Hello from Mombasa...part trois!!!
Dear family and friends,
I hope this email finds you in good spirits. I would like to wish you all a happy new year and to those of you who celebrated, a belated khushiali mubarak, merry christmas, and eid mubarak. May you and your families be blessed with a year of spiritual and material happiness, prosperity, peace, love, unity and the opportunity to serve others. Ameen.
I would also like to say thank you to all those who sent emails about their concern during the Tsunami. The coast of Kenya was hit (not much impact around Mombasa) but Somalia was hit much harder. I pray that all of those who were impacted by this tragic natural disaster are blessed with the strength to carry on and cope with this event and quickly begin to rehabilitate their lives. And may the departed souls rest in eternal peace. Ameen.
In this email I will share with you the first part of my december holiday trip around Kenya and Tanzania and some stories of unexpected events.
When I last wrote to you on the afternoon of December 7, 2004 I was leaving for a three day trip to Moshi, Tanzania to attend a sub-regional conference on the introductory workshop to the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Program (MYP) which was being held at the International School of Moshi (ISM). From there I was supposed to go to Nairobi to visit Farouk and Farad, my buddies from the University of Western Ontario who were planning our December holidays. I really had no idea how I was going to spend my holidays. I was just really tired from the first term and wanted to spend some time outside of Mombasa with close friends. What I didn't know was that I was going to be traveling on the road (a fun road trip) for three weeks to see some of Kenya's spectacular wildlife and the beauty of the north (Mt. Kilimanjaro), north-eastern and the eastern coast of Tanzania, including the historical and romantical island of Zanzibar.
Before I begin to recap my holiday experience for you, I must tell you about the incredible experience I had on Thursday January 20, 2005. That evening I left early from school, much earlier than usual. I was tired and just wanted to get home. I left the school from the font gates and walked down the small rugged and unpaved street, just adjacent to the school, to catch a matatu (local transport), as I do every evening. Just as I was about halfway down the street, an African women walking in the opposite direction, suddenly lay down in a supine position and went into labour :O She began to scream and rattle her legs. I was stunned! I immediately observed the area for any help. One lady without delay came to assist the woman in labour. I told the lady to help her breathe (deep and slow breaths) while I went back to school for some assistance. I ran back to school and went directly to the admin office. I could not find anyone in their offices, many had gone home and some were in a meeting. I found a few people and asked them to give a number for the ambulance or police to help a woman who is about to give birth. Judging by their reaction, they had never come across this situation. I tried calling the police, but no response. I was able to round up some women from our school and take them to the scene. By now 15 min has passed and the woman in labour had many spectators, but none really able to do anything. Men from across the street were looking with curiosity at the large group of women huddled around the woman in labour. Now there were about 4 women helping with the delivery. They had found some cardboard box to lay underneath her. The woman, outside in the heat, on a rugged street with only rocks, sand and some grass below, on a wet cardboard box, in agonizing pain finally delivered after 30 min. “Its out, its out” the women shouted. Many were relieved and some were disgusted at the site. I heard the baby cry but immediately it was wrapped up in a cloth. And the new mother lay there exhausted. I was still anxiously trying to find someone to take her to the hospital, but there was no response or anyone near by to do much. I ran to the supermarket at the opposite end of the street to get the new mom some cold water and juice. When I came back after about 5-10 min a car had stopped at the scene and the driver had offered to take the new born and mom to the hospital. I gave the new mom some juice and water and then she was carried into the car. Just then for a few min there was some commotion as the detached umbilical cord could not be found. But at last, it was recovered and given to the mom. So finally after about 45-50 min the new mother and baby with the umbilical cord were on their way to the hospital. I pray that they are both well. This experience was quite extraordinary. It was very sad that we couldn’t get assistance much earlier consequently requiring the mother to deliver her new born in such circumstances. I was told that it is common practice of women in Kenya to deliver children at home with the neighbour’s assistance as the cost of delivery in the hospital is too high. It’s unfortunate that these women don’t have much support. As I was leaving the area, many women showed their appreciation to me by giving me a thumbs up and a smile. I was only doing my part as a fellow human being, I thought to myself.
I am now trying to follow up from the people in the neighbourhood on how the new born and mom are doing.
Now to continue with my holiday story. I was excited about the opportunity I had to go for training in Moshi, Tanzania. My first professional development course as a teacher J
There were three of us from our school who went for this introductory training, the head of the senior school (my boss), Mr. Rod Jarman, the year 7 coordinator and English teacher, Ester Nondi and I. We flew from Mombasa to Moshi (Kilimanjaro International Airport, KIA) via Nairobi. The flight from Nairobi to KIA was on this 18 seater plane (Precision Air) that had only two propeller engines and the cockpit and pilots were visible. There was no need for the pilots to use a mic, just turn around and speak to the passengers. It was similar to the type of plane used by Indiana Jones in the movie, “Raiders of the lost Ark” as he flies to Nepal. I believe we were only flying at an altitude of about 12 000 feet. Therefore many of the small villages, plains and terrain were easily visible. There were many hills and lots of dry land along the way. We landed at KIA, which is half way between Moshi (to the East) and Arusha (to the west). The drive to Moshi was about 45 min (50 km) from the airport. Unfortunately all my pictures of my training in Moshi and visit to Nairobi were deletedL
The conference was being held at the International School of Moshi (ISM). We stayed for two nights at the residence of ISM. It was a fairly large campus that was isolated from Moshi’s traffic or small city, but because of the small size of the town of Moshi it was still easily accessible. The town of Moshi is located at the foot (south) of
Mt. Kilimanjaro, the continent’s highest mountain, approximately 5900 m. It has two major peaks, kibo (the highest) and mwenzi. So early in the morning and on a clear day, Kilimanjaro is visible from many directions. Many mountain climbers and hikers use Moshi as the starting base/point to climb up.
Tanzania is relatively much cheaper than Kenya. The Tanzanian shilling (Tsh) is valued less than the Kenyan shilling (Ksh). One Ksh is worth about 12-13 Tsh. Food in Tanzania is cheaper than Kenya; however, it takes a REALLY long time for them to cook the food in Tanzania. I experienced this in Moshi, Daresalaam and Tanga.
During the conference I was able to try some of the popular local games. One was using a sling shot and some rocks from a distance to hit some empty water bottles hanging off branches of trees. The other game was using a mishedi, sword like knife, to chop branches in half very quickly (repeatedly striking the dense branch until it splits) against another competitor. That was definitely a workout.
The conference that I attended was an introductory workshop on the Middle Years Programme (MYP) offered by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) (www.ibo.org). It is a certificate program that is offered to students completing years 6 to 11. For a school to be certified as an MYP school it usually takes about three years. It is based on the IBO philosophy of student-centered, internationalism, co-operative learning, inquiry based, exploratory, independent research/project and evidence-based pedagogy (methodology), curriculum and learning. It aims to develop life skills required to learn and make informed judgements based on specific criteria. The curriculum can be developed locally, however there is a framework which the IBO provides for each year level in the various subjects. You can read much more about the curriculum from its website. A lot of work done by Pike and Selby on global/peace education is very closely related to the MYP of the IBO. The Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa is thinking about implementing this curriculum. And I am assuming the other schools part of the centres of excellence network will also eventually implement this curriculum.
The last night of our stay in Moshi was at the AMEX lodge. It was the newest hotel in Moshi (it’s not even included in the latest edition of my lonely planet East Africa). It has a very pleasant atmosphere, full use of traditional African décor and also a very clean place. Not to mention tasty food and good portions. The cost per night was $55 US.
On Saturday afternoon, Ester and Rod flew back to Mombasa, while I flew to Nairobi.
I was really excited as now officially my holidays were beginning and I was going to see Farouk and Farad (I had not seen them since the night of August 15, when I first arrived in Kenya, they came to see me at the airport), finally see the “scary” city of Nairobi and spend my Khushiali (festive religious occasion celebrating the birthday of the Aga Khan on Dec 13) in Nairobi, where there is a much significant larger Ismaili community, about 8000 people, as compared to 800 in Mombasa.
The airport in Nairobi is full of activity of all sorts, the people are moving quickly, it’s overcrowded, there are lots of hawkers and people are watching everything. This is very intimidating at the same time you feel the adrenaline rush, especially when we are told of the numerous theft activities that takes place in Nairobi. On the lonely planet website, Nairobi is described as “Nai robbery.” I was text messaging Farouk as I was landing, telling him to make sure he’s their on time. I didn’t want to spend any extra unnecessary time waiting alone. It wasn’t that bad, as long as you are on high alert “the orange colour.” That evening at Parklands Jamatkhana, there was celebration of music and dinner taking place. So obviously there were going to be lots of people, and I was excited to finally see the Ismaili community of Nairobi. And there were people I haven’t seen in years that I met at University in Ontario that had moved back to Nairobi. In the evening I went to the famous Parklands Jamatkhana, which everyone in Toronto and Canada always talk about, sharing their stories as youth. It is a beautiful Jamatkhana. The interior prayer hall is well designed and spacious. It is located in the same area as the Aga Khan Hospital. The social hall of the Jamatkhana has lovely pictures of the Aga Khan during his childhood along with his family members. The social hall then connects to two very large halls, one which has a stage (where the food was served) and another where the band was set up. Then there is another room at the back of the building where food was being cooked fresh by the many volunteers. Throughout the night I met several of my university friends. It’s nice to meet people who are now much more grown up but are genuinely still the same in a good way. As the night of festivities continued, we ate and ate and even played some traditional raas. It was now about 2 AM and the party was just beginning. All of my friends were heading to “Gypsies” the hangout place. Farouk and I had also decided to meet one of our close friends at the airport, to actually surprise her and her boyfriend. They were coming to spend their holiday in Kenya and Tanzania. Their flight was arriving at 5:30 AM so we decided what the heck, to stay up all night.
Gypsies was alright, too much smoking for me. I hadn’t realized how cold Nairobi was, it was about 16-17 degrees celcius at night, I was freeeezing! I had adapted to the Mombasa weather very quickly. I had to wear a few layers of long sleeves.
