Ode to Lamu and fulfilling destiny

The laberynth like streets of Lamu
weaving and intersecting
never knowing where you will come out
donkeys around every corner
some small and meek others big and stout
the women cover their faces
the mosque makes its call 5 times a day
this is one of my new favorite places
the charm of your peoples
and the views from your steeples

Its been only a week since I last wrote and wow what an amazing week it has been. Kenya is situated around the equator line and this causes the illusion of the fastest sunrise and set I have ever seen. I think this creates the feeling of time absolutely flying by. Its been only 2.5 weeks now since I arrived and the things I have experiaced....mind melting. Let me start at where I left of in Malindi. The bus was due to leave at 12:30....so in Kenyan time this means we leave at 2:30. The bus is full and the mid-day sun was making my shirt stick to my skin. Our seat that we were sold where already occupied and this was only the begingin of the trip....it continued in this fashion the whole way to Lamu. Chickens under our seats, people craming in the aisle, the dust pouring in the cracked window as we tear down the dirt road, stoping in every small village along the way to pick up or drop off more people. The ladies run to the windows trying to sell everything from fruit, nuts, hot dogs to goats milk. The suposed 3 hour ride slowly turns into a 5 hour ride and this means arriving at night in a new city...never a good feeling. I am still with the English boy at this point so my tension is lessened as we arrive in the little town on the opposite side of the channel from Lamu. We find a ferry and are immersed in the darkness as we cram onto the motor boat to take us accross. As we make our way throught the channel I feel so alive I look around at the dark faces of the crowded boat....my pale skin glows in the moon light. This is why I am alive to enjoy the moments like this...this feels authentic and I am immersed in the essense of where I am. Its been years since I have traveled in a 3rd world country and today made me remember the majic of the experiance...I am truely happy. Lamu is amazing, one of the oldest cities in Africa, and almost completely Muslim. This is my first time in a Muslim city and its absoulutely incredible. Amazing palace like Mosques all over this tiny island, the call to pray echoing through the small winding streets. So peaceful I could easily spend a lot more time here. The English boy Beanie leaves on Saturday....I am not ready to leave Lamu then so we say our goodbyes and he's gone. I meet some other travelers at a resturant the night before and we all go out on a boat trip sailing around the channels and the small islands surrounding Lamu. I decided that if I am going to continue eating fish that I need to man up and catch a fish and really be involved in the process of fishing. So I try my first hand at fishing...no catch...I try a hand at scaling and cleaning the fish that the others caught, I couldn't bring myself to tear the guts from this being. I still ate the fish for lunch on the boat but I decided then and there that it was my last fish meal.
His name is Patrice, he is the craziest person I have ever met so of course we had a great attraction. He is a French man who works in festivals selling the clothes he buys in India and Nepal, where he spends 7 months a year. He is a paraglider, did I mention hes totally nuts. We left Lamu together on Monday and took a bus together to Mombassa (8 hours), then Tuesday to Nairobi (14 hours in transit).
The original idea was that we would travel to Nanuki together, the base of Mount Kenya. I was thinking about climbing Mt. Kenya and he was meeting a fellow paragliding friend, a white Kenyan called Jamie, who is a piolet. Turns out plans changed, as they almost always do. I found out that I need to go back to Spain in December to meet my grandparents who are coming out to see me there. So I need to sort out how the hell I am going to afford to get back to Spain, which means no fundin to climb Mt. Kenya, you have to do it with a guide and its costing maybe 400USD to climb for 5 days. So Patrice invites me to spend the time with him and go to Rift Valley on the west side of Kenya to paraglide.
This morning we took a 30 minute flight in his friend Jamies small taxi plane (!) from Nairobi to Nanuki. Which brings us to me sitting in this small internet cafe in the itty bitty town of Nanuki right on the Ecuator line at the base of the magestic Mt. Kenya. We are waiting for Jamie to get back from flying some tourists around Kenya then we pack up and head 5 hours over to the Rift Valley...we fly first thing tomorrow morning.
When I found out about the job at Diani going to shit, I shed one tear. But I knew there was something bringing me to Kenya. There was an important reason for me to come and working at Diani obviously was not it. Now I think I know why I was brought to Kenya....I came to learn how to fly.....

