Africa distilled up through six thousand feet (Kenya)

(I couldn't resist. I've been singing it in my head all week)

"In the day-time you felt that you had got high up; near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.

The geographical position and the height of the land combined to create a landscape that had not its like in all the world. There was no fat on it and no luxuriance anywhere; it was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong and refined essence of a continent. The colours were dry and burnt, like the colours in pottery. The trees had a light delicate foliage, the structure of which was different from that of the trees in Europe... Upon the grass of the great plains the crooked bare old thorn trees were scattered, and the grass was spiced like thyme and bog-myrtles; in some places the scent was so strong that it smarted in the nostrils... The views were immensely wide. Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequaled nobility.

The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air. Looking back on a sojourn in the African highlands, you are struck by your feeling of having lived for a time up in the air. The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, ever-changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigour in it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue. In the middle of the day the air was alive over the land, like a flame burning; it scintillated, waved and shone like running water, mirrored and doubled all objects, and created great Fata Morgana. Up in this high air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be."

-Karen Blixen, Out of Africa. Written about the highlands of Kenya, where I am now...

Am I the luckiest person alive? I couldn't help but think I was over the last few days. As seems to be the pattern during this adventure, I came into Kenya not knowing what I was going to do, and having few expectations, but find myself a week into my African journey with more stories to tell than breaths to breath.

I spent from Wednesday, my first morning in Africa, to Friday in Nairobi. With a reputation as the most dangerous city in Africa, and thus in the world (especially for "Musungus", that is, white people), it's easy to do what most tourists to Kenya do and lock yourself in your hotel until a safari can take you away from the city. Indeed, hotels in Nairobi only serve to encourage this behavior: evey single one is enclosed inside a gated compound, with armed guards at the gates. Even my backpacker's hostel - one of the most affordable places in the city - has a ten foot fence around it and two seperate security firms on guard. Coming in and seeing that, it's easy to not want to leave at all.

Like any city, however, a little common sense goes a long way. During the day, there's very little danger even for someone like me, and violent crime against musungus is not particularly prevalent (they mostly just want your money, or camera, or whatever). So, I spent a good chunk of both days exploring the city by foot. I took some bus/taxi fare in my pocket, and left everything else locked up at the hostel (including my camera, hence no pictures). Despite the huge number of tourists in Nairobi around this time of year, I walked through PACKED streets for over an hour before I saw another musungu - more evidence that Nairobi's reputation is keeping most tourists indoors.

At some point in the Balkans, I mastered the ability to walk down a street and drink in the sights while still looking like I was bored, knew where I was going, and was not interested in being bothered. In the Balkans, it made me look like a local, as evidenced by the time I got handed a "learn to speak English" flyer in Belgrade, or the many times obvious tourists would approach me asking for directions. Obivously I'm not going to look like a local here, but that same way of carrying myself down a street is still proving useful here. Touts that I later learned would normally swarm musungus mostly left me alone, and the only person to approach me directly was Bernard, the Kenyan founder of a local NGO school in a very destitute slum in Nairobi. Bernard figured I was working for an NGO here, since I looked like I knew where I was going, and wanted to share ideas about his project with me. He was more suprised than upset when he learned I was just visiting, but the encouter left me feeling a tiny bit more confident in a very disarming city.

On Friday, I left Nairobi for the Central Province. About a four hour matatu (a type of mini bus, similar to the furgons I encountered in Albania) ride out of Nairobi is the town of Nanyuki. Normally in the shadow on Mount Kenya, the largest peak in the country, the haze that creeps up over the African highlands during the dry season left Nanyuki rather vista-less. Luckily I wasn't in Nanyuki for the sights. I met Annalise there, a fellow Stanford grad whom I had met in passing a few times back at school. We both share a lot of good friends in common, including Cara (who I call Sierra), a Camp Kesem counselor who graduated in '10 and is doing reserach in Mpala, to the east of Nanyuki. Annalise is doing research in Nanyuki, specializing on water and sanitation issues, and she and I both had the excellent idea to visit Sierra over the weekend.

My Friend Cara (Sierra)

Along with Annalise, I met up with a couple other researcher from Mpala who were getting supplies in Nanyuki for the day, and we all got a ride to Mpala together. Mpala is about an hour out of Nanyuki, and is nothing more than a research station in the middle of a 60,000 acre conservancy. The road there is rough, but the drive in wasn't without its sights:

The driver almost blew right past this "tower" of giraffes (thats what you call a lot of giraffes together). Obviously he didn't think it was all that special, but Annalise and I were pretty beside ourselves. Little did we know that this was going to be some of the more mundane wildlife sightings we'd get over the next couple of days.

