From Finland to Great Rift Valley

Video

Earlier this week

Today we spent almost the entire day in the matatu (our minibus) traveling to a small town called Wundanyi, located at Taita hills, which is going to be our home during the following 5 days. We saw a few giraffes and also an elephant on the way! (although they were FAR away..)

When we finally arrived to Taita hills we ate the best dinner so far, yummy! Then the girls showered and the boys decided to go to the sauna (it was a finnish Harvia sauna). Funny they have a sauna in kenya, when it's about 30-35°C outside during the day. Although we already experienced a Kenyan sauna in the matatu, it was very very hot and we were all sweating.

Yesterday we had to wake up at 6:00 o'clock at the morning, we ate breakfast and then headed out for Icipe insect research center. Ken, our guide, thought the journey would take about 2 hrs, but it only took 40 minutes. As you see the traffic in Nairobi (an probably all of Africa and Kenya) is very unpredictable, you never know what's going to happen. At Icipe we met a finnish researcher Tino Johansson who explained what they do and what it is like to live in Nairobi. Then we listened to about 10 different researchers with different expertise, it was pretty interesting but also very exhausting and we had problems staying awake at the end. After we had eaten at Icipe we headed for Paradise Lost, a huge coffee plantage. We saw how they grow and prepare coffee. There were also many mango and avocado trees at the farm. Afterwards we had the opportunity to buy some freshly roasted coffee we went to see the stone aged cave. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO cool, we felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. There was a waterfall covering the entrance off the cave and the tree roots were hanging down the cliffs. It was very exotic and beautiful for us Finns, because naturally we don't have anything a like in Finland.

The farm had signs that promised there would be ostriches and camels. Although there only was one old and UGLY camel, which in the end escaped from it's cage.

When we arrived back to Scriptura Mission we ate dinner and had a evening discussion session.

At the moment we (Mati, Tupu, Wille, Mari, Anni, Saara and me, Emma) are sitting outside one of the dormitories, listening to music, writing the blog and chatting with each other. So far we have all enjoyed our trip very much, hope it only gets better!

We had network difficulties last night so we couldn't upload the text..

A quick tip

Here is a tip if You decide to travel to Kenya. It is important to know about local marketing. It is always "necessary" to bargain (except in supermarket etc. of course). The seller/stand owner can even be insulted if you don't bargain at all and just leave the stand because of the high prices. Of course the seller will be happy if you pay the price he/she asks, but be ready to pay the price you offer. It is said that the reasonable price is the third from the original price. Still we have an self exprience for barging the price much lower. Onneli and Kiia bought wooden giraffes couple days ago. The original price was 5000 Kenyas shillings and they managed bargain the price to 1000 shillings.

The post about yesterday and today is coming later, stay tuned!

Susanna

Hakuna matata

Jambo!

Today arrived the second group early at the morning. After their arrival we left to Great Rift Valley. The landscape was beautiful! Soon after those amazing scenes we went to Hells Gate National park. We had so much fun! We saw zebras, antilopes, giraffes, buffalos and PUMBAs!

At Hells Gate first we went by our bus (first picture) a while. Then we walked several kilometres in caves, canions and streams! We have never climbed that much! That was so POA(=cool (in Swahili) and exiting but still so hard and a bit scary, too.

We have a permanent guide here during the whole trip, Ken. But today we had also an other guide. A little local boy, Simon about 9 years old. When we were climbing down a hard cliff, Susanna was stuck in the middle of the rocks. Few second later somebody grapped her hand and helped her down. When Susanna saw who was helping her she bursted in laughter. An 9-year-old boy helped an 17-year-old girl down the cliff!

When we were on our way to Scriptura Mission (the dormitory) to eat (last meal we ate was breakfast at 8 o'clock!). En route we were stuck in a traffic. Our guide found out that it was going to take a while if we stay and wait. So our teachers and the guide decided to change the road to another. Because of that we were about 2 hours later in Scriptura and we got our food (rise, chicken and boiled vegetables) only until after nine. And the food was cold already! Yack!

Now we have to go to sleep. Tomorrow everybody have to wake up 6.30! Bye bye and good night!

Susanna and Onneli

Jambo Kenya!

Finally we  have arrived to Kenya! We were pleased to see that everything went so smoothly and we made it with out any problems. Our flight from Amsterdam was on time and we even got ice-cream!

We spend our first night at a hotel in Amsterdam. After an exhausting flight from Helsinki we decided to pick up some fast food from the nearest McDonalts.. which turned out to be a little bit harder than we thought.. From our point of view Saara ordered banana milkshake, however, after a while she was given a huge bacon cheese  burger!! Probably the lacking factor is Saara's english knowledge since she got water instead of coke on the plane...

At the moment we are sitting in a lounge of our first accomidation, Scripture mission. We  were suprised by the quality of this place. We even have our own showers and decent bathrooms. Eventhough it's almost 11.30pm, the outside temperature is around 20 degrees ( 68 F ).

Tomorrow the rest of our group will arrive here and we are going to visit the Great Rift Valley! It's going to be wicked!! We'll add up some pictures later on.. stay tuned...


Mari, Saara and Anni

goodbye Finland

Snow. We are still at the airport sitting in the plane and waiting the staff to clean up the runway since there is so much snow on it. Quite ironic that snow can cause problems here in Helsinki conserening that we have it for like 3-4 months per year, huh?

However, that's just a tiny problem because we are so excited about our trip! It was great to be able to pack all the summer clothes that we haven't seen for like 6 months. Hopefully the clothes still fit on us after all the eating at Christmas.

The next night we are going to spend in Amsterdam and our connecting flight takes off around 11am. This gives us an opportunity to enjoy our last (probably) shower. We have also more time to study Swahili.

Tomorrow the dream comes true!

Mari & Saara