Safari satisfaction and a brighter tomorrow

By far one of the most incredible experiances of my young life. To be less than 10 feet from animals I never could even imagine seeing....my mind is blown. It was animal after animal after animal....we saw all of the animals of "the big 5" which includes the lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino. I saw hippos by the herd lounging in the sunny water of the Masi River, I watched lazy lions grooming each other as the sun rose over the park, I watched the native Masi people with their big drooping earlobes and bright red cloth herding their cattle across the land, I gazed into the eyes of the prowling cheetahs as they stared me down in the safety of our car. Absolutely mind blowing. I worried about doing such a short safari of only 3 days thinking I may be missing out but after the second day I could have left...successful in viewing everything I could ever hope to see and so much more.
On the way back to Nairobi, the pain kicked in....I actually woke up to the all familiar rumble in my stomach in the middle of the night the previous night but hoped it was only a dream...but this was no dream it was the same pain I have felt both in Bolivia and then Spain...backpackers belly....great. This time it was accompanied by a fantastically high fever and chills as we made the 5 hour drive back from the Masi Mara. So what do you do when you have no travelers insurance, can't keep food down, haven't been on Malaria tablets, and have been bit by a few mosquitoes and have one of the highest fevers that you can remember? You sweat it out and hope for the best. This is your option. This is what I did and woke up early Saturday morning feeling like 100 times better. Close call.
So on the bus 8 hours and headed to Diani beach....The saga with the the hostel continues as I decide not to go to the backpackers hostel that screwed me over before I came. I decided that I don't need it, don't want it, not gonna deal with it. The only thing is the bit of fear that I had not doing it...this means traveling around, spending money, dealing with big decisions....adrenaline.
I was a little nervous before I came here I will admit, its been a while since I traveled around a 3rd world country alone and plus Africa is a completely different world than South America and I knew that. Its been over a week now and my confidence is coming back and I have decided to travel around seeing the sites, trekking the hills, and doing whatever comes my way...taking it one day at a time, trusting myself again.
After spending a couple of days relaxing at Diani beach....far from the backpackers I was meant to be...I realized that this wasn't the kind of place I really would enjoy spending the next few months...Sure its beautiful... but its very touristy. So this morning I got on another good old matatu and headed 3 hours up the coast to a town called Melindi. Where I am now, I will spend the night here then head up to a place called Lamu. That's as far as I have for plans but the rough idea may include rafting the Nile in Uganda, gorilla tracking in Rwanda, it may include Tanzania where I would love to climb Kilimanjaro, only time will tell where the wind (and the tiny bit of money I managed to save this summer) takes me. I will keep you posted. One love.

safari anyone?

I arrived Sunday morning....at 4am exhausted...totally beat...knackered even...I was met at the airport by my young Kenyan host called Samuel who I found through couchsurfing.com. After taking a few matatus, like mini busses with loads of really loud American hip/hop music and big screen tvs playing old school Biggie videos...wait where I am...we arrived in the neighborhood of Samuel which is in a small shanty village called kayole on the outskirst of Nairobi...pics soon to come...I spent the half the day sleeping of my airline hangover and then the rest of the day hooping with the local kids...more pics soon to come. Nairobi is big and intense and wow really really Africa, everything you could imagine and so much more. This morning we, myself and the English couchsurfer staying in the house of Samuel, were taken to a Christian Camp if you will...the experiance of them inviting us into there camp showing us around and us politely explaning that we where in no way interested in supporting "Christian crusades" ws interesting to say the very least. Thank god, forgiving the irony, that I was with Beni as the English boy is called, who knows what I would have done without another person there to see the insanity of the whole situation. I mean I am down with eraticating poverty and all, and this is what they kept insisting was their goal, but in the tour of the place I saw no real plan other than signing people up to be Christians and open a back account in to deposit their money...in exchange for a piece of bread and a promise of salvation....hmmmm...Anyway manage to escape that one without too much embarasment or harrasment. So we came into the town center to exchange some money and to look for sunglasses and Beni and I ended up signing up for a 3 day safari in the masai mara park in East Kenya...will be back to civilazation and heading to Diani beach on Friday...one love...

I don't know why you say hello...I say goodbye...

It's amazing how adaptable human beings can be to different situations, places, environments, and so on. It's funny how easy it is for me to start to get really comfortable in a place and start to spread my roots, maybe it's the Taurus in me. Anyway, I am so fortunate to have found Orgiva, I love it so much. It's like my home away from home. I feel like if I every fuck up or get sick or robbed or something I have a place to go back to where I can be nurtured back to health, without flying half-way across the world to Colorado. Leaving Kali 2 days ago was tough...bittersweet almost. It's good for me to keep moving or I know I could so easily get stuck in a place like Orgiva. Saying goodbye is something I am getting used to again, which doesn't make it much easier but I left a suitcase and some hoops there at a friends house so I know I will be back.
The lesions I will take away from Kali are priceless. The friends I made during my 3 months in Andalusia are friends for life. The shift in my life that occurred while in the womb-like security have given me a spark that I have never known before.
Last week after I realized it was time to go I found a Backpackers hostal in Kenya that would take me to work-trade with them for the next couple of months, on a little beach in the south of the country called Diani beach... So I bought my plane ticket, packed up and left Kali. All was running smooth until I recieved an email last night while in Granada, from the owner of the Backpackers I am supposed to be headed for on Saturday telling me that things have changed and now he can only use my assistance for 2 weeks. Ok...so I am flying really far from where I am and where I have become so safe and comfortable to work in trade for living conditions...no pay, for 2 weeks. I am really being tested right now and I have a feeling this is only the first problem. So now I go to Kenya. I have no idea what the next step will be but I am learning more and more every day and every step. I am learning to trust in the universe, I am learning to pay close attention to the step I am currently on instead of focusing on the one before me, and I am learning to use my yoga off the mat and in my life when something big happens that is not what I had planned.
More Change, curve ball, me thinking I was but a leave on the stream of life and flowing gently down the stream. Now I am more like swimming up-stream.
Scary concept for most people. Myself included. I am resistant to change and I can see it. This is why I am being forced to deal with very big changes in my life so that this resistance may melt and I can be open and accepting of change. It is all preparation for bigger changes in my life, my consciousness, and the world.
So I sit here from a computer at a friends house in Madrid, almost completely ok with the fact that I am going to Africa by myself in less that 48 hours, for a job that will only last 2 weeks, with very little money (after spending half of what I earned all summer on the plane ticket). I have something important to learn, see, do and maybe teach and heal in Africa... so I will keep you all informed along the path.