We are off to Tanzania

My three weeks in Cape Town have come to an end. The city is wonderful and I highly recommend it to anyone who is coming to this part of the world. In my three weeks I have seen penguins, whales, seals, and tons of birds. I have gone hiking on the Cape of Good Hope, wine tasting at the many vineyards, toured Robben Island, spent two beautiful days at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, gone to an environmental film festival, experienced South Africa's first environmental rock concert, eaten lots of good food, learned how to play the game of settlers, learned how to crochet, and had lots of fun with Bebeth and Mark and their friends (and business partners) Sam and Miranda. I have posted a few pictures highlighting the last three weeks. You can view them at http://picasaweb.google.com/Courtneyschenk/SouthAfrica

As I post this Arthur is in the air on his way to Africa. I will meet him in Dar es Salaam Tuesday afternoon to start our adventure. The next post will be from both Arthur and I in Tanzania!

Hello from Cape Town

I have been living in Cape Town, South Africa for the last week. Bebeth and Mark have been kind enough to let me live with them in their apartment for three weeks. Cape Town is a different side of Africa. One more similar to home. It is like any city around the world but even better. It is amazingly beautiful! It is surrounded by Table Mountain National Park on one side and the ocean on the other. We are living in Green Point which is on the side of Signal Hill (part of Table Mountain National Park). From the apartment you can see the ocean and the mountains. We are a 15 minute walk from downtown, 5 minute walk from Sea Point (any kind of shop you could want) and a beautiful walk along the ocean. Bebeth and Mark are in heaven since Cape Town has great restaurants, many big groceries, and anything you want only a few minutes walk away. This is a welcome change from Kenya for them. My favorite part of Cape Town is the easy access to beautiful outdoors. We are a 5 minute walk from Table Mountain National Park and a beautiful walkway along the ocean (my favorite place to run every morning), and hour drive from Cape of Good Hope, and 40 minutes from Penguins! To give you an idea why I love this place Bebeth and I go for a run every morning along the ocean. One morning we had to one side the amazing backdrop of Signal Hill and Lions Head, to the other side we had huge waves crashing along the walkway spraying up, and off on the ocean is rain crating a rainbow. Can it get any better you ask? Yes! About 100 feet away are 20 Right Whales playing in the waves! Yes Bebeth and I were typical tourists (or lovers of nature) jumping up and down pointing and watching them slap their flippers and flash their flukes Running doesn’t get much better than that!

This weekend we rented a car and explored the area. To get any where around Cape Town you either drive along curvy roads along the ocean (reminds me of the coast of Maine) or you drive over beautiful mountains passes. Saturday we went and saw the Penguins at Bolder Beach. The African Penguins (used to be known as Jackass Penguins) nest on a beach along the coast where you can observe them from boardwalks. They are very entertaining to watch. Penguins out of water are not very graceful and you can spend hours watching them waddling around in lines tripping and falling. They got their old name from their loud calls that sound just like a donkey, which is very funny to see coming out of a little penguin. Sunday we drove out to the Cape of Good Hope. It is early spring here and everything is starting to bloom. The landscape is low shrubs, grass, and wild flowers. It is what we think of as above the tree line back home. There are rolling hills leading to cliffs and beautiful beaches covered in purple, yellow, and red of flowering bushes. It was enchanting now but in a few weeks it will be spectacular. Bebeth, Mark and I hiked out to the Cape of Good Hope but quickly retreated because like our national parks at home there were tons of tourists. But also like home if you go a few feet off the path there is no one. So we walked down 200 stairs to a deserted beach for lunch. The sand was soft as could be and we had the back drop of huge crashing waves on one side and cliffs on the other with three ostrich eating their way along the top. Life doesn’t get much better this.

