel. The only saving grace of this ride was that I met by far the nicest Kenyan to date on the ride, he sat next to me and we talked for almost the entire ride, which helped distract me from being incredibly tired and uncomfortable.
First thing Sunday morning we got on a shuttle bus to Busia (the border town) which was supposed to be safer and more efficient than a matatu. All was going well until something in the bus’ engine broke half an hour from the border. We sat on the bus for 20 minutes having no idea what was going on until we finally went and found the driver, who was enjoying some sugar cane a ways down the road, and forced her to tell us that she had sent a guy for the engine part and it would be about an hour while we waited for him to return and then fix the engine. Having no other option, however, we sat on the side of the road and waited. Thus, a 2 hour bus ride became a 4 hour adventure.
We did make it across the border and had a relatively problem-free matatu from Busia to Jinja and from there took a motorcycle taxi to Nile River Explorers River Camp were we slept in a dorm for two nights. We spent the 12th, Jamhuri Day in Kenya, rafting on the Nile. Despite being slightly terrifying it was fantastic! Definitely a great adventure to end the trip with, and we met lots of cool people, including other SIT kids from Uganda at the campsite.
We spent the night after rafting at the campsite again and then made it back across the border to take a night bus back to Nairobi last night. Today I visited my Nairobi host family for the last time and finished packing and now here I am at the airport. I have a million mixed emotions about coming home, but I can’t wait to see family and friends.
Bring on the cold weather. Kwa heri Kenya, it’s been real.
