Africa Trip Part 6 – back in Nairobi

We spent our last night in Africa in Nairobi at the same hotel where we started – the Fairmont Norfolk. It was nice to get back into civilization again with a working wifi system, a TV, and a lovely place to have dinner. We retrieved our luggage containing our city clothes that we had stored there, and immediately sent a big load to be washed.

The highlight of our stay in Nairobi, and probably one of the main highlights of our whole African trip, was meeting a young Nairobi man, Pascal, for breakfast the next morning. I had heard about him through my friend and writing instructor, Ellen Bass, and our tour director, Anastasia’s Africa, helped arrange the meeting.

My husband Bob and I spent an hour with him talking about the Kenyan orphan situation – out of 30 million people in Kenya, 1.3 million are orphans caused by HIV/AIDS and cancer deaths of the parents – the economy, the Chinese poaching, and the corruption in the Kenyan government. After breakfast we walked into Nairobi’s already crowded and hot business district near the hotel as the shops were just beginning to open.

Pascal and I also exchanged information about our writing lives. He’s been writing since boyhood, and he recently had some short stories and poems published. One won a prize, which appears below. Because of his brother’s suicide death ten years ago he has been writing to heal – a subject near and dear to my heart. It always amazes me that no matter where I go or whom I speak with, I find they have or know someone who has suffered a similar loss as mine. Now I’m happy to say Pascal and I are sharing our writing and continuing our conversation through email.

Pascal is the CEO of G.R.A.C.E. Grassroots Alliance for Community Education., a not-for-profit organization that provides programs in early childhood development, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) education sponsorship, agricultural development at its ten-acre farm in the Nanyuki district in the Mt. Kenya region, legal and social justice, and technical and financial assistance to their grassroots partners. When I first found out about this organization through Ellen about a year ago, I gave a little donation. Please join me. Here are some its donor partners in the United States.

Here is Pascal’s award winning poem:

The Flags are tattered

by Pascal Masila Mailu

Winner of 2011 Hay Festival poetry contest

The flags are tattered and stained, brethren

From Cairo to Jo'burg, Tunis to Addis.

Should we take a break from the tweeted riots

To revisit the blurred transition from OAU to AU...

From Gaddafi to the rebels......or is it NATO?

The flags are in tatters, mother

For in SA, they openly discuss the price

of old Madiba's casket

While the old icon sadly smiles

Weighed down by the impossible food and fuel prices.

And the wind…O what happened to the wind?

The powerful, revolutionary wind of change

That blew across the then green continent

in the rolling 60's and coup-infested 70s and 80s?

Have we finally replaced the Kalashnikov

with facebook?

The AK 47 with twitter?

The flags are tattered, elders

For today's youth swim in alien terminologies

coated with violence – pre and post election

tribal and clan-based

Sometimes hanging out or in

Eternally glued to giant screens,

Dying of state-induced idleness and self pity.....

The flags are tattered, children

for I anxiously await my exit - surrounded by sinking nations

Torn apart by negative ethnicity, oil-coated imperialism,

hollow political pledges and dusty manifestos

While slums mushroom in every open space....

Brother – what happened to the land we fought for?

Who stole our land and future

Leaving us cramped in Kibera, Soweto, Kawempe and Kechene?

Let’s take time brethren

To slowly mend the flags in between disputed elections

And re-inject authenticity to the national anthems

Lest the continent implodes from internal bleeding

In her mid fifties

Note we're toasting
with water and tea

Soon after our meeting with Pascal, our tour company arrived with two vans to take us to the airport. One to carry our luggage and the other to carry the four of us. While our travel mates went directly to Paris, Bob and I stopped for about twenty-four hours in Dubai before going  on to Paris for the last four days of our trip. What we all call the nadir of our trip was waiting for our flights out of Nairobi in the so-called business class lounge – hot, uncomfortable tents with porta-potties next door. It looked like the Nairobi airport still had a way to go to recover from its recent fire.

But I don’t want to end my tale of our African trip on a sour note. Again, I have to say it was a trip of a lifetime. I recommend it to everyone whether adventuresome or not. The people, animals, birds, and landscapes are breathtaking. One of these days I’m going to put out a picture book that will show you what I mean.

