Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Culture Shock: Just the Beginning

Before I get into describing the next phase of our trip, I wanted to comment on something I found simply incredible even before we reached any of our destinations: Customs! Based on childhood experience crossing the border into Canada or flying to Thailand/Australia, etc., I was led to believe that getting through immigration is an immense pain. Now, I have developed a new theory: American immigration is an immense pain! We went through Korean, UAE, Kenyan, and Tanzanian customs 8 times, and the total amount of time we spent talking to the officers was about 12 minutes (although we did have some difficulty in Tanzania, but that's a different story).

Anyway, when we arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport feeling dirty, tired, and a little sick to our stomachs, we spotted Maurice waiting for us directly by the exit. Receiving his warm welcome hug and seeing his bright white smile instantly lightened our mood. Knowing that he was there to guide us lifted a huge burden and stress from our shoulders.

We threw our luggage in the “boot” of the rickety rental car Maurice's friend had rented for us. Anna originally wrote “kindly rented,” but I changed it. Not because it wasn't kind of him to help us and Maurice out, but more because of the hardship it caused Maurice. When we opened the boot of the car, we realized it was held closed by a length of wire. At first, I didn't think much of this...

I think it is telling about what state we were in when, about 50 meters out of the airport parking lot, Maurice said, “Oh hey look, there's an Elephant,” and both Anna and I responded with “WHERE?!?” There was no Elephant. It was a sculpture on the side of the road. Maurice got a pretty good laugh out of that one, and I felt significantly like my gullible younger sister Stacey.

Anyway, first impressions: well, if you ever decide to go to Kenya, and you arrive after dark and have to drive any sort of distance, DO NOT base your first impressions on that drive! The combination of our circumstances did not create in me a stable state of mind.

Circumstance 1: It was night time. In Kenya there are few, if any streetlights, to which I am apparently too accustomed.

Circumstance 2: Kenya, particularly Nairobi, has earned itself a less then glowing reputation. Please see http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_923.html It's very interesting, and this article in particular influenced our outlook on the trip.

Notice the date: 12/28/2010. Less then one month before we arrived.

Circumstance 3: There were people everywhere! Pedestrians commonly walked in front of, beside, or behind moving cars in congested traffic while yelling at Maurice to fix his boot.

Circumstance 4: We didn't know what a Matatu was. Basically, they are shared taxis (in the form of a Nissan mini-bus) that really have no rules of the road to follow. The goal of Matatu operators is to cram as many people as possible into the vehicle as quickly as possible. It is not uncommon to fit almost 30 people into a space that, in America, would be designed for 8-10 people. There are known Matatu stops, at which point the Matatu's tend to swell out into traffic as they park anywhere to get people in their bus.

Circumstance 5: The traffic was intense.

Circumstance 6: The roads in Kenya are in terrible condition. If they are paved, they are littered with potholes. It is routine for cars to simply drive off the road to avoid the massive holes in the ground. Fortunately, the government has recognized this as a problem on at least one road, and has started to remedy it. That road happened to be the one to Maurice's house, and the remedy happened to include shutting down huge sections of pavement and redirecting traffic onto windy dirt bypasses. Also, the most common enforcers of traffic laws in Kenya are the enormous speed bumps.

So hopefully you can draw a picture of the situation in your mind using this information. After 25 hours of traveling, with approximately 9 hours of sleep between the 2 of us, we were bouncing along a windy road with no light but the headlights of oncoming traffic, surrounded by crowds of Matatu's and pedestrians who, at this point, we considered perfectly capable of taking our luggage out of the unlatched boot which bounced open higher and shut harder with every pothole and speed bump. I swear there were a few times I didn't know if we would survive that car ride. I'm sure I was completely disoriented, but it seemed like cars were driving straight at us and veering away at the last second.

Luckily, Maurice knew what he was doing. After about 1:30 of this, we picked up his brother and arrived safely at his parents house (thank you Jesus!).



Maurice's parents have a nice place in the country, far away from the crowds we drove through. We couldn't see much of the surrounding area, but the stars captured our attention immediately. It's hard to remember how many stars there actually are when you live in Korea, but Kenya doesn't have that problem.



Finally arriving at their house was a great relief: we were fed an excellent meal of Nyama Choma (goat ribs), Ugali (boiled flour and water), Chapati (flat bread), Mboga (cabbage), and Karanga (beef). It was great. We were served in the family room, the only room in the house with a light bulb. There was enough seating for about 15 people, which is good because so many of their neighbors wanted to come greet us.



We felt very welcomed, but we were excited to get cleaned up and go to sleep! There was no running water, so Maurice's sister Winny heated some water for us to sponge bath ourselves. Before nodding off, we commented to each other that the lack of electricity, running water, and outdoor pit latrine for a toilet gave it the feeling of camping, albeit with a bed and four walls. With that mindset, we slept soundly.

Seth


1 comment:

  1. Hey Seth,
    Good to hear you and Anna are well. When Nana and Grandad first heard that you were about to go to Korea they were very excited to tell us. Hope that the rest of your trip goes well. God bless!

    The Crocodile Hunter(you used to call me that)

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