We finally made it out of Gypsies. We went to the airport at 5:30AM, picked up Nisha and Aish, then went straight to Nisha’s house with her family. We all had lots to talk about and catch up. Aish and Nisha filled us in with the activities that were happening in Toronto. It was nice to hear that everyone in Toronto was doing well. We chatted and chatted, and then it was time for Nisha’s mom to cook her special breakfast for us. By the time Farouk and I were back home, it was 9:30 AM. For me to survive the entire night was something. I am usually in bed by 9:30 PM. When we finally got up, late afternoon, we all decided to go to the village market. A famous Sunday afternoon pass time. It’s a lovely place for eating, listening to live bands and doing some shopping. That evening we went again to Gypsies and also to another restaurant/club across the street, called the pavement. The pavement is a local club with live music. The atmosphere is nice. Not much was happening at the pavement so we came back to Gypsies.
The next day on Monday, December 13, I, Farouk and Farad, and their cousin Feisal, who was visiting from Calgary, along with Aisha, Nisha and her family decided to go to the animal orphanage and the giraffe centre. The animal orphanage (like a zoo) had wart hogs, lions, cheetas, buffalos, ostrichs, monkeys and tortoises. This is the first time I was seeing these animals in Kenya. We then continued are afternoon trip to the Giraffe centre. There were about 5 beautiful giraffes walking around. We were able to also feed the giraffes. I couldn’t believe it, but I actually fed the giraffe (and I am terribly scared of animals); I let it eat these small pellets from the palm of my hand with its LONG and THIN tounge. It drooled all over me….eeeewwwwwhhhhh! The giraffe almost licked my ear…oh god! I can’t believe I lost all these pictures. I hope Nisha and Aish have some pictures from their camera. After spending time with the animals we headed for the famous Diamond Plaza, also known as “Rocket” plaza. It has almost 10-15 restaurants with some south-asian clothing stores. It’s packed all the time. As soon as you find a seat to eat, you are attacked by waiters from all the different restaurants trying to convince you to eat from their menu. The mango juice and chicken chapatti are just great. There are also lots of miskaki sticks, bbq chicken and pieces of fat on sticks for you meat eaters.
The next day, in the morning, Farouk and Feisal had planned a 3-day (dec 14-16) trip to one of the most famous wild animal game parks in the world, Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, located on the south-western corner of Kenya, bordering Tanzania. It is the northern extension of the Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania. I was so excited when they told me that we were going for a game drive. Many tourists come to Kenya just to visit the Mara. It is also the land of the Masai people who have now been displaced around the game park.
Just before we were ready to leave, we went shopping for lots of bottled water, cookies/biscuits, masala sticks, and gum. We got into our large land rover which seats comfortably about 7-8 people. On our way to the Mara, our car was full. We had a Japanese couple, European couple, the three of us, and off-course our knowledgeable driver. Feisal and Farouk had booked the game drive from one of the popular safari companies. It’s very important to have local Kenyan’s with you who can speak Swahili and get you a bargain during these bookings, or else it’s quite expensive.
It was a long 6 hour journey (about 225 km from Nairobi). The initial 2-3 hours was a smooth ride up and down the mountain. On our way down the mountain we stopped at a point that over looks part of the picturesque rift valley with astonishing landscape and fresh air all around. We stopped for lunch at a frequent stop point to the Mara, in the small town of Narok. Here I had to be extra careful of what I ate.
From Narok the rough and bumpy ride to the Mara began. The narrow road made up of rock and sand and many many pot holes made your stomach feel like it was in your mouth. At times, the driver would use the land on the side of the road to travel, as it was softer and smoother. The drive was also an eye opening experience through south-west Kenya as you see the many poor villagers, including many children and their broken down schools, lots of refuse lying around and not much water. But their smiles and hand waving gestures will not be forgotten.
We arrived at the game park by about 6 PM, just in time before the park closes its gates at 6:30 PM. Our driver took us for evening game drive in the chill air as the sun was beginning to set. To see the animals better, you open the roof and everyone stands and off course pulls out their expensive digital cameras and video camcorders. That evening we saw some spectacular animals such as elephants, buffaloes and even a lion. After our drive, we were dropped off at the Mara Sopa Lodge, where we had decided to stay for the two nights. The lodge is one of the best places to stay in the Mara. It had great personnel, food, service and lots of HOT water for an enjoyable shower after a long day.
That evening the Lodge had organized a Masai dance and hyena feeding. We saw the unique Masai dressing and jewelry and their usual high jumping. The hyena feeding occurred every night at 10 PM. One of the workers takes some fresh and left over meat out into the backyard, as the hyenas anxiously wait, and the curious and silent tourists patiently wait for the worker to drop off the food. As soon as the worker drops off the food and walks back, the hyenas sprint to the food. The tourists all oooh and aaahhh, including myself J watching the hyenas clean up their food. You can hear the sounds of them crush through bones with their strong jaws. But as soon as the tourists begin to use flash on their cameras, the hyenas begin to retrieve in fear. Eventually some of the wild small cats and mongoose come by to finish off what is left behind by the hyenas.
