Pictures for Amboseli Safari

Decided that there were too many photos to add to the other blog, so Amboseli photos have they're own addition

From Kisoro to Rwanda and hopefully DRC!!!

Part two: photos in order

1. lake kivu at Kubuye (rwanda)

2. Lake Bunyoni (uganda)

3.the block of upgraded rooms I stayed in in Kibuye, lake Kive (rwanda)

4. more kibuye

5. the silver back that nearly walked into us (uganda Bwindi reserve)

6. last 3 photos .... amazing gorillas! (no im not a gorilla!)

The gorillas were unbelievable, we were very lucky as they were on the border of the national park, (2 days before some Norwegians had to trek 8 hours total) it only took 1 ½ hours to find them. They were so cool, they were literally all around us in bushes, up trees. WOW! At one point the leading Silverback male decided he wanted to walk exactly where we were, so all 7 of us were trying our hardest to move out the way. He was so close I could have touched him and he was bigger than I had expected. My photos are not the best as there was a lot of vegetation, however my memory of these animals will last forever.

So my Uganda trip has somehow turned into my Rwanda and DR Congo trip! After being at Lake Burnyoni less than 15 hours I was off again with an English couple to Rwanda. This meant traveling back the 2 and half hrs that I had come from yesterday, back to Kisoro and to the border. The border was the first time I have seen real rain since I left England and was not exactly prepared. Skirt, flip-flops and no coat, infact nothing warm to wear anywhere in my bag! In Rwanda you have to buy a ticket for ur bag as well as yourself as they actually have a seat per person here (wasn’t like this 4 years ago, but then 4 years ago I had to pay a $50 visa and now I don’t pay anything), so I decided that I would sit on my large rucksack which was on a seat to save money.

I stayed in Musanze for 3 nights in total, it’s a nice town but nothing much to do there. There are amazing views of the volcanoes that surround it and I had an apartment with 2 bedrooms and a large bathroom with a veranda that looked out onto the leafy grounds. In the time I was there I managed to sort out a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo for climbing volcano Nyiragongo, which has the largest lava lake in the world. All being well that my visa comes back I will be doing that trip on 24^th Feb.

Today I headed to Kigali, the capital, which is bringing back many memories of traveling back in 2008 with my friend Andy. I realised today that I have nearly done the whole circumference of Lake Victoria! The bus from Musanze brought back and founded all my impressions about how beautiful this Rwanda is. There are hills after hills and banana trees everywhere, it is so green and lush. Maybe the thought of what happened here in the genocide makes me so much more shocked of this country’s beauty. What also surprises me is how progressed this country is, even after 4 years. Proper roads, motorbike drivers have to have helmets for passengers, all buildings lived in must have iron sheet roof, not grass. And more to the point its EXPENSIVE for Africa.

I headed south to Butare, where I decided to go to a genocide memorial, ,it said in the book it was the most graphic, but words cannot describe what I saw. 4 rooms full of bashed in skulls and a whole room of leg and arm bones just piled up. Then the really shocking part…. 3 rooms full of dried out corpses, from men to women to children…. All I can say is the smell was unbelievable (u wont see pictures as I was not allowed to take and it also felt very wrong) but you could also see the hair still there, even under their armpits, they were dried as they had been placed in the mass graves. No glass cases, just there with arms leaning out over the tables they were placed on, it almost felt like they were reaching out for me. I felt kind of wrong being there. They say they have done this so people NEVER forget, which considering I think is a good thing. More than 50,000 people were beaten, macheted, shot etc.. to death in about 6 hours. In a school they were told to go to for safety. So so sad.

Moving on ….. oh the motorbike ride there was beautiful, but oh my god, mountain roads, crazy driver, at one point I nearly grabbed him as we went round a corner, hmmmmm note to self…. Motorbikes are STILL a death wish.

From here I went to Kibuye, which in terms of genocide and tutsi mortality rates was the worst place hit. Needless to say I didn’t go to the memorial. But the place itself is unbelievably beautiful, on lake Kivu. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16394635 just read to see how impressive this is! I stayed in a beautiful lodge where I had lake view, garden, it was bliss, APART from the problems, ant infestation in the toilet, so every time u sat down u were worried about very large ants biting you, also the sink leaked badly so my whole room got flooded, and no hot water, let alone the pork I got half way through eating in near darkness before realising it was not cooked!!! I complained and they upgraded me to a $80 suite. It had a romeo and Juliet balcony, bed with a proper mattress (not since uk have I experienced that!) and most importantly HOT WATER! I walked around the peninsula for a few hours with breath-taking views, this place is the most beautiful part of Rwanda I have seen yet.

