Sworn to Secrecy

Worked on a TV show with these guys yesterday as an extra. Mostly as an extra you are a sheep that they dress up and then move around. So weird. Nowhere as gratifying an experience as being in theatre where you really get to create something that is a shared experience all at the same time. Met some very nice people though. I'd do it again, if I had time.

Oh yeah and I had to fake flirt with the guy on the left. Yeah. The one with the vest. And yes, he looked exactly like that in real life.

Being Independent: Enlightening, awesome, and sometimes difficult

Been going to lots of events alone lately it seems. Going alone to things is a great platform for meeting people. Obviously you are not distracted by someone else to talk to or entertain. But it seems most people go out with someone else so finding another solo adventurer is rare.

I think I am learning a lot about myself so I'm sure it's worth it. Things like:

- I like to be around other people.
- I can be kinda shy in situations where I don't know the person.
- I like to be outside when possible.
- I am usually down for anything spontaneous a friend suggests.
- Maybe I need to suggest more spontaneous activities to friends who might also be down.
- I'm a sucker for going out for food and a drink.
- I cherish the time I have with my girl friends.
- Riding my bike somewhere always makes me feel really great.

Why do people have to leave?

If I imagine heaven, it is a place where everyone I have ever loved is. They're all there in one place. And no one goes away.

Emily and Elvis, a poem from a friend

Today I am posting what I think might be one of my all-time favorite poems. Favorite possibly because I love the person that wrote it, a poet and professor of mine from the University of Puget Sound named Hans Ostrom. I went to a poetry reading for alumni that Hans was doing and I have to admit, I purely went because I knew he would be there.

I want always in my life to surround myself with strong, intelligent, caring people. These people are worth every second you put into them and take nothing for granted. Hans, if you ever need a recommendation I would be honored to write one for you.

If I wrote a poem like this today I think it would have to be Jack Kerouac and Eddie Vedder. But that's me.

And, without further ado, the poem:


Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven

They call each other `E.' Elvis picks
wildflowers near the river and brings
them to Emily. She explains half-rhymes to him.

In heaven Emily wears her hair long, sports
Levis and western blouses with rhinestones.
Elvis is lean again, wears baggy trousers

and T-shirts, a letterman's jacket from Tupelo High.
They take long walks and often hold hands.
She prefers they remain just friends. Forever.

Emily's poems now contain naugahyde, Cadillacs,
Electricity, jets, TV, Little Richard and Richard
Nixon. The rock-a-billy rhythm makes her smile.

Elvis likes himself with style. This afternoon
he will play guitar and sing 'I Taste A Liquor
Never Brewed' to the tune of 'Love Me Tender.'

Emily will clap and harmonize. Alone
in their cabins later, they'll listen to the river
and nap. They will not think of Amherst

or Las Vegas. They know why God made them
roommates. It's because America
was their hometown. It's because

God is a thing without
feathers. It's because
God wears blue suede shoes.

-Hans Ostrom

Congrats Frederic!

There are many people I met on my journey that effected me and helped me on my way. On the plane from Amsterdam to Kenya I sat by a French Policeman named Frederic. He was about to head to Tanzania to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. He said he'd send me a picture if he made it.
Well, he did. Beautiful.

Fred is in the grey jacket on the right.

Back in the Saddle

A Boda Boda carrying a load.

If you haven't checked it out already, you should look at Dave's blog. He has a lot of pictures up of the contruction project and of Bungoma. Good stuff. Fun to check in on every once in awhile.

DAVE'S BLOG

I am going to post a few more of my favorite pictures from Africa before I move on to thinking about my life in Portland again.

The Norfolk Hotel, where I first stayed.
An old colonial-style, beautiful hotel.


The guys in our apartment. Business meeting.


Some school kids.


Dave on top of a hill in the Kakamega Rainforest.


Some of the street kids who came over to hang out almost every day.

Awesome butterflies at the Yala River.


Chicken on a bike under the banana tree at the construction site.


Sunset after the rain.

"Say Goodbye" or "Out of Africa"

Said goodbye to Dave and Connor this morning, shut the door, and felt a bit emotional as I turned around. Don't know why this caught me by surprise as I am certainly an emotional person that gets attached easily. I think it really just marked the end of my trip.

There is this song by Akron/Family called "Ed is a Portal" and in the middle they just repeat these lyrics:

To all of the places that I have known

To all of the places that I have known

To all of the places that I have known

To all of the places that I have known!

God, I love that song.

I have been affected a little by everywhere I have been and lived.

I'm happy to say I feel that I have known Bungoma, even if only for these 2 weeks.

I'm about to get on the bus for a trip that will likely take me over 30 hours in total to complete.

Worth it.

This is me, Africa-style.

Friends and family, I'm coming home to you.

Sometimes I sit here in Africa and realize that all I really want to do is hang out with these guys:

Crazy I know. But in all truthfulness it will be nice to be back home with friends and family.

