Africa
Monday, March 24, 2003
This past weekend, despite a warning for Americans to hide in their houses around the world, I ventured to the coastal town of Malindi about 2 hours drive north of Mombasa. Malindi is a heavily Muslim-influenced town; about as far north on the coast that one can safely go. In general, Northern Kenya is a no-man’s land for foreigners. It is dry, desert, and borders two war-torn countries, Sudan and Southern Somalia. It was very interesting to go to this particular town right after America has started a war. We stayed at a hotel right next to a large Mosque in a Muslim area of town (which wakes you up at 5 am with its broadcast prayers.) The coast of Kenya is Arabic-influenced because some of the first trading was done with sea-traveling Arabs and Indians. I must say that the graffiti proclaiming that ‘suicide was the only answer’ and ‘long live the Taliban’ was not particularly encouraging or welcoming to me. For the safety of my companions, and myself, I claimed to be a Canadian from Toronto. I do not particularly like denying my culture, which I love very much, and I am quite divided on the issue. However, my country has just started a war with Muslims and I was in Muslim territory. You never know what can happen when someone overhears that you are American. They may take action that would not be likely if they hear some other country of origin.
Malindi is a very small tight-knit town. We could walk everywhere, which is a rarity. Our hotel was near the beach and I must say, the beach was like nothing I have ever seen. Our first morning, we were typically directed and dutifully went to the Wuzungu beach where everyone tries to sell you something. By afternoon, we were more adventurous. The local’s beach had gold flecks that looked like glitter and shone in the sun. The water was full of shining gold sand and my feet looked like I had been playing around while making Christmas cards in elementary school with glitter and Elmer’s glue. It was beautiful. All day Sunday we sat on the beach making friends with the locals. (Who can be a bit too friendly sometimes and you have to ask forcefully to go away.) My friend decided that we should all make a sand castle instead of having 10-15 curious young Kenyans just standing around staring at the crazy Wuzungu with their sunscreen, bathing suits, books, and cameras.
Due to being in the sun all day, I am very sun burnt right now. Ouch. I did not realize that March 21st is when the sun’s rays are at their strongest during the whole year and of course my pale body goes traipsing around for hours in the equatorial sun. From my very smart German friend, I also learned the atmosphere at the equator is 18 kilometers high and from Europe and America it is less than two. THAT explains me seeing the biggest clouds ever, it is not my imagination and this coast was no exception.
We found some great local eateries with delicious Kenyan food. My friends love, love, love fresh fruit juice and the weekend was one long search for it. Not that I am complaining, fresh juice is delicious. It was worth going even if it was 2 overnight buses, one on Friday, and one on Sunday and then back to work Monday morning. Speaking of work, I am doing some! I am training the librarians at the main UN library in the use of online databases. I learned several new ones and am conducting intense one-on-one sessions with all of the librarians. After years of small budgets, they are very excited to learn something new. When my article is published in the San Jose State University Library School newsletter, I will direct you there and you can read more about my work and the library.
As a side note about the war, I am in the same time zone as Iraq and receive the news about the war as it happens. At the end of my day, I see the spin that Washington puts on the events for the waking American public. The East Coast is 8 hours behind me and the West Coast is 11. As a librarian, I always suggest checking several sources for news, but one of my new favorites is http://news.google.com. They have a search engine for 4,500 sources that gathers worldwide news.
Friday, March 21, 2003
Last weekend, I went to Western Kenya to visit several places. A very nice Swedish friend of mine wanted to treat a Kenyan friend (who would normally not be able to afford the trip home) to a free ride to her mother’s home in the tea-filled mountains north of Kisimu. So, we split the cost and rented a car!! I actually drove in Kenya, which is a heart-stopping experience. You have to concentrate every single minute of the drive. Potential obstacles include: cows, donkeys, chickens, goats, carts, bicyclists, pedestrians, potholes, speed bumps, 2-ft high shoulders, other drivers, and crazy drivers of large buses. Some speed bumps are not marked and you hit them at a high rate of speed and hit the roof. Potholes are very large and very numerous which means driving all over the road, all the time. Oh, and it’s driving on the opposite side of the road for me. There are no built-up shoulders on the side; sometimes the drop would break your axle. Tarmac is laid again and again w/o shoulders or scraping. I hit the bumper of a car in a little town, but all of the cars are old and beat-up and he told me to keep going. We rented a beat-up Nissan Sunny that is used as a taxi in Nairobi from a friend of a friend. It was really cheap. A great way to travel. There are also no road signs in Kenya or Africa for that matter. Which meant that we were lost twice. And the map we had was not complete. My logic that a map purporting to be a road map should name all towns and roads does not apply. Some towns were wrong, some not listed, and roads not identified. Stopping to ask directions was interesting. We used the 3-strike rule, if 3 people said this was the right way then we were almost sure it was the right way. But we found our way regardless. Our drive went through the tea plantations of Kericho. This area of Kenya is lush and green, a refreshing sight after driving over the Rift Valley savannah.
