Lamu, and the orphanage currently

Ok, so as I said, all the volunteers were leaving, including me, Cassie, German Lara and English Lara, who set off for Lamu. On the 5th August we got a lift from Zack to Nairobi, when we got there we booked our tickets on the night train to Mombasa, then we went to Java House, which I may or may not have mentioned before, for food. It’s pretty good, but tastes really good after Githeri (maize and beans). German Lara (who will from now on be refered to as Lara, with English Lara remaining English Lara) and Cassie went to the city market, which I hate, so English Lara and I went to an internet café. Later on we got some supplies for the train and headed over to catch it.

The train really wasn’t bad at all. We were second class so we had beds. I’d also heard that there were no toilets, just the kenyan style holes in the floor of the train, which would be very difficult to aim for whilst the train is moving. There were toilets, they were fine. The train took around 16 hours, it moved slowly and often stopped for long periods of time, but we slept through a lot of it so it didn’t matter. In the morning we went for our breakfast which we had been told was “compulsory” by the ticket man when we had asked to go cheaper but without breakfast. We waited about an hour and a half and it was rubbish, I don’t even remember what was on it, I think there was one sausage, possibly an egg, I don’t know, it was a waste of time.

So, we got to Mombasa without really knowing what to expect, I didn’t like Mombasa right from the start, as for some reason English Lara had brought a suitcase to Africa and the wheels of course broke off on the crap pavement. So, being the only boy, I had to drag it for a mile or two to our hotel, all the while people are hassling me to buy crap or get on a bus to Nairobi or Malindi. We didn’t do much in Mombasa, Lara didn’t have a bathing suit for Lamu, so went spent some time looking for places that sold them, we went to the fort, but it cost too much to go in, that’s about all I can remember. It’s really humid there, I felt like I was sweating in the cold showers in the hotel. While in Mombasa, English Lara decided that she was going to go to an orphanage there and do some more voluntary work, she had only been at WWB about a week and a half, so I think she felt like she hadn’t done much. So after two nights stay in Mombasa, Cassie, Lara and I got an early bus to Lamu.

The bus ride took around 6 or 7 hours, but was a lot worse than the night train. We took three out of the five seats at the back, and I took the central one thinking that I could stretch my legs down the aisle. I really should have known there’d just be bags in the way, so it was foolish to get my hopes up. On the bus we met another guy called David, who was also 22, but he looked about 30. Once we got off the bus we had to get a little boat to Lamu, it made Cassie feel sea sick. When we got off the original plan was to phone a guy called James who worked at a café called Hapa Hapa, but the only phone we had was English Lara’s, and she’d decided not to come. It was High season in Lamu, so a lot of the hotels were full, and James was supposed to find places for us with room. We met him just at the end of the jetty anyway, he recognised Lara’s basket bought from Makuyu market. He led us to a hotel that had space, so we dumped our stuff and went back to the Hapa Hapa for food. James taught us how to play a game called Bao that involves beads in holes on a piece of wood. I’m not going to try to explain it here, but we played it a lot over the week.

Lamu is my favourite place that I have been to on this trip so far. It doesn’t feel like anywhere else I have been in Kenya, or anywhere else I have ever been. There are a couple of motor vehicles on the island, but not many, the main mode of transport is donkey, and there are loads of them. It’s a very muslim area, and the call to prayer goes out from loud speakers five times a day like in Istanbul. It’s very laid back and people are very eager to befriend each other.

On our first night, the four of us, including David from the bus, met James at a bar called Petleys, one of the only bars on Lamu, with a barman (and possibly the owner, I’m not sure) called Satan. After a few beers and more games of Bao (I’m not sure if it was this night or another night, but eventually bottles of beer and pints of juice from Hapa Hapa were on the line in these games, and Bao suddenly became very important) James managed to talk us all into going to the disco. It was fun and we stayed there until 4 in the morning despite it being full of prostitutes and sleazy men hunting Lara and Cassie. The music was just reggae all night. On the way home a log fell off a building and hit James in the arm, it didn’t hurt him much though, but it was kind of strange.

I woke up at 7:30 the next day and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I sat on the roof until breakfast was being served and then ate with David and two girls we had all met the night before, I think one was Finnish and the other was Belgian, but I could be wrong. Breakfast consisted each day of fruit followed by eggs in some way with toast. When I sat down, David and the girls were already there, so they told me that when the guy asked to take my order, he actually meant how do you want your eggs.

We went to the beach later that day, the beach was huge, and I kind of regret not walking further along it as it’s something like 14km long. There was a little bit of sand that made a kind of island in the sea, David and I went out to it and wrote NO GIRLS on it in big letters. The only thing on the island was a jar of pickles, which we made a mess with. I think we probably went to Hapa Hapa for juice later, we did most days. Then we probably went to Petleys at night, had a few beers and played bao.

