LAST HOURS TO DEPARTURE :: GOOD BYE KENYA::

This might be the end of Kenya but the beginning of a new adventure! Kenya definitely opened new doors for us and gave us a new perspective on life. We see things in a different way now, we now know that giving is not always good, not all aid is appreciated and sometimes it doesn't even go to who needs it the most, we had to learn it the hard way but there are some things you just have to experience to fully understand. Besides Guatemala, this is the first time we've lived in another third world country, in some ways Kenya is facing the same issues we face in Guatemala, poverty is seen more here but only because it's really in your face, streets are dirtier, the trash is disposed in the middle of the city for everybody to see and smell and slums are really visible but in the end it's the same, the only difference is that our slums are in different areas, we have cleaner streets and the trash is disposed in places away from the city so it doesn't struck you as hard as here... anyway, Kenya was another door in our story, another path we had to take, another dream accomplished and scratched off our list, it was a very interesting experience, with ups and downs, laughs and tears and lots of hard work.

One of the things we loved the most about this country is it's scenery, Kenya is a big country and everywhere you go it's a different experience all over again. This year our budget shrank a lot and with just a few hundred dollars to live each month we were able to travel to all corners in Kenya... from Lamu almost in Somalia, to Turkana just steps away from Ethiopia and from Kakamega so close to Uganda to Wasini Island facing Tanzania. We travelled by bus more than we've ever done before, our longest trip was to Turkana, travelling for three days, changing from bus to bus from city to city until finally we got there, eight buses in total and lots of lost patience but know that's in the past it's just a funny memory in our book.

Besides the great trips we made, most of all we'll always remember all the good friendships we made... our Kenyan family was made up us tons of other volunteers from all over the world... we'll always remember the adventures we had while travelling together and all those dinners with the coast girls which brough us a bit closer every time... Good times and now it's time to leave but  for all the friends we made we know it's not really a good bye because for sure we'll meet in some other corner of the world...

So now Asia, stay tuned and see what's coming....

::WHAT THE HELL DID I DO IN KENYA:: RECAP!

A few more days and we will be off to some long vacations cruising around Asia… every journey we make leads us to another door, every city we pass by leaves it's mark and changes our perspective of the world bit by bit. Sometimes we find ourselves all over again and sometimes we loose a bit of what we thought made us who we were. This time it was Kenya's time to host us for one year, in paper it was two years and that was the plan but plans always change once you start executing them… It was definitely an experience we'll never forget, ups and downs, lefts and rights… we came with the ideology to help a bit, share our little knowledge and experience so that people at the organizations we were placed at could continue afterward… but things are never easy, you always encounter people with hunger to succeed and sometimes you just meet people who just don't want to be bothered and in both cases you just have to try to make the best out of it and that's what we did… We helped the ones who wanted to be helped and even though we wished we could have done more, we'll just leave this country glad of at least have helped one or two….

Anyways, so I was in charge of the design department of Likoni Quality furniture…. Design department meaning me, and by design meaning having to deal with marketing, advertisements, website, product design and even dealing with clients… it was a mouthful of things and nobody to help me… pissed as hell I started my placement last July, feeling like I was taken advantage of, things were not clear for my partner organization, for them a volunteer felt like a good deal, so they got rid of their designer and brought me in, which shouldn't be the case because this thing is supposed to be sustainable, you come, you train, you implement and then someone else continues doing the job but if there's nobody else then there's no point, as soon as you leave things go back to how they were before and you loose a year of your life….

It took me a couple of months to have management approve high speed internet installation which was going to help me with e-marketing and the build up of the website… Four months for the approval of a digital

CAMPING IN ABERDARE :: KENYA::

Just a quick update from past trips in Kenya. Aberdare national park is part of the Aberdare Mountain Range and for Easter holiday we decided to join a group of VSO volunteers in a camping trip at this park. We would recommend it to anyone, despite having useless tour guides, one latrine for 16 people and leaking tents there were tons of other good things like an amazing view, no annoying noises or people around, bush bucks everywhere, plenty of nice food and good company, overall I give it a 7.5 and would probably go back if I lived here. Anyway, the photos and video above says it all, Enjoy!

Camping in Aberdare::Kenaya:: from Bara + Chinitas on Vimeo.

Check out the video of a few days camping in Aberdare National Park with some other nice people we've met during our journey in Kenya. It's a bit funny, Enjoy!

GREEN KENYA :: KAKAMEGA FOREST ::

We were in serious need of some green and Kakamega Forest being the only tropical rain forest in Kenya was the best choice so once again we crossed the whole country to find ourselves in the middle of nowhere… only this time it was worth it…good 13 hours by train to Nairobi, then 9 hours by bus to Khayega (matatus are way faster but can't stand them anymore so took Easy Coach, more expensive and longer time but definitely the best choice), finally 30 minutes motorcycle ride, passed Isecheno and we were in the forest, very close to the Ugandan border. We booked four nights at KEEP Bandas, a community project that helps the forest through education within the community, tree planting and other things towards the protection of the forest.