Does a long trip take its toll on our bodies?

Since my husband and I are both in our seventies and the couple we traveled with are in their late sixties, I started thinking about how traveling to far away places – especially Africa – can take its toll on our aging bodies. Here’s the precautions and planning I did to counter any possible adverse affects on what would be the trip of a lifetime.

First I needed to get a series of shots required for traveling to Africa – polio vaccine, hepatitis, tetanus, and yellow fever – the yellow fever injection was painful for quite a while. I also brought along a 25-day supply of malaria prevention pills that I started taking a few days before arriving in Africa and continued for seven days after we left. I brought along the original prescription bottle to avoid any questions at the airport.

What to pack for Africa was another issue. We were told to bring crushable duffle-type bags to Africa with the admonition that that bag and any of our carry on pieces should weigh no more than a total of 33 pounds. Space and weight restrictions on the mini twin-engine planes we had to take to get from place to place in Africa imposed that dictum. However, in hindsight I realized I didn’t pack quite enough. I needed a couple of lightweight sweaters for the cool mornings and a couple more changes of lightweight loose fitting slacks. Since I get an allergic reaction to the sun, I was very concerned about sun-protection clothing. I wore mostly dark colored clothing throughout the trip. Sun block was also essential.

The short flights we took within Africa were exciting – we could actually see wild animals from the plane’s window before we landed – but, the planes are hot, cramped, and a little nerve racking – especially while landing on dirt runways. I felt very relieved when we were finished with those.

Late afternoon during a rainstorm 

       Besides flying, we rode in open four-wheel drive vehicles and very bumpy almost non-existent roads while on safari. Because we mostly kept the plastic side windows rolled up we had to take care to prevent getting sunburned, wind burned, and inundated by the dust wafting in off the roads. I had a good solution – a big cotton knit scarf that I wore many different ways. If the morning was cold I wore it wound around my head and neck, if it was dusty, I used it to cover my mouth. And I wore it to protect my back and hands and arms from too much sun. I wore that scarf constantly. However, our guides were good about rolling down the windows and loaning us ponchos during the few rainstorms we encountered. They really knew how to take care of us.

       Also, the seats in the jeeps were very high off the ground. I had to learn to climb in using a series of narrow steps attached to the sides. I had to use those same steps but going backwards on the way down.

At the Ngorongoro Crater wearing 

my ubiquitous scarf

Dietary constraints were another consideration. Since I can’t eat dairy, gluten, or red meat, I let my tour organizer know of these restrictions well before I left home. I was very grateful that most places we visited were prepared to cater to my needs. However, that didn’t stop me or the others in our little group from having some digestive problems. I think those came from eating fresh vegetables washed in regular, unfiltered, African water. We were warned to drink and use only filtered water while brushing our teeth, but I guess they don’t follow their own warnings when handling food. Even so it’s amazing how even while staying in a tent camp, we took showers with running water, and toilets flushed like the ones at home. The staff just has to keep pouring water into tanks at the back of the tent to miraculously make that happen.

The long flights were also a concern. We had to take two separate flights to London with a long layover in between. And on our way home between Paris and Los Angeles, we took three flights with two layovers. We had luggage problems not just associated with packing, hauling, and checking, we had a mis-marked bag that didn’t arrive home until the day after we did.

And what about jet lag? I had the worst ever after this recent trip. I’d heard we are susceptible to a day of jet lag for every hour we’re out of our normal time zone. Well, at some points during this trip we were twelve hours on the other side of the clock. I finally began to feel normal on my eleventh day at home. During my jet lag phase I missed two appointments, made with the same person. I know I’ll never live that down.

I hope I haven’t turned anyone off from taking a trip like this. Experiencing the wonders of Africa was well worth the effort and occasional hardships. Like I said at the outset, it was a trip of a lifetime. Just be prepared if you decide to go.

       This piece (now slightly edited) was originally published at the Aging Bodies website where I contribute a monthly article.