DAY 16 and 17: My last days in Bungoma

Woke up this morning to a bird a hadn't seen yet. I studied it and went to look it up in Connor's Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife and found out it was a Speckled Mousebird. I then realized that I am totally that nerd Dave was talking about in Kakamega that gets a kick out of watching and identifying birds. I entirely blame my parents for this. In a good way.

Today I will buy my bus ticket back to Nairobi and go back out to the construction site to check out the progress.

Last night I brought Dave with me over to Esther's house and we met the whole family. Dave talked to the father, Jacob, for a long time. Jacob is a math teacher in a high school in Bungoma. Adelaide, his wife, called me into the kitchen so I could watch how they made the chicken. When I got in there it had just been freshly killed and she put it in a bucket. Esther pulled boiling water over it and then the two sisters started plucking the chicken from end to end, even holding the decapitated head in their hand and plucking that as well. Next they lightly grill it over a barbecue-style fire just holding it on there for a few seconds at a time. Adelaide then set to cutting the chicken apart using a kitchen knife. You can tell she has done this many times before.

All while this is happening I am sitting right next to where the other chickens come to roost at night in a little covered area right in the kitchen. Seems kinda ironic that they are just sitting there and watching their other chicken friend be prepared for dinner.

The chicken is then put into a stew of tomatoes and onions and cooks for a bit. In the meantime Dave and I drank lots of chai, chatted with the family about our different cultures, and ate some Wonderbread with butter.

Earlier in the day Esther showed me how to make chapati. You mix a special wheat flour with water and make a dough out of it that she rolled out into a pizza like circle. That goes onto an iron dish that sits on top of that same wood fire. She spoons oil onto it and flips it a few times as it cooks.

So now, I have officially ate the freshest, best chicken, I think I will ever eat in my lifetime. I helped myself to two pieces of chapati to soak up more of the broth. Adelaide and Jacob walked us all of the way home in the dark. They are such kind people. Esther and she both told me many times they would pray that I would come back to Kenya and visit them. Esther is now my friend on Facebook.

DAY 14 and 15: Making friends in Kenya

Found out last night that there have been landslides due to the rain that wiped out some villages and killed around 100 people on the Ugandan side of Mt. Elgon. All of a sudden I am very glad that we are living somewhere pretty flat.

NY Times article on Ugandan Landslides

Here's your brief report for the last 2 days.

Monday night we went over to have dinner at the One Acre Fund. This is a group of people all dedicated to living abroad it seems for at least 2 years. Many have lived other places before this. They all work on different projects all helping to maintain positive agricultural practices in Kenya (or something like that). Some of them work with the farmers, some so marketing or research grants, and so on. It was nice to hang out with some fellow "Mizungus" (white people) and hear about what they are up to. It made Dave and Connor seem pretty isolated as the One Acre Fund lives in a compound and have a sort of built-in community.

Tuesday I went out at 6AM riding a super heavy, single speed, Indian bike to the construction sight. The building is even bigger than I originally imagined and is coming along very quickly. Amazing that there will be 5 of those same buildings on the sight. Dave and Connor have their work cut out for them. I got to meet the crew and eat breakfast at the sight with them. The foreman's wife provides a breakfast of chapati and chai and I think it was the best chapati and chai I've had yet.

Later that day I had gone back to the apartment and a woman came knocking on my door saying she wanted to meet me. I have been told many times to be cautious about letting anyone in my home and all that jazz but she was very persistent and really wanted me to come and visit her place. Her name is Esther. When she came by the second time with a 6 year old named Faith I figured there was not too much harm in locking up the place and taking only my keys with me. I didn't want stupid tourist fears getting in the way of an education. So I went to Esther's house and was greeted warmly by her sister Adelaide. We chatted for hours about our cultures and travelling. They have a house-keeper named Ruth who was an orphan and is the most beautiful woman I have seen. They had a TV going the whole time with music video-style African dancing showing on it. Adelaide showed me lots of pictures of her family. She made me promise I would come over the next day to learn to cook with her and she would make dinner for me and the guys. Said she'd kill a chicken for me.

I went home with two eggs from their chicken that were two of the best eggs I've had and stayed together perfectly in the pan while the one from the store broke.

Kenyans are really just Portland Hipsters

Exhibit A:

Clothes are bought in a Goodwill Bins style manner where used clothing is sorted through and the price is negotiated at a rate equal to only a few cents.

Exhibit B:

The primary form of transportation is on single speed bikes.

Exhibit C:

Everyone has a cellphone and is super into it. Fancy rings and all.

Exhibit D:

Shoes are always sandals or some sweet Adidas or Vans that are falling apart.

Exhibit E:

They love to hang out and drink their chai while they rip on each other and white people.

Exhibit F:

They grow their own food or buy what they need at a public market. They also are very aware where their "cuts of beef" come from.

and Exhibit G:

The modified bicycle.