Down and Out in Diani, Kenya

You wouldn't think to read our blog that we could be so miserable in such an enchanting fairytale locale but, guess again. The 'long rains' as the local Digo tribe refer to them have now lasted 4 days, CONTINOUSLY, not a let up, not even to come up for air...come on now, that must be a world record or at least give a whole new theoretical meaning to the tropical El Nino....well, we still have the white coconut lined beaches, the distant coral reefs, turquiose green sea, conch shells and crabs on the beach, fruit, veg and fish pedlars that drive by your banda hut in the morning so you won't be too tired to have to go down to the store and haggle for them there,the ubiquitous outrigger dugout canoes and palm tree mutaki roofs on the banda huts...it can't be so bad.

Monkeys come in 2 varieties...good or bad...good monkeys stay out of the banda hut...bad monkeys come in a steal fresh limes, papaya, mangoes and bananas...

There is one type of scorpion...it's got a new name from Heidi. It's called "Stay out of my shoes, you little !#@$#@%$^."

As you probably can gather, apathy has set in or boredom....we read, we play board games and we eat and sleep...what more could a body want....

Answers on a post to Marc & heidi, C/0 Spoiled little travellers far away from home, East Africa, or simply posyt below this blog so we know there's someone out there.

Donkey cells and prisoners of Lamu

Over 3000 donkeys are available for hire, sale or misuse on Lamu island,depending on your definition. Overburdened with bags of heavy sand or buildng blocks, beaten profusely by their owners or ridden by ill-considered youths means that a donkeys life generally as a beast of burden is not a good one.

Inevitably, a donkey sanctuary was made here by well-intended, concerned people from the UK. One day, 30 escaped when the gate to the sanctuary was left open and they found their way into the tight alleyways and narrow passages of the main streets. This is not unusual but with a stampede of donkeys the local authorities decided to hold them in donkey cells in the local prison for "loitering with intent to cause harm and breach of the peace." This must be the only place that I've heard of donkeys being detained on such trumped up charges but this is not only a daily facet of life in Lamu but in the whole of Kenya where such largesse(bribes and suchlike) supplements a meagre salary provided irregularly by the state.

There are no cars here on the island of Lamu, save for the governors and along with donkeys, the only other form of transport are dhows (ancient Arab swahili sailing vessels)which ply their route between the northern beaches of Shela and Manda or can be hired to do the outlying islands of Pate and Kismuyu.

One day, when we were about to leave for Mombasa, we had to take one to the mainland at Mokowe. We arrived to find no bus, so we returned to Lamu in a mbotori or motorised dhow but its cargo wasn't the mangrove poles (botori)used for scaffolding and the interior makuti titled rooftop houses but a different cargo, papillion type pinstriped prisoners, shackled together and guarded by Kenyan underpaid finest in green, the Kenyan police. What do we do...travel with the unarmed crimbos or wait another half hour if we're lucky for another boat..we decided to take the plunge and discovered they were mostly mere juveniles remanded on petty theft and the murderers and rapists would not be allowed such freedoms.They took to me and Heidi as one of their own and just in case we were unsure as to why they were wearing all the same uniforms, told us proudly when they docked at Lamu that they were convicts. Some beachboys had seen us arriving with them and kept well away so that was a good omen. The prisoners were on their way for checkups at the local Aga Khan hospital.

My last visit to Lamu 11 years ago consisted of freshly made passion fruit juices, mango pancakes, henna tattoos and ordering local kikoys and kangas made to measure....a travellers haven...had it become different with the ravages of time...some would say yes, others no...now, there are no open sewers, children can be heard regurgitating the Quran at school and there's enough running water that you don't get hepatitis from the bed bug budget hotels...there's even a DVD outlet store and championship soccer with all the locals sporting their teams colours or the vests that the Red Cross handed to them...it's still poor in many ways but one thing that has changed apart from the prices were the number of refugees from other areas of Kenya coming here to avail of the tourist trade and staying on to plague any mzumgu/wazungu who might have cash.

The number of Europeans that have decided this portion of Kenya is as close to heaven on earth that they are going to find in their lifetime has more than quadrupled but in order to curry favour with local officials, many bribe chiefs of villages and mayors to get the plot of land on which to build their island paradise....the negative effects are tremendous as in the low season right now, has resulted in ghost towns like Shela, rich condos with no-one using them and the locals being displaced into the back streets under more traditional makuti thatched housing...

Other positive spins come from wealthy Saudi oil families who pump money into local school and clinics, build paths, provide work and sustenance for so many and the Aga Khan foundation has even built the one and only hospital for miles around which enables prisoners to get free checkups...

Times change, people change but some things like the call to prayer and the genteel slow paced life is gradually changing...donkeys will become a thing of the past when the road from the mainland is built and all will really be lost or will it...the prisoner mentality will be long gone.....

Zebra Rolling

We left in a convoy for added security at 5am while it was still pitch dark...by early morning light 20 trucks laden with people coffee and rice barreled through the ochre red dirt roads heading south.

I never knew my bum had so many muscles until I rode the top of a metal skeleton frame of an overland truck and after 3 days with overnight stops, I feel like jelly.

We seen zebra rolling in the dirt by the side of the road, ostriches which ran alongside us as if in a race, cheetahs in early morning atop a rock surveying their domain and even giraffe nibbling the thick canopy of leaves on top of the acacia trees towering over them en route to the coast. None were in National Parks so this was an added bonus.

The Boran, Rendille Samburu tribespeople joined us some of the way crowding into an already overcrowded truck ferrying people and rice as well as coffee. An armed Kenyan guard was posted alongside us as their have been tribal rumblings for a long time over water access and grazing rights.....they were merely a presence as they chewed 'miraa' all the way and if it came down to it,I don't know how useful one would've been up against an attack.