1
We get up early enough to make it to Kisumu town on time.
We have an interview with Mr. Masese for The Standard.
Then we take the bus back to Nairobi.
We arrive in the darkness, we meet some other couchsurfers who are enthousiastic about CT.
We have a chicken meal at Alanya’s place, where we are “invited” for a delicious chicken. We sleep late.
2
Next day is lazy. Catch up with writing. At 20.20 we get Kenya from the airport. The flight is delayed.
We take her to Kayole and spend the next day around the house, while Kenya is getting some rest.
3
We go to town to do some sight-seeing. Being late already, we plan a comprised walk to the Maasai market and the 1998 US embassy bombing memorial park. The park is peaceful, with King and Ghandi quotes and the names of the 200 deceased. There is a sculpture made out of debris and an information center. Violence has never lead to anything good. F.Y.I.
Yet, before reaching the grass covering the former embassy site, I had felt inclined to be violent towards a very annoying vendor of “traditional” African stuff. He followed us and kept asking why we weren’t interested in buying or browsing. Because we cherish our individual culture and just want to be left alone. I actually told him we didn’t like him and that scared him off. On our way back we passed by the Maasai market and, of course, we were surprised by heavy rainfall. Damn! We should have come here earlier… nothing good comes from violence, see? That is so cheesy, now we are simply associating and applying Ghandis words to whatever we experience, and you know what, in doing so we are goddamn VIOLENT. And besides, the heavy rain was a swell experience. It gave us interesting pictures of running merchants dragging their heavy sacks of merchandise to dryer places under the trees. And I managed to improvise a three-person-raincoat that got us more or less try into a coffee house with wifi. And there I managed to solve my bank problem using a toothpick. I pinched the little machine that generates the code for online banking, hence I was applying some real violence. But I applied it with consideration. The toothpick solved where a lengthy conversation and official letters posted to the bank had failed. The bank didn’t reply anyway and I had to get through to them by contacting the young employee that had served me in Amsterdam via – facebook!
So we feel good and have a delicious welcome dinner for Kenya, over which we discuss our activities in the country. The raingods bless us with a mere drizzle as we stroll along the Moi Avenue towards the Matatu-stage, to write a sentence with the rhythm as if it has been emulsified and flavoured by a professional glossy author who has put off cocain to boost his career. The matatu is quiet and we are safe. Even though we have to walk home alone, no criminal intend we smell on our way home. Tomorrow we will do something.
Waiting for Willis to go to Joy Valley orphanage.
Cybercafe. I upload some photos of our Kisumu-orphanage and attempt to grow the online attention for the project. A few million mouseclicks would do the job. It just depends on who fingers the mouse.
4
Joy Valley. Serious talk with Jared. The first time in my life I get a preacher quiet – it is a personal milestone for my rhetorical skills. At one point I even throw a bible quote at him: those who beg will be cursed. And he gets it.
It is vital he learns not to beg in order to be MUCH more attractive for donors with shorter understanding of his desperation than ourselves. So we say goodbye without a donation, leaving him with the daunting task to explain to his hungry orphans why the white skin has not given money. I explain we are doing what we can making his case known and bringing other travelers. I ask him to be patient.
I have already made up my mind. We will teach him a little lesson. So after we leave, we rush to some stalls to buy well over 90 bananas for the children. We go back and knock on the steel door again to surprise them. Jared seems to understand what we want to say. I hope it will last and he will perform in the best possible way to provide for his orphans.
5
Lazy day. Walk around Kayole.
Waiting to go to Nairobi nat park; a guy had his car coming from Kisumu, too late. So we stay around the house instead and postpone our trip.
6
If you are not daring enough to face the wildlife inside one of Kenya’s great National Reserves, there is the Nairobi Safari Walk, a comfortable wooden overpass. They have a tame cheetah and we could pet it – for a dollar and a sour face because they are used to more than a dollar.
We have a good and very affordable dinner at Greenview, a local restaurant in downtown that I recommend you.
We go out to a club and dance. I don’t really feel like it. It is a bad experience. I end up paying to bail my friend out for eight dollar. Having money is a curse if you have a heart. Then it does the opposite of giving you power. I yell “here is the white skin / that pays everything”.
I hear later that they are furious about the racist allegation, their minds too blunt to understand the subtle irony.
7
We travel to downtown, Yeon writes in Java. I start visiting some corporates and stay in town where we meet a Koreann volunteer.
8
We get up early. We go to town. We visit corporates together. Barclays, Equity, Kenya Airways, KCB. They ask for a proposal. We have a coffee, and visit more corporates. Kenya comes we dine in Java and get home to Kayole where we have a bad night with insects. Yeon and I sleep on the roof and enjoy the cool air of the night.
9
A quarrel with one of our Kenyan partners on the ground. We hope to sort it out. Professionalism. At the end of the day we value professionalism. I tell that I would sell my stuff before asking a friend, and not drink but work. Unfortunately, the quotation of my rigid moral code can only function as an insult.
10
We stay in bed until after ten thirty. Then we have a sunday breakfast until after two. Afternoon: a couchsurfing meeting that makes the spirit of Charity Travel live up once again. I briefly introduce our project and some local guys seem interested. Unfortunately the adventurous travelers don’t seem to like CT all that much.
11
We decide to travel to Narok today and enter the Maasai Mara National Reserve tomorrow, using a private vehicle. The trip is safe, and in Narok a friedly Maasai chief brings us to an affordable and very comfortable place to sleep. We arrange to be picked up at five sharp to go to the Maasai Mara.
This entire blog is very descriptive. Nice work.