Jambo from Nairobi
Jean-Marie Akermann on ropes
Jean-Marie Akkermann of Cirque Nova has gone to Kenya. He is spending 5 days in Nairobi working with Dance4Life to set up a program of training for HIV+ children from an orphanage so that they can perform their own stories with newly acquired circus skills.
Excerpts from Jean-Marie's travel blog are published below. You can read the full entry on Travel Blog
Well here I am, day 1 of a new adventure!
There was no one to meet me from the airport, which I expected. I got into town by public bus. It was OK, took about an hour, but thought it would take longer. I was politely told where to get off, after passing the poorest areas one can imagine. I got off walked 5 minutes to find my hotel, which had a room at about a tenner a night. It is clean and the lonely planet says it is safe.
Wo - the security lad on night shift was very friendly. I was touched by his concern. He asked if I could bring my project to his village. He says most NGO's concentrate on the slums of Nairobi and Mombasa, but they forget about the small towns, which is why there is such a huge migration of people with HIV to the big cities!
A view of Nairobi from the Helipad on the roof of the Kenyