After starting to hand out our donations at a local hospital; taking a small pickup truck with 12 Kenyans on a brutal road to visit an outreach program - and then spending time with residents of a slum to see the impact of their new well, we thought our adventures for the day were done. No way! Meeting Smith at the local grocery store (btw - did we mention there are approx 4 whites in this town of 50,000 plus and we are two of them:)- very friendly folk but now better appreciate how a visible minority feels) Paul and I got on the backs of small 110 cc motorbikes for a 45 minute ride no roller coaster could match - without helmets we zigged and zagged through traffic, goats, cattle, bicycles and mammoth potholes. My driver was a speed demon so any impending tragedy would have been only foreshadowed for a moment.
The purpose of our trip was to visit the lowland rain forest in the Kakamega Park. Smith's compound was a lovely 3 building setup with very comfortable cottages (meaning they had a flush toilet and cold shower). There are over 400 species of birds here and after a quick shower Evelyn came to cook us dinner - she did this on the floor of a mud hut and gave us a wonderful meal of boiled potatoes, rice and some type of spinach on steroids. We asked her to join us and she gave us wonderful insight into the life of a farming family. She has 3 children and her husband is a farmer. This farming life is a hard life and it is little wonder why the average lifespan of a Kenyan is just under 50 years - I guess I would be just about done if I lived here (no ideas to you devious one's out there) There was no electricity however we had two paraffin lamps for light.
We got up just before 5 am and Smith immediately took us on our hike in the pitch black of night. Having only a manual flashlight we walked on the dirt roads passing herds of cattle and other farmers already well up and on their way to work. Once in the forest the light of day began and we ascended a mountain above the forest line and began to see the sun coming up at 6:45 am. The Brits had dug a cave in search of gold back in ww1 and it is now inhabited by sighted bats - we were as close to them as you would every want to be, having them fly over our heads and all around us.
From there we ascended to the top of the mountain and had an absolutely incredible 360 degree panorama view of the lowland forest for 30 miles in every direction. It was incredible - like Gorillas in the Mist meets Medicine Man meets Avatar - for the first time since our arrival we just sat and appreciated the view.
We saw our first sex show up there as well:) Two mammoth snails mating right in the path - this combined with sightings of baboons, collobus monkeys, a variety of birds and butterflies made the hike very enjoyable - if not a little long - 12 km over 5 hours on an empty stomach. We came back to the cottage and had a wonderful breakfast of bread, egg, banana and fresh mango. After this I did my favourite activity after an early morning hike - I slept - and the cold showered - only to have our motorcycle drivers waiting to take us away from this wonderful sanctuary. BTW - Paul was awesome in that he wrote a lonely planet blurb for this facility as it definitely needs to be found by more people.
We are now back in Kakamega on our way to a party for Jack, a brit who heads up the water projects, as he is going back to the UK next week leaving the Kenyans in charge. Should be fun as most there will be Kenyans.
Off to the orphanage tomorrow to begin our teaching work and to finally hand out more of the donations.
