This weekend I went to visit a friend from the UK who is volunteering in Kisii, Western Kenya for the summer. My Swahili teacher, Jonah is from Kisii, so we decided to travel together for the weekend. We boarded a matatu from outside our house then got a coach for the 5 hour journey. I was pretty impressed with the comfort of the coach and the safe driving, until we decided to go off road, down a rather steep bank to avoid a hold up in the road......
Kisii is beautiful. It is so green and lush, especially as it generally receives daily rainfall. It is such a contrast to many parts of the country which are suffering terribly with drought and failed rains. We saw some amazing storms, with near constant lightning at times. It was actually really helpful as the town had a power cut, and the lightning really illuminated the place, though momentarily, which helped with finding the path when trying to get back to the hotel!
Jonah's family were so kind and welcoming. We prayed together a lot which was so nice. They all live in a village outside the town, and it was lovely how the extended family all live nearby. We met cousins and great uncles....the whole lot! They own quite a lot of land which they farm so we ate lots of lovely fresh produce and left with a rather heavy pumpkin which we had eaten the leaves from. They don't have electricity or running water yet, though there is hope that this will be set up soon. There were constant sounds of ring tones though (not mine!!!) They charge their phones at little dukas in the town, and just sit and wait until they're done. Jonah's dad asked me if there were any parts of the UK without electricity. Our worlds are so different.
One thing that is amazing about Kenyans is how friendly they are, and how much they smile...that is unless they are being photographed.
We were served a huge amount of food. Tactical plate swapping had to occur at times! It was great to try some new traditional Kenyan dishes, though it made me realise just how different the British palate is. My favourite novelty drink was definitely the sour milk. I asked how it was prepared. The response was quite simply pour milk into a bucket, cover it, leave it for a few days, then serve! Ooh lumpy! It really highlighted a big culture difference for me, in that if guests popped round to my house they would be lucky to get a cup of tea and possibly a biscuit, but here we were given hot meals irrelevant of the time of day. Some communication would have been appreciated as we would leave one house and promptly pop next door ready for round two!
On Saturday we went on a little trip to Tabaka, which is famous for soapstone carvings. We took a shared public car, there were 11 of us inside. 4 in the front (don't know how the driver managed to drive, as he was so pressed up to the window!), 4 in the back and 3 in the boot. Wow. Cosy! My shuttle bus home was the best though. It was quite smart, and we all had a seat each, well apart from the chicken that rather quietly sat underneath a seat.
Kisii is beautiful. It is so green and lush, especially as it generally receives daily rainfall. It is such a contrast to many parts of the country which are suffering terribly with drought and failed rains. We saw some amazing storms, with near constant lightning at times. It was actually really helpful as the town had a power cut, and the lightning really illuminated the place, though momentarily, which helped with finding the path when trying to get back to the hotel!
Jonah's family were so kind and welcoming. We prayed together a lot which was so nice. They all live in a village outside the town, and it was lovely how the extended family all live nearby. We met cousins and great uncles....the whole lot! They own quite a lot of land which they farm so we ate lots of lovely fresh produce and left with a rather heavy pumpkin which we had eaten the leaves from. They don't have electricity or running water yet, though there is hope that this will be set up soon. There were constant sounds of ring tones though (not mine!!!) They charge their phones at little dukas in the town, and just sit and wait until they're done. Jonah's dad asked me if there were any parts of the UK without electricity. Our worlds are so different.
One thing that is amazing about Kenyans is how friendly they are, and how much they smile...that is unless they are being photographed.
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| Jonah with some of his family members in their garden |
We were served a huge amount of food. Tactical plate swapping had to occur at times! It was great to try some new traditional Kenyan dishes, though it made me realise just how different the British palate is. My favourite novelty drink was definitely the sour milk. I asked how it was prepared. The response was quite simply pour milk into a bucket, cover it, leave it for a few days, then serve! Ooh lumpy! It really highlighted a big culture difference for me, in that if guests popped round to my house they would be lucky to get a cup of tea and possibly a biscuit, but here we were given hot meals irrelevant of the time of day. Some communication would have been appreciated as we would leave one house and promptly pop next door ready for round two!
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| Enjoying some delicious pumpkin in Jonah's house |
On Saturday we went on a little trip to Tabaka, which is famous for soapstone carvings. We took a shared public car, there were 11 of us inside. 4 in the front (don't know how the driver managed to drive, as he was so pressed up to the window!), 4 in the back and 3 in the boot. Wow. Cosy! My shuttle bus home was the best though. It was quite smart, and we all had a seat each, well apart from the chicken that rather quietly sat underneath a seat.
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