Masai village welcome dance

On our final day of the Masai Mara trip we visited the village where a few of the Riverside lodge staff live. We were greeted outside the perimeter of the fenced village by the men, who performed this for us.

Masai village welcome song

On our final day of the Masai Mara trip we visited the village where a few of the Riverside lodge staff live. This was the women's song.

Big horned cows in Uganda

This herd of cows took over the road to Masindi while we were driving to Murchison Falls. Apparently the horns are full of blood vessels, which helps keep the animal cooler. Whether this is true or not doesn't really matter to me, they look pretty cool anyways!

Home again!

We have arrived back at home after 36 hours of traveling...yikes! We had no troubles checking in at Entebbe, unlike our flight from Nairobi into Uganda. That flight was pretty stressful as the rules about checked baggage allowance were not very clear, and we had to do some last minute shuffling between bags to meet the maximum weight allowance.

The major travel trouble hit when we landed in Nairobi, where we learned that our flight to Heathrow was delayed by about 9 hours. Instead of waiting 2 hours and flying out at midnight, we had to sleep in the Jomo Kenyatta airport and wait for our flight at 8:30 the next morning. It was one of the worst sleeps I've ever had! Perhaps you can understand why from the photo...

We did finally takeoff, however, and we made it to Heathrow in time to catch our original connection back to Vancouver. Unfortunately there wasn't much time between each of the 8+ hour flights...ah well. We landed in Vancouver just after 6pm local time, and had left London at about 5pm local time - we were chasing the sunset the whole way home.

The Vancouver airport is very nice, it always feels good to arrive there from a trip. After taking a cab home and getting a nice hot shower, we settled back into our North American home by ordering Pizza Hut. Mmm...so much grease!

All in all, it has been an amazing trip with many great memories, experiences and new friends. Now all that's left is to reset our body clocks to Pacific Standard time...no telling just how long that will take!

Engaged!

This is the spot where I asked Barb to marry me, in front of our cabin on the edge of the Masai Mara park boundary in Kenya. We had been out during the day to visit a Masai village, and witnessed our dinner being prepared - from live goat to strips of meat in 30 minutes! It was an amazing day and a beautiful setting for a very special moment.

Our trip is wrapping up now - we fly out of Uganda in about 8 hours. Uganda has been very interesting - quite different than Kenya in a lot of ways. Humidity and heat! It's quite hot here, and it's been sunny almost every day. We're really close to the shore of Lake Victoria, and we spent most of the afternoon yesterday at the Entebbe Sailing Club. Barb and I both got up on waterskis a few times in the lake, and we're paying for it today. Sore!

I'm trying not to think too much about what it'll be like when we get home...cold and wet, I imagine. I did just check the Grey Cup results though...congratulations Saskatchewan! Regina must be going crazy. First Grey Cup in how many years? Yikes!

ugandan work ethic - transporting furniture on the bicycle

the people here have an amazing ability to manage large and odd shaped objects stacked on their bicycles. huge containers of water, large welded items the size of a bed frame, oversized pottery-barn-like chairs, stacks of matoke (plain green bananas - hundreds on a stalk), and of course people.

they also can drive a mean boda boda (motorcycle), matatu (skinny van serving as a bus/taxi jammed full of 15 people), or crazy coach - really huge greyhound type buses with the axles often off kilter. they fly down the middle of the roads at about 100 miles an hour while appearing to be fishtailing. alas, that would probably be safer. actually the rear end is anywhere from 1-3 feet off the axis, yet the bus is going straight. we can laugh, since we haven't been hit by one yet.

so, we saw quite a few amazing things in murchison falls (northwest uganda - a beautiful 7 hour drive from entebbe through lush rolling hills of country side). lots of crocodiles (one spot had about 20 cooling off under the tree), lions and their cubs (we saw 3 lioneses and 6 cubs playing and drinking water just across a little pool of water), and quite a few hippos, one cute hippo in particular who walked out of the water to graze on the grass next to a bunch of us waiting to cross on the little ferry. so cute in fact that a few stupid tourists decided to get within about 10 feet to take photos. wow. smart europeans (no offense europeans). so clever. and luckily for them, quick too! they needed to run when the hippo lived up to its reputation and got p*%$$ed off and promptly chased them! we thought everybody knew that they kill more people every year than lions. guess not. anyhow they got away and we all had a nice shot of endorphins to carry us through the rest of the day. i would have laughed except there were a bunch of little kids around, so instead i was a little irritated.



