Mfangano

I have just come back from one of my favorite experiences so far. This past weekend I was blessed to stay with a family on Mfangano Island located in the eastern part of Lake Victoria.

A friend of ours at Daystar, James, lives there and arranged an amazing trip for us even though he couldn’t come with. He gave us detailed travel instructions and made sure we were always in contact with him or one of his family members. Despite getting stuck in African traveling, our 8 hour bus ride turned into 10, bargaining for a taxi took a while, and missing an early boat only to wait more than 3 hours for the next which took over 3 hours to arrive (usually a 2 hour ride) caused us to reach Mfangano at about 4:30 in the afternoon.

James and his father started an orphan and widow school on the island and the first thing we did was go there, the kids had memorized some poems which they wanted to share with us. We met with the widows and took picture of the children. We had brought with us a soccer ball as a gift, we were told it would be nice to bring two however we couldn’t fit two in our bags. The next day we found out why, the kids were wondering if it was for the boys or girls to play with.

We headed to the home and were served the typical Kenyan tea and bread, of course it was insisted that we eat and drink a lot. This filled us up pretty good and we got settled into our room, one of the son’s huts on the compound. We were all exhausted but had to stay up for supper. In the mean time we were allowed to take a shower…imagine a fence made out of fallen branches and leaves…we had a bucket of water, an empty bucket and the great outdoors to shower. That was quite the experience, but it was actually really refreshing and sort of cool. The family we stayed with were of the Luo tribe so they taught us a few Luo words and their home was set up like the traditional Luo village. The weekend went by without running water or electricity – we did however have oil lamps.

On Saturday we walked around the island. Most people would say hello and we heard many “Mzungo! Mzungo!” or “Mzungo! How are you!?” from the children around the island. Mzungo basically means white person and I’ve heard it a lot mixed in with Swahili and then you know that people are talking about you! We went to the Island museum which was sort of boring and then to a friend of James’, Gilbert, home for lunch. The food we were served was A LOT. The people on this Island clearly aren’t very rich but when it comes to guests and visitors the meals are often extravagant. We had chapatti, ugali, chicken, beef, cabbage salad, and soda. This may not sound extravagant to you but truly it is when you consider the amount of each food they have and the amount they insist you eat it really was.

We headed to the lake for swimming with Jane, James’ girlfriend and Maureen, Gilbert’s daughter. The Lake Victoria beach was like…the olden days. I don’t know if that is the right explanation or not, and clearly it’s not the olden days because it still exists but the idea was uncommon to us. As we put our swimming suits on…just in the “bush” all of the ladies and girls began to stare at laugh at us. Swimming suits aren’t completely foreign to them but considered unnecessary. This was an all girls beach, except young boys, and the mothers were doing laundry in their underwear and everyone swimming wore simply underpants or nothing. Needless to say it was a “topless” sort of beach but not in the way you would imagine one in Europe. I guess I’ve never been to one of those either but it was certainly a new way of swimming. We were the only white people there, and there were only a few more around the island. All of the children wanted to swim and play with us. I taught everyone how to play “motor boat, motor boat” and they sort of got the hang of it. On “go so fast” all of the children “ran out of gas.” We didn’t swim for long because Jane was ready to go but it was fun while it lasted.

We headed back to Gilbert’s for tea, we were also served bread, biscuits, and even boiled eggs. When it was time to go we certainly didn’t leave full. Meeting this family was interesting, when we arrived we were greeted and told to sit down for lunch. A prayer was said, we ate, and then we left for swimming, came back had more greetings, had tea, and then when we were finished there were proper introductions and we introduced ourselves. We never had much of a conversation but still felt very welcomed.

We took motorbikes back to the family’s home. This was so scary! Imagine going 90 km per hour on a dirt road that had random speed bumps! A few times I was flying up off my seat and I wanted to tell the driver to slow down so badly but I didn’t!

At night we spent time talking with the ladies of the family, eating again, and heading to bed! Over the weekend we found out that the family was polygamist and keeping track of the brothers, sisters, and mothers was a bit of a challenge. All of the children we ran across wanted photo after photo taken and many people just wanted to give us their greetings. From the home we could see the lake and at night it was covered with lights from all of the fishermen. The life we lived this weekend was different than ever before. It was sad when we had to say goodbye Sunday morning to go back to school.

