Mar 2008

When we were in Kenya Mr. Ozar made a comment that he would like to take a picture of all the different things the Kenyan women keep on their backs. For instance, they put normal things - like babies and groceries - and then they take it up a notch and carry, oh, a winter's worth of logs or a queen sized mattress. Once it's strapped on they walk a good 2 or 3 miles to drop it off. I thought this was pretty impressive...until we road into Uganda. The women here do the same thing only they carry it all on their heads. You want 2 weeks worth of laundry? Let me just toss it in this basket and walk it uphill 4 miles for you with it on my head. Couple bricks? An entire field of grass? Sure, not a problem. Just give me a minute while I slip on my flip-flops and strap my baby on my back before I go.

Incredible.

Equally incredible is the men who "ride" their bike to work with just about everything but the kitchen sink strapped on the front and back. I use ride loosely because I rarely saw them peddle - just push the stuff up hill after hill after hill. My favorite guys who do this are the banana pushers. No, they don't try and sell laced bananas to innocent school kids. They strap about 30-40 bushels of bananas to their bike and make their way to the town to sell them or put them on trucks. By the way, I'm not sure if the official unit of banana is a bushel but you get the idea. If you'd like a better idea you can do this little exercise at home: Break out the ten speed and ride it to Dominicks. Once you are there proceed to the produce section. Purchase all the bananas they have. This may not be enough in comparison but it should give you a rough idea. Okay...now ride the bike to Indiana. That should do it.

We were able to see a lot of this in action as it took us a solid 9 hours of driving to get to our current destination: The Impenetrable Forest in Uganda's Volcanic Region. Dum, dum, dum. It was a long drive but we managed to kill some time by looking at the amazing scenery and gawking at the banana dudes. Once we reached the foothills of the volcano our mouths just dropped. Ireland has nothing on Uganda when it comes to greenery. It's absolutely beautiful. Sure, there aren't any cozy pubs and I probably wouldn't stay at a good 95% of the roadside guest houses but hey - it's pretty. The drive was a little rough going (not for those pron to car sickness) but the scenery was just stunning. Oddly Colin didn't make a single Joe vs. the Volcano reference. Interesting. We'll see if this keeps up tomorrow when we begin our climb up it to see the gorillas. Considering he likes to reference that movie on a random Sunday around our apartment it's funny that it wouldn't come up while we are at the actual base of a volcano. Could this be the first sign of yellow fever?!?

Hmmm. I'll keep an eye out on him. Okay, so I realize that some of you may be wondering who is doing all this driving on this trip of ours. Great question. Not Colin and I. If that had been the case we would now be at the bottom of one of these green hills with sugar cane sticking out of our ears. We hired a company called Escape Expeditions to take us around and provide the camping gear we will be using. We have a driver and one other guy on our trip and we travel about via 4X4. The "other guy" is a Brit named Peter and the driver...well....that's another post all together. The internet place is closing so I have to go. Sorry for the cut off but the volcano known as the woman from this place is about to blow. Hopefully more tomorrow after the big gorilla climb. I'll also tell you about the campaign against sugar daddy's they are running here. Awesome.

Until tomorrow...

Many of you had major concerns about our visit to Kenya (pronounced KEEN-YA by mom and grandma). Today we drove across the aptly named Rift Valley into Eldoret and while things are peaceful, there are definitly signs of the struggles that happend just weeks before. Our route was peppered with burned down houses and rows of burned out shops. Yesterday the reality of the situation hit home as our tour driver at Lake Nakuru drove us past the soccer stadium...now home to over 16,000 families. He was living there himself after his house was burned down. He said that we may have been one of the first visitors back to the national park (located adjacent to the town). The owner of our campsite had to switch all his full time staff to part time just to keep afloat. The good news is that all the people are still very welcoming and really positive about things picking up and going on as business as usual in the coming months. Col and I took a long walk through a small mud & thatch farming village to see the sunset by a big Acacia tree. We were greeted by 10 or so small children who just wanted to walk with us - no begging, no "gimme sweets, madam" -just bored little kids who haven't had visitors in a while. They would repeat everything I said in English (my favorite was when I'd call one "sweetie pie" and he'd say it with his little Kenyan accent - note he had to be about 3) and when we arrived at a field by the tree we met some older kids and played a little soccer. So, despite all the signs of recent violence, it's good to know that kids are still kids and life goes on.
I'm currently sitting in a semi-ripe internet cafe with an incredibly sticky keyboard so I'll have to keep this one short. To everyone who was worried - we are absolutely fine, the towns are rebuilding and we have been welcomed like family. To the Ozars - I keep thinking of father Riwa's flight into here and the remaining displaced children. It's hard to be so close and not do anything about it.