we celebrated every night bobbing in the pool with a beer and overlooking the victoria nile. it was quite amazing falling asleep to the sound of hippos chortling/snorting outside our window just down the hill.

yesterday nate and i went on a long lunch with margaret, the director of the entebbe women's association who came to vancouver with mariam last year. we had a beautiful lunch and then headed out for a tour to their big tree planting, reforestation project. on the way we stopped for gas and bought some fried crunchy grasshoppers through the window. yummy. good thing i had some water to chase them down.

the site we were heading to was by the airport, and the queen was coming in shortly for CHOGM (epic commonwealth event in kampala with 52 presidents and primeministers). we underestimated the security. we were stopped all over the place, and at one point along a bumpy back road there was a security stop where we had to get out of the van and walk through a metal detector that had an extension cord spliced to it running to a nearby house. ha ha ha. again, another adventure that is funnier after the fact. everyone is so friendly, but you never know at the time what is actually going to play out.

it is nates birthday today. we went to the pool that is right on lake victoria and read our books and got sunburns. we are headed to dinner tonight and will celebrate more tomorrow by going to the animal centre (soon to be zoo). we met the main vet today, a local ugandan, and he is going to take us on a tour. he has a sick python and a baby chimp that they rescued from his life in a box in a tree. so we will likely not be able to even be in the room with him cause he is understandibly so scared of people.

Here's Barb and I on Kevina and Njoro's wedding day - with our new custom made threads! They had shirts made for all the men, and Barb and Naiomi got to pick out dresses made from kangas, large rectangular pieces of fabric with different prints on them.

We'll try to get some more pics up soon, though the net access here is pretty slow. After the wedding the family went on a safari trip to the Maasai Mara, a large national park on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. After a 7 hour drive over some VERY bumpy roads, we popped the roof up on the vehicle and stood up for a better view. The first evening we saw zebras, a group of elephants, and the highlight of the trip - a cheetah taking down a gazelle. Crazy! We got up close and personal - the cheetah was only about 30 feet from the truck.

We're now in Uganda with Barb's sister Jen and Jen's husband Rod. It's quite a contrast to Kenya - not as developed, but very beautiful and green. There's lots of rainfall here as well as plenty of sunshine.

We'll be back next week - hard to believe that our trip is wrapping up so soon.

later,

nate

Post wedding day

It's Sunday afternoon after the wedding, and the day before we head out on safari. It has been quite an experience, witnessing first-hand the Kenyan wedding traditions.

Thursday was a big day, starting with a bridal shower at noon for the women. The men were kicked out for a few hours - we went over to the guest house that is being rented for the rest of Kevina's family for the week. It's got a nice pool and a huge yard and garden, and we spent a nice few hours sitting around the pool sipping beers and getting some sun. After a few hours we got a call that it was safe to return to the house, and start getting ready for the evenings festivities.

Thursday night was a big dinner for about 35 people, complete with Nyama Choma (bbq) goat. Big plates of meat kept circling the tables for several hours, while the family negotiations were underway.

There was a serious protocol of negotiations between Njoro's family and Kevina's family - an adoptive father was appointed for Kevina as her own parents were certainly clueless about the whole process! In the end she went for the hefty sum of 96 goats - I don't know if that's a lot or a little, but it sure seems like a lot to me!

On wedding day a group of women came to the house to collect Kevina, singing as they came up the driveway. So much singing! More singing as we arrived at the church, and the same group (along with Kevina's parents) walked her down the aisle. All the singing was in Kiswahili, so we weren't really aware of the meaning, but it sounded great. It was a catholic wedding, and the priest was great - joking around and improvising with the couple. There was a photo shoot outside on the steps, and then the bridal party went off to the guest house to relax a bit and take more photos before heading to the reception.

More singing as the newlyweds arrived at the restaurant for the reception, complete with a 5 piece mens choir singing Kiswahili songs for the crowd. There was another big Nyama Choma feast, and we got to introduce a bit of western tradition to the otherwise Kenyan proceedings - the tinking of glasses to have the new couple stand up and kiss! No one knew what was happening as the muzungus tinked their glasses and looked expectantly at the couple. Heh!