We made the trip back and ran into a small problem in Mbita. This is the city we boated to from the Island. We were catching a taxi back to Homa Bay (where the bus station is) and it was having some problems – it needed to be jumpstarted and they didn’t even have jumper cables to do so. We were sitting in the back seat and just saying, “this is Africa”. We were getting fed up with the fact it wouldn’t start and Monica got out and in a matter of seconds had tripped and fallen to the ground. About the same moment the car started and the driver was like let’s go let’s go! Monica already had a messed up ankle and this just made it worse. She got back into the car and with the three of us in the backseat and her leg elevated the driver tried to shove another person back there. They make money by having 7 or 8 passengers in a 4 passenger vehicle. Eventually we got to Homa Bay but it was a painful ride for her.

We spent a few hours in Homa Bay, Alyssa and I walking around while Monica sat in the bus station. Eventually our bus left. We travelled over night and ended up stopping roughly every 15-30 minutes for the first couple of hours to pick up and drop off people who live in the area along the way. At one point I looked out the window and saw a bunch of fluorescent looking gowns, I put my glasses on and noticed these women were dressed like nuns in white, orange, and blue outfits. It was ridiculous how long the ride took and we arrived in Nairobi at 6:30. We were told the bus would be there between 4 and 5, we barely caught the 7 o’clock bus back to campus, but we made it!

The weekend was truly amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better trip overall. I was so happy to see something different than the westernized areas of Kenya. I wish I had time to go back, the family hopes that we can someday and I hope it happens.

I cannot think of a good title...

