African Skies

So my friends, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me! I have not had access to communication!
where am I and what am i doing you might ask, well....

So I had the option to transfer to another country right away, but after exploring the options availible, none of them fit me well, so I decided to cash in my very expensive one-way ticket home, find a cheaper ticket and use the extra money to travel! :) Sorry, couldn't help myself!

So since we've last spoken, I made my way to the beautiful lands of Uganda. Five of us made the adventurous bus trip on a large, leaky, cold bus (thrid world baby!), through the sketchy Ugandan boarder at 3:00 a.m. with lots of guns and men--use your imagination--it was fun! However as the sun rose, it revealed a beautiful country,lush, rich, kind wonderful people with welcoming hearts. As we got out of the bus yet again for one of those ridiculous bus searches, a beautiful, full grow male baboon just walked right up to us, said hi, and went on his way! yeah, the locals kind of laughed at how excited we were--couldn't help it.

Cute little monkeys played on the roof of our hostel as we dropped off our bags and headed for our rafting trip on the Nile! Those of you who may not be familiar with rafting lingo, the rapids go from class 1-6, 1=your bathtub and 6=death. The Nile river is the largest commercial rafting river for class fives baby--you just play with death! ;)
IT WAS AMAZING!!!! We navigated the river and then it navigated us--our raft flipped twice, people were constantly thrown out, I chipped a tooth going down a waterfall! They asked me if I wanted to stoip rafting--HA! Bring it on baby, 100% BadAss! :) You can't even see it when I smile--I'll worry about that later! It was Incredible! We jumped out of the raft and just swam down the Nile, rich, green forests surrounded us, African Fisher Eagles flew overhead, two little boys rowed past in a dug-out canoe, the sound of calm flowing waters--I lost track of how many times I pinched myslef!

We braved the bus yet again back to Kenya. I found it amusing that we have to sign our lives away for the rafting trip but not the deadly bus rides. Our driver thought nothing of driving a HUGE bus over 85 mph, twisting and turning over small bad roads, then it rained--did he slow down?? Why should he! Then the crazy bastard decided to hit a speed bump at roughly 65 mph!!!!! Were we sitting in the back row? oh yes! did we go flying through the air?? oh yes! so much so that we all slammed out heads on the ROOF OF THE BUS!!! Projectile pinapples and bananas went flying everywhere--we were safer on the river!!!
Luckily this time, two keyan women adopted us, so when we hit the boarder again, one advised me not to risk my life by going to one of the restrooms! Right!

Yet another bus brought us to the eastern coast of Kenya. I sat next to a Masai warrior which was pretty cool, though he didn't speak much English, he kept offering me gum which was sweet. Though it was another dangerous ride, (i have to say I really don't reccomend the bus), I starred out into the Kenyan wild and starring right back at me were girrafes, zebras, elephants, baboons--breathtaking! I don't think I can ever set foot in another zoo again!

We arrived at the town of Mombasa and was shocked at what we saw! It looked as if we had been transported to the Middle East, the entire coast of Kenya is Muslim! It made my co-travelers a littl.e nervous thinking that they might all hate Americans, but they are Muslim Kenyans, and since Kenyanms love Americans we were in no danger!

HOWEVER, giuded by the Loney Planet, we thought we could crash at the New People's Lodge. It received a nice write up, and we thought it safe for 5 women. Ha Ha! So we enter. We have to go through this cage like place were this guy throws keys at us, we go upstairs through this dingy, dark, dirty, B-grade movie type place, and surrounding us at all times are dozens of Muslim men, half naked what have you--you know the usual. I enter my room, a worker manages to get the dirty little ceiling fan to spin lazily as he adamantly warns me "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave NOTHING of value in the room." Smiles and walks away. The room looks like a scene where some man got killed and you would find the tape on the floor outlining his body! there was a bullet hole in the window, used condoms in the toilet and brown running water! And some wacko was screaming American Woman to us from the street below! I made a mental note of write Loney Planet a little letter as I decided to gather my friends to high tail it the hell out of there! They had been digging out their Swiss Army knives to sleep with, but instead happily agreed to go. We found safer lodging for the night and headed for the beach the next day.

I'd like to take this moment to thank my mother for giving me such a diverse background. It has been VERY USEFUL being able to pass as white, black, African, and most recently Muslim. I decided to exploit my Arabic name, which was received so well in the Muslim areas that we got great deals on lodging and friendly people to help us! Cheers mom! You find ways to help me everywhere and im everyway!
Alright, enough of that sappy crap!

We hit the CHARMING, GORGOUS, quiet, secluded, quaint island of Lamu--which was perfect in everyway! It's a huge fishing island, no cars, donkeys only, beaches, small town, ancient ruins--amazing. Our luck continued and we found this stunning house to rent for the week--three stories, the top floor was all windows that faced the gorgeous ocean, fishermen came to our door every morning offering their fresh catches of crab, praws, barracuda (which is excellent!!), snapper, on and on. And...well...the house kinda came with a....well...house boy--YIKES!!! I know I know!!!! But he was a great cook, left flowers in all of our rooms, and fresh squeezed mango and passion fruit juices everyday! Ha came with the house!!! what do you want from me????
We sailed, explored the island, had a WONDERFUL lunch with a local family, rode donkeys (please picture my big ass riding, well, a big ass--pretty funny, especially when he tried to buck me--TWICE!), got henna painting on our hands and feet(which I love)--and enjoyed every moment on that island!

Our luck continued and we got a ride in an SUV (thank you lord!) back to Nairobi, and meet this wonderful couple that works for the US embassy and they're letting us crash in the big house and having dinner cooked for us tonight!! Unbelievable!!! I'm not even sure what is going on!

I head to South Africa tomorrow and shall be hoime in a couple of weeks!

I can't wait to see you guys, I hope everything at home is treating you well, and I shall see you soon!!

until then,
Sawa,
Aisha