Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year

We travelled back to Nairobi yesterday (New Years Eve). Last night we wanted to go out and welcome 2010, not sure what we were thinking..........We went into the city center, and were greeted by pretty much every Kenyan between the ages of 18 to 25! There were so many people down there we couldn't take it. So we turned around and headed back to the burbs.

We found a bar a couple of blocks from the house at about 10 minutes to midnight. We did manage to get drinks before the countdown. Speaking of the countdown it was the strangest I've ever witnessed. It seems logical to count DOWN to midnight.....but the DJ counted in ascending order starting with 1, ending at 5?? Then there was bubbles and smoke and screaming.......... it was so confusing we just did our own and toast!

Overall the night was fun, but ended abruptly as Maurine was twinkled on by a very drunk lady, who was sleeping on a barstool next to her.

Lake Victoria

I've done more traveling across the Kenyan countryside, and I think I've mentioned this before but the scenery is absolutely breath taking.... our route took us through the beautiful Nandi Hills, people actually have homes along the moutainside surronded by tea farms! There was also miles of sugar cane and rice.

Our first destination was Eldoret which is home to about 1 million people. Eldoret suffered many casualties to violence during the December 2007 post election uproar. Apparently there was pre-tension between tribes over land, and anger over the election gave the tribes an "excuse" to attack. The violence is over, but the disagreement is not. Our visit there was brief (lunch with family), our next stop was Kisumu.

Kisumu is one of Kenya's 3 big cities. It sits on Lake Victoria, the 2nd largest lake in the world after our own Lake Superior. It's known for its fish, and its exciting nightlife. This is also where President Obama's Kenyan family is from.

We were feeling quite brave, lol. We decided to take a ride on the lake in a motor boat (none of us are swimmers, and all of us were nervous). As long as the motor was running the ride was just fine, as soon as it stopped we rocked like crazy, one of the guys (I won't say which one) was almost overboard, lol. Overall it was a lot of fun and we were all glad we went for the ride.

We were in search of hippo's but never did find any. However we saw everything from people bathing on the shore, to local beer being made, and of course fishermen. Afterward we ate fresh fish on the shore, it was the best fish I ever ate (there are pictures to prove it)!