It was really interesting to be there during the elections, where I saw for the first time just how important an election can be... Kenya regularly has 80% voter turn out, and is still quite new to the whole democracy thing (as we have now sadly seen). Unlike Western democracies, voting in the right candidate will have a direct impact on your quality of life -- if you vote in a corrupt MP or president, your village might not get a water bore, or school.
Our safari drivers and the tour guide spent a lot of time explaining the electoral process to us, and the different tribal alliances that complicate voting. Still, it was definitely eye opening to return to Nairobi the same day that President Kibaki had himself quickly sworn in. We were told to remain in the hotel because it was too dangerous to go out. Our drivers were particular anxious to drop us off and get home to their families, because most were of Kikuyu tribe, who have now been facing reprisals.
It's been heartwrenching to hear about the violence happening in that country now, and I hope that everyone we met on our incredible trip is safe with their families.
In defiance of the usual Amy-Andrew camera debacles, we brought it with us, kept it charged and never even dropped it! We took 250 photos, which is a staggering amount to us, but was NOTHING compared to what most people took -- one couple had hit 300 on their first day!
The next few blog posts will be of the photos we took. The ones below are from our first day in Nairobi. We were exhausted, jet-lagged and a tiny bit freaked at our first visit to a third world country. We ended up doing some very very touristy things, including visiting a "safari walk" which is a glorified zoo. Here are our photos from that:
A pygmy hippo. It sweats red, which you can sort of see glistening on his tiny, adorable nose.
Our zookeeper-guide person let us into the cheetah compound and encouraged us to pose with the big cat. He promised that it was thoroughly tame (they'd raised it from the time it was two months old). Still, I was extremely leery about the whole thing.
I kept envisioning the headline: "Idiot tourists go into a cheetah compound and get mauled by animal." I think you can read my misgivings in my face...
Andrew was more comfortable, except when the cat rolled over him. Yikes!
It was all worth it for this shot, though.
The zoo keeper said that they exercise the cheetah (and themselves) by tying a tennis ball to a piece of string and RUNNING through the park, with the cheetah chasing them... Crazy exercise regimes like that might explain why Kenyans are such renowned runners.
On our first night in Nairobi we met the group we were going to be traveling with. A bunch of us went out to this famous Nairobi restaurant that serves tourists and locals alike. It's called "Carnivore" and they serve huge amounts of meat on giant skewers. It's like a buffet, except you don't even get the exercise of walking to the table. Instead, they come to you with this mounds of meat. One man was carrying a whole turkey on the skewer, which he sliced off with an extremely sharp knife.
The next day we left for our camping safari, so stay tuned to the blog for more pics...
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