The next day we went for whole day game drive. That morning we first were taken to the gates to pay our game park entry fees. Tourists have to pay about 30$ US per day, while residents pay 500 Ksh per day (1 US$ is about 80 Ksh). Fortunately for my work permit, I only had to pay the resident rate. Thanks to Fuki and Feisal for speaking to the authority in Swahili for me. A funny thing happened as we were paying our fees. The person had asked to see me, as I was waiting in the vehicle. I came over, said Jambo politely and waited. After we were issued our tickets, I along with Feisal said “Asante Mama”, meaning thank you mam, but we got a very weird stare. So we quickly got back into the car, and our driver began to laugh as he said the person issuing the tickets was actually a man, and not a woman as Feisal and I thought, whoops! Seriously, the person really looked like a woman wearing a hat. That became our Mara joke “Asante Mama.”
During the exhausting full day game drive we saw a variety of wild animals that included: a leopard turtle, many lions, lionesses, and lion cubs, a cheetah, many hyenas, jackals, mongoose, vultures, giraffes, elephants, marabou-stock bird, superb sterling, wild buffalos, wildebeest, gazelles of many types like the Thompson, grant, impalas and topi, silver back jackals, foxes, shriek bird, masai ostrich, antelope, crown crane, hippos and crocodiles. The experience was incredible.
The next morning, we went for a very early game drive, around 6:30 AM. We were hesitant to go as we were very fatigued. But Farouk managed to convince us. And were we ever thankful as we saw something spectacular. Even our driver had never seen anything like this before. We drove by a lioness that looked very tired, was breathing heavily and had blood stains on her neck. The driver said that the lioness has probably just made a kill. The lionesses usually do the killing and the lions do the eating. So we kept driving head, and what did we see a few metres away, my god, a fresh killed female giraffe. She may have just been killed a few hours ago, during the very early hours of the morning. There we stood a few metres away from the kill. It was a bloody and smelly scene, as the giraffe’s organs had been removed and the blood was oozing out. The giraffe’s tail was cut off and her neck and legs were damaged, which gave us a clue as to how the lionesses brought this large female down. We observed in amazement and went camera happy. I took almost 15 photographs of this scene. Initially there was only one lioness eating the kill, then came a couple more; each of them tearing away at the kill. It was a remarkable sight. This event made our trip. Our driver then radioed the other drivers and made them aware of this, and they quickly rushed over. After a few hours we headed back to our rooms, cleaned up and checked out. It was about 10 AM and we were ready to go back home. The ride home was as rough and lengthy, but this time we had fewer people in the vehicle (more leg room) and we were still in awe from what we had seen.
When we arrived back to Nairobi that evening, we shared with everyone what we had seen during our game drive. But we also didn’t have much time as we had to pack and prepare for our week and a half road trip (December 17 – 25) to Daresalaam, Zanzibar and Mombasa we were about to embark on very early next morning.
Stay tuned for the next email as I will try and describe my experience of Daresalaam and Zanzibar.
I am very sorry about the length of this email; I tend to be very descriptive.
I have taken many pictures of the game drive experience through the Masai mara and have selectively chosen some (was very difficult) and put them up on a website for you to see the beauty of the wildlife through my Cannon lens.
http://photos.yahoo.com/aziztraveling
Description of Pictures:
1. Just an hour or two away from the game park we spotted some giraffe walking around.
2. A typical land rover vehicle with its roof open for the game drive.
3. African buffalo
4. A very lazy lion
5. A beautiful view of the evening sky and landscape of the mara park.
6. A lion rolling over
7. A view of the landscape
8. Lots of gazelles
9. The mara sopa lodge restaurant artifacts used for decoration
10. A masai dance
11. Interesting sign at our lodge
12. Front lobby of our lodge
13. Farouk, Feisal and I in front of the Masai mara park gates.
14. Vultures
15. Tortoise (leopard)
16. Ostrich
17. A topi with its characteristic habit of standing on a high point
18. A very excited elephant with its 5th leg in action. To relieve its excitement the elephant tries to bring down the tree
19. Some monkey business
20. Pumba the warthog
21. African buffalo carcass
22. Young elephant feeding
23. Our game drive lunch prepared by our lodge
24. A family of hippos
25. The popular mara river (we had just missed the crossing by about 2 weeks where the crocodiles patiently wait to catch some wildebeest)
26. Our armed tour guide that showed us the crocodiles and the hippos in the mara river. He was prepared just incase we did something stupid like falling into the river.
27. Spotted hyena
28. Lionesses and their cubes enjoying an afternoon nap
29. A lioness
30. The lion king watching over his harem
31. The spectacular sky
32. Zebra
33. One lioness enjoying the fresh killed female giraffe for a meal
34. Coke kiosk in Nairobi
More pictures Daresalaam and Zanzibar yet to come.
There were some people inquiring earlier about sharing my emails with others. Please do share these emails and pictures if you think it will be valuable to do so.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of you that replied and commented on my previous emails. It’s always touching to read some very warm comments and get an update on how everyone is doing.
Warm regards,
Aziz
p.s. Congratulations to the Canadian Junior Hockey team! To all the Canadians going through this cold season, please be safe when driving around and stay warm. And finally, I would also like to wish all the Iraqi people a safe election.
