From: jwa@vipunen.hut.fi (Jyrki J Wahlstedt)
Subject: Experiences from Kenya and Tanzania
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Distribution: soc.culture.african
Date: 18 Aug 92 01:02:13

  In June I enquired in this forum about Nairobi as I was going to
  spend three weeks in Kenya and Tanzania and just then a finnish girl
  was shot in Nairobi (she is still alive but paralyzed). Then I 
  promised to share my experiences, so...

  There is so much to tell, there are so many worlds... This article is
  quite long, but I can't help it. I kept a diary and wrote sixty pages,
  so this is just a part of it.

  We travelled from Nairobi through Ngorongoro and Serengeti to Shinyanga, 
  a town of 100.000 inhabitants 150 km south of Lake Victoria (our friends 
  live there at the moment). After a week there we drove to Mombasa through
  Nairobi and then from Mombasa to Nairobi and back home. The main spots
  for us were Serengeti, Shinyanga and Mombasa.

  In general we were in no dangerous situation, not one of us was robbed or
  threatened or anything like that. I think that is mostly due to our 
  friends with whom we travelled. They have lived five years in Tanzania,
  so they know quite well what one can do and what one must not do.
  Their experience could not protect us from one thing, the diseases. None
  of us got malaria, but most of us, especially the children, had various
  combination of fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. The worst of it was that
  my wife got sick the day before we were supposed to leave and she had
  to stay behind in Nairobi Hospital (she had some experiences there also).
  Well, I got back on Saturday and my wife arrived on next Tuesday, so that
  was not too bad.

  The first surprise was that Nairobi was so cold. We flew through Sofia
  and there the temp. was 27 C. As we plane landed, the temperature was
  was said to be 12 C (it was half past seven in the morning).

  The prominent feature in Kenya are the guards and police officers. They
  are everywhere. On the roads there were now and then police checkpoints,
  in shops there were guards with sticks and probably with other arms also.
  Another prominent thing is that the president is everywhere also. All
  shops have his picture on the wall. He is not very popular there, however.
  Someone said that he (Moi) could look at the wall as well. Most of the
  Kenyan days we were in Mombasa and in a hotel (Diani Beach Area) there.
  It was really nice, though we met a problem when leaving as the reception
  clerks didn't let us go. They said they were not sure whether they had
  received the money we had paid to the travel agency that had made the 
  reservation. We had to talk and talk until we asked the resident manager
  to come and talk with us. Well, he was German and we settled the problem
  nearly immediately. It just came to mind that there might be some racist
  attitudes amongst the africans (just like when you arrive at Nairobi
  Kenyatta Airport and you have to look up at the person who checks your
  passport and sits about two meters above the floor).

  Tanzania is in general a lot poorer, the roads are incredibly bad and
  there are not so many things in the shops as in Kenya. But it has its
  own fascination, the land and the animals and the people also. The
  corruption is quite bad, however. We planned to sleep one night in
  Lobo Lodge, but it was closed when we arrived there. The manager said
  that government people had reserved the hotel and we had to leave for
  Seronera (we had a puncture on the road near a place where when we were
  coming we saw two lionesses on their kill). A waiter in Seronera told us,
  however, that some (local) Arabs had paid the whole Lodge for themselves
  and come there to hunt. Well, this is secondhand information, but what
  we observed, corroborates this (e.g. one of us saw an Arab child with
  nurse). In Tanzania we saw more of the everyday life that normally 
  a tourist does not see. We visited villages near Shinyanga and drove
  around the city quite a lot.

  In general I am quite satisfied with the journey. If I had the opportunity
  and the money to make a new trip, I would not hesitate going, even with
  my family!
--
!
!	Jyrki Wahlstedt
!		jwa@vipunen.hut.fi
!
!  Everything not eternal is eternally out of fashion
!