Merry Christmas 2011!

Merry Christmas! Steve and I just got back from a great trip in Rwanda (more on that in another post) and now (12 hours later) we are headed to Egypt for the next 9 days. Here's a short Christmas greeting from us: http://vimeo.com/34164829

We miss you all and wish we could celebrate with you. But we are thinking of you and send you our love from the African continent!
Love,
Steve and Leah

Rwanda is unbelievably gorgeous. More Rwanda photos to follow.

Steve with some sleeping gorillas behind him.

The papa silverback brushed up against my leg. I will admit to being frightened.

Zanzibar

Steve and I spent four and a half days in Zanzibar and had a fantastic time. A "semi-autonomous" island off the coast of Tanzania, it sits in the warm and aqua blue Indian Ocean. It is a fascinating, sunbaked, poor, gorgeous place.

As a Kenyan living in Zanzibar told us, the island is 99.9999 percent Muslim, which you notice just by walking down the street. Almost every female over the age of about 4 is covered from head-to-toe in a bui-bui. Some women- maybe about 1 in 10, cover their faces completely (it's 90-degrees and humid!). We heard calls to prayer in the streets and came upon mosques every few blocks.

We spent the first day in the capital, called Stone Town, which is a World Heritage site. It is a small, two-century old city that used to bustle with slave and spice traders, and now moves with fishermen, artists, and any number of local vendors and shoppers. The Swahili architecture is beautiful but like so many poor cities around the world, the buildings- including grand historical sites like their former palace- are shabby and faded. We spent the entire day just meandering around, buying art at unbelievable prices (photos below), checking out the spice markets, and sampling delicious vegetarian dishes.

The narrow alleyways that ultimately lead to the ocean can't accommodate cars, so every few minutes we had to hop into shop doorways to let bikes and motorbikes wheel past. The doorways themselves are unlike anything I've seen- not only are they intricate works of art, but they are so numerous that they create a unifying theme for the city.

These are a few photos from Stone Town.

Buying art from two local artists willing to bargain and show us their painting techniques.  

We bought this one and a few others from different artists.

I love the wall in the back ground.

Beautiful 

Fruit market. Next door, the meat market- only Steve could stomach a walk through that one.

Grains and spices are EVERYwhere. The spices smell amazing.

Stone Town has several beautiful hotels overlooking the ocean.

A mix of ancient and modern.

Chatting with a local fellow. Most people guessed we were German. Really?!

After a hot day in Stone Town, we took a super nice (smoothly paved, wide) road up north to a serene white sand beach for a few days of sleeping and diving. The poverty we passed along the way was pretty severe. It's not a crowded type of poverty- there's plenty of open space, palm trees, and cattle grazing in green fields- but it's definitely rural poverty. The houses and shops are made of basic concrete and tin, or were constructed with mud and branches. Children don't wear shoes, teenagers pedal rickety bicycles or ride carts pulled by donkeys, and under every shady spot, groups of men sit umemployed.

And finally, the beach! The sun in East Africa is so strong, and I haven't seen it stronger than in Zanzibar. We spent a lot of time lounging in the shade but also ventured out onto the beaches and boats so that we could enjoy some amazing diving. On four one-hour dives, we saw a huge array of exotic fish that swam right up to us, and explored some colorful corals. I saw my first seahorse and was proud to spot a black and neon orange eel for the group. We saw two big sea turtles (the size of medium sized dogs but much heavier) and several sting rays. Steve has been on 60+ dives, so as a novice (10 dives now) I feel very comfortable diving with him.

A one-hour flight from Nairobi- we're coming back soon!

Hiking in the Rift Valley

This weekend, we had the pleasure of hiking in the Rift Valley with a group of four new friends and three Kenyan guides. The only Americans in the group, our companions have lived in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Liberia, Germany, Britain, Nigeria, and Houston (that's a country, right?). Our destination was a long, low series of waterfalls that is only "active" during the rainy seasons.

