Emily in Africa

When I came to Africa there were a few things I had to do. Absolutely, positively could not leave Africa without having done. While for some people, these things might be going on a safari or climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but for me, it was seeing Pam Gordon. Pam and her boyfriend Mark have been in Africa since September and they are currently living in a small village in western Kenya near the border with Uganda. And sure that small village is a more than 20 hour bus ride from Mombasa, but was that stopping me? Absolutely not. Especially since I took a plane.



I arrived in Kisumu with the sunset on Thursday night where Pam and Mark met me at the airport. The sight of Pam jumping out of the tuk-tuk and running to meet me is something I won't forget for a long time (nearly brought a tear to my eye!) We spent the first night in Kisumu over beers and pizza catching up for hours - quite the Queen's reunion. The next morning we hopped on boda-bodas (my new favourite form of transportation -- a pillow attached to the back of a bike complete with rider who pedals you around) and went on a quick tour of town. Kisumu is amazing - it's much more chill than Mombasa, both in weather (I wore a long-sleeved shirt!!) and attitude. No one really bothers with you or trys to sell you things...a refreshing change to be honest. We spent the morning at an internet cafe (Pam and Mark's weekly brush with technology), buying groceries and I even managed to get a sneak peek at Lake Victoria and the infamous tilapia/nile perch fishery (more on that later).

After buying more groceries than we could carry, we piled into a tuk-tuk and headed for the local bus station. The small village where Pam and Mark live is about a 2 hour bus ride from Kisumu and we spent the whole bus ride chatting in fast Canadian english and catching up on Mark's NGO work in the Congo, Pam's backpacking through Africa and my own travels. It was so normal to be hanging out that it was quite a shock when the bus suddenly lurched forward and bananas and long poles of sugar cane started being handed through the window! I had definitely forgotten I was on a rickety bus ride through Kenya!



After surviving 2 hours of really really really bumpy roads (unbelievable, and we were in the back of the bus too which didn't help!), we hopped off the bus in Ruma and quickly grabbed our backpacks and boxes of groceries before the bus hurtled off down the road. The next thing I saw was Pam running down the road after the bus waving and shouting for it to slow down!! Turns out they had given us the wrong box of groceries!! Which, considering it had chocolate, chicken, cheese, peanut butter and a 3L box of wine, would have been a HUGE disaster. But luckily after the bus realized Pam wasn't just waving goodbye, they stopped, exchanged boxes and then we were on our way into Ruma.

Ruma is amazingly green. I don't know what I was really expecting...actually, I do. Red sand and dusty trees. Oh wait, that's Mombasa! But I definitely hadn't expected western Kenya to be so green - there's grass! And it even comes with dew on it in the mornings! Seeing all the mountains threw me too - such a change from the coast. There's much to tell about Ruma but there's only time for highlights now, so:

-Pam and Mark live in a cute little cement house with no electricity, no running water and a bucket for a shower. There are lanterns and candles for light and one-burner kerosene stove for cooking/boiling water/etc. It's like camping...every day. But with good company and a glass of red wine to watch the stars come up, what more do you really need?



-Saturday was a big party at the Ruma Women's Group, where Mark and Pam are volunteering. The organization does a bunch of amazing things, but this ceremony was the graduation ceremony for the first bunch of kids to come through the school program. There are 300 partial and full-AIDS orphans in the program and they are supported through primary, secondary and polytechnic education with money for class fees and lunch. It was great to be included as a guest of honour for the whole-day ceremony which had singing, dancing, speeches, and even a little bit of homegrown Kenyan rap.

-We went exploring (well I did, they knew where they were going!) through fields and along roads at sunset, into villages and market squares. And yup, there are lots of cute kids everywhere. And the best part is they love having their picture taken! Never a dull moment - especially with little kids yelling "Mzungus!! MZUNGUS!!!!" and running after you full throttle to see what's going on. Hilarious




-Nights were usually spent drinking wine, cooking up amazing concoctions on the afore mentioned ONE-burner stove, and staying up late listening to BBC on Pam and Mark's shortwave radio. We did so many fun things, but just chilling out in the evenings were one of my favourite things in Ruma. It was great to catch up with Pam, who I haven't seen in over a year, and meeting Mark was great too. It's amazing how well you can get to know someone in just a few days....especially when you acidentally wear each other's contacts for a morning! And that's not even mentioning the insanely crazy bus ride on the way back to Kisumu! Yup, Pam and Mark are doing well, having a great time in Ruma and doing amazing things with their volunteering. They've started up a small library which they are turning into the first community library this side of Lake Victoria and completing a Participatory Rural Analysis which will help Ruma secure development funding in the years to come.



-Sunday morning was a 20km bike adventure (my bike had no brakes) down bumpy dirt roads to Lake Victoria and a fishery landing site! Could I be any happier? It was a great bike ride and so cool to see the 2nd-largest freshwater lake in the world. OK, I'm a nerd - I'll admit it. But all the fisherman, their big boats and HUGE fish were pretty cool to see, especially since I've got pretty familiar with the reef fishery on the coast over the past month. Quite the difference.

-Leaving Sunday afternoon was hard - it was so nice to catch up with old friends and I wish I could have stayed longer. Pam had to stay in Ruma for community work she had on Monday, so Mark (eager to head back to the internet cafe) and I braved a very very interesting bus ride back to town. Basically the entire bus was PACKED with people. I spent the first hour trying to find room for my feet to stand up straight (wasn't happening) and trying to reposition myself out of people's armpits (a definite disadvantage of being short). Luckily the bus cleared out after the first hour (due to police checks and actual enforcement of passenger limits) and low and behold, we had seats! So we were doing really well...until that fateful popping sound, the tire ripping sound and having an impromptu tire change on the side of the road.


But Mark and I made it back to Kisumu in one piece with lots of time before my flight back to Mombasa. So we headed for the nearest bar that served chocolate milkshakes (it had been that kind of day), watched some soccer, had a masala dosa and then I headed back to the airport. 72 hours well spent!