Bebeth and me at the Cape of Good Hope

The march of the penguins

Cape of Good Hope

Me at Table Mountain National Park at our lunch stop

Food

As you might imagine the food in Kenya is very different. While we have had many things that we eat at home (yogurt, pizza, cereal) many things are new and very different. The main thing is that everything is fried. Unlike my college days I cannot take as much fried food as I used to. But there are many foods that I really enjoy, which is a good thing since I will be eating it for the next year! On the top of my list are chapatis (like a fried tortilla), ugali (the consistency of play dough made out of what looks like cream of wheat), and mahindi with pili pili (roasted corn with lime and chili pepper), and any fresh fruit (mango, banana, passion). All of this you can pretty much get as you wander down the street from women sitting on the side of the road. As you walk down the street there will be many stands of fruit (pineapple, mango, watermelon, and many that I have not explored) and vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage), others who will be selling only samosas and others only corn. Most of it is very cheap. You can get a piece of mahindi for 15 cents. That is not to say I like all local food. The worst I think was the "mix" as it was called at the meat market. It was strips of mystery meat mixed with onions, peppers, french fries, covered in mayonnaise and catchup. That didn't make me feel very good. But all in all it is a good thing that I am an adventurous eater.

Roads

If any of you have been to Africa or know someone who has been one of the first things they mention is the roads. Traveling by vehicle in Africa can be quite the adventure. There are two types of roads in Africa, paved and dirt, neither of which are very nice to drive on. Paved roads are roads that were paved many years ago and since have deteriorated. There are no lanes, no markings on the road, and more potholes than pavement that are frequently big enough to swallow a bus. Drivers have become very good at avoiding the large holes but this means driving on all parts of the road swerving every which way to avoid potholes, cows, people, bikes, and on coming traffic. This is done at amazing speeds that we wouldn't drive at on our 6 lane high ways. The dirt roads don't have as large of potholes as the paved roads but the dust is so thick that you freqently can't see the car a few feet ahead of you (think of driving in a large snow storm) or the road is a mud hole and you can get stuck or swerve all over the road (think of a snowy highway). This fun is even more exciting when done in a matatu (a mix between a bus and a taxi). To give you an idea of of this experience I will describe a short trip Bebeth and I took to visit another Peace Corps volunteer. We were in Mombassa and needed to get a Matatu to the "dolphin" stop, which is partly between Mombassa and Matwapa. We walk out onto the street and there are tons of matatus whizzing by. Each matatu has a driver (who only drives) and a tout. The tout responsibility is to get passengers and collect money. The tout hangs out the door of the 10 passenger van (a revamped mini van) yelling, some times grabbing you and your bag, trying to get you to take their matatu. The key is to get in one going the way you want to go. The touts are always calling out their final destination but this can be hard to decipher. Bebeth found one that was headed our way and hopped on which is no easy task. As soon as you have on foot on the van it takes off so you are left clinging and scrambling to wedge your way to a seat in a crowded van. Once the van determines it is full enough it takes off at amazing speeds missing on coming traffic by a centimeter, hoking every few seconds to warn people that we are coming, and through out this the tout continues yelling out the window. Every few minutes the matutu flies to the side of the road letting someone roll out while picking up another passenger. The tout lets the driver know to stop or go by banging on the roof. How the tout stays in the van I do not know because the van is always leaving before the tout even has a foot on the van. At some point during the ride the tout asks you for money. Since we are foreigners this can frequently mean an argument since they want to charge us more. This time we lucked out and they did not give us a hard time. Our luck didn't last because the tout did not tell the driver to stop and we missed our stop and made it to the next town. The matatu turns around and heads back so we were able to stay on and ride back. This took longer than expected because when the matatu pulled over to pick someone up it got stuck in a large pothole. This meant everyone had to get out and rock it back and forth trying to get it unstuck. 5 minutes later we were off again bumping, swerving, and flying down the dusty "paved" road. We made it this time to our stop in one piece. A 7 minute ride can turn into an 30 minute adventure on any road in Africa.