We drove West from Nairobi. The further you get from Nairobi, the easier it is to remember that you live in a poor country. The city, with it's coffee shops and well appointed business men, doesn't resemble the countryside ("upcountry" as they call it). At the same time, the further out you drive, the more relaxed you feel, until suddenly you look around and you see blue mountains, green valleys, and Masaai boys herding goats through the road in front of you. Then you take a deep breath and think "this is Kenya."

After about an hour of driving, we pulled off the gravel road onto a dirt path that alternated between red mud and mega-stones. The first path we tried was impassable, having been washed away by a swollen stream, but we finally made it to the village where our hike started. A half dozen very dirty, barefoot children came running up as we dismounted from our safari-version Land Rover. They weren't asking for anything, just curious to get a look at us. We met our guides, the sons of the land owner, handed over our backpacks (at their insistence), and were off.

It was a gorgeous day with clear skies, hot sun, and plenty of florescent birds and bugs to marvel at. Though the terrain was fairly flat, we hiked in a valley looking up a towering ridge. Because of all the rain, we found ourselves forging a creek with our hiking boots in hand, and one of our friends slipped into 2 feet of mud, but after a couple of hours, we could hear the welcome rush of water. Leaving our guides to lounge in the shade, we jumped into a pool of very cold water at the bottom of one of the waterfalls.

Lunch was our only break from swimming. Our picnic consisted of baguettes, cold cuts, cheese, hummus, quiche, greek salad, and apple pie. When I asked "should we give some of this to the guides?" our friend Mark, a 6-year veteran of Kenya, smiled and said "I always offer, but they don't really like our food." I looked around and had to laugh at the very imported spread in front of us. We were sitting in the wilderness of Kenya- in a place that Mark calls Jurassic Park for it's completely untouched beauty and pre-civilization feel- spreading hummus on French bread.

The hike back was exhilarating. We hastened our pace, trying to beat a big storm cloud that was rumbling toward us. The whole landscaped had changed. It was cool and a humid wind blew through the shrubs and low trees. We saw some baboons scrambling up the side of the ridge, and the birds were nowhere to be seen. The sky was a sight to behold. In one direction, blue skies. In another, a dark mass looming, in another, shafts of vertical light pierced through the clouds to create the Jesus-ascending-to-heaven effect. It made me feel small and strong at the same time. 

Driving through the rain back toward Nairobi, we stopped at a restaurant known for its nyama choma (my translation, "meat feast") and finished the day with a Tusker and a tray of goat ribs. A good ending to a great day.

The village where our hike started. In the video above, a local teenager herding goats.

The Land Rover parked  the landowner's property.

Clothes hanging in the yard where we parked the car.

Hiking next to the ridge.

The nest of a weaver bird. The male builds the nests, the female inspects it, and if it's not good enough, she tears it down. 

"Forging" the stream. 

Jurassic Park

Florescent critter

Our three local guides

Steve and Mark preparing to swim

My outdoorsman

Doesn't that look like a bear in the background?

Things you can get for $1 in Nairobi

Nairobi doesn't have any "dollar stores" that I know of, but there are plenty of things you can count on costing about a dollar.

A hand-wash for your car.
A bouquet of roses, if you are buying several (otherwise it'll cost about $2).
One hour of babysitting by a nanny (no kidding).
Three cold diet cokes in glass bottles. But you better say "cold" or it's assumed you'd prefer warm.
A dozen delicious bananas, picked ripe.
15 red onions.
A 10-percent tip on your pedicure.
Ten shoe shines.
8 hours of parking at a shopping mall (no, I've never shopped for that long...here).
5 ears of corn roasted on smoldering embers on the side of the road.
Home delivery from the Lebanese restaurant down the street.
Help from the apartment security guard and fix-it guy to bring groceries to the fifth floor.

My butcher. 6 thick slices of deli turkey cost me $11!

A less expensive option, but I'm not that brave.

Before you get too jealous, remember that we live in a country where our dollar bill can devalue by 20% in the course of a couple of weeks, which happened in November. That makes things slightly less convenient for Steve and I, but slightly better for Kenyans who've suffered from over 18% inflation on basic goods during the course of 2011. From what I can tell, that inflation has really hit people hard, especially in the area of housing, food, and gas. So, we continue to be grateful for our home country and currency.