Three Cheers for Kenya!

Cheers, cheers, cheers...An African hippie, fantastic border crossing into Kenya, and unprecedented Kenyan hospitality!

Most of the people we have met in Africa really enjoy their meat. When we enter a restaurant, they bring us goat, beef, or chicken by default. And when we say we just want ugali and veggies, blank uncomprehensive stares is all we get. But Major, one of our hosts outside Moshi, was a vegetarian. That was the first surprising thing about him. Secondly, he wasn't just any vegetarian. He grinded different grains together to make his own mix of ugali/nshima meal. traditionally, ugali is made only from pounded maize, but Major's was from sorghum, rice, wheat, and finger millet. He was a dietician by hobby, and said that the different colors in his mix meant different vitamins and minerals for a complete and varied diet. He also ate sprouts, which I hadn't heard anyone mention since I lived in a hippie community in New Zealand. Major didn't take painkillers, and instead studied Indian and Chinese Acupuncture and Reflexology to cure his ails. At 60, he had the energy of someone in their 20s and said he would still like to be healthy at 120. I believe he could do it!

We followed a road skirting the foot of Kilimanjaro and headed into Kenya. The border crossing was our best one yet! The exit immigration office was a small shack set just outside a small village under a picturesque Kilimanjaro. The officials sat outside the shack enjoying a coke, clothed in tshirts and khakis. A small dirt road took us into Loitokitok town, Kenya. At customs, there were no sketchy moneychangers and no audience. The officials greeted us with warm smiles, and were very impressed that we had come from CapeTown. Even though the town had no water that day, they brought us over to their reserve water jugs and filled up our water containers for us. Though we were surrounded by rough, dry heat and dust, we did not feel it.

Since we have entered Kenya, we have met this hospitality everywhere. We met Johnathan, a man who resigned from the National Hospital to start a small community clinic near his home village. He showed us around Emali town, his clinic, and his blooming garden. We met a heap of open friendly workers at the Makutano gas station who said 'of course you can camp here!'There, we also met Jeremiah and Charles, a civil engineer and a businessman who took us around their home town Machakos, and took us to visit the earth dam they were constructing.

We are now staying in Machakos, about 60 kms outside of Nairobi, killing time while we wait for Orian to catch up with us. After watching Champions League football last night with our friends, we realized how much we missed watching games. Barcelona play Chelsea tonight! Who are you rooting for?