There were some speeches, and a group of women presented Kevina with the traditional cooking tools of a Kenyan wife so she can cook for her man! After all the official events had wrapped up, the dj got going and a dance party got into full swing. At one point the younger Kenyan girls were teaching the Canadians how to do the booty dance - crazy! It was quite a scene. There was a good crowd for the bouquet toss, about 20 girls and some fierce competition for the prize. It ended up on top of the tent roof, and when it slid off Kevina's friend Naiomi held up the bouquet! There were some disappointed girls for sure...

So, today we're getting a few final souveniers before heading out of town. No internet access in the Mara! Our next post will likely be from Uganda, at Barb's sister's place.

Sawa sawa!

nairobi arrival and wedding prep!

Hola!

wow! These Kenyans know how to do it up! Whether we are partying, bbq-ing, negotiating for car repairs, negotiating for gifts, negotiating for taxis, negotiating for custom made traditional dresses or shirts, they know how to work things out. Negotiating is a fine art. We will need a primer for the shower and bride negotiating party tomorrow at the house. I think we canadians will hold our own. Sure, we are nice but we are fiesty and know how to get things done too!

gotta run! will update more soon!

-Barb

soaking up the sun

It's probably the hottest it's been yet today, it feels great. I'm quite surprised how much it cools off in the evenings - I'm thankful for the sweaters and pants that I packed along! It never really gets above 29 or 30 degrees in Nairobi, not as hot as I was imagining.

We've had quite an adventure so far, and only 5 days into the trip! Yesterday Barb, Naiomi and I went to the giraffe park, a large open space for giraffes and warthogs (remember Puumba from The Lion King?) with a small public viewing/feeding wall. Yes, feeding the giraffes...both from your hand and from your lips if you're brave enough! Actually the giraffes saliva is antiseptic, so (apparently) it's safe...their foot-long tongues pull the food pellets from between your lips! Yikes...good photo-op.

Speaking of photos...Barb's camera has died before we even got here - problems with the battery connection for some reason. She's out now going to buy a new one.

4 days until the wedding, then it's off on safari! We just watched the movie Out of Africa, with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford - it was set right here in Kenya, with many beautiful scenes of the Maasai Mara where we will be going on safari for 3 days. I'll send another update when I can...internet access is hard to come by so far.

10 hours ahead in Africa

Well, we have arrived in Kenya after 2 flights and a layover in Heathrow airport. I now fully understand the disorienting effects of jetlag from international travel. Thank goodness for naps!

We are certainly getting an insiders view of Kenya...our hosts, Njoroge and Kevina have a car and a house in a suburb of Nairobi called Karen. It is a relatively affluent area, with properties spread out rather than high-rise buildings squished together like in the heart of Nairobi. Traffic is crazy, you must be very aggressive or else you don't go anywhere. We seem to be attracting a lot of interested looks, people staring at the 'muzungos', the white people. There are people everywhere, and they are almost all black.

Today we drove to Thika, a small town close to Nairobi - about 100 km away - in order to have a final fitting of Kevina's wedding dress. Both Kevina and the dressmaker were very nervous - the last fitting did not go well. But today went well, the dress is beautiful and the bride is happy.

Our car broke down on the highway after hitting a particularly nasty pothole - it broke a fuse! We lost power on the highway and were stranded. Good thing we had a Kenyan with us! Njoro walked back to find a mechanic, who was actually quite close by, and we were back on the road in about 15 minutes. However it was a very stressful 15 minutes!

I really must return to the party...I am at Njoro's stag party, Barb is with Kevina and about 20 other women at the 'Hen party', or stagette. The youth of Africa have latched onto the western traditions of partying hard before a wedding. Well, they like to party hard most of the time, but particularly for a wedding! We'll see what the night has in store...

Final preparations

12 hour scramble!

We're leaving in a few hours for our epic journey across the globe. Not much to tell yet, but it looks like everything is falling into place! Getting cash, last minute gifts, cleaning up the apartment for our houseguest...

I have no idea how easy it will be to access the internet where we are in Africa, though I'm sure that we'll be able to send at least a few updates. Photos too hopefully!

Thanks go out to everyone for their support and encouragement to actually make this trip happen! We certainly wouldn't be going if it weren't for the prodding and assistance from our friends and family.