October Highlights

So I've decided to update my blog which appears to be slowly dying. I'm starting with October before moving onto November. As you were all merrily enjoying Autumn, I was enjoying the short rains in Kenya. I had three major events in October: 1) Kericho, 2) Uganda, and 3) Kakamega Forest.

Kericho

Kericho is still in Western Kenya, but, unlike Bungoma, it's a tea growing region. I'm sure most of you can guess that was the draw for me. I adore tea so I really wanted to see how tea is made. Me, and a two fellow German enthusiats, went picking in the tea fields and then headed to the factory. Tea has got to be one of the prettiest crops I've seen. They are waist-high green bushes whose leaves become the most delectable drink of all time. It's almost all hand picked because you need to pick the top three leaves only. Machines aren't quite that particular. Tea is also a pretty cool plant because the same same leaves can me made into white, green or black tea.

I didn't actually stop at picking on the tea plantation - I went to the factory as well. Unlike other places in the world, more than half of the tea factories in Kenya are farmer owned. By owning the factories, the farmers can ensure a fairer price for their tea although they are not fair trade.

I found the factory really interesting but I'm not so sure all of you will be as enthralled. Basically, the process goes something like this: 1) wither the leaves, 2) cut and tear them, 3) oxidize them (this step is only for black tea), 4) dry 'em out 5) sort for the best quality 6) pack and ship 'em out. It's quite sad actually that all the best tea, as well as coffee, is exported. For a nation that grows some of the best coffee, the average Kenyan drinks instant. The tea is of a slightly better quality from the supermarket, but the sad fact is that you're probably drinking better tea outside the country than inside. Tetly is actually one of the producers that buys the tea from the Momul factory we visited.

Oh the other interesting thing about Kericho was the Tea Hotel. It was built in the 1950s. While a stunning building, unlike most of Kenyan architecture, it reeked of colonialism. There was such a palatial feel to this building that it turned me off. It's the first place I've really seen like that in Kenya.


Uganda

Where to start? Well, I went three places in Uganda: 1) Kampala, 2) Entebbe, and 3) Jinja. I actually have less to say about Kampala. I kinda skipped the tourist attractions and focused on all the things I can't get in Bungoma. I went straight for the coffeeshop and english bookstore. I was just so excited to be in a city. I bought two books on development - Dead Aid by Dombisa Moyo and one about food security. Dead Aid was fantastic. Totally read. I'll write a post about it because it was just that good. umm Kampala as a city. It's a busy city with an army of motorbike taxis. I was constantly lost in Kampala.

Entebbe was completely different. It's only about an hour away from Kampala, but the picture perfect resort right on Lake Victoria. Lake Victoris is the massive lake in the middle of East Africa that touchs Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. I keep wishing there was a ferry across it, but it's not to be.

The big highlight of Entebbe though was the Chimpanzee Sanctuary on Ngama Island. Apparently there are chimpanzee sanctuaries all over the world including Louisana in the US. In the name of honesty though, the chimp sancuary was expensive and kinda felt like a zoo. The chimps are allowed to roam free, but visitors are allowed to see the feedings. I have to admit they do act a lot like humans. I was amazed to find them clapping and holding out their hands for food. They do share 96% of their genes with humans though so not sure why I'm surprised. I think there's a difference between knowing that chimps and humans are remarkably similar and seeing it. I'm happy to report though that humans are a great deal less violent than chimps. The chimps we saw fought tooth and nail over food. Actually, chimpanzees in sanctuaries often cannot be re-introduced into the wild because if another chimpanzee group is in the area the two groups will fight to the death for the territory. They also don't share. The guide told me that the only thing chimps share is breast milk. He mentioned this during a story about chimps returning to the spot where another chimp had died in a type of mourning ritual. I found that a fascinating tidbit to imagine another animal engaging in some type of mourning. Anyways, that was the chimps. Darn cute though. Oh if you are interested, this chimp sanctuary offered a caregiver experience. It's a lot of money but you get to feed the chimps, put them to bed, have them climb on you etc. Sounded pretty sweet, but of course I didn't have the money/time to go for it.