We were the only visitors for the whole week so the people at KEEP took very good care of us,
specially Solomon, an intern doing his residency on turism. He cooked for us, stayed with us the whole week, taught us about snakes and butterflies found in the forest, took us to the market, showed us the closest town, introduced us to the locals and even found a chameleon for us to see. On our way to the market we passed several tea plantations, Kenya is the world's third largest producer of tea after India and Sri Lanka, and the biggest exporter to Britain. A great part of what a century ago was Kakamega Forest is know covered in vast regimented swathes of tea bushes.

So what to do in Kakamega forest? The forest is big, lots of walking trails and you can easily get lost so the smart thing to do is find a guide. Our guide was Abraham (recommended by Ricky), a very friendly guy who on our first day took us for a long walk all the way to the river and back. By long we really mean long, 7 hours walking through the forest learning about plants and spotting butterflies, Blue Monkeys, Red Tail Monkeys, White and black Colobus Monkeys, Hornbills and tons of other birds. On our way we also encountered a group of women coming from a long morning of searching for wood in the forest. Kakamega women are so far the strongest women we've ever met, they were carrying thin logs of about 5mt long and probably really heavy, just amazing!

Next day we went to town with Marcini and Solomon. Marcini was so excited she took us to her parents house and introduced us to her mother and all her siblings, then we went to her house to meet his son and stopped at the market to meet her sister.

Third day we decided to do a sunrise walk, also with Abraham who took us to the top of a mountain where he said was the best view point in that part of the forest. We started walking at 5am, it was still really dark and hoped to see a few nocturnal animals but we only saw a wild fox. When we finally go to the top of the mountain the sun was coming out but rainy season just started so it was really cloudy and foggy and we couldn't see anything but the fog over the forest gave a dramatic effect to our view so it was worthwhile anyway.

Being in Kakamega was like being in Peten in Guatemala, vegetation everywhere, lively green and great smell of plants wherever you go. Animals are different though making Kakamega a different experience all together. We definitely recommend Kakamega forest if you are tired of savannas and beaches in Kenya and if you just want peace and quiet for a few days.

Check out the video for some action shots with a bit more close-ups and because we spent my sister's birthday in the forest we dedicate this video to her…just 'cause we know you love nature so much… love you lots little sis!

Kakamega Forest Kenya - Bara+Chinitas from Bara + Chinitas on Vimeo.

By the way, I've finished another zine "Kenyan Style" go to my illustration blog to browse through it and let me know what you think! Enjoy!

MATATU STYLE :: KENYA::

So life as a volunteer has it's ups and downs, matatus for us are the down parts of it...For the ones who don't know what a matatu is here is our explanation: 9 passenger minivans customized to fit one more row, standard for 14 passengers in East Africa, usually found carrying 20 or 22. Interior decor? fully carpeted with cushioned ceiling. Why? well if you have ever been inside one you'd probably figured it out by know.

Matatus are in our daily schedules and we absolutely hate them so we had to draw about it. We summarized our experience in "10 things you should know about matatus" a zine (short, hand made comic book) describing our daily journeys. Enjoy!

Open publication - Free publishing - More transport

Now,  who wants to join us for a matatu ride?

We're currently working on our next zine "Kenyan Style" so if you have things to share about habits, culture or any other interesting or peculiar stuff then please, be our guest and write us about it, your suggestion could appear in our next comic book!

CHRISTMAS FROM NEW YORK!

So Christmas in any other country without family is not the same... There's always some family Christmas traditions that you always miss, for us is eating tamale for midnight, opening presents, all the family together, firecrackers, Christmas parties all December...it's just so fun to be home for Christmas but once in a while you just can't make it and you end up in a remote place like Turkana right? so no presents this year, no family, old friends or tamales but we still had good company and a sky full of stars. so what happened to the Christmas decorations this year? we had none at home until we received a package from New York! what did we find inside? a Christmas tree and some firecrackers sent to us by our friends Matt and Moo... This made our Christmas really, now we'll keep this all year round on our living room table.

Thanks Matt and Moo, you made our Christmas!

