Kenya and Tanzania

What a busy few days it's been since leaving Mbale on Tuesday! I'm writing this post from Arusha, Tanzania; we arrived at the border just 7 hours ago, at 6am, walking across from Kenya to Tanzania at sunrise. Yes, that's right, we've also had a whistle stop in Kenya this week! Pretty shattered now, but in a lovely hostel and just had a hot shower! Second hot shower in 5 weeks, and the only one that I could actually get at a nice temperature. Was definitely in there for a while. Never smiled so much in a shower haha!

So, on Tuesday we got on the 5pm bus to Nairobi, meaning that Jo, Annabelle, Kate and I arrived in Nakuru at 3.30am, and Jon, Alex, Harri and Sami went on for about another hour or so to Naivasha. Earlier that afternoon we'd got online and booked to stay the night in Nakuru Backpackers, quite clearly a hostel from the website. After ringing Moses, the hostel owner, several times from the petrol station where we were dropped off, he eventually said that a woman was on her way to pick us up. She arrived at about ten past 4, and was way too enthusiastic for us. We just wanted to crash, but she wanted to know all about our travels, where we were going next, and kept trying over and over again to convince us that we should go to Mombasa before Arusha, no matter how many times we explained that we were coming back to Kenya on our way back to Uganda in September.

When we pulled into the hostel and discovered it was her house, at half four in the morning, and shown to a room with two beds and told "Three can fit in that big one, yes? You have nice figures; you are not fat.", we were already a bit confused and didn't really want a full tour at that time. We met the kitten, which is nameless but the cutest thing ever, and she didn't seem to want to stop talking. We eventually got to bed at 5, and said we would get up at 10 for breakfast. Breakfast never seemed to happen, so we all showered (the shower was broken so there was no hot water; Eunice, the lady, brought a bucket of boiling water to the shower as though that would somehow work) and got ready to walk into town by 11. However, just as we were about to leave, Eunice announces that she's been waiting for us all to be ready so we could all have breakfast together. Well, bread that is. At least it was proper bread.

She insisted on escorting us into town, which was a very nice gesture and everything, but she really is quite full on! The walk into town was quite interesting and strange, though. As we'd arrived in Kenya in the dark, when we stepped outside the 'hostel' this was the first we'd seen of it in daylight. The difference between Uganda and Kenya was incredible. Kenya is so much wealthier, but apparently the difference between rich and poor is really extreme. We walked through a suburb of lovely houses, all gated and with cars, and teenagers in stylish clothes played basketball in the road. Eunice insisted on showing us inside the school she teaches in, and although it was desperately poor and she talked of all the hardships, I think we struggled to appear shocked after the Ugandan schools. This school had a shabby, dangerous-looking playground was painted in pictures and bright colours everywhere, as were the classrooms, and the most noticeable difference was in the children. They all had hair which looked styled, compare with the Ugandan children who all had their heads shaved. They all wore clean clothes, or clothes which at least looked clean; in Uganda, I only saw most of the kids in either one or two outfits throughout the whole month we were there, and most of them were filthy. I also didn't see any Kenyans without shoes; barely any of the kids in Uganda wore shoes, and if they did, they usually weren't the right size, or they sometimes only had one! The children at the poor Kenyan school get a school lunch, although Eunice said that means they often don't eat at home, and they don't all pay full school fees if they can't afford to. In Uganda, if children couldn't pay their fees (education is legally supposed to be free in Uganda), then they can't go to school. There are 'kids' who are about 16 in primary school, because you simply do each year when you can afford to, and move up when you pass. It was a poor school, but the difference in standards was incredible. Just down the road she showed us her daughter's school which, from the outside, looked like the nicest primary school I have ever seen in my life! It was quite a strange experience. When we told Eunice we'd lived in a school for a month with no electricity or running water, she couldn't get over it: "WHAT?! Not ever?! And you did not cry? You did not wish for your home country? OH MY GOD!"

