Can't win them all as I didn’t have a great past couple of days!

Let’s see where should I start? I left Naivasha around 9 am to go to Nakuru to see the Lake and rhinos and pink flamingos. It was suppose to be a 3 hr trip but allowing for African time we didn’t get there until about 4 pm. The tout (hustler who gets passengers on the mini bus) showed me a matatu with few passengers. So I got on and thought we’d be at our destination around noon. Well they didn’t tell me that the matatu was planning to stop at a political demonstration for one of the candidates. So here I am waiting inside the bus while everyone else is out listening to the candidates. I couldn’t find the driver so I had no choice as I paid 200 KS ($3) for the trip. Finally the driver comes back to say u can catch another matatu as we are going to wait until the end of the speeches. So I hopped on board another matatu to take me the rest of the way to Nakuru. The trip was on the usage Kenyan highways (pot ways) as I got my body banged around mixed with a blend of African dust.
I wanted to go to Nakuru to see the lake and nature reserve. However I didn’t want to take another long tour with a bunch of photography fiends like at Maasai Mara. I only wanted to see the pink flamingos and white and black rhinos. The price with park entrance is normally around $90 which is steep for a 1 day trip as far as I was concerned.

So using my usually diplomacy stating that it was later in the day I managed to score a tour (can’t walk around the park as too dangerous or I would have done it) for about $40. I thought that still expensive but factoring in the park entrance and just limiting my time with the tour it went OK. What didn’t go so great was that the battery in my camera had to need charging and also my backup one too! $*^&@#%# but I got to see them for cheap and my pictures usually aren’t all that great so not earth shaking. So rather than camp in the park I decided to find a cheap place in town to charge my battery! Yeah I sure found a cheap hotel but it had electricity but no water but 1 out of 2 isn’t bad!

I realized that I needed to get back to Kisumu (the town by the village I volunteered) to pick up some thing I left behind there. So I caught a bigger bus as I knew the road was bumpy and dusty (but I guess they all are but just are worse than others) and I wanted a break from being beat up and sitting in a dust storm. Well I went to catch the 8 am bus as this was suppose to be a 4 hr trip. So like a normal muzungu I got there at 7:30 to pick a decent seat (last bus I caught had a metal rod sticking out in the seat) But factoring in African time the bus didn’t leave till 9:30. This bus didn’t have curtains to block the sun but what did I expect for a ½ price bus? At least I picked the passenger side of the bus so I didn’t get as much dust. I’d rather have sun than dust but no one escapes the shake rattle and roll of the road. It was funny as half way through the trip all the passengers were demanding a pee break or whatever else they could do in 5 mins. So the driver simply pulls over to the side of the road and all the passengers get out. It reminded of some of the ski bus trips I’ve been on where the bus pulls over to the side and everyone stands next to the bus and the bus pulls ahead leaving all the people waving to passer bys. Well in this trip the driver didn’t pull ahead but was pulling out when a couple of women came flying out of bush with their young kids in hand and whatever else they had with them. It was a bit funny actually as the conductor didn’t even count heads to see if everyone was on board. They usually just rap on the metal roof a couple times and the driver pulls out!

Another first but long overdue was a blow out a half hr later! I don’t know how the driver knew it was a flat tire and not just another pothole! There was a loud bang but it didn’t sound any different than the 1,000 other potholes we hit on the road. The odd thing is most of the passengers didn’t get off the bus when they changed the flat! I don’t know how they did it as they seem to take the inside tire from one side to replace on the other side. So after a 45 min delay we got on the way. However I was sort of concerned we’d have another blow out as the driver didn’t slow down as he kept swerving to miss potholes and oncoming vehicles but still got his share of monster ones. But we managed to get to Kisumu around 3:30 a 3 hr trip stretched into 6 hrs.

I had the bus drop me off at the local YMCA (as we entered town) where I stayed before and still had the key. So of course I got the same room but unfortunately with no water that night! So I strolled down to the nearby Mega City shopping plaza for a bite to eat. Ran into a friend there who was about to watch an English football match between Arsenal and Wigman at the pub! So I decided to have a Tusker (Kenyan national beer) and watch the match too! The funny thing was my friend was a Kenyan female which makes it unusual to see yelling and screaming with a Canadian who had never watched one before! The first time I had ever watched an entire football match and I must say it was enjoyable! I could really get into the game if I watched more games. Might have been the ½ dozen beers I had that made it enjoyable.
My friend said she only drank white wine but she was pouring Coke in it which was an odd combination. I found out later the waiter was mistakenly serving her sambuko sp? (whiskey). But we managed to see the game!

Then the next day at the YMCA I managed to wash some clothes even if we had no water for showers! I then met up with another friend who was leaving Kisumu for business.
I find out that a few Kenyans befriend Muzungu’s for gifts, meals or something else that’s they can get for free. Well when I think that’s happening I get pretty hostile. Like I will gladly buy a Kenyan friend a meal, drink or whatever as long as they don’t ask or take advantage of me or my body (just kidding as I don’t need that life time mistake happen to me here).


So now about my other problems which happened once I left Kisumu for to this town called Eton sp?? I wanted to go see the place and see the world class Kenyan runners training base. I met 2 Dutch girls who stayed there overnight and practiced there. I don’t know if I was going to practice with them as I left my running shoes in a bag in Nairobi so it was hard to practice in hiking shoes or flip flops. But I like to do a little running so I wanted to see how they ran as it seems either a Kenyan or Ethiopian runner always wins any marathon or Olympic race they enter! The thing is Eton is fairly high up so that adds to the mystic of their training. I planned to stay at Eldoret a bigger town.

But when I got to Eldoret I notice that I lost about 3000 shillings ($50) and this nice change holder (I became very attached to it so that was the big loss for me) that Raphil (Jolene's friend gave me). So I had to hit the ATM machine (seem to be doing that a few times lately as hitting the tourist spots in Kenya is not cheap). Then more bad luck as my glass frame broke and the lens fell to the ground. Great no glasses! But I checked around for an Optic shop as they’re called. I found one that could kind of solder my frame together for 150 shillings ($3) but I had to wait for 2 hrs as the technical was out of the shop for a while. Heck back home they’d say can’t fix it but we can sell you a new Italian frame for $300 and of course you’ll need to have a new pair of lens made to fit them. So come back in a week and it’ll be ready. Hell I was just happy to get it fixed in 2 hrs as I’m as blind as a bat! I’m getting eye surgery when I get back home so hopefully I won’t need glasses (hope, hope).

Unfortunately I won’t be able to get to the training facility today. Tomorrow I have to go to this town to say goodbye to another Kenyan friend. Then I’m catching the night bus (cheaper and save on a hotel room but lose out on sleep) back to Nairobbery. Then off to the coast to see some beaches, etc.

Hey also check my previous blog where I get pissed about the treatment of some of the KASOW Youths.

So hang in there and catch my blogs from the beaches of Kenya and also Zanzibar, Tanzania. Catch u later!