The African Soul of Kenya. A Travel Journal

The next day the Canadian girl and I decided to move on, but the place where we wanted to go, Turkana, was only accessible by a 4x4 vehicle, and one of those we did not have. Then to our delight we saw an overland truck pull in, they had got a flat. We asked if we could get a ride with them, and they said yes, I love it when a plan falls into place.

Before we hit the Great Northern Wilderness we all needed to stock up on our supplies. The market was a hive of activity, I spent most of the time on the top of the truck just observing. Bus drivers loading all the goods on top of the trucks, children rolling tyres along with sticks, women balancing their shopping on their head and the men chatting at the side of the road with a carton of what looked like home brew, lethal I’m sure. It didn’t take me long to come to the conclusion that the African women worked a lot harder than the African men.

It was nearly dark, so the overland truck driver said that we were going to camp in the middle of the desert until day break tomorrow when they would then continue the journey. Tents all up, fire lit and now time to have a beer. We all chatted well into the night and laughed and laughed, due to the driver having found a secret stash of local whiskey. Then when the lions, tigers and bears started appearing it was time to crawl my way back to the tent. It took another ten minutes trying to find my way into the tent; zippers just don’t do it for me at that time of night.

We only reached the camp site late that afternoon and it was a welcome sight. After having checked into my “suite” with a mosquito net that had more holes in it than a golf course, I went for a swim.

The next day a guide took us to the local school and to see the traditional huts. We saw the crafts that they made and were told what they were used for. The school was a single room that held about 30 pupils. We actually sat in on a class and listened to what was being taught. The children were now finding it hard to concentrate with us “mazungoes” there and were now more interested in us than the teacher. I was surprised at how good their English was, both spoken and written. Their main subjects were English, Swahili (the main language out of many languages spoken in Kenya), agriculture and maths.

Their desire to learn is so great and very inspiring, because they are all hoping of a chance to escape their immediate poverty, get a good job in the future in order to support their family, and hopefully lead a better life than their parents did. It made me think of how lucky I was, and how I took my life for granted.  I was also impressed with the school children’s smart appearance; English school children could definitely take a leaf out of their book.

The peace and the quiet of the desert was wonderful, only the faint sound of buzzing mosquitoes, not so wonderful, oh they can drive you mad. That night I had a Danish girls foot on my head and a Canadian girl snoring, didn’t make for a comfortable night but cheaper than having a room to yourself.

All packed and ready to hit the sand again to continue our journey, destination was Kisumu, near Lake Victoria. Waving goodbye to the local people we made our way across the desert.

Once we reached Kisumu, the Canadian girl and I said our farewells. Always sad to say goodbye when you form new friendships but that’s travelling, lots of goodbyes, hellos and friends to be made.

My next stop was Uganda…..now that was another adventure for another time…………………….