Week 2 of Sister Vacation

With a little less excitement and adventure Bebeth and I made it back down the coast to the Town of Malindi (a favorite Italian destination). We stayed with good friend of Bebeth's (another PCV) named Grover. He was kind enough to put us up for a few nights and entertain us. Grover works for a cooperative of 600 wood carvers. We got to visit the cooperative, which was very interesting. Unlike everyone in the US most Kenyan's number one goal is not to make money. While this can be good and bad it can be very frustrating to an American trying to work with them. Learning about the trials and tribulations of working with a cooperative in Kenya was very helpful for me in thinking about Arthur's and my next few months in Tanzania.

The next few days were spent relaxing (yes I have done lots of that), watching movies, reading, exploring the beaches, and eating local food. Most of the local food that I have eaten is very good (or at least lucky for me I think so).

After hanging out in Malindi Mark joined us (he had to go back to Nairobi to work for a few days). We in a Matatu (a van packed with people that take people everywhere in Kenya) south to another beach town called Watamu. There we explored the ruins of Gede, swam in the ocean, explored the coral islands at low tide, and bargained with the women on the beach for kikois. While for me this was all mostly play Bebeth and Mark did have to work. Since they have started their own company they can work from anywhere by connecting to the internet via their cell phones. This meant for a few hours a day they worked on their computers with beautiful views of the ocean. But all fun in the sun has to come to an end so we headed back to Mombassa for our last night on the coast. Today we flew back to Nairobi so Bebeth and Mark can pack up. On Saturday we all fly to Cape Town were Bebeth and Mark are moving few the next few months to start their company. I will be joining them for three weeks and I will post my next blog from there.

Courtney, Bebeth, and Mark in Watamu

Bebeth and Courtney exploring in Watamu

A cool fish that can skip across the water

Courtney and Bebeth sitting in the outhouse at the Gede ruins

The palace at the Gede Ruins

A coral island at Watamu

Courtney at Fort Jesus in MombassaA street in Mombassa

Week 1 of Sister Vacation

For the past two weeks Bebeth and I have been playing on the coast of Kenya. The coast is very different from what you think of "typical" Africa, or what you see on National Geographic. The coast is very Muslim and has a distinct culture, Swahili culture. Many of the women wear traditional clothing and you can hear the call to prayer five times a day starting at 5:00 am. Bebeth and I started our adventure in Mombassa and spent one night there. It is the largest town on the coast but it is on an island so it isn't that large. We visited another Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) who works outside of town at a school for disabled women who make beautiful bags. It was interesting to visit different PCV's over the week because they all live very different life styles. When I used to think of Peace Corps I thought of a rural village, no electricity, no runny water, ect. While Bebeth and Mark dispelled that idea long ago it was interesting to see how they really did live. Many live in small apartments with TV's, fridge, running water, and electricity. The coast is a large tourist destination for Italians so there are many large resorts like the ones Americans go to in the Bahamas and Virgin Islands. Many PCV's live near these resorts and spend time at them helping locals sell crafts or hanging out for free. A very different lifestyle than I expected, that is not to say that some volunteers don't live life the way I originally imagined.