I came back to Kigali, got myself a kick ass deal with Kenya Airways from Kigali to Nairobi 29^th feb. Got on a bus this morning back to Musanze on the hope that my congo visa had turned up…. No such luck. Im now sat waiting, having a beer, thinking SHIT. I need to get to gisenyi tomorrow to trek on Friday. I really hope it works out. Otherwise I might as well have been robbed all over again!!!

apologies that u now have to read two longlong blogs at once!

From Nairobi to Kisoro Uganda

Photos in order 1. Sunset from bar at Jinja (Uganda) 2. My view from my shower or the river nile 3. My friends daughter at Lake Victoria (kampala) 4. Monkey's and goats playing around the crater lake (near Fort Portal) 5. Pygmies (Kisoro)

Berend and Paul, volunteers at free Kenya for a year, started their journey home to Holland by leaving Kochia, but not before a leaving party at the ABBA which although happened much later than planned it was excellent with a private DJ and far far too much food that was eaten outside in the garden. As we travelled back to our guest house the car broke down… which meant the last week that had been planned for the boys was much harder as we then had to think about hiring a car.

There was also a nice goodbye meal from the Odote family, who own the land the free Kenya guesthouse is built on.

We all headed to Kisumu where Berend was very ill and naturally I got a little sick as well. We were invited to Miss Bunny’s (Sylvia, our friend and rabbit breeder/supplier) for dinner and ate samosas and had rabbit cooked in French style and choma (BBQ) style too. It was EXCELLENT.

To say goodbye to the boys we went on a little trip to Amboselli National park which is right on the border to Kenya with views of mount Kilimanjaro (well at least when not covered in clouds!!) The park was overpriced at $80 a head but there was one special moment that made it worth while. There was what I would call a migration of elephants, not just a few, but pretty much the whole population of the park. Maybe more than 250. We stopped the car, the first lot passed us, the male bull was MASSIVE. We could see the whole horizon were more elephant coming, so we ate lunch and waited. It was pretty damn cool, then were passing infront and behind the car, at certain points the bulls would stop and the whole herd behind would stop, we would hold our breath that they weren’t about to stampeed. Thankfully they didn’t. It was the second best safari experience I have had. (seeing 5 lioness hunt a gazelle up close in serengetti 2008 still being number 1)

My start of travelling had all the hitches you would expect… firstly the bus was nearly 3 hours late leaving Kisumu and a rather strange dark border crossing which took quite a while. Then as we were going along at quite some speed the bus blew a tire, we swerved all over the road, the lady who had been sleeping on my shoulder, woke up grabbing me shaking and screaming. Needless to say the driver did well not to crash. The other travellers I had met were to say the least… stupid, they wouldn’t pay an extra 50p to get a taxi to the hostel from where the bus had broken down and furthermore when the bus did get to near Jinja it dropped us in the middle of no where and they wouldn’t pay for transport to the camping site. They wanted to stay awake in the petrol station all night. Idiots. Needless to say I didn’t enjoy Jinja, the hostel or the people I met there!

Next stop was Kampala, where I stayed with my friends Mariska and Ali and her two adopted Ugandan children, she lives in the rich suberbs of kampala with a beautiful view of lake Victoria. I went to the palace where I was forced to wrap material around my trousers as I was not allowed to wear trousers in front of the king… he wasn’t even there. I actually went here to see the torture chambers than the notorious Idi Amin had used during his vicious rule in the 80’s. They were not much to look at but I did think the story was gruesome. People used to be kidnapped and sent to these 4 chambers that were filled of 500 people per 10 squared. Over 200000 people allegedly died there, no one ever survived, there was no food or light or water, except for the water that was in the entrance…that had an electric current running through it. So death was either slow by suffocation, dehydration, starvation or quick by throwing yourself into the water and being electrocuted.

From Kampala I went to Fort Portal, which I have nothing to say about and then went to a crater lake nearby, first time I nearly fell off the back of a motorbike, note to self big backpack, steep hill and motorbike DON’T mix. I spent a few hours walking around the lake, it was so beautiful, until I ended up with an escort… a man who did or wouldn’t speak English to me, I tried to let him past, he finally did, but then whenever I slowed down or stopped so did he, about 10m in front of me. I thought he as going to ask me for money as a guide at the end, but when I got to my hostel he said bye an walked off.. strange. It was also this night (but I don’t think connected to this man) that I got robbed. I had a beautiful banda (mud house with grass roof), I had locked my door and gone for a shower, 15 mins later I returned to find no break in, but my door seemed to unlock differently than before, once inside I saw my stuff everywhere, laptop thrown across the room, camera out. Then ever so neatly placed on the bed (that strangely had the sheet robbed) there was my money belt. I rushed over to see if I still had a passport. Thankfully I had all my cards, passport, all my Kenyan Shillings and £’s but the dollars and Ugandan Shillings were gone. Unfortuntely I had just been to the cash machine that morning. The lady of the hostel was very upset, she made me go with her into all the staff’s room and she searched EVERYTHING, even feeling both sides of the mattresses. I will never see this money again, but im just greatful to have all the important things still such as photos and passport.

