Western Kenya

We spent about two weeks in Kenya's Western Province, taking a class and doing a little bit of site seeing. All in all we got a much better idea of why the Kenyan government considers a post in North Eastern Province to be a disciplinary measure. Lol.

In contrast to our skirt wearing in the desert, we spent a week sitting around in the grass in jeans -- shorts for the guys --and essentially not wearing shoes, unless we left the compound to go to town. (We did wear skirts to church on Sunday, and, just for the record, riding side saddle on the back of a bike in a long skirt is not as easy as it looks!)


"Picnics" on a patch of cool grass and scattering across a compound for morning quiet times haven't exactly been normal internship experiences up until now, but we took full advantage of them for a week and a half.


Basically, we got to enjoy acting a little more like Americans than we do in G-town (minus the flush toilets and running water that we do have here, but not there), with all of the games of ridiculously silent Capture the Flag, tag with the neighbor kids, and general running around like crazy people inside of the compound that go along with that.


The day before we left, we took a bus out to the Kakamega rain forest, where the twenty-three of us -- plus guide -- walking through the forest pretty much scared away anything that wasn't a monkey or a butterfly. Although, we learned some interesting facts about why the Blue Monkey is called a Blue Monkey. Ask me when I get home...

And, a group of us hiked a little farther up to a view point, where we suddenly went from rain forest to bare rock and pine trees, definitely a strange sensation. I don't think that I've been that high up on anything since our first Amazing Race in Nairobi, back in last January.

After much bumping along -- or alongside -- more wonderful roads, we got to Kisumu and Lake Victoria. The lake is not know for its great cleanliness, so we spent more time taking pictures of it than actually touching it. That and watching two of the guys climb a huge tree with ridiculous thorns/horns -- and catching one of the new guys when he decided to do a trust fall out of said tree.

The cold nights (at least, cold compared to our air conditioner-less desert) were well worth the exchange for jeans, "grass" -- that was really cheat grass and ground cover -- and fresh, fried fish from the Ugandan portion of Lake Victoria.

Even with all of that, though, we were more than a little eager to get back in town for our last couple of weeks of internship. The Kenyan government may consider this place to be a disciplinary post, but we're rather fond of it. :D