I hope this email finds you in good spirits. I would like to wish you all a happy new year and to those of you who celebrated, a belated khushiali mubarak, merry christmas, and eid mubarak. May you and your families be blessed with a year of spiritual and material happiness, prosperity, peace, love, unity and the opportunity to serve others. Ameen.
I would also like to say thank you to all those who sent emails about their concern during the Tsunami. The coast of Kenya was hit (not much impact around Mombasa) but Somalia was hit much harder. I pray that all of those who were impacted by this tragic natural disaster are blessed with the strength to carry on and cope with this event and quickly begin to rehabilitate their lives. And may the departed souls rest in eternal peace. Ameen.
In this email I will share with you the first part of my december holiday trip around Kenya and Tanzania and some stories of unexpected events.
When I last wrote to you on the afternoon of December 7, 2004 I was leaving for a three day trip to Moshi, Tanzania to attend a sub-regional conference on the introductory workshop to the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Program (MYP) which was being held at the International School of Moshi (ISM). From there I was supposed to go to Nairobi to visit Farouk and Farad, my buddies from the University of Western Ontario who were planning our December holidays. I really had no idea how I was going to spend my holidays. I was just really tired from the first term and wanted to spend some time outside of Mombasa with close friends. What I didn't know was that I was going to be traveling on the road (a fun road trip) for three weeks to see some of Kenya's spectacular wildlife and the beauty of the north (Mt. Kilimanjaro), north-eastern and the eastern coast of Tanzania, including the historical and romantical island of Zanzibar.
Before I begin to recap my holiday experience for you, I must tell you about the incredible experience I had on Thursday January 20, 2005. That evening I left early from school, much earlier than usual. I was tired and just wanted to get home. I left the school from the font gates and walked down the small rugged and unpaved street, just adjacent to the school, to catch a matatu (local transport), as I do every evening. Just as I was about halfway down the street, an African women walking in the opposite direction, suddenly lay down in a supine position and went into labour :O She began to scream and rattle her legs. I was stunned! I immediately observed the area for any help. One lady without delay came to assist the woman in labour. I told the lady to help her breathe (deep and slow breaths) while I went back to school for some assistance. I ran back to school and went directly to the admin office. I could not find anyone in their offices, many had gone home and some were in a meeting. I found a few people and asked them to give a number for the ambulance or police to help a woman who is about to give birth. Judging by their reaction, they had never come across this situation. I tried calling the police, but no response. I was able to round up some women from our school and take them to the scene. By now 15 min has passed and the woman in labour had many spectators, but none really able to do anything. Men from across the street were looking with curiosity at the large group of women huddled around the woman in labour. Now there were about 4 women helping with the delivery. They had found some cardboard box to lay underneath her. The woman, outside in the heat, on a rugged street with only rocks, sand and some grass below, on a wet cardboard box, in agonizing pain finally delivered after 30 min. “Its out, its out” the women shouted. Many were relieved and some were disgusted at the site. I heard the baby cry but immediately it was wrapped up in a cloth. And the new mother lay there exhausted. I was still anxiously trying to find someone to take her to the hospital, but there was no response or anyone near by to do much. I ran to the supermarket at the opposite end of the street to get the new mom some cold water and juice. When I came back after about 5-10 min a car had stopped at the scene and the driver had offered to take the new born and mom to the hospital. I gave the new mom some juice and water and then she was carried into the car. Just then for a few min there was some commotion as the detached umbilical cord could not be found. But at last, it was recovered and given to the mom. So finally after about 45-50 min the new mother and baby with the umbilical cord were on their way to the hospital. I pray that they are both well. This experience was quite extraordinary. It was very sad that we couldn’t get assistance much earlier consequently requiring the mother to deliver her new born in such circumstances. I was told that it is common practice of women in Kenya to deliver children at home with the neighbour’s assistance as the cost of delivery in the hospital is too high. It’s unfortunate that these women don’t have much support. As I was leaving the area, many women showed their appreciation to me by giving me a thumbs up and a smile. I was only doing my part as a fellow human being, I thought to myself.
I am now trying to follow up from the people in the neighbourhood on how the new born and mom are doing.
Now to continue with my holiday story. I was excited about the opportunity I had to go for training in Moshi, Tanzania. My first professional development course as a teacher J
There were three of us from our school who went for this introductory training, the head of the senior school (my boss), Mr. Rod Jarman, the year 7 coordinator and English teacher, Ester Nondi and I. We flew from Mombasa to Moshi (Kilimanjaro International Airport, KIA) via Nairobi. The flight from Nairobi to KIA was on this 18 seater plane (Precision Air) that had only two propeller engines and the cockpit and pilots were visible. There was no need for the pilots to use a mic, just turn around and speak to the passengers. It was similar to the type of plane used by Indiana Jones in the movie, “Raiders of the lost Ark” as he flies to Nepal. I believe we were only flying at an altitude of about 12 000 feet. Therefore many of the small villages, plains and terrain were easily visible. There were many hills and lots of dry land along the way. We landed at KIA, which is half way between Moshi (to the East) and Arusha (to the west). The drive to Moshi was about 45 min (50 km) from the airport. Unfortunately all my pictures of my training in Moshi and visit to Nairobi were deletedL
The conference was being held at the International School of Moshi (ISM). We stayed for two nights at the residence of ISM. It was a fairly large campus that was isolated from Moshi’s traffic or small city, but because of the small size of the town of Moshi it was still easily accessible. The town of Moshi is located at the foot (south) of
Mt. Kilimanjaro, the continent’s highest mountain, approximately 5900 m. It has two major peaks, kibo (the highest) and mwenzi. So early in the morning and on a clear day, Kilimanjaro is visible from many directions. Many mountain climbers and hikers use Moshi as the starting base/point to climb up.