Africa Trip Part 5 - Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Because we only stayed in Lake Manyara one night and had the same guide, Ray, from our arrival there until we left Tanzania at the Kilimanjaro airport two days later, I’ve decided to lump our days in both places together. Plus, their landscape and weather are similar – dry, dusty, with mostly red clay soil.

After a long plane ride to Lake Manyara, Ray picked us up in an enclosed truck with an open roof where we could stand up and take our photos by leaning out through the top. However, since I’m so short, I had to continually climb up and down from my seat so I could get my camera and head out there. Once we arrived at the national park and had our picnic lunch we proceeded to look for game – as we’ve done for the last eight days. And while I was beginning to feel ready to stop this, I began to click away with great enthusiasm, climbing up and down off my seat, and soon as I  saw more elephants, giraffes, and a lion relaxing in a tree. 

We stayed at the Lemala camp at the lake, and though smaller than the others, it was as beautifully appointed. Plus the food was excellent, including a great African buffet for dinner. The two chefs were very happy to cater to my dietary constraints.

Ray took us another game drive after we left Lake Manyara the next morning, and the highlight was seeing four lions looking very comfortable up on the branches of a tree. We also saw the blue monkey, thousands of pink flamingos, a great white pelican, ostriches, and more giraffes. Sadly, we also saw an elephant with one tusk.

Another sadness was the many beggars who came by every time we stopped. Although Ray discouraged us from giving them anything, he stopped the truck several times to give our leftover food to young boys walking along the road. Every village we passed showed this level of poverty. Lots of little shacks where people were trying to sell practically anything that they could: a few t-shirts and dresses hanging from a line, flimsy necklaces, and bracelets. There was a butcher shop and a place to buy medicines – called medics, umpteen curio shops, and beautiful rows upon rows of garden material on the other side of the road. However, everyone was trying to sell the same thing, so no one was buying anything. Except us. Much to our travel mate’s delight, Ray also took us to the best African handicrafts emporium of our whole safari experience during that drive.

We arrived at the Ngorongoro National Park by mid afternoon, and I was surprised and actually taken aback at the amenities it provided: actual toilets, picnic areas, lookouts. It lacked the raw and naturalness of the other reserves and parks we had visited. But then we should have known what was to follow: the Explorean Lodge where we would stay the next two nights. Here we were really back in civilization and a very elegant one at that. Our room was huge – actually it had a both a living room and bedroom – with an outdoor deck that looked out to the lodge’s huge vegetable and flower gardens. The food, however, was not so good. At first we all thought how lovely it would be to stay in this paradise for the rest of our lives, but after we sampled the food, we changed our minds. Going home soon was beginning to sound pretty good.

The next day, on our last game drive to the Ngorongoro Crater, further cemented our thoughts about leaving Africa. We drove and drove and drove up and down hills in a thick morning fog to get to the crater. There we saw wildebeeste and elephants and a few lions – actually a male lion was having his way with a female lion right in front of us – and many birds we hadn’t seen before. However, the red dirt road and so much foliage covered with red dust were what I remember most about this area. Every time another vehicle would pass it kicked up dust such that we were left with a coating of red dust on ourselves, inside ourselves, and upon every thing we carried. I wrote:

I’m satisfied

on this last day of safari.

I’ve seen more animals and birds

than I ever dreamed of – so many more

than Jonah could ever board in his ark.

The geography and weather varied

in each place we visited.

Bumpy hills with bare trees in hot Samburu,

a vast plain with little vegetation

called the Savanna in the Masai Mara,

rolling greens covered with dense rocks

and thunderstorms every evening in the Serengeti,

dust and hot dry air in Lake Manyara,

and now at our last place Ngorongoro

wind-blown red dusty soil that covers

all of me inside and out.

The next morning Ray drove us to the airport just past Arusha, Tanzania. We spent another four hours on a combination of bumpy and newly paved highways. He told us the Chinese designed and built the new roads with labor by Chinese prisoners and a few newly-trained Africans workers. The Japanese paid for the whole enterprise.