I got a night bus to Kabale with two nice Israeli girls and decided at our arrival (3am) that I was going to leave them and head straight to Kisoro from where I would start my Gorilla trek. I ended up in a saloon car with not 5 people, not even 7 people, but 10 people!!!!! Im so happy I didn’t see where I was going. (mountain dirt road, driver sat on someone elses lap.) WRONG WRONG and more WRONG. I went to see a group of Pygmies the next day, which was quite a depressing site, they were moved 50yrs ago by the government out of the national parks and over 50% have no land ownership, so cant even find a new profession of agriculture. They were all hooked on drugs and some of the little huts they lived in were made essentially out of twigs and plastic bags. But they did sing and dance for me, for AGES and then continued as the followed me back to my motorbike. I did like the pygmies, they were very small in height as u would expect.

More to add.... :)

Happy New Year to Kisumu and Kochia!

Finally back to writing my blog!!!!

The 13 days spent in the UK was a good thing to see the family, but I am glad to back in Kenya on my mission, what quite that mission is I am unsure, but it feels right to be back.
I arrived in Kenya on New Year’s Eve, back in Kisumu. Seeing friends and being back at the Duke of Breeze was good, we sat down to a lovely meal (although it didn’t beat my mums cooking or all the cheese I ate in the UK) and then managed to consume a lot of the jagermeister that evening that I bought Berend in the airport on the way here.

Getting back to rural Kochia was nice, however the first afternoon I was here I witness murderous chickens. Not one, or two, but three chickens in 2 minutes walked past me each carrying baby birds that had fallen from their nests. I expect this behaviour from the dogs, but the chickens?!!

I have been doing manual labour in the form of digging dirt to be placed in the classrooms at ABBA. (the school connected with Free Kenya) This had to be done to stop the classrooms flooding as in the rainy season they were continuously flooding. It was back breaking work and I was glad after the morning’s work that we were finished for the day!

It is so different here since I got back now the season has changed from rainy to dry… it is much much hotter and the land looks much much drier and not as green. However the family of the compound we live on have had good luck and have had baby chicks, 3 goats and 2 calves, a good start to the New Year!

I have been getting on with my designs for the taka taka 2 pesa project and have made two bags out of fish leather and am currently making a third. They are working progress but I do see the potential in what I am making and they are not hard to make so that teaching others will be easy, just need to find some makers with attention to detail so they can be sold back in the western world. Now I understand why so many companies get China to make things… labour here is less than £2 a day, so instead of £200 of labour that I would want to charge in UK, it is only £2!

I went back to Kisumu to buy more fish leather and had to barter hard with the man selling it. He also wanted me to teach him how to make leather designs. So I had some fun with him by saying yes for a $1000 (he had previously asked for $1000 off FreeKenya to train people to process leather). Also in Kisumu I had 2 new skirts made from African material, one of which is a little big and the other will motivate me to lose a little weigh from all the cheese I ate in the UK!

Berend and I went to Thimlich Ohinga, which is a ruin from the 15th Century, absolutely massive and quite interesting, however I wish that the guide’s information was a little more convincing, more than just made up stories. As we were walking around Berend was picking up ancient pottery from the path which the guide had no interest in and they were using a burning method to clear the grass from the ruins, even though the archaeologists had specifically told them not to do this… typically African. We had decided to get there by using our own motorbike, which was fine, however there are absolutely no road signs or directions in Kenya, so we found ourselves looking at lake Victoria again, and knew we had driven ALONG way in the wrong direction.
On the trip itself I found two amazing signs which made me laugh. 1) Strive for succes (written on a school building) 2) Wiki Leeks Grocers

I have also had my first Piki Piki lesson (motorbike) which to say the least was very scary. The footbrake was the most confusing thing, the gears fine and the most worrying thing was the small children watching and being in the way. Needless to say after an hour I was cautiously driving around! Bring on lesson 2! :)

So the rabbit breeding program that I built the enclosure for is progressing faster than expected... The male bunny jumped over the fence to the females the other day so I think that we will have baby bunnies sooner than planned! but this just means that sooner we can eat more rabbit, which is the nicest and tenderest meat we can get out here.


So I’m thinking of going to Uganda in February to have a look around, would still love to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo but since recent elections and other issues I think they may be on the brink of another civil war (not that the last was ever over really). After that I am planning maybe to come back in March to work for FreeKenya again. Right now my ideas about going back to University in September seem like something far far away that I’m not sure I really want to do. I’m really starting to fall in love with this continent, its way of life and the people. I feel happy here. Much more thinking has to be done! I still want to see much more.
So my next blog I hope will be about my travels rather than my work… watch this space!

