In Kisumu this past weekend, I learned the very hard way that falling asleep outside of the mosquito net is not advisable. I was mauled by mosquitoes and cannot stop itching. We slept 3 to a bed, and the mosquito net didn’t cover us all extensively, and I unfortunately was on the edge, and am now paying the price.
Other than that this past weekend excursion to Kisumu was great. It was quite tame, but compared to life in Kakamega, our most wild weekend yet. It started out Friday, when I went into town from work, to use the internet. The national reggae station metro fm was having a road show, and when I got to town, it was driving through the streets. I was walking in town, and to my surprise ran into Habib. I have never seen him in town, so this was quite pleasing. I went with him to enjoy the music. While we were walking, we professed our crushes on one another, and he continued to protect me from trouble with boda drivers or street children. He’s a great guy. I grossly melt when he is “manly” and does things like carry my umbrella or say things to guys who get too close. After the road show, we met the FSD group, to see off interns Walker and James. James had been in Kenya for 10 months and Walker, 2 and ½. It was sad to see them go, and it is the start of weekly to bi-weekly departures, with me being the last to leave. I am so happy I will be the last to leave. I don’t even want to think leaving Kenya is a possibility at the moment.
After we left them, we boarded a matatu and headed to Kisumu. When we arrived, we rushed to Green Garden, for a delicious meal. I have not spent that much money on a meal since I have arrived. I won’t even get a grilled cheese and chips (fries) in town for 180 ksh (less than 3 usd) because most meals are 60 ksh tops. I have become ridiculously cheap, but the promise of a real latte, salad, and pizza, some of the things I miss the most was enough to persuade me. The meal was delicious and well worth it. We returned Saturday as well, to recreate the joy the meal brought, and add on some pumpkin soup we hadn’t tried the night before.
Saturday we went to the Masai Market. I picked up some nice souvenirs. I hate buying souvenirs because I always get charged the Mzungu price. I have been here for 6 weeks, so I don’t consider myself a tourist anymore, but it is hard to wash away the whiteness.
We ate lunch on Lake Victoria. A delicious family style Tilapia with Ugali and Suka (greens) and canned tuskers.
We went out that night to Octopus, which ended up to be closer to Green Garden than we imagined, and embarrassingly we road a tuk-tuk for the block that separated the two. It was fun to get out and dance. Although we got a lot of unwanted attention, it was much better than when we went out to Illusions, in Kakamega town, and could not move without people approaching us. There was one other Mzungu in Octopus, which was promising. It was a preparation for the fun of Jinja,Uganda that we have ahead of us. I am used to clubs in San Diego, that provide little entertainment other than half-naked go-go dancers on stages around for all to watch. Entertainment in Kisumu was slightly different. About 1 am, way passed our usual bedtimes, we were cleared off the dance floor for the nightly enterntainment. We had trouble making sense of what was going on, but before we knew it a rasta guy with dredlocks was on the dance floor swallowing fire and jumping through hoops. It was awkward to see this man put a torch on fire down his pants to illustrate his skills, as he must have been in his 40s. It definitely added to the excitement of the whole weekend.