That was generally the pattern for the week, but with fewer pickles. We met lots of different people, there were loads of French people for some reason. One night I played Uno with a table full of French people and Cassie, who also speaks fluent French, and amazed them all with my French skills, “ J’habite a Bolton, Bolton est un Grand ville dans le nord ouest de L’Anglatere, cest industrielle” (the spelling in that is probably as bad as my pronunciation was on the night), I was the only person to win at uno twice though, so I think I know who came out on top. We also met a guy who is mentioned in the lonely planet guide (and told us so over and over again), he’s called Ali Hippy, and for 500 ksh he takes you to his house and cooks you dinner, we decided we would give it a try, as did two French people and an Australian called Elliot and an Israeli called Yael. It was really weird, I didn’t like it. The food was good, but the whole atmosphere was very staged and just seemed kind of odd. After dinner he played songs on his keyboard and his kids sing along. We all went to Petleys afterwards, and we taught the new people how to play bao.

We stayed in touch with Elliot and Yael throughout the week and went with them on a dhow trip one day. This is a trip in a boat, you go fishing and then the boat captains cook what you catch. We caught nothing, although one of the captains caught two small fish. Luckily they knew this was going to happen and had conveniently been to the market and bought a massive fish earlier. The fish was really good, I think it was called white snapper, and it was put in some kind of garlic sauce and then barbequed. On days other than this we just went to the beach and drank juice, that’s about it. One day we saw a really fat person on a donkey on the beach, and the donkey had to run because it was in a race, I think if he asked to ride a donkey on Blackpool beach they’d tell him to go on a diet first.

Cassie and I left Lara in Lamu last Sunday, Cassie had to fly back to France and I wanted to book a flight to Thailand and go back to see what was going on at the orphanage. So we got back on the boat early Sunday morning, got back on a bus, took the long bumpy bus ride back to Mombasa, went to get the train back to Nairobi, realized we didn’t have enough money, went to a cash machine, Cassie lost her card in one of the machines, forced to stay a night in Mombasa and get a bus the next day, went to the bank the next morning and they said that they just destroy foreign cards, “it’s procedure”, another fantastic time in Mombasa! I don’t remember how long the bus ride took, but it wasn’t fun, I barely even fitted in the seat. We got to Nairobi pretty late, so we dropped our stuff at the Africana (a cheap hotel) and then went and got pizza. The next morning Cassie left at 6:30 to get a taxi to the airport, and I was left with lonely matatu rides to Thika and then to Makuyu.

I booked a night in a room in Makuyu as soon as I got there, as I didn’t know what to expect at the orphanage, so I dropped my stuff off, went to Kason for Chapatti Mix (best 25 ksh you can spend in Makuyu) and then walked to the orphanage. Geoffrey’s car was there, which I wasn’t too pleased about, I didn’t really want to speak to him. I was eventually forced to, but he was pleasant. I met two new volunteers as soon as I got there, Casey, an American, and Kelly, an Australian. Kelly offered to show me round, which I declined. I went and spoke to Grace, she told me that Doug had got back the day before and was in his room, so I went and chatted to him for a while. He told me that Geoffrey was coming good on his changes, he’s had an accountant here looking at all the books and trying to get them into some kind of order and format. Dona has gone, and is currently replaced by a woman called Margret, who I haven’t spoke to much, but she hasn’t been seen beating the kids yet, so that’s a plus. I’ve been asked by Doug, Geoffrey and Zack not to mention past events to the new volunteers, which I don’t mind, although I think they found it strange that I was staying in Makuyu for my first night. I’m now living back at the orphanage. Geoffrey hasn’t asked me for any money yet, I think mainly to try to keep me sweet and stop me from saying anything to the newbies, Casey, Kelly, Meital (Israel) and Simon (London), and as of this morning, although they are sleeping and I haven’t met them yet, Cecilia and Laura from Sweden. My intention of coming back was never to just stir things up again, and as long as things seem to be going well I’m not going to say anything. I am going to pay the two weeks as I think it would show Geoffrey that I think he is going about things the right way, I am not giving it all to Geoffrey though. I will give Geoffrey his 19% that he takes from each volunteer fee, I don’t mind that, I don’t want the orphanage to fail because Geoffrey has to work more to support his family, however I don’t trust him fully enough yet to give him the rest, so I am going to give it to Doug to spend on things the orphanage needs.

That’s it really, there are 8 volunteers now, Geoffrey keeps promising it will not go above 10. Boniface left for some reason, no one really knows why, so a new fieldworker arrived yesterday, called Eric. Njeroge left with Ann and Devin, and they sent me an email saying that he is enjoying working on the 9 acre farm over at that orphanage, so I’m pleased for him. Ann and Devin have to go back to the States because of financial strains (I’m told that their tenant hasn’t paid rent or something) and they asked me if I wanted to take their place at that orphanage, but I had booked the flight to Thailand two days previously, so I must move on.

We’re having a BBQ on Friday, so that’ll be good.

I think this is the first time the blog has been completely up to date for ages, not sure when the next time I write will be, possibly in Thailand, possibly before.

Bye All.