Tanzania is relatively much cheaper than Kenya. The Tanzanian shilling (Tsh) is valued less than the Kenyan shilling (Ksh). One Ksh is worth about 12-13 Tsh. Food in Tanzania is cheaper than Kenya; however, it takes a REALLY long time for them to cook the food in Tanzania. I experienced this in Moshi, Daresalaam and Tanga.
During the conference I was able to try some of the popular local games. One was using a sling shot and some rocks from a distance to hit some empty water bottles hanging off branches of trees. The other game was using a mishedi, sword like knife, to chop branches in half very quickly (repeatedly striking the dense branch until it splits) against another competitor. That was definitely a workout.
The conference that I attended was an introductory workshop on the Middle Years Programme (MYP) offered by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) (www.ibo.org). It is a certificate program that is offered to students completing years 6 to 11. For a school to be certified as an MYP school it usually takes about three years. It is based on the IBO philosophy of student-centered, internationalism, co-operative learning, inquiry based, exploratory, independent research/project and evidence-based pedagogy (methodology), curriculum and learning. It aims to develop life skills required to learn and make informed judgements based on specific criteria. The curriculum can be developed locally, however there is a framework which the IBO provides for each year level in the various subjects. You can read much more about the curriculum from its website. A lot of work done by Pike and Selby on global/peace education is very closely related to the MYP of the IBO. The Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa is thinking about implementing this curriculum. And I am assuming the other schools part of the centres of excellence network will also eventually implement this curriculum.
The last night of our stay in Moshi was at the AMEX lodge. It was the newest hotel in Moshi (it’s not even included in the latest edition of my lonely planet East Africa). It has a very pleasant atmosphere, full use of traditional African décor and also a very clean place. Not to mention tasty food and good portions. The cost per night was $55 US.
On Saturday afternoon, Ester and Rod flew back to Mombasa, while I flew to Nairobi.
I was really excited as now officially my holidays were beginning and I was going to see Farouk and Farad (I had not seen them since the night of August 15, when I first arrived in Kenya, they came to see me at the airport), finally see the “scary” city of Nairobi and spend my Khushiali (festive religious occasion celebrating the birthday of the Aga Khan on Dec 13) in Nairobi, where there is a much significant larger Ismaili community, about 8000 people, as compared to 800 in Mombasa.
The airport in Nairobi is full of activity of all sorts, the people are moving quickly, it’s overcrowded, there are lots of hawkers and people are watching everything. This is very intimidating at the same time you feel the adrenaline rush, especially when we are told of the numerous theft activities that takes place in Nairobi. On the lonely planet website, Nairobi is described as “Nai robbery.” I was text messaging Farouk as I was landing, telling him to make sure he’s their on time. I didn’t want to spend any extra unnecessary time waiting alone. It wasn’t that bad, as long as you are on high alert “the orange colour.” That evening at Parklands Jamatkhana, there was celebration of music and dinner taking place. So obviously there were going to be lots of people, and I was excited to finally see the Ismaili community of Nairobi. And there were people I haven’t seen in years that I met at University in Ontario that had moved back to Nairobi. In the evening I went to the famous Parklands Jamatkhana, which everyone in Toronto and Canada always talk about, sharing their stories as youth. It is a beautiful Jamatkhana. The interior prayer hall is well designed and spacious. It is located in the same area as the Aga Khan Hospital. The social hall of the Jamatkhana has lovely pictures of the Aga Khan during his childhood along with his family members. The social hall then connects to two very large halls, one which has a stage (where the food was served) and another where the band was set up. Then there is another room at the back of the building where food was being cooked fresh by the many volunteers. Throughout the night I met several of my university friends. It’s nice to meet people who are now much more grown up but are genuinely still the same in a good way. As the night of festivities continued, we ate and ate and even played some traditional raas. It was now about 2 AM and the party was just beginning. All of my friends were heading to “Gypsies” the hangout place. Farouk and I had also decided to meet one of our close friends at the airport, to actually surprise her and her boyfriend. They were coming to spend their holiday in Kenya and Tanzania. Their flight was arriving at 5:30 AM so we decided what the heck, to stay up all night.
Gypsies was alright, too much smoking for me. I hadn’t realized how cold Nairobi was, it was about 16-17 degrees celcius at night, I was freeeezing! I had adapted to the Mombasa weather very quickly. I had to wear a few layers of long sleeves.
