No elephants yet

So I’m in Kisumu, in south west Kenya, on the north east shore of Lake Victoria. It’s gorgeous here, locals tell me this is the cold part of the year but for us it’s like a pleasant summer day back home. We’ve spent the last few days in the town of Ugunja, about two hours by local public transport, where our friends have been living and working for the past five months. It’s been great to meet the people they’ve gotten to know, and Shannon and I are sure this will be the most memorable part of our trip. Nevertheless, we’re leaving today for a three day safari in Masai Mara park, after which we’ll spend a day or so in Nairobi before heading south to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Africa has been great so far; it’s interesting to compare it to other places I’ve travelled. In general, there seems to be less developed infrastructure (paved roads, electricity, telephones, health clinics) than in India, which in turn had noticibly less than in Central America. The people we’ve met have been wonderfully friendly and (to generalize wildly) are far more likely to laugh at a situation than get annoyed, with respect to most Canadians I’ve known. It’s inspiring for me!

We’ve been having fun taking photos but don’t have time to sort and upload them here — you can read lots about Sarah and Julian’s time in Kenya and the community development organization they were placed with on their blog. They have lots of photos, too.

I forgot to set up web mail access to my home computer before leaving. I’m not planning to spend that much time in internet cafes, however. You’ll have to wait until I get home for more stories.

Alright, time to go meet our driver. More stories to come…