The first night we spent in Kisumu on Lake Victoria. It is a nice seaside town built into a hillside. Lake Victoria itself if being overrun with water hyacinth. It is choking all native plants and killing fish. It grows very fast and environmental groups are trying to control it. We went out to hear a traditional Luo band that night. There are two major tribes in this western part of Kenya, Luo and Luyah. Our friend is Luyah. We also met a friend in Kisumu and he invited us into his home to meet his family.
The second day we spent in the house of our friend in the mountains 2-hours north of Kisumu. We were invited into her mother’s home and met family and neighbors. We had to hike to her house but it was worth it. Her uncle has 3 wives in separate houses with 14 claimed children; don’t forget he has to be successful enough to support these families. They made us fresh chicken, ugali (form of grits), and broth. I also tried fresh sugar cane for the first time. It was delicious but very hard to eat. You chew the pulp for the juice and then spit it out.
In the late afternoon we drove into Kakamega forest, the only rainforest in Kenya. It is an extension of Western Africa rainforests that go through the Congo and Uganda. Luckily, we found very cheap accommodation ($3) inside the forest. A woman next to the place made us traditional Kenyan food for dinner and breakfast the next day. We gave her cute kids the rest of our sugar cane. We took a guided moonlight walk that evening. It was wonderful; the moon was so bright and all of the monkeys were hooting our presence. The next morning we took sunrise walk to a set of rapids. We saw colubus monkeys, blue monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, and vervet monkeys. We picked guava off the tree (which I didn’t really like).
On our drive back to Nairobi, after getting lost of course, we stopped at Lake Nakuru National Park. It is one of my favorites so far due to the 1 million flamingo that live and breed there. We just took a two-hour game drive through with our Nissan but saw many animals. You can almost drive right into the alkaline lake, it was receding due to the heat. The flamingoes were beautiful AND we saw rhinos! Rhinos are pretty rare due to poaching but we saw a family of 5 and a lone ranger. I am so glad that we had time to stop at this park. This photo is typical of our trip and life here in Africa:
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Many thoughts have been brewing in my head and many of you already know that I lean towards the left on most issues. If you care to continue reading, I will tell you some ideas I formed after my Rwanda discussion and others during my time here. Like many things in life, Africa is very complex. The people here have a great ability to absorb and endure hardship. They don’t have a choice; life is hard for most people. Disease, death, injustice, hunger, ignorance, and unexplained incidents are commonplace and tied into the fabric of everyday living. I can’t pretend to understand it but these conditions cross over into a philosophy of life and God that doesn’t ask questions, suffers much and rewards little. Even if I lived here my whole life, and many foreigners do, what is perceived by me as a luxurious understanding of the world is fundamentally different from theirs and I would never be truly accepted into Africa. Maybe it is the challenge and different way of life that keeps ex-pat’s here for twenty and thirty years. I don’t want to give the impression that Kenyans and Tanzanians are not open and friendly, they very much are these things, but there is a divide that is hard to bridge.