We finally made it out of Gypsies. We went to the airport at 5:30AM, picked up Nisha and Aish, then went straight to Nisha’s house with her family. We all had lots to talk about and catch up. Aish and Nisha filled us in with the activities that were happening in Toronto. It was nice to hear that everyone in Toronto was doing well. We chatted and chatted, and then it was time for Nisha’s mom to cook her special breakfast for us. By the time Farouk and I were back home, it was 9:30 AM. For me to survive the entire night was something. I am usually in bed by 9:30 PM. When we finally got up, late afternoon, we all decided to go to the village market. A famous Sunday afternoon pass time. It’s a lovely place for eating, listening to live bands and doing some shopping. That evening we went again to Gypsies and also to another restaurant/club across the street, called the pavement. The pavement is a local club with live music. The atmosphere is nice. Not much was happening at the pavement so we came back to Gypsies.
The next day on Monday, December 13, I, Farouk and Farad, and their cousin Feisal, who was visiting from Calgary, along with Aisha, Nisha and her family decided to go to the animal orphanage and the giraffe centre. The animal orphanage (like a zoo) had wart hogs, lions, cheetas, buffalos, ostrichs, monkeys and tortoises. This is the first time I was seeing these animals in Kenya. We then continued are afternoon trip to the Giraffe centre. There were about 5 beautiful giraffes walking around. We were able to also feed the giraffes. I couldn’t believe it, but I actually fed the giraffe (and I am terribly scared of animals); I let it eat these small pellets from the palm of my hand with its LONG and THIN tounge. It drooled all over me….eeeewwwwwhhhhh! The giraffe almost licked my ear…oh god! I can’t believe I lost all these pictures. I hope Nisha and Aish have some pictures from their camera. After spending time with the animals we headed for the famous Diamond Plaza, also known as “Rocket” plaza. It has almost 10-15 restaurants with some south-asian clothing stores. It’s packed all the time. As soon as you find a seat to eat, you are attacked by waiters from all the different restaurants trying to convince you to eat from their menu. The mango juice and chicken chapatti are just great. There are also lots of miskaki sticks, bbq chicken and pieces of fat on sticks for you meat eaters.
The next day, in the morning, Farouk and Feisal had planned a 3-day (dec 14-16) trip to one of the most famous wild animal game parks in the world, Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, located on the south-western corner of Kenya, bordering Tanzania. It is the northern extension of the Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania. I was so excited when they told me that we were going for a game drive. Many tourists come to Kenya just to visit the Mara. It is also the land of the Masai people who have now been displaced around the game park.
Just before we were ready to leave, we went shopping for lots of bottled water, cookies/biscuits, masala sticks, and gum. We got into our large land rover which seats comfortably about 7-8 people. On our way to the Mara, our car was full. We had a Japanese couple, European couple, the three of us, and off-course our knowledgeable driver. Feisal and Farouk had booked the game drive from one of the popular safari companies. It’s very important to have local Kenyan’s with you who can speak Swahili and get you a bargain during these bookings, or else it’s quite expensive.
It was a long 6 hour journey (about 225 km from Nairobi). The initial 2-3 hours was a smooth ride up and down the mountain. On our way down the mountain we stopped at a point that over looks part of the picturesque rift valley with astonishing landscape and fresh air all around. We stopped for lunch at a frequent stop point to the Mara, in the small town of Narok. Here I had to be extra careful of what I ate.
From Narok the rough and bumpy ride to the Mara began. The narrow road made up of rock and sand and many many pot holes made your stomach feel like it was in your mouth. At times, the driver would use the land on the side of the road to travel, as it was softer and smoother. The drive was also an eye opening experience through south-west Kenya as you see the many poor villagers, including many children and their broken down schools, lots of refuse lying around and not much water. But their smiles and hand waving gestures will not be forgotten.
We arrived at the game park by about 6 PM, just in time before the park closes its gates at 6:30 PM. Our driver took us for evening game drive in the chill air as the sun was beginning to set. To see the animals better, you open the roof and everyone stands and off course pulls out their expensive digital cameras and video camcorders. That evening we saw some spectacular animals such as elephants, buffaloes and even a lion. After our drive, we were dropped off at the Mara Sopa Lodge, where we had decided to stay for the two nights. The lodge is one of the best places to stay in the Mara. It had great personnel, food, service and lots of HOT water for an enjoyable shower after a long day.
That evening the Lodge had organized a Masai dance and hyena feeding. We saw the unique Masai dressing and jewelry and their usual high jumping. The hyena feeding occurred every night at 10 PM. One of the workers takes some fresh and left over meat out into the backyard, as the hyenas anxiously wait, and the curious and silent tourists patiently wait for the worker to drop off the food. As soon as the worker drops off the food and walks back, the hyenas sprint to the food. The tourists all oooh and aaahhh, including myself J watching the hyenas clean up their food. You can hear the sounds of them crush through bones with their strong jaws. But as soon as the tourists begin to use flash on their cameras, the hyenas begin to retrieve in fear. Eventually some of the wild small cats and mongoose come by to finish off what is left behind by the hyenas.