36 hr JOURNEY TO THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE ::TURKANA::

We really had no idea into what we were getting into when Lenard invited us to join him in his Turkana expedition "if you want to experience feeling in the middle of nowhere then we should go to Turkana" he said with excitement and naive and adventurous that we are we of course came along. We started the journey on Dec 19th from Mombasa, took the train which from the budget options is the longest (16 hrs if you are lucky) but the most comfortable. We've taken the train once before and it's ok, really old, perfect for a scary movie, we paid second class which is a cabin with four beds, comfy enough…We decided to space the traveling so stayed two days in Nairobi just chilling and getting ready for the next ride, matatu ride from Nairobi to Kitale, stopping along the way in Nakuru and Eldoret, traveling with Lenart, Albertine and Joanna… Everything is so impredictable in Kenya so bus schedules don't necessarily mean the bus will leave at that time and matatus are worse, you just hop in and wait for the whole mini-van to get full which sometimes can take a couple of hours… that meant waiting at each place for hour and a half approx letting people out and waiting again for it to get full..

9 more hours of traveling to add to those 16 and we found ourselves in Kitale, really late on Dec 22… Long day traveling so we stayed overnight in that charming little town with a few good restaurants and shops around… Next day we woke up early hoping to get an early bus to Lodwar (closest town from our final destination), 7am it was, ate breakfast quite fast, grabbed our stuff and head out to the bus terminal looking for any bus heading that way, after some time asking around and trying to get vendors out of our way a guy sold us 5 tickets for a 9am bus, not as early as we expected but it was the earliest we could find so what the heck, "let's wait"… by 9:30 we were wondering what was going on, nobody on the bus and 30 minutes late already… 10:30, nothing… by 11:30 more passengers started to board… by 12:00 the bus was almost full… by 12:45 the engine started! and we were finally on our way after waiting for 4 hours!!! … now add 9 more hours and think of Lodwar after a flat tyre and a dead guy lying on the road… Lodwar wasn't as charming as Kitale, a weird little town with weird people, certainly not a place you want to spend your holidays in but thankfully or ride was waiting for us to take us to the middle of nowhere… have you been keeping track of the travelled hours?
Well, add 2 more hours = 36 hours in total and find yourself in Eliye Springs Resort….yes, Resort! which by the name you would imagine spa, massages, pool, tan by the lake, room service, AC and good food right?, wrong again! guess you can put whatever name you want to your hotel and this was certainly not the kind of Resort we were all expecting…

This place was truly in the middle of nowhere, no electricity, no good food, no massages, no spa and no pool, just some tiny huts and by huts we mean the tribal huts the Turkana tribes live in… tiny, tiny, so tiny that the bed barely fitted, and to top to that, these type of huts are so tight and compressed that it feels like a sauna when you're inside…but, now we can say we have truly experienced how Turkana people live and besides, the lake was awesome, at certain time of the day you can't see where the lake ends and sky begins, just in the edge of the world… this is definitely the kind of place that bring out mixed feelings, and as Jo said, can't really tell if you love it or hate it, but as we say, never regret anything you do, it all becomes part of your life and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

As with everything in life, this wasn't all bad, and adventure we'll never forget and we were all glad to be part of… So Lake Turkana touches the Ethiopian border at its northern end, once upon a time it was connected with the Nile but not anymore, the lake scene changes constantly, our huts were in Eliye Springs, very close to the Central Island National park which is a UNESCO heritage site. To get there was another 2 hour boat ride but worth every penny and minute. Central Island has three craters, two filled with water now and the other one dry, we could only hike to see two of them though, first we got to the Flamingo Crater, we could smell the sulfur in the atmosphere and as soon as you start hiking down you can see the deep emerald green in the water, by the looks of it I would think that water was radioactive and very toxic but that doesn't stop the hundreds of flamingos from living there. Amazing sight, deserted as you can't even imagine, it was just us and the flamingos. Then we headed to the next crater, Chorro crater as the sign said, with clear water and full of crocodiles, so interesting, it's like this two different species found their homes next to each other and the great thing is that they don't even have to cross paths.

So Besides Central Island, Turkana is known by it's people, the Turkana, a tribe that wears less clothing than any other tribe in Kenya. Women wear several necklaces made out of beads and men will always be seen with a wooden stool called Akichalong, very handy, you can also see them with a wide bracelet which is used as a weapon and is called aberait, the cool thing about it is that it looks like a simple bracelet covered in leather but hidden you'll find a sharp blade used as a weapon. Eliye Springs is a public place, close to where we stayed you could see the spring and lots of local Turkana people gathering to collect water. The last day we were taken to a community on our way back to Lodwar, one of the women dressed up in her special attire and let us take photos and look inside her hut. You can't leave Kenya without seeing old fashioned tribes and although we could see a lot of western influence, like the Turkana men wearing caps and safari hats, it was very interesting to see their little communities in the middle of nowhere, where water is a 3 hour walk or more, with no much agriculture 'cause Turkana is a very arid place and tons of goats and camels all over. At the end the trip had it's perks, we definitely wouldn't do it again but it was an adventure worth experiencing.

Video editing almost done so stay tuned for more of the Turkana people and the flamingos!