Wow, life has been streaming by at a pretty quick pace here, but I still have those days where it seems to take forever! I have had CATs (continuous assessment tests) to study for, papers, and group projects to do, life has been busy!
The weekend after Mt. Kenya wasn’t the most exciting in my life. I decided to take out my hair and that took HOURS, I watched two movies and it still wasn’t completely out! I feel now too that I am going bald; I lost so much hair in the process! I spent some time working on something I don’t really even remember what!
On Sunday I experienced some more of Nairobi. I went to town with a friend of mine, Dereje. He is from Ethiopia and an upperclassman I can’t remember what year. We made it to the David Sheldrick Wildlife trust after enduring a long walk because we got off at the wrong matatu stop! They are only open from 11-12 but we made it just in time. The workers there brought out all of the elephants they have there in small groups and we were able to see them being fed. It wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped but it was sort of cool and I got a few good photos. This was the first time I had seen so many white people since I have been here! It was definitely a tourist attraction!
On Monday I went on a field trip to ABC community development center. We learned about the farming techniques they show people and some of the other opportunities they have to promote development. It really didn’t catch my attention, the field is definitely a good one to have in existence but isn’t really my taste at all! After the field trip the bus driver took us to a “magic spot” not very far away. It is this spot on the road where gravity doesn’t seem to exist. You get there and the driver puts the bus in neutral and it climbs up hill without any help! We got out of the bus and some guys around poured water. The road wasn’t completely level and the water seemed to creep uphill versus down. A boy also rode a bike and said it was harder for him to pedal downhill than uphill. I am definitely a skeptic, the road really didn’t have much of an incline but it was a little freaky!
The week went on and I did some intense studying for my CAT on Thursday. The first one she had given required some direct memorization and I knew I needed to study hard to do well! I feel like it went ok but I’m not sure.
Being stuck around school has caused me to really want to be at home. I received some mail but it has been quite the hassle to get it, checking the mail room than the student development office and continually being asked to come back later…I’m hoping this afternoon it will be in my hands! I did however get some school newspapers from Bethel which was nice to see!
I always have these awesome ideas of what to write in my blog, to make it interesting and not just a summary of what I have been doing…then I don’t get the chance to write and when I do I forgot all of these great ideas…so sadly it becomes pretty boring! Hopefully one day it will be so random you won’t know what hit you! But it will be good!
Missing Halloween was a bummer, I love dressing up and didn’t get the chance to this year! I suppose it wouldn’t have been all that much fun anyways with friends scattered away at college! Instead of Halloween we had a “Fun Day.” A school organized activity at a place in Nairobi called Rock City. They had games like tug of war and other funny things, the place had a few rides and a swimming pool. We had fun for a few hours and then as things tend to do it got boring. I finally hung out with some of my friends in a different setting than school, chatting in the library or in a classroom.
Monica and I stayed the night with Jan and ordered pizza! I asked for extra tomato sauce and when it came it was four packets of peptang…peptang is pretty much WATERED down ketchup. It was truly a Kenyan thing to receive!
On Sunday we did some shopping and went to a place called Toy Market. I had been there before with Alyssa. It is basically a huge wooden structure…but be careful how you interpret that. Think of setting up all the random logs and boards you can find to set up tables and make an elevation in order to put plastic bags and other things to cover it to avoid rain…It was a pretty big market with a ton of second hand clothes. You walk on the dirt ground and in places it has become muddy. Bargaining for clothes is quite the adventure. Monica needed to buy new jeans and she went through about 7 pairs, trying to find ones that fit. Understanding sizes is weird because it all depends on where they are from! There were about three guys looking through their stock for ones that would suit her needs! When she finally found a couple she liked they told her 3600 for both! That is more than $40! She tried to do some bargaining but they wouldn’t accept her price. I tried the same with a top from these guys and they didn’t either, we left knowing that if they really wanted us to buy them they would show up again. A few stalls later some guy asked Monica how much she would buy these jeans for, he had the same pair she had tried on somewhere else! These guys all share their stock to help get business or something. She tried them on to make sure they were the same ones and attempted buying them again. I tried on a pair of jeans that I liked and he told me they cost 1200 shillings, roughly 15 dollars. We tried to buy both pairs for 1200, but they wouldn’t accept that offer. Knowing the real price is difficult because it is hard to buy cheap when you are white! We were trying to them buy them at 1400 but Monica did some math wrong and said 1600 for both, I said I wouldn’t pay more than 700 so eventually after a heated debate the guys sold us the two at 1500. I therefore paid under $10 for a pair of Diesel jeans in pretty good shape! I looked at it as a success and later we were told that we got really good prices, although some Kenyans can get some for 500, 700 is a decent price.
After Toy we went to Watoto Wetu, the first children’s home we had ever visited. It was great to be back most of the kids recognized us right away and came straight for our hair! One girl put a few small tight braids in my hair and I haven’t had the patience to take them out yet so they are floating near the base of my neck! The kids “cooked us food” and taught us a Kenyan child game. It reminded me of London Bridge is falling down, but instead of “shaking her up with sticks and stones” they would ask, “would you like a princess or a queen?” After you chose you went behind one of the two kids making the bridge. After everyone had been through and chosen a side they would sing a different song and then have a tug of war, the two in the middle holding hands and everyone else wrapping their arms around the person in front of them. It seemed so dangerous! When they would get pulled apart the kids would pretty much fly because they were so small!
We had to leave pretty early this time because we couldn’t go until 2 and had to be back to campus before 5 to catch the bus back here! At the end the little kids sang songs for us again and did this presentation they had learned. It was so cute! The older kids walked us all the way to the stage (bus stop) which was a fairly long distance! We said goodbye and told them we didn’t know if we would make it back again or not before we headed home. Telling the house mother it was time to leave was a slight challenge because she didn’t speak English, but the older kids helped with translation!
The matutu ride back to Jan’s (to pick up our stuff) was interesting…we were told that it cost 30 shillings each and we had just paid 20 on the way there. I asked a lady sitting next to me how much it cost and she agreed that it was 30, at the end it was clear we had been ripped off by the conductor. Some people will do anything for a little extra pocket money!
We had to walk fast in order to catch the bus and Monica was walking on a sprained, possibly fractured ankle all weekend. All this walking was not a good thing! Plus we were carrying all of her groceries but we got the last couple spots on the bus and made it back to campus!
Life has been good, it hasn’t been quite as touristy as I would like but what I have experienced thus far is truly unique and life changing. I could not be happier with my choice to come to Kenya; however, I am beginning to be ready to be home if it didn’t mean leaving some of my great friends here! But now I know there is never one place in this world I can live to be with everyone who means a lot to me, at least there is facebook!