The next morning on a whim Bebeth and I decided to find a bus to Lamu (an island in the north of Kenya). We decided this at 8:00 am and most buses left at 7:00 am. So with much confusion and running around (taking a tuktuk, waiting on a bench for an hour, paying too much for a ticket, not having the bus show up) we found a bus that left at 10:00. We were now on a bus for 6 hours on very bumpy and dusty roads with no bathroom. As roads go in Kenya ( I will talk about them more in another post) the road wasn't too bad and we made it in one piece. My favorite part is the only time the bus stops is to let to military guys (with very large guys) on to ride with us because we are north enough that all buses have to have military on them. I am not used to the large military presence yet. When you get off the bus there are "ferries" there to take you to the island. As everything seems to be in Kenya there is much confusion with people yelling at you in Swahili, grabbing your bag, grabbing you, and yelling (so it seemed to me) at you to get in the boat. I was sure this boat was going to break in the middle of the ocean and I was thankful for the fifth time since being in Kenya that I could swim (not that I have had to put it to the test yet). We made it to the island wet and tired and once again lots of people are grabbing and yelling at you but this time to take you to your hotel. You get used to very quickly always having a person with you "helping" you or offering you some service (boat ride, walks, food, drugs, sex, you name it). This time I was thankful that we had someone walking us to our hotel because we wouldn't have found it. Lamu is one of those magical places that really hasn't moved that far into the 21th century. While they do have running water and electricity everything else has stayed pretty much the same. The town is made up of four stories coral buildings that are 4-6 feet apart. This means that there are no streets but narrow alleys. That also means there are no cars on the island. The main means of transport are donkeys. Bebeth and I spent a lot of time wandering these narrow alleys exploring. There were many small shops to explore that had beautiful material, kikois (traditional brightly colored cotton wraps), wood carvings, and jewelry. Wood carving is a traditional occupation of the island making beds (known as Lamu beds found up and down the coast) and wooden doors. The doors were magnificent and you could spend all day wandering looking for the next one. While we wandered the alleys our presence was always announced by young children yelling "Muzungu" (foreigner). They would yell this over and over again or "Jambo" (hello in Swahili but used only for tourists) until you responded or until you turned the next corner. This was intermixed with sounds of donkey clomping down the alleys. When you heard this you had to run to the nearest door way and jump in before the donkeys ran you over.

The people of the island were so nice. Everyone would remember you which was surprising since there were a good number of tourists on the island. Everyone would stop and talk to you and say that they were the person that walked us to the hotel or sold us a pair of pants or saw us getting juice and hour ago. Even the hawkers (also known as beach boys or peddlers) were nice. As long as you were nice and asked their name and said that if we wanted (a boat ride, ect) we would come and find them they would say ok and tell us welcome and to have a good time. That would be it unlike other places were you might have a new "friend" for a good 10 minutes. My other favorite part of Lamu was the juice. They had the most amazing fresh juice that you could mix anyway you wanted. My favorite was passion banana blended with ice and milk. Bebeth and my second favorite activity was sitting in an open air restaurant along the main drag (along the water) people watching and drinking juice. We spent two lovely days like this until it was time to leave and headed back down the coast.

Courtney on the "streets" of Lamu

Traditional wood door of Lamu

The main street of Lamu

Week 2 of Family Vacation

The second week in Kenya was spent at Tiwi Beach on the coast of Kenya. This was a very relaxing week with the family. It was spent swimming in the beautiful Indian Ocean, tide pooling for brittle stars and crab, snorkeling in the marine reserve, and relaxing at the house with beautiful views. Of those of you who have spent some time with my family know that we enjoy playing games. For awhile it was the tile game of rummikub. Thanks the Probolous' we have now found the great card game of Wizard. This took up much of our time as we try to keep our competitiveness to a minimum, which can be a challenge. Between games was one of my favorite parts of the week. Through out the day people would come up to the porch to sell various items. This is how we obtained dinner. Fresh fish, shrimp, and crab were brought by one man, fresh fruit and veggies (my favorite) from another, and a women would bring by samosas. Since coming to Africa I have become obsessed with passion fruit, which is very good as is, as juice, as ice cream (my favorite), or anything else you can think of. The other great part of the week was my cousin Jaron came to stay with us for two nights. He is a Peace Corps volunteer also in Kenya and is posted on the coast. It was great to see him! But as always a fun week had to come to an end. Bebeth and I dropped my parents and Mark off at the airport in Mombassa. It was a very sad departure since we will not be seeing my parents for many months and as many of you know mail is very slow and phone are too few. But thanks to Bebeth's and my Mom's planning we had a great two week family vacation!

The Family at Tiwi beach with our cousin Jaron

Mark, Bebeth, and Courtny snorkeling (or just being dorky)