Onto Jinja, my last stop in Uganda. I really liked Jinja. It also goes down as the place where I had my most adventuresome motorbike ride. The Lonely Planet mentioned a textile shop near Jinja. So we asked some local motorbike drivers to take us there. They asked around and apparently thought they knew where they were going. As I'm about to motor off, a ugandan guy tells me, "I want to make love to you." I kind of stare at him strangely while motioning for my motorbike driver to step on it. Then we're waiting in traffic on the bridge crossing the Nile, and two guys start talking to me in Lugandan (the local language). My motorbike driver is nice enough to translate: "You're beautiful and we love you because you're beautiful." The most bizarre part of this experience is not so much the protestations of undying affection, but the fact that the driver and his passenger are wedged tightly together. I'm aware that homosocial relationships are often expressed very differently in other parts of the world, such as men holding hands in Uganda does not connote homosexuality. However, when protesting love to someone I think it's better not to be holding another guy too close. That's just me though. If all the love I'm getting from the ugandan men isn't enough, my driver stops to fill up the bike. And somehow or other she puts too much in. And he argues ad nauseum with the poor woman. Finally, she asks me if I've paid and if not, then maybe I can pay her. So I pay for my driver's gas. This ride was also exciting because we had to stop several places to ask for directions. Voila! We finally make it to the textile factory. I thought it was pretty cool to see all the hand-looms. The size of the was quite astonishing. I'll add a pic for everyone to see.

The final highlight of Uganda was rafting the Nile. I'm incredibly lucky to have gone now because they are building a new dam that will get rid of about half of the rapids forever. The best part about raftin on the Nile though is that it's not too cold when you fall in. Plus the water is quite deep so it's fairly hard to get hurt.I should know since our raft flipped 5 times (once was the safety demonstration, but still lots of flips!) So much fun. And the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Our company fed us pineapple and cookies in the middle of the trip to keep our energy up. The only downside to the Nile was that the rapids tended to be fairly far apart. So you'd better be prepared to paddle.

Unlike my rafting trip in Canada, I saw way more wildlife. There were a couple different types of birds, some lizards, two eagles, and some bats. Luckily, I missed any of the crocs that are apparently in the water. The weirdest part of the wildlife was actually man-made if you will. Ugandans have been quite busy cutting down the indigenous rainforest in order to plant pine. I was quite surprised to see pine (trees from my native country) on the banks of the Nile. Not only do they look horribly out of place, but they change the pH in the soil making it impossible to simply re-plant the indigenous forest. They plant pine because it grows faster making it easier to produce paper and fire wood. Uganda has a deforestation rate of 3% per year though. Anyways, it's still a beautiful place, but environmental problems definitely exist.

I found Ugandans on a whole to be a lot more chill than Kenyans. I think I noticed this most at the market place. I'm currently used to the Kenyan bargaining style where you talk lots and try to get him down by quite a bit. I went in all ready to bargain and the woman didn't really move all that much. Nor did she make any major comments regarding how the merchandise was so nice and that I was already getting a good deal. Oh no, she just kinda looked uncomfortable. I bought the scarves anyways, but it was definitely a less intense experience than most of my bargaining here in Kenya (although truth be told I'm not that good at it. . . )

Kakamega Forest

After heading off to Uganda, my friend and I took a quick trip to the Kakamega Forest. I only live about 2 hours away from this national park. This forest is all that's left of the rainforest that stretched all the way from the Congo to Western Kenya. I'm quite sad that it's mostly gone now.

This place goees down as the most magical I've been to in Kenya. There's something special about a walk through the rainforest. To know that those trees have been there for hundreds of years. Even though we were slighly unlucky in the sense that it rained so we saw very little wildlife, I still felt the magic of being under that green canopy. I felt like it could have been a millenia ago before humans even walked the earth.

Some of my guides stories about some of the tribes traditions were quite interesting. There's one tree that will cure typhoid if you run to it, then around it 9 times, followed by running all the way home. The catch is though that you can't look back on the way home. Similarly, another tree can cure infertility if a woman takes a pot with water to the sacred tree. She drinks the water from home, but leaves the pot behind. When she returns for the pot, she drinks the rainwater it has collected in the interim. Then voila, the baby will come.

Ok, so these two beliefs I'm not so sure about. On the other hand, some of the plants do have medicinal purposes. Our guide was part of a group that has started a tree nursery where local healers etc. can come to gather those plants, rather than heading into the forest. This is just one example of some of the initiatives that have been started to conserve the wilderness.

Anyhoo, that's all she wrote for October. I also managed to do some work during that month so never fear.