Kochia and a new organisation!

I think after spending those days 2 weeks ago in Kochia things seemed to change in my mind. I quit working for cycle out of Poverty as I just didn’t feel like I was working in the right place, it was not satisfying me and Kisumu and the Duke of Breeze hotel were not doing my head or liver any favours.

However it did take quite a long time for me to actually pack my bags and move on!

First things first… I did finish my brochure and tourist map of Kisumu for the CooP organisation, so at least I finished what I started. I was sad to give my bike back but really I am happy to be out, I will of course miss my friend Daniel who was my work colleague and towards the end more of a friend.

It took nearly a week for me to realise that although I was avoiding doing most work for the last organisation, I at least kept my mind busy with worrying about the work I wasn’t doing! Having nothing to do in a non-touristy place is well…. Pretty boring! However I did manage to beat my friend Ali in pool, which meant that I no longer had to buy him 2 dinners. Although I did then take the challenge again, twice and lost meaning that the original 2 meals I owed I still owed! Grrrrr!

I had to go to hospital this week again as one of my infections (on my leg) will not heal. I knew it was going to be a bad visit, but fuck me it was awful! First the doctor said, “ok we need to squeeze all the puss out” I was thinking, please help me, don’t you think I have already tried that but it was too painful!? So after the doctor squeezing a lot and me screaming and swearing, he decided to get another Doctor. So Doctor number 2 asked the first one “What is coming out of the wound… blood or puss?” The reply from the first Doctor made me laugh, all he said was “Nothing just brown shit!” After this discussion they then decided to stick a needle and syringe into my open wound. This time I really did say some bad names at the doctors, lucky I’m not in England where by if you swear at hospital staff you get kicked out. I bet the whole waiting room was thinking I was having my leg amputated or something. And probably thought I was Jekyll and Hyde when I came out laughing and apologising to the staff! Having gone back a week later they now think that if it doesn’t heal they might need to x-ray my leg to see if the infection has gone into my muscle or bone!!!! I mean come on, let’s not be silly bout this!!!!

Nine of us went for dinner to Al Noor (Indian restaurant) Ali, Christina, the Finnish and myself. Ate the most amazing chicken Biryani spilt between 3 of us and we still couldn’t finish it. It was my last night in Kisumu and was really nice that we all got to go out together and at least Ali got one of his promised free meals!

I then headed to Homa Bay 3 hours south of Kisumu to meet a Dutch boy Berend that I have become close to. We stayed in a luxury tent with bed, flushing toilet and hot shower…. And did absolutely nothing but relaxed and read books and watched films. Somehow I managed to get totally sun burnt wearing factor 30 suncream, sitting in the shade on a rainy day… let’s just say my back is peeling and 2 different colours. Frustrating as it has been along long time since I got this badly burnt!

What have I been doing for this new organisation? Well I have been getting dirty building a rabbit breeding house, which has killed my fingers threading chicken wire together and getting totally covered in oil which is painted on the wood to deter termites and snakes. I have also been learning about agriculture, yes you read that right, hazel and farming. Been to an organisation where I have been learning methods of better crop production by the planting of certain plant species together that promote growth and deter insects, acting as natural pesticides. I am still working on fish leather products… although not very fast, I am also designing some greeting cards relating to African culture and Free Kenya, the organisation that I am now working with.

I have also been asked when I come back to work with an organisation that is partnered with Free Kenya called ABBA, which is a school. They want me to teach art to the children and also teach money making handicrafts for the mothers of the children so they can pay for the children’s school fees. I think this could be an interesting project on my return.

I have been further South around lake Victoria to Mbita and Rusinga Island and have even had the opportunity to drive the organisation’s car on dirt paths that were hardly wide enough to fit a car down! It was fun driving that’s for sure! On this route I saw a man cycling dragging a dead dog which was tied with rope by the neck behind him! Never a dull moment! And to top it all off I have once again had to visit the hospital as I thought I was getting bitten by fleas, but it turned into a massive rash all over my body that was extremely itchy. This meant I had to be given cream, tablets and strangely an injection in the back of my hand! I have no idea what I was allergic to, but once again my body looks a real mess!

I have spent Sunday night back in Kisumu for the one and only gay party, which as homosexuality here is illegal it was a crazy time for these people to be able to be completely open about their sexuality. Let’s say it was funny. Lots of “Queens”!

One thing that did make me laugh over the last few weeks …. Whilst at the Laughing Buddha Restaurant this annoying white man came past shouting Mzungus!!!! And then ran inside. Obviously we laughed and thought he was a bit of a dick. About 3 mins later he came back apologising and I corrected him saying it was Wazungu when plural! And he was like oh right… well u can join us if you want. “im just off inside for a hooker and a beer!” (quote of the week) we do know that he meant a water pipe, but it just aint half as funny.