I know that this is a slightly generic title but with everything that has happened and the fact that I am now just crossing into Tanzania I thought I would just sum up the last ten days.

However you chose to look at the Kenyan section of our journey you can’t say that it has been uneventful. From the second we reached the border between Ethiopia and Kenya, life changed! In many respects it has been considerably easier and more enjoyable, but it has also been logistically and bureaucratically considerably more difficult. In stark contrast to Ethiopia where people both old a young incessantly demand money and stand open palmed expectantly, the Kenyans have been far more ‘Mzungu savi’. Mzungu is the Swahili word for ‘white person’, and is used primarily passively to simply identify and announce us as we pass through towns and villages. It also has a slightly darker, rarer and more aggressive implication of resentment when it comes to money! In general though, the Kenyans have grasped something that the Ethiopians still lack, the understanding of making a ‘Mzungu’ feel welcome and at ease. The more aggressive and demanding the Ethiopians got regarding money, the tighter we held on to it!

The difficulty started when we tried to pay for our Kenyan Visa’s using Kenyan Shillings. To me it doesn’t seem a totally preposterous concept paying for a Kenyan visa, in Kenya, using the Kenyan currency! Well according to the border official I am living in a dream world and he proceeded to laugh out loud as he explained (as he unequivocally believed to be true) that no matter what country you went to in the world you could ONLY buy visas in US Dollars. We did try to explain that this was simply not the case and we even tried to show him the payment stamp from other visas in our passports but he was adamant that the answer was the US Dollar. We managed to muster enough emergency dollars to pay him and make it safely into Kenya. Once there however, our cycling came to an abrupt end! As we pushed our bikes up the hill we were informed by the local police that we were not allowed to cycle the first couple of hundred Kilometers from the boarder as they were completely ruled by bandits, and the government had no law or control over the area (it was this region that saw the majority of the bloodshed back in February). It all sounded a little melodramatic to me as he explained that even vehicles had to leave in convoy, but sure enough the next day the convoy assembled on the edge of town.

The main road between Kenya and Ethiopia! (Not our image)

In light of this we got onto a very old and tired looking blue bus with a Chelsea Football Club crest on its side and a couple of guards with large riffles joined us as a routine safety precaution. Just as we were preparing to leave two Japanese and a Finnish backpacker jumped on the bus and we headed off for another ridiculously long and bumpy journey. Along our 200km bus journey, we passed through numerous villages whereby the driver put his foot flat to the floor in a bid to get through as quickly as possible (and to not be shot at!!), maybe they weren’t being melodramatic after all!.

I have to admit that the drivers here in Kenya are some of the worst in the world, they make even the Nepalese look like fully qualified BSM driving instructors! So much so, that about 20km after we got off the bus the driver flew off the road (sorry dirt track) and rolled the bus over. We actually only found this out when we coincidently ran into the two Japanese and Finnish backpackers again in Nairobi some days later. They didn’t seem too badly hurt, and although we saw the vehicle in the ditch we never looked closely enough at it to realize it was our bus!

Next, we stayed with the Umoja Uaso Women’s Group, next to the Ngiro River in the Samburu region of Northern Kenya. Samburu women are among the most marginalized groups in Kenya. Development has been slow to reach the area and education is often not easily accessible. Furthermore, women have a low status in the community and are the last to receive the few resources available. Within this context, many women are subject to severe mistreatment by their husbands. Faced with continual abuse, these women opt to leave their husbands. Another example of the discrimination and ill-treatment that Samburu women have faced is the alleged rape of approximately 1,400 Samburu women during the 1980s and 1990s by British soldiers from training bases in the area. Many of these women were subsequently shunned by their husbands. Whether they leave their husbands or are abandoned by them, the women are left as sole providers for themselves and their children. In 1990, 15 women formed and registered the Umoja Uaso Women’s Group with the then Ministry of Culture, Heritage and Social Services to address these issues. They started by selling beadwork and other goods. After facing threats from men jealous of their success, the members decided to found a women-only village and reside together, thus providing collective security and cooperation. The group also dedicated itself to informing women about their rights, their health (for example, by encouraging pregnant Umoja residents to receive prenatal care), and helped them start income-generating activities, (one of which being the campsite in which we stayed). As the group’s members prospered, more and more women joined. UUWG now has 48 members, and continues to strive to achieve its goals.

Samburu Women (Not our image)

During our stay by the river, (in a part of Kenya that normally sees next to no rain), we were woken in the early hours of the morning by our tent gradually being engulfed in water. As the river had risen 2 metres in one night from the rainfall! The next major event was when our camera was stolen in Nairobi. Incidentally I’m glad to say that we have found a temporary solution at least and I now have a new camera to continue the journey with. I’m not sure how many of you have ever tried doing a police report in Kenya but its not quite as simple going to the police station and reporting the theft, Ohhh no. We were relatively lucky with our experience but its more a case of the police commissioner saying something along the lines of “What a terrible tragedy, why don’t you take me out for lunch and tell me all about it and I’ll think about giving you a report!” In any case the whole event was completely overshadowed by the phone call telling us that Katie had to fly back immediately.

The raging Ngiro River

For those of you who’s African geography is up to scratch who will know that the country I am about to cross into, Tanzania, is home to the ‘roof of Africa’, Mt. Kilimanjaro … here I come!