** This blog post was written about a month ago**
We're back! Sorry (moms) for the delay in posting!
Since our last (first) post, Aurelien and I have taken some
incredible trips and have had a roller-coaster of a past 2-3 months.
Our series of fun trips started when we went to the Kakamega rain
forest with our dear friend Ruth and our puppy at the time, Oliver. This was
quite the trip and honestly could compete with the likes of the maasai mara and
mombasa. It smelt/felt like the rain forest section of the zoo with all the
wild birds and plants. We took a 4-hour hike and saw monkeys, a water fall, and
some other beautiful wildlife. It’s hard to believe the rain forest is only
about an hour away from where we live. Aurelien and I resolved to go there more
often and haven’t been there since (haa) but I’m sure we’ll be back soon.
About two months ago, we went to the Maasai Mara with a group of
friends from the organization I work for and another awesome NGO in the area.
We saw the wildebeest migration, a lion family, several elephant families, a
baby and mama giraffe, zebras, all kinds of deer-like creatures (not quite as
cool as seeing the lions and baby elephants) and..... a LEOPARD!! All of the
animals look unreal being out there together in the grass in their natural
habitat. It's so bizarre to see giraffes and elephants in the same area.... The
only time when we saw a lion with another species the lion was on the hunt.
Even though the trip to the Mara consisted of hours upon hours in a moving,
bumpy vehicle, it was relaxing and soothing to look out on the plains which
appeared like a sea of grass, bushes and trees. Aurelien and I could only go
for the weekend (because I couldnt get off of work) and so we drove 7 hours to
the park on Saturday morning, drove through the park for the rest of the day
Saturday (and saw the wildebeest migration!! thousands upon thousands of
wildebeests!), and then found our camp just as the sun was setting. The group
we went with bought groceries for the weekend on the way in and we were
expecting to reach a camp with a refrigerator, or at least something resembling
a kitchen, where the hired cook was going to prepare our food. In reality,
there was nothing - just a few canvas tents, a place for a fire and a covered
area for cooking/eating. We somehow had an incredible night's sleep and the
next day we woke up early in hopes of seeing a lion hunt/kill it's breakfast.
We saw 2 gorgeous, huge male lions, but no breakfast! We drove around the park
until about 1pm and then went back to the camp and hopped in another car
to take us to the nearest town (5 hours away) where we got on a matatu and
headed back for Bungoma. It was a very long weekend but was a wonderful
experience.
About a month and a half ago, we went to Mombasa with several of
the same people from the Mara trip (basically all the other 'mzungu' that live
in Bungoma). This trip was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. The beach is my favorite place to be
and the beach in Mombasa looks like something out of a travel magazine. The
sand is so white, fine and soft and the water is crystal clear. On this trip,
Aurelien and I spent the first day at a cozy bed & breakfast on the beach
called Kennaways, where I mostly just slept on the beach and Aurelien mostly
just took black-mail worthy pictures of my sleeping on the beach (not creepy at
all). For dinner, we went to this place called Ali Barbour's Coral Cave, which
is a restaurant that is literally inside of an old coral cave. The cave is
estimated to be 140,000 – 160,000 years old. The atmosphere was amazing and the
food tasted heavenly, especially after a couple months of Bungoma food and my
crappy cooking. The next day, our friend Ruth joined us and we all rode CAMELS
on the beach. It felt like a dream. Those babies were CUTE with long eye-lashes
and knobby knees! That night, we all went to a restaurant called Sails where we
got even better food. I don't know if it's that the best food in Bungoma tastes
worse than the worse food in Chapel Hill, or if the food in Mombasa is just
really that good. Probably a combination! The next day, we left Diani beach and
went to Tiwi beach where we met our friends at a private house with a live-in
housekeeper and chef. We had local fishermen coming up to our door to sell us
anything from calamari to lobster! It was amazing. The house was very open and quiet
and it was in Tiwi beach (home of the Diani coral reef) where Aurelien
discovered his love of snorkeling. The kid would not get out of the water! I
just laid on the beach and every now and then would look out for him.
Inevitably there would be a few long seconds before his head would pop out of
the water and I would give a sigh of relief. Even though the beach is my
favorite place in the world, I'm deathly afraid of the ocean. After spending
about an hour in the water, he would run up to me on the beach, snorkel/mask
still on the face, with his hands and pockets loaded with sea shells. He would
beg and plead for me to come in the water, telling me he saw the whole cast of
“Finding Nemo”, along with beautiful sea shells and starfish until anything he’d
ever imagined. Eventually I caved and got in the water with him, only because
he promised we could have Chinese food for dinner if I tried snorkeling. I
spent the entire 10 minutes I was in the water breathing fast and picturing a
great white suddenly appearing in my view. I can’t explain how scary it was.
Aurelien held up his side of the promise and we had (not so delicious) Chinese
food for dinner. The next day, the whole group took a (hand-carved mango tree)
sail/row boat out to a coral reef. This was by-far one of the sketchiest
experience of my life. Everyone in the group dove down and snorkeled and found
beautiful fish, starfish and shells. Aurelien even found a clam that he swears
could have eaten one of his extremities. Needless to say I stayed on the boat
the whole time, filling up cups/buckets of water from inside the boat to make
sure we didn’t capsize. The current was really strong in the water and there
would have been no way to “save” anyone had they not been able to swim back to
the boat. It was a nightmare to me. We all made it safely back to land and I
vowed never to get on such a crappy boat like that, far out in the Indian
Ocean, again. The next morning we watched the beautiful sunrise above the
Indian Ocean, and Aurelien and I left the rest of the group to explore Old Town
Mombasa. We were there on a Sunday during Ramadhan and so a lot of the shops
and restaurants were closed. We just walked through narrow streets and looked
at all the wood-carved doors and historical sites. Mombasa was the only trading
port in East Africa for 1000s of years and so there is just tons of neat
history to the city. After walking around for a long time, we found a 3d movie
theatre and watched Ice Age for 300ksh (3 dollars) each, and ate our fill of
gelato, popcorn, hot dogs fries and soda, freezing in the air conditioning that
we’ve pretty much forgotten existed. It was an amazing trip.
Then, about a month ago, we went to Nairobi. What a culture shock
coming from Bungoma. I’ll keep it short because there’s not much to say about
Nairobi, except that we ate incredible food, walked around western-standard
shopping malls, and got licked by giraffes. We’re planning to go back soon.
It’s crazy to think that Nairobi can exist within just 6-7 hours of a place
like Bungoma.
Last weekend, we went to a place called Kweisos house with a bunch
of friends, most of whom work for the same organization as me. The drive to the
house took ~6 hours because we got a flat tire on the way there, and then the
spare got a flat, and we were too far from anywhere close to civilization to
find another spare or tire. When we finally arrived we were greeted by amazing
friends, delicious dinner, and strong cocktails. In the morning we could finally see where we
were at this house and can say that we were surrounded by the most beautiful
view of rolling hills, flowers and serene nothing-ness. It was so beautiful
there. We spent Saturday lounging around the house and pool, riding horses,
holding baby lambs (okay, just 2), milking cows (okay, just 1), and eating
delicious food. On Sunday we did the same and then left Kweisos to get back to
Bungoma, but not without getting one more flat tire.
We feel so lucky to have taken several great trips in just a
couple of months. We’re vowing to do more travelling whenever we get back to
the US because taking weekends off makes the work week more do-able, even here
where work is so difficult for so many reasons. But I’ll save that for another
blog post!
Happy November J
Aurelien & Hannah
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