We got to Mpala and put our bags down, and immediately were wisked away to Sundowners at a place called the "Hippo Pools". About 10 minutes away from the research station the nearby river widens out, and the slow water and deep pools attract large numbers of the pool's namesakes:

Hippos are actually the most dangerous mammal in Africa - they kill more people and cause more terror than any of the big cats or rhinos or elephants. They can run much faster than humans, and are protective and unafraid besides. That said, no one was very afraid as we sat on our cars and drank beers and watched them as the sun went down over the landscape. In the water they aren't much danger to people on land, but even still not a lot of people wandered far from the cars.

The hospitality in Mpala was amazing. Sierra was extremely busy with her research, but shared her living quarters with us, and she and her team shared meals with us (the food was amazing). We found out that night that another researcher from Princeton was leaving the next day, and got permission from her boss to take a car out on a game drive the next morning, since it was her last. She invited Annalise and I to go along, and we happily agreed.

We woke up the next morning and set out into the conservancy. It's hard to describe how beautiful this country is, but here are a few pictures of what we saw:

This type of Zebra (Grevy's Zebra) is endangered. They have really thin stripes.

We spent the afternoon lounging on the porch of Sierra's hut, reading and enjoying the mild afternoon and incredible views of scampering Dik-Diks (imagine a deer the size of a chihuahua) and mischevious Vervet Monkeys. That night, I accompanied Sierra and a new reseracher from Stanford, Annie, as they set traps to catch small rodents and carnivores for part of their research. We set traps around the Hippo Pools and farther down the river. Much to our chagrin, the local Baboon troops made it difficult:

Making mischief...

They should have been getting ready to roost, but instead they thought it would be fun to take all the traps we had put down and set, and turn them upside down, one by one...

Eventually, one tried to run off with one of the traps. Rather than let them get away with it, Sierra took off after them, yelling and throwing rocks and sticks, until the little theif dropped the trap.

Sierra is so badass...

Turns out most researchers really dislike Baboons. They are very numerous, and mischevious to a fault. Many a researcher has lost time and funding due to them. Eventually, we got the traps set and headed back to Mpala.

The next morning, we all woke at 5:30 to go check the traps. Unluckily for Sierra, the traps were all either tossed around by Baboons, or untriggered. Luckily for all of us, however, her boss agreed to let us take the truck out on a morning game drive.

Sierra couldn't believe how lucky we were with the wildlife sighting - she had been at Mpala over 6 months and had not seen any cheetahs yet (there are only a few on the whole conservancy), and we managed to see two curious ones together.

After the game drive, we headed back to Mpala, cooked a big breakfast, and got ready to leave. Annalise and I made our way back to Nanyuki with a group of researchers from Princeton. As if I hadn't been lucky enough, when we got into Nanyuki we ran into Annalise's roommate and her boss, headed out to a project about 30 minutes out of Nanyuki.

Every Sunday, Joseph (her boss, and a local Masaai tribesman), met with a big group of Masaai to help build a school for some of the tribe children, who currently didn't go to school because the nearest one was too far away. The school is a simple, single roomed building, which we had the pleasure of helping build during the most fun part: the mud slinging part.

Annalise slinging mud

Tea time after the hard work

The construction methods and process was unlike any I've ever seen. Community based, using local resources. It was half hard work, half a fun gathering of family and friends to make their community better. I definitely won't forget that afternoon - I only wish we had more things like it in the States.

After helping with the mud plastering, Joseph took us to his mother's compound about 5 minutes away, and she cooked us an amazing meal.

The compound was a couple of huts with no windows and wood cook stoves inside. There were about 10 family members living there, all either cousins or good-cousins (poligamy is allowed in Kenya, and Joseph's mom was the first of three wives for his dad, each of whom lives in their own compound). It was pretty awesome to see how Joseph's family lives - it's both humbling and inspiring to see.

After that, we headed back to Nanyuki. Annalise was kind enough to let me stay on her couch that night, and I went back to Nairobi on Monday afternoon. I spent today in Nairobi getting ready for tomorrow, when I'll set out on a four day camping safari to the Masaai Mara and Nakuru national parks. Sorry this update was so long - but how could I have made it any shorter?!

Until next time! Love you all.

(see all the pics from Nanyuki and Mpala here)

-Clay