I also recently discussed the way that certain tribes of Africans reach group decisions that affect everyone with someone who had first-hand experience. (If you have ever read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, you might be more familiar; she discusses this topic.) This example also illustrates differences between Western and African ideas about governance. This man had been working as a civil engineer in southern Africa installing water pipelines and other things through rural villages and towns. After explaining what the company wanted to do to a new village i.e. run a water pipeline, he asked the adults ‘Are you happy with me and this proposal?’, no one answered so he then asked, ‘Are you unhappy with me and this proposal’, and again no one answered. This group decision could not be communicated so easily. Putting yourself above others by offering your individual opinion on something that affects everyone is impolite. The men will sit together and the women will sit together in circles and discuss all the pros and cons of a situation. This process can take an indefinite amount of time and a decision may not be reached at all. Compromise and diplomacy take place of course, but everyone must be satisfied with the decision. Then, someone, usually the person with the most reservations, is appointed to communicate the group’s will. In a way, this decision-making process is more democratic than our own in the United States. When voting, we are offered 2 choices, yes or no, even though we may have reservations and our yes may only be 50% of what we feel. We appoint like-minded representatives to make decisions for us. What guarantee do we have that they will make decisions that we agree with? Some countries, and states like California, place issues directly on ballots instead of placing all the power in an individual. What if everyone in the US could vote electronically on specific issues, like whether we should go to war with Iraq again? I wonder what the result would be. Maybe then we would feel directly responsible for the human consequences of war, i.e. civilian death and destruction not to mention military deaths, instead of blaming it on our President and representatives and washing our hands of it.
I was recently talking with a Kenyan man who is finishing his PhD in public administration at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln about politics in the US and Africa. (He also teaches US politics to first-year students at the university.) His research is very interesting. He is finding out if social tribal lines are more easily crossed when dealing with AIDS orphans. Orphans resulting from both parents dying of AIDS are very common. Anyway, Kenyans, and this is true of other African countries, are highly politically aware. They all know who the minister of housing is and what they are doing. Everyone is very familiar with governmental procedures, practices and accountability. Everyone knows the difference between good government and good governance. AND almost everyone votes. While I was woefully talking about low American voter turnout, he brought up a good point. Kenyans vote and are politically aware because their needs are not being met. Basic services are not provided and some services are not provided well. Like garbage service for example, it is a basic local governmental service in more developed countries and here it is all privately contracted at a high price. Most people can’t afford it, don’t use it, and burn their garbage instead, which is worse for the environment than putting it in a landfill. Recycling is rarely practiced although the glass bottles for soda have a monetary value and are used again and again. But most packaging and non-useful garbage is not recycled. Most Americans don’t vote because they perceive that they don’t need anything. They are happy with their lives as they are and the decisions that their government is making. The stoplights always work, the convenience store is always open, and the TV is always on. BUT, I reminded him that Americans not voting in America can and does have dire consequences for the rest of the world. I have the personal opinion that if Al Gore were President after the September 11th attacks, we would have continued with a multi-lateral, global partnership approach to terrorism instead of going on this unilateral tangent with Iraq. There would have been more international diplomacy and pro-active foreign policy. Anyway, we now have George Bush and our present quagmire.
It is very interesting to be away from America while its propaganda machines, i.e. mainstream media, gear up for a war. Though I am very skeptical of the media and my government while in the States, I cannot truthfully say that I am completely unaffected by propaganda. However, while living abroad, I am more disturbed by comments that I hear, small things that I catch, and smaller news stories that I hear, like teenagers not being allowed to wear anti-war t-shirts in schools and a lawyer in Albany, New York who was arrested for wearing a “Give Peace a Chance” t-shirt at a local mall. Or the Dixie Chicks singer having to apologize for speaking her mind, but I guess she wants to sell more records. I read things on the professional listservs that I belong to and I can only imagine what the local news is like. These small things add up to a climate that I perceive as fearful, repressive and reactive. Some of the news stories on CNN sound like a paranoid psychiatric patient writes them. Some of my synopses: “Beware of a vague threat”, “We cannot control everyone all the time”, “We cannot control random events, but we are desperately trying.” What about this new homeland security measure to detain asylum seekers so that “they can be easily contacted if we have any questions”? Does this mean that my Ivory Coast neighbor in California who is attempting to escape a bloody civil war will be detained at an undisclosed location while his asylum application is being reviewed? Not being in America allows me to have a better view of international reaction. We are perceived as bullying our way into a war that is clearly not supported by the international community. And now we have set a 48-hour deadline. Why aren’t we pursuing Osama Bin Laden as vigorously as Saddam Hussein? Why can’t we wait? Why now? Why are we so ready to go it alone? Why can’t we cooperate internationally? Why do we think we are so right? These war preparations have already cost $120 billion US dollars!!! What if we had put that into our education budget? If we do initiate a war by ourselves, we will be violating the rules of the United Nations. Would we be prosecuted for war crimes just like Rwanda? I doubt it.
