Welcome to the land of sand...
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2010
1
9
13
Trip End
Nov 12, 2010
Imani, Coast, Kenya
Friday, October 22, 2010
Friday - a verrrry early breakfast... 6AM! Which means up at half five to get ready. But i seem to like these REALLY early starts because it's so early, my body isn't even awake enough to realise! ha. I was given excellent news that i would be riding to the airport in Dipesh's car with Sarah to drop off Nadia on the way to Imani, but the thought of riding in a black pick-up truck, with small back seats and no air con with little windows for five hours just didn't seem worth while enough to stare at Dipesh's beautful face.. that doesn't take away from his ruggedness, remember that!
We all said our goodbyes to Nadia and it was horribley unexpected as we where told to get in the trucks so quickly! I didn't even have time to get emotional as i hugged her and told her she had brought so much to the trip cause then she was gone... We all sprawled out on Rusty as there were three peoples worth of spaces free and sank into the fact we where leaving makongeni, our home. It didn't feel like Nadia had left, because in my head it seemed like such an absurd thing to suggest, why would she be leaving?!
We drove through to Ukunda looking down to the beach, the route we would usually take, knowing the next time we seen it we would only have 6 days left until we all went our seperate ways.. to home, to countries even further away, or starting the first leg of independant travel.
As i just couldn't get comfy on the seats for some reason, i decided the floor is ALWAYS best.. so there i was lying on my jumper on the floor of a truck, covered in filth, heading up the highway almost dying as trucks overtake with only metres to spare.. but i was none the wiser - i was on the floor... sleeping :D
I woke up not long before we turned off to Imani, but from just looking around out the sides of the truck it looked like what i can only describe as nothingness. It went on for miles and miles, just plains of red earth and random trees popping up now and again. It was beautiful.
We arrived at about 1ish and where met with a large group of women. These where the women who ran the camp and you could just tell from their smile that they where happy to see us.
We got shown to our tents and Bryony, Katie and I decided to share, which would turn out to be an utter delight :) However, i had to wait to get comfortable as my bag was put in Dipesh's car amidst the last minute changes in the morning, so i had to wait for him to get to the camp.
Before we did anything however, we had lunch. And oh what a lunch it was! No salt, just utter goodness. yum. yum. yum.
As much as the women where happy to see us, i couldn't really wait to get out. It just wasn't my cup of tea, we weren't involved with the community as much as we where used to, and we only built things to improve the camp for the women, not anything outside the big gates and to be honest, we didn't really leave the gates at all! It was also a massive SAND PIT, and we walked from our tent to the loos, to the mess hall, to our tents, to the worksite, to the mess hall, to the worksite to the mess hall, and finally to our tents... our days didn't go outside this 40m by 40m area, and my head was buzzing to get out.
Our team split into two, one lot of us building a base tank so the kitchen could have a pressured supply of water and the other lot where building a chicken coop so the women could sell the eggs and chickens for meat. Our base tank was really hard, but i coped more in this type of heat because it was a dry heat, no humidity, just sheer skin burning, dehydrating HEAT! and i loved it. got a nice tan too, if only it lasted untill the last two weeks though! gutting. To make this process much harder though, our 'funde', meaning expert, was drunk. all. the. time. He was really rude too, although to be honest its just something i never got used to - the african way of never saying please or thank you.. we managed it though, we finished that dam base tank! brilliant to see :)
The definite highlight of this phase though was our day trip to Tsavo East National Park - it was phenominal. Not all of us went though, only the six of us. But it was much better that way, it was only the people that reaaaally wanted to go so there was no one getting bored, and there was more room in the matatu and it was just general banter! Some amazing pictures too, dad will be proud! Seen plenty of different things and our guide was so lovely, he even came into the camp later and i had a wee chat with him while i was washing my face at the sinks, said when we are back at diani to check in at the office and see if he's there!
I have to say i only had two showers in my time there - once on the day we got there, and one on the day before we left.. bucket showers and the dust kept blowing up from under the shower door so everytime you cleaned yourself you would get red sand stuck to you all over again! So i gave up, and just piled on the deoderant - brilliant! my hair however, did not agree, i kept in a bun all the time cause it was just easier and it had developed a funny/reaaaally dry texture too and just generally freaked me out.. and omg, what a hastle to wash, dipping your head into a bucket was not easy in a little wooden shower cubicle.. if anything it'll prepare me for Fiji atleast! haha.
The evening where spent chilling in the mess hall listening to music or painting posters for the local primary school, or having a little fun ourselves with the paints... FACE PAINTING. Sarah drunkenly did mine however and i'm sorry to say, but i looked like a tube. photos will follow.
So yeah, that was our week, nothing else exciting happened that i can be bothered typing on this cause it's late and i'm exhausted!
Peace out x