Once in town, she kept trying to arrange our safari for us. We decided to spent another night at hers and go to Lake Nakuru the following morning, not accepting her offer of a taxi and safari but going with an actual tour company! That night we bought our tea from the supermarket: spaghetti and chilli sauce. Eunice's daughter, Florence, ate some with us, but it was a lot hotter than we'd anticipated and we were all struggling! Florence, who is in year 7 at primary school, and I think aged 12 (she is going to boarding school soon), claimed to like this 'muzungu food' a loot, but did have to dash off to grab a cup of water! Shortly afterwards poor Kate made the discovery that undigested spaghetti wasn't the nicest thing to come back up with sun stroke.

We awoke at 6am the next morning, barely making it to 8.30pm that night after our bus journey. and were picked up at 6.30 to go to Lake Nakuru National Park! =D It was brilliant. We saw antelope, baboons, giraffes, black and white rhino (our driver said he had never seen back and white rhino so close to each other before, and that we were lucky to even see rhino and giraffes), impala ("Papa Bambi!" - Durham reference), flamingos, pelicans, zebra, and I've probably missed some. Didn't see any big cats, although apparently there are some there. Will hopefully see them and elephants in the Serengeti! The baboons are always fun to watch, even in zoos, but these were so cute! The babies looked like they were posing for us as they tried to balance on plants, haha. Although one mother was dragging a dead baby which looked like it had been run over. :( Also saw a dead zebra lying in the water. Sad times. The masses and masses of flamingos and pelicans looked amazing though, and I can't wait for our next safari! We're going to look into doing a sunrise balloon safari over the Serengeti, which would be amazing, but we need to look into prices and things.

So we arrived back from our safari and chilled out for a bit before going back into town yesterday evening. We'd hoped that leaving Eunice's house would mean leaving Eunice, but oh no. She said that she wanted to make sure that we were safe, so would see us onto our bus. This was 5pm and our bus was due to leave at 11.30pm. Our hearts sank! She came to town with us, tried to find internet for us before we gave up and just called this place from The Lonely Planet (so glad we did; our bus meant we didn't have to pay for a night's accommodation so splashed out on a ten dollar each dorm for the night - well worth it and well needed!), and then escorted us to a place to eat. Guava was amazing, to her credit, and I actually swooned over my lamb and mash! Despite the lack of any gravy, it was still amazing and I couldn't stop grinning the whole way through. They had no cheesecake left; probably a good job, or I think I might have fainted I'd have been so happy, haha! It was very western, but we didn't care. She didn't sit with us to eat, but she did wait in the bar until we left. Cool as we are, we whipped out head torches (well I did) and sat reading for the next few hours. Kate slept on the sofa, and eventually we headed off to then coach station, accompanied by Eunice, of course... Apparently we refused a lift from her friend, the Kenyan president's daughter. Not convinced, but okay.

She did finally leave then, which was a good job because our bus didn't arrive until ten past one. After watching badly dubbed soaps that are so awful they're hilarious on the little TV in the waiting room, I fell properly asleep to a dream about having everyone's passports. Annabelle woke me when the bus arrived and was checking I had all our tickets... that explains that one. We were sat at the back, and Jo's face fell: they'd been on the back row on the way from Mbale and it had been so bumpy they'd barely spent any time actually in their seats. I wasn't thrown about so much, but my chair was broken. This journey, however, was much more comfortable, and I'm sure we'll go with Kampala Coaches again. :) It amused me though, 'cause the man next to me looked quite tough and grumpy when we got on, and we didn't speak at all. However, I woke up an hour or so later wondering why my arm felt so heavy, and he was curled up like a baby with his head on my arm. He woke up, looked a bit embarrassed an moved to face the window, but within ten minutes he'd somehow moved back again. I didn't want to move and wake him up, but I was glad we stopped when we did as I was getting a dead arm! Haha.

Crossed the Tanzanian border at sunrise this morning, but took ages to get visas. Held our whole bus up as we were the only muzungus and had to wait for an hour and a half. Three countries in three and a half days! Couldn't believe, however, when we got to the hostel here and someone had come to find us. "Is Jo here? Someone I don't know asked me to meet you from the bus and arrange safari..." Rate confused, then Kate asked, "Was her name Eunice?" The man was like "yes, yes, Eunice!" Oh my days, she practically stalked us to Tanzania!