This weekend Josephine invited me to visit her family in the Western region. On the way there we passed the Great Rift Valley! The problem with taking photos in Africa is that you pass so many great places right by. Luckily the driver stopped so that I could take a picture here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rift_Valley.
I also saw the most beautiful Kenyan women who were very traditionally dressed. I could not get their pictures though because you already know how the locals feel about people taking their pictures. I guess I understand about no one wanting to be made a display of but i don't think they realize how unique they are to the rest of the world. This is a picture that looks like the lady I saw, actually, there were several villages full of women who dressed in this fashion. They were really captivating and beautiful to see!
We went to Josephine's home village, Kendu Bay, and stayed in her mother's compound. It was very nice and quaint and quiet. I liked it. Josephine's mother has taken in several orphaned children over the years. Now they are teenagers, and they help her out around the house. I felt a little sorry for the people who grow up there and never get out. The teenagers kept asking me if I wanted services from them, "Can I wash your clothes?", "Do you need something from town?" One took another approach altogether, "I want to be your friend. If we are friends, when you go to town will you buy me something". It was so annoying! But I am becoming more and more sympathetic to the mental/emotional/behavioral affects of poverty. These kids just wanted an opportunity to make some extra money. Anyway, since there wasn't much to do. I sat under a tree with Josephine and caught up on some reading for a class.
By the way, Josephine is a member of the Luo tribe, and so is Obama's father. Obama come to Kenya in 2006 to visit his grandmother and to make a speech (Obama and I have traveled to the same African countries, Kenya and Ghana). During this visit he also encouraged Kenyans to get tested for HIV/AIDS, and he and Michelle were publicly tested in order to remove the stigma of testing and encourage others to join them. I love the Obama's.
Back to the blog at hand...where was I...Oh yes! I was stuck on the farm... Eventually, someone decided to take mercy on me and offered to arrange to take me around town. So, a young man named, well I forgot his name, took me around on his motorbike.
Our first stop was at Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the second largest lake in the world. I don't think it was all that impressive, it was a massive lake, but I did enjoy seeing a place I taught my students about.
There were ladies cleaning the fish that the men caught earlier that day. I asked to take a picture with one of the ladies and she made me buy her a coke for this picture that was ruined by my driver who did not understand that I did not want him in my photos.
He actually go on my nerves. He kept talking about how hungry he was and asking me could I buy him lunch. We stopped and got something to eat...yes, I paid for it...but the begging and constantly being asked for stuff gets old. It makes it hard to form relationships with people when you constantly fear that they are going to ask you for something, or even worse, offer you something and then ask you to pay for it later (after you were under the impression someone was being nice to you). Nothing is free in this country. Not even friendship.When then went to Simbi lake. It was really beautiful. I have two stories about Simbi lake.
Both were told to me by a young man who guided me through the lake, since my driver didn't know anything and his English was iffy unless he was pestering me for something. 
The first story was told while me and some kids ate the sugar cane he shared with us... A long time ago Simbi was a thriving compound full of life and many people; however the people who lived in Simbi were drunkards. One day it started to rain, and it rained very heavily for many many days. An old lady came upon the compound and she asked the locals for refuge from the rain. Everyone denied her safety and slammed their doors in her face. She knocked on every door, but absolutely no one would help her. When she reached the last door and was again denied entry, a curse was placed upon the village. The rain continued for many more weeks until the village eventually sunk into the ground. It is said that the small village is under the lake, and many people believe that if you throw a rock into the lake it will never reach the bottom. The End. 
If you asked me this story sounds an awful lot like the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Actually, the more I travel and read the more I am noticing that stories are repeated and morals are taught using the similar tales; religious, fantasy, tall tale, village stories...they are all relativity the same. So the next story was about the White men that came to Simbi Lake. So, there were some White men who came to Simbi Lake to help people in the village by providing them with more fish. They had big boats and lots of fancy machines. The men dumped hundreds of fish into the lake in hopes of giving the local people more fish (which makes no sense to me considering that this village is on Lake Victoria and they could just to there to get fish...). The village people tried to tell the White men that no fish can live in the lake because of it's mystery, but they continued about their scientific work. Eventually, the White men came to check on their project and found that all the fish had died. The villagers were right!...but the real reason none of the fish lived is because the Lake has an extremely high salt continent, much like the dead sea, and it is not good for anything but producing salt. 
Oh, and while I am talking about real things...according to Lonely Plant Kenya addition "Simbi Lake sunk into the earth like a bomb crater". However, I think the kids and I were far more entertained by the local story than the one offered in Lonely Planet. So yes, Simbi Lake is a sunken village that reminds us that drunkenness is bad and so is being unkind to strangers.
The first story was told while me and some kids ate the sugar cane he shared with us... A long time ago Simbi was a thriving compound full of life and many people; however the people who lived in Simbi were drunkards. One day it started to rain, and it rained very heavily for many many days. An old lady came upon the compound and she asked the locals for refuge from the rain. Everyone denied her safety and slammed their doors in her face. She knocked on every door, but absolutely no one would help her. When she reached the last door and was again denied entry, a curse was placed upon the village. The rain continued for many more weeks until the village eventually sunk into the ground. It is said that the small village is under the lake, and many people believe that if you throw a rock into the lake it will never reach the bottom. The End. 
If you asked me this story sounds an awful lot like the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Actually, the more I travel and read the more I am noticing that stories are repeated and morals are taught using the similar tales; religious, fantasy, tall tale, village stories...they are all relativity the same. So the next story was about the White men that came to Simbi Lake. So, there were some White men who came to Simbi Lake to help people in the village by providing them with more fish. They had big boats and lots of fancy machines. The men dumped hundreds of fish into the lake in hopes of giving the local people more fish (which makes no sense to me considering that this village is on Lake Victoria and they could just to there to get fish...). The village people tried to tell the White men that no fish can live in the lake because of it's mystery, but they continued about their scientific work. Eventually, the White men came to check on their project and found that all the fish had died. The villagers were right!...but the real reason none of the fish lived is because the Lake has an extremely high salt continent, much like the dead sea, and it is not good for anything but producing salt. 
Oh, and while I am talking about real things...according to Lonely Plant Kenya addition "Simbi Lake sunk into the earth like a bomb crater". However, I think the kids and I were far more entertained by the local story than the one offered in Lonely Planet. So yes, Simbi Lake is a sunken village that reminds us that drunkenness is bad and so is being unkind to strangers.
Beautiful! Beautiful country, beautiful children, beautiful Adrianne!
ReplyDelete