Lamu

Boy did I need a vacation. October was a rough month for me. I was very stressed and it just seemed like everything was going wrong all at once. The icing on the cake was that one of my friends, Denae, was stuck in South Africa for medical reasons. She’s ok, and finally back in Kenya, but not being able to talk to her for emotional support when I was having problems just made things more difficult. We were supposed to go to Lamu together for her birthday mid-october but we had to push it back. We were worried she wouldn’t be able to come to Lamu with us, but everything ended working out.

Last Saturday I went to Kisumu for a halloween party with some other volunteers. I met some volunteers from One Acre fund who live in Oyugis. One of them has been here a year, living right down the road from me, and I’ve never met them or seen them in town. How is that possible? I found out it’s because they work outside Oyugis and have their own vehicles for transportation so they aren’t always around. Let’s just say, I’m excited for the possibility of more friends.
I went to Nairobi on Sunday with Sonya and we had our long-awaited reunion with Denae. Monday we flew out to Lamu. Lamu is an island off the northern coast of Kenya. Google it. It’s gorgeous. Anyways, after our flight being delayed in the Nairobi airport for a few hours we made it to Lamu. We met the guy, Abdul, who owned the eco-lodge we were staying at and went to drop off our stuff. We had to turn our language switches from Luo and Kipsigis to Swahili and we also immediately started sweating like crazy. It’s so easy to forget how hot and humid it is on the coast, but then again, it didn’t seem nearly as bad as last year’s Christmas trip to south coast. After dropping our stuff at Abdul’s, where we each got our own bungalow on stilts, we went to Lamu town to explore.

There aren’t any vehicles on Lamu: all we saw was a three-wheeled ambulance, and one or two pikipikis owned by mzungus. Otherwise it was donkeys and donkey carts. We wandered around and found a place with fresh juices. Then, it started raining. We tried to wait it out but it didn’t stop so we went back in the pouring rain and got absolutely soaked. At least it wasn’t rain like in Nyanza, where you would get cold and it would rain so hard it hurts. People laughed at us as we passed by and they stayed indoors/under cover. One man yelled to us, “it’s a free shower!”
Tuesday we went on a dhow (sailboat) trip. There’s a volunteer that lives near Lamu and he recommended a guy to take us out. We opted for a day-long fishing trip with lunch included. We passed mangroves in the channel between Lamu and the island across from it. It made me think of The Life of Pi, when he happens upon a mangrove island-thingy. You should google mangroves too, they are really interesting in how they can grow in salt water. We went out into the ocean and tried fishing. There were no poles, just fishing line tied to a board with a hook, shrimp for bait, and a nail to weigh it down. We didn’t catch anything, Sonya got a smart fish that took the bait but didn’t get hooked. That was the closest we came, the crew included. I wouldn’t say we tried really hard though. It was hot under the sun and we just had a little space for shade on the boat and we were all feeling pretty queasy.

We went to a beautiful beach on the other island across from Lamu, called Manda beach. The crew made us mini kingfish (they had come prepared in case we didn’t catch anything) with rice and vegetables. We also got fruits and “sea cucumber.” It wasn’t actually sea cucumber, the guy tried to convince us he cooked us sea cucumber (which I’m sure would be slimy and gross), but it was actually bananas they had cut in half length-wise, filled with chocolate and wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire. AMAZING. We stopped at Shela beach on our way back to Lamu.
I’ve never really had a problem with seasickness, especially if I’m out in the fresh air. But, we all still felt the rocking of the boat for the rest of the evening and night. Wednesday was the day we had planned to go to Shela beach, the famous, pretty beach about a 30 minute walk from Lamu town. But, we were sunburned and tired from the day before so we decided to go shopping in the morning. Disappointed by the selection of fabrics and the fact that no one wanted to bargain with us very much, we got frustrated. I guess they have high-end tourists who pay their high prices so they don’t see the need to bargain much. I did find a bead shop. They had lots of African trade beads and already made jewelry. I wanted to buy some stuff but the prices seemed high and he didn’t want to bargain. I also didn’t want to buy jewelry that I would end up restringing on better material, especially if it was expensive. He tried to tell me the string he used was strong, but after working in a bead store in America for so long and restringing all the jewelry that people had brought back from all over Africa, I know better. He wouldn’t let me take a picture inside either. Disappointment. I hope to find somewhere that has trade beads before I leave this continent, my new goal.

We got rained on again so we ran from store to store until it stopped. We finally walked to Shela and hung out in the restaurant at Peponi resort, a fancy shmancy place. Denae had brought back a bottle of wine from South Africa so we drank it to celebrate her belated birthday. The restaurant didn’t even charge us a corking fee. Score! Their lunch was great and not badly priced considering it was a touristy mzungu place.

I think that’s one of my favorite parts of traveling in Kenya: staying at cheaper places and saving money by using our language skills and negotiating, yet still being able to hang out at fancy places when need be. On the plane we met a white lady who has been to Lamu a few times and therefore considered herself an expert on Lamu. The flights land on the island across from Lamu so one needs to take a boat to the other side. She offered to help us get a boat to Lamu but I told her I had talked to people and knew that it should cost 100KSH to get to Lamu so we’d be okay. She told me, “oh no, it’s definitely more than that.” I said, “really? I’ve talked to a few people, including a guy who lives there, so we’ll just negotiate until we get to that price.” She then whispered under her breath to her friend (thinking we didn’t hear her) “it’s definitely not 100.” She laughed like we were stupid. We walked out ahead of her, found a guy near the boats, started talking to him in Swahili, and when I asked the price he told me “mia moja” (100). We didn’t even have to negotiate. We got in the big boat with some locals as we watched all the other mzungus get taken away on high speed motor boats. I wonder how much they paid. I feel like a bad person thinking this, but serves that lady right, if she wants to be so insistent that it costs more, let her pay more. Me, I’ll take the word of locals.

It was a lovely girls’ trip and the perfect length of time. I could see Lamu getting boring after more than a few days. Yes, the beaches were pretty, but I’ve seen pretty beaches other places too. I ate so much fruit and fish, it was crazy. One night we got crab and it was my first experience eating a whole one. Usually I get crab cakes and don’t do the work. It took some serious muscle-power to crack the shell without a cracker and I was worried I’d stab myself with a sharp piece. Luckily no blood was shed and the crab was delicious. It got us wondering how crab meat is obtained in America. Do they have machines? Or are people paid to remove the crab meat from crabs? I looked it up when I got back and it turns out it’s mostly immigrants who “pick” crabs. No wonder crab meat is expensive. Here’s an article I found about it: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-te.md.visas06feb06,0,1999591.story
Also, did ya know that most seafood salad and even the “crab” in California roll sushi is usually fake crab? Oh, the answers google can give you…