The next day we went for whole day game drive. That morning we first were taken to the gates to pay our game park entry fees. Tourists have to pay about 30$ US per day, while residents pay 500 Ksh per day (1 US$ is about 80 Ksh). Fortunately for my work permit, I only had to pay the resident rate. Thanks to Fuki and Feisal for speaking to the authority in Swahili for me. A funny thing happened as we were paying our fees. The person had asked to see me, as I was waiting in the vehicle. I came over, said Jambo politely and waited. After we were issued our tickets, I along with Feisal said “Asante Mama”, meaning thank you mam, but we got a very weird stare. So we quickly got back into the car, and our driver began to laugh as he said the person issuing the tickets was actually a man, and not a woman as Feisal and I thought, whoops! Seriously, the person really looked like a woman wearing a hat. That became our Mara joke “Asante Mama.”
During the exhausting full day game drive we saw a variety of wild animals that included: a leopard turtle, many lions, lionesses, and lion cubs, a cheetah, many hyenas, jackals, mongoose, vultures, giraffes, elephants, marabou-stock bird, superb sterling, wild buffalos, wildebeest, gazelles of many types like the Thompson, grant, impalas and topi, silver back jackals, foxes, shriek bird, masai ostrich, antelope, crown crane, hippos and crocodiles. The experience was incredible.
The next morning, we went for a very early game drive, around 6:30 AM. We were hesitant to go as we were very fatigued. But Farouk managed to convince us. And were we ever thankful as we saw something spectacular. Even our driver had never seen anything like this before. We drove by a lioness that looked very tired, was breathing heavily and had blood stains on her neck. The driver said that the lioness has probably just made a kill. The lionesses usually do the killing and the lions do the eating. So we kept driving head, and what did we see a few metres away, my god, a fresh killed female giraffe. She may have just been killed a few hours ago, during the very early hours of the morning. There we stood a few metres away from the kill. It was a bloody and smelly scene, as the giraffe’s organs had been removed and the blood was oozing out. The giraffe’s tail was cut off and her neck and legs were damaged, which gave us a clue as to how the lionesses brought this large female down. We observed in amazement and went camera happy. I took almost 15 photographs of this scene. Initially there was only one lioness eating the kill, then came a couple more; each of them tearing away at the kill. It was a remarkable sight. This event made our trip. Our driver then radioed the other drivers and made them aware of this, and they quickly rushed over. After a few hours we headed back to our rooms, cleaned up and checked out. It was about 10 AM and we were ready to go back home. The ride home was as rough and lengthy, but this time we had fewer people in the vehicle (more leg room) and we were still in awe from what we had seen.
When we arrived back to Nairobi that evening, we shared with everyone what we had seen during our game drive. But we also didn’t have much time as we had to pack and prepare for our week and a half road trip (December 17 – 25) to Daresalaam, Zanzibar and Mombasa we were about to embark on very early next morning.
Stay tuned for the next email as I will try and describe my experience of Daresalaam and Zanzibar.
I am very sorry about the length of this email; I tend to be very descriptive.
I have taken many pictures of the game drive experience through the Masai mara and have selectively chosen some (was very difficult) and put them up on a website for you to see the beauty of the wildlife through my Cannon lens.
http://photos.yahoo.com/aziztraveling
Description of Pictures:
1. Just an hour or two away from the game park we spotted some giraffe walking around.
2. A typical land rover vehicle with its roof open for the game drive.
3. African buffalo
4. A very lazy lion
5. A beautiful view of the evening sky and landscape of the mara park.
6. A lion rolling over
7. A view of the landscape
8. Lots of gazelles
9. The mara sopa lodge restaurant artifacts used for decoration
10. A masai dance
11. Interesting sign at our lodge
12. Front lobby of our lodge
13. Farouk, Feisal and I in front of the Masai mara park gates.
14. Vultures
15. Tortoise (leopard)
16. Ostrich
17. A topi with its characteristic habit of standing on a high point
18. A very excited elephant with its 5th leg in action. To relieve its excitement the elephant tries to bring down the tree
19. Some monkey business
20. Pumba the warthog
21. African buffalo carcass
22. Young elephant feeding
23. Our game drive lunch prepared by our lodge
24. A family of hippos
25. The popular mara river (we had just missed the crossing by about 2 weeks where the crocodiles patiently wait to catch some wildebeest)
26. Our armed tour guide that showed us the crocodiles and the hippos in the mara river. He was prepared just incase we did something stupid like falling into the river.
27. Spotted hyena
28. Lionesses and their cubes enjoying an afternoon nap
29. A lioness
30. The lion king watching over his harem
31. The spectacular sky
32. Zebra
33. One lioness enjoying the fresh killed female giraffe for a meal
34. Coke kiosk in Nairobi
More pictures Daresalaam and Zanzibar yet to come.
There were some people inquiring earlier about sharing my emails with others. Please do share these emails and pictures if you think it will be valuable to do so.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of you that replied and commented on my previous emails. It’s always touching to read some very warm comments and get an update on how everyone is doing.
Warm regards,
Aziz
p.s. Congratulations to the Canadian Junior Hockey team! To all the Canadians going through this cold season, please be safe when driving around and stay warm. And finally, I would also like to wish all the Iraqi people a safe election.
posted by Batada's Traveling Adventures... at 3:12 PM
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