Tomorrow we begin the long journey to Uganda to see the gorillas. We are thinking about all of you!

Jambo! (A familiar greeting to those of you who launched Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and those of you who have traveled through Africa)

Col and I are officially back on the road and heading through western Kenya. When we last posted we were on our way to the Ozar's house for lunch and didn't get to tell you about visiting the Meru Children's Home for infants and kids under 5. It was adorable. Those kids are certainly cutie-pies. It was hard not to pick them all up and give them a big hug especially after their song and dance greeting. Mr. Ozar warned us that it might be hard to get away - they want you to stay and play and the sister's are warm and welcoming and quick to put the kettle on. He devised an escape plan involving a "very important meeting with the bishop" so we could continue on our mission of collecting pictures throughout Meru for the website Col is putting together. You know us and the bishop - thick as thieves.

After we finished getting all of our photos, we rushed back to our little house, packed it up (silently thanked the Italian missionaries for the sweet accommodations) and headed to the other side of Mt. Kenya for our first real break. The Ozars took us to one of their favorite spots (now one of mine) - a place called Sweetwaters. It's a tented lodge on the edge of a small-ish game park. While the lack of tourists have kept the breakfast buffets away, they certainly have been beneficial to those of us on game drives. Miles of savanna and nary another car to be found. Ranger Bud Ozar was at the top of his game taking us through the parks. And eagle-eye Sue Ozar can spot a Cape Buffalo from miles away. We were extremely fortunate that they took us to this very special spot. And traveling with the Ozars is very akin to traveling with my parents...Mr. Ozar is always willing to "take this little trail over here...are those tracks? Looks like fresh dung. Let's just keep following it..." While Mrs. Ozar is saying "Bud, let's just get back on the real road before we are taken down by lions."

A highlight of the Sweetwater trip (aside from the hot showers) was the chance to really see the wildlife in full-on Discovery Channel action. Although most of the game must be viewed in the comforts of your 4X4, you can take a guided walk to visit the hippos in a van down by the river. Okay - no van, but they lounge around in the water and you view from the ledge above. As we were making our way to the river it was very clear to all of us that we were certainly not alone. A grunt here, a tree branching breaking there, yes, something a little larger than a breadbox was just around the corner. As we reached the spot where the hippos were floating below we discovered the sounds that had us all a little on edge....two white rhinos duking it out on the other side of the river. Full-on, no-holds-barred fighting. I could literally hear my Dad saying "ALRIGHT!" as their big behinds knocked down the brush. The guide then turned to Mrs. Ozar and said "it's a good thing they are on the other side or we would all be in trouble." You think?

The guide had to call in the fight and bring rangers in to break it up. After all, it's a rhino sanctuary and it wouldn't be good for the foundation if they started taking each other out. I guess they fight to the death so it's important to keep the kids apart if they start a tussle. Of course we had to get back in our car and see if we couldn't stalk them from the other side of the river - it's the Bud Ozar (and theoretically Ron Van De Walle) number one rule of game drives "go where the action is"- but we didn't see them again.

I have a feeling that the myriad of game drives we have in front of us will be wonderful but few will compare to that amazing experience. It's just too bad there wasn't any other tourists to brag to when we returned to the lodge for breakfast. Thanks again to Mr. and Mrs. Ozar for our trip to Sweetwater!!! We had a sad goodbye when our driver came to get us and take us back to Nairobi - it was such a wonderful time in Meru - but we have our Masai beaded crosses as a reminder of our experience.

After a looooooong and dusty drive to Nairobi we made it to Karen's Camp and prepped for the next 2 weeks. We'll be traveling by 4X4 to Uganda with our South African driver Skank (yes, Skank) and a British gentleman named Peter. Should be interesting. The first leg is a drive through western Kenya where they had some recent political troubles. The good news is that the peace treaty between tribes was finally signed and the danger has all but disappeared. The Kenyan people have been very appreciative that we've decided to come despite the conflict and they are all positive about their future. Like all conflicts like this, it's not the majority of the people who want to fight - just a small group of angry ones who cause a ripple effect. Continue to send positive vibes to the Kenyan people - they could really use a few right now.

Alright - sorry for the lack of photos on this blog but I think you'd be understanding if you know how long it took just to get an internet connection. I'm sure we've given you enough to full the imagination for now! Keep sending the comments - we love to hear from you!

Oh - note to Erin, Coleen and Alison: Little Baby Peanut and Slim Finn are really enjoying the trip. They were all over the game park...that Finn is like a lion magnet!