Africa Trip Part 1 - Nairobi

Since so many people have asked about our trip to Africa, over the next few weeks I'll share some highlights at: Nairobi, Samburu, Masai Mara, Serengeti, Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro crater, then back to Nairobi. 

Part 1 - Nairobi

We arrived at the Nairobi airport at 2 am. The place was practically deserted and that was good, since the main terminal’s welcoming hall, destroyed by a fire two weeks earlier, was nothing more than a large tent. We got our luggage quickly and met our tour group driver, Martin, outside. Since it was so early in the morning Martin said we should have no traffic, and we’d be at our hotel – the Norfolk – in about ten minutes.

By the way, I keep wondering if the airport fire was a warning from the terrorists who attacked the mall in Nairobi several weeks later. But we'll never know about that for sure, will we? 

And then almost right after we left the airport we passed a horrific accident. The car involved looked like it went through a mangler, and we learned later that someone died. With police and rescue vehicles lining the road, it took us more than ten minutes just to get around them. Then about a minute later I heard a large noise like we had run over something big and metal. It turned out the car passing us on the left – illegal with right-hand driving rules – clipped the front of our van. The car stopped, five drunken guys named “Vinny” got out and started arguing. Then they took off. Martin with us in the back seat raced after them, made them stop, and they all got out of their car again. I was scared. I really thought they were going to fight with Martin and we would end up being stranded on the road with no way to communicate with anyone. Thankfully, though they were drunk, they were not violent.

Even Bob wanted to get out of the car to see if he could speed things up, but I wouldn’t let him. What could he do? He probably couldn’t even communicate with them. Finally Martin got the information he needed and returned to the van, and we were finally on our way to our hotel. All told, it took us over an hour to get there. After a long plane ride from London, on the very uncomfortable Turkish Airlines, and our adventurous ride from the airport, I was ready to collapse.

Of course I felt much better in the morning. I got up early, went to the gym, and walked through our hotel’s beautiful grounds overflowing with flowering plants. After breakfast in the outdoor restaurant we ventured out just a little, following the music. Singers and dancers were entertaining across the street at the National Theatre. We also spoke to four young men selling their new CD, which I bought for $3 American.

We had a four-hour tour scheduled for the afternoon with our two traveling companions, again with Martin driving. However, the Nairobi traffic was so horrendous – many times worse than the Los Angeles freeways – that we only made it to two places: The Karen Blixen museum and grounds  – so much like I remember from the movie “Out of Africa” – where a museum docent gave us a private tour, and then we went on to the Nairobi cultural center to do a little shopping.

That night after eating at the hotel, we prepared our bags. We left two bags with clothes for the France part of our trip at the hotel to store and stuffed our small duffle bags with our safari clothes. We were told to pack light – no more than thirty-three pounds – and we did. Unfortunately I took the instructions much too literally. I could have added a couple more pairs of slacks and a lightweight sweater or two and no one would have complained.

The four of us left for the airport early the next morning to take our first tiny plane ride to our first safari stop in Kenya, Samburu.

The next installment is about Samburu.

Favorite trip photos

I think I’m finally over the jet lag from our trip. Last night I slept without waking at four in the morning, and I feel very well rested today. I’ve heard that it takes a day for each hour we travel away from our time zone, and at one point we were twelve hours on the other side of our clock in Dubai. So it’s close. Today it is exactly eleven days since we returned home.

Although the main intent of our trip was to go on an African safari, besides visiting Kenya and Tanzania we also spent several days in London before Africa and a night in Dubai and four nights in Paris after our African adventure. It was a trip of a lifetime. I’ll never forget it.

I’ve already posted a few of my favorite safari photos – and I promise to post more in the next weeks. However, today’s photos show some our favorite sights in London, Dubai, and Paris.

 My third time on the London Eye. 

Try it. It's a great ride.

 Stonehenge - an amazing site

 The "silver guy" in front of 

London's National Gallery

 Dubai's old city spice market

 The largest aquarium in the largest mall 

in the world - where else? Dubai

 While riding on the Seine on a cloudy 

rainy day in Paris

 Monet's lily pond at Giverny

Monet's House at Giverny