The United Nations made a decision to pull the peacekeepers out of Rwanda in early April of 1994. Remember this was just after the Somalian peacekeeping mission went awry. A decision was made not to intervene. We as an international community did not want to intervene. The United Nations is only the sum of its parts. Here is one story that I have heard. The peacekeepers received the order to pull out when people were taking refuge in a peacekeepers compound because the mass killings had already started. They had to go and they couldn’t take anyone with them. Can you imagine having to leave people behind? Look in their eyes, see their intense fear, and drive away. There are stories of women throwing themselves in front of their trucks because they knew they would be killed as soon as the UN left. And that’s exactly what happened. There are memorials in Rwanda that anyone can go to visit. One such place is a building filled with dead bodies left in the exact position of their demise. I have seen photos and the bodies are leather and bones with outstretched arms, some holding each other. The death toll has been placed at 500,000. The history of Rwanda is complicated and messy. This story is certainly not a unique one and unfortunately it won’t be the last one. Have you ever heard of death gangs? Be glad if you don't have to know what they are. They exist here in Africa. What drives men and women to such dark places? I hear many discouraging things through friends and colleagues at the UN but I still believe that this organization can work. Such is life. After all, this is the only international governing body that we have.
Sunday, March 16, 2003
While in Arusha, Tanzania two weekends ago, I went to a small Maasai village near Monduli in the mountains outside of the city. My friend had friends there in that village and we all went to visit together. We drove 45 minutes out of Arusha, 30 minutes up a mountainside full of Maasai and their huts, and then walked 2 miles into the hills to reach the village. It was a great experience and everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I went inside a boma, which are made of wood and mud. It was very dark and cool inside the house and it took about 5 minutes for my eyes to adjust. The children are so adorable but many have diseases that could be easily cured with proper medicine. Many won’t reach adulthood. Water is not easily accessible. Electricity is nonexistent. But, it is a very beautiful, peaceful place that looks down into the Great Rift Valley. The Maasai people have lived in this place for thousands of years. They have an oral tradition and talk of a great migration from the North, presumably Egypt, several thousand years ago. The Maasai have a sharp business sense but vigorously maintain their traditional way of life, which includes male polygamy and female circumcision. On the walk, we met two women who were taking used motor oil to put on the children as insect repellant. Which is worse? Motor oil on the skin or malaria and river eye? As wuzungu, we had to careful not to touch our own eyes or mouths with our hands after the visit. We are not immune to the same diseases that they are. They use a fragrant plant as deodorant and rarely fully bathe. The men make all the decisions and the women do all of the work. Sound familiar? They build the houses, care for children, make all the food, etc. At a friend’s barbeque at the end of the day, for the first time, I saw a chicken slaughtered, plucked and gutted for our dinner. I was told that the live chicken was far less risky than the other option, which was chicken meat hanging in a butchery window all day with flies on it. The next day we took a ride up to Mt. Meru, which is wonderfully green and wet compared to the dry savannah below it.
Arusha is 250 km south of Nairobi. Arusha is a small town with very friendly people. For those that know California, it is what Santa Cruz is to San Francisco. Arusha has all of the good things that Nairobi has without the noise, pollution, crime, traffic and so on. I traveled with my supervisor and two friends on this road trip. We spent two nights in her friend’s guesthouses, which happen to be pyramids. They are small cabins actually shaped like pyramids and consisting of three sizes, small, medium, and large. Arusha hosts UN offices and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. My supervisor worked in Arusha for two years while she traveled back and forth to Kigali, Rwanda to set up a library there. During dinner on the first night, we discussed the genocide in Rwanda that started in April of 1994 and I learned more about it than I ever wanted to know. But, these are things that are real and happening all over the world and I should know. There are horrible, horrible stories that come out during the trials and many are well documented. I don’t even want to put some of these images that I have into your mind. My dreams that first night in Arusha were fraught with tension and sadness.
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Last weekend, I went to the southern coast of Kenya for 3 days. Two friends and I went to Tiwi Beach, located about 30 km south of Mombasa. To do the coast trip cheaply, one has to take an overnight Coast Bus, which arrives at 5:30 am and is very, very bumpy. The ticket costs $10 for a 7-hour drive. The seats do recline but it is not comfortable. The bus arrives in the dark, and you have to stay on the bus until daylight when it is safer to move about. The taxi drivers started waving to us while we were sitting on the bus because Wuzungu always need a taxi. But not us, we took the Matatu out of the city, then a ferry, then another Matatu, then a taxi to the actual lodge for $2. The place that we stayed cost $8 per night, and it was right on a beautiful, isolated beach. The beach was about 50 meters from our room and we could hear the waves at night. Tiwi Beach has a lagoon formed by a reef about 100 meters out and you can walk to it during low tide. During high tide, the water reaches the beach and is perfect for swimming. The weather was beautiful; it was hot and humid with the relentless equatorial sun beating down. It was so nice there that we didn’t even leave the hotel. The hotel had a homey feel; there were dogs and monkeys running around, the owners were always present and guests get to know each other. I rose for the wonderful sunrises and spent the days swimming, snorkeling, reading, eating, and watching the palm tree shadows go from right to left. The fish in the restaurant was fresh from the reef. People catch it with fishing spears and sell it to the chef. Everything was so relaxing. We went out sailing on a dhaw, an African boat made of mango and mangrove wood with outriggers. From the boat we did some snorkeling. The coral and fish were colorful, and we even saw dolphins. We met an interesting man who has lived in Sudan and other African countries for the last 30 years writing, taking photographs and working for various organizations. I love hearing stories about Africa and countries that I have not yet visited. He is actually in Nairobi at the moment on his way back to London. There weren’t even many beach boys. These boys walk around the beach to sell everything touristy, and of course we bought some things. They also try to win your heart and marry you so that you can take them to a rich, white country. We tried to explain that most white people work very hard when they are not at the beach and they might not be happy in such a place, but they don’t listen. I learned about the hierarchy of the business on the beach, it is all tightly controlled, something akin to the mob. At Tiwi, the beach boys were very nice and don’t bother you after you have bought something. All around, it was a wonderful weekend, one that I will be repeating in a few weeks. Arguably one of the best holidays I’ve ever had.
The stars are so clear here, they go all the way down to the horizon in all directions and the Milky Way is highly visible. I finally realized that the Big Dipper and Orion are upside-down because I am in the southern hemisphere. I knew that the stars are different here but had not investigated the information properly. Actually, being on the equator, you can see both sets of constellations, Northern and Southern, in a skewed manner. You can see the Southern Cross, which points directly south and is on the Australian flag.
Have I ever mentioned that the fresh juice, smoothies and fruit are one of my favorite things about Africa? Everywhere you go, you can get refreshing mango, paw paw, papaya, avocado, passion fruit, orange, apple, pineapple and other fresh fruit juices mixed with yogurt, milk, or cream or not. Very, very delicious and they hit the spot in this heat. Oh, and they are incredibly cheap, usually $1 or less. Avocado smoothies are surprisingly good.
A bit about my physical injuries. As most of you know, I can be clumsy sometimes. While at Tiwi Beach, I was stung by a jellyfish for the first time on my chest. Ouch! Luckily, it was through my bathing suit and not directly on the skin. It hurt for a few hours but the pain went away. I have also received various bumps and bruises, which take longer than normal to heal. I don’t know if it’s altitude or what. I was also pricked by a very large and very sharp cactus. There are these big octopus looking ones that have very long needles at the end. I was just walking in the driveway and bam, right into my shoulder. The last injury is kind of embarrassing. On our way back from Amboseli National Park last weekend, we stopped at a place called the Maasai Ostrich Farm. You can take a tour of the farm, where they raise ostrich for meat, feathers, and leather. You can also ride an ostrich. Needless to say, I had to do it. After we took the farm tour, I got on a Somali Ostrich (they have blue necks and legs while Maasai Ostrich have pink ones) and rode it around a little pen. They are very powerful animals and kind of scary. There were two guys holding the wings and at one point they made the ostrich run. Well, it is hard to hang on to an ostrich and at one point I came down very hard on my tailbone. It was bruised and painful for a few days and was getting better until I sat on the wooden dhaw last weekend at the beach. Then it was re-bruised. I am sure that these bumpy overnight bus rides do not help either. The clinic here at the UN told me to get an air ring and wait it out; it will heal on its own. I am not getting an air ring; how embarrassing. It’s kind of painful, but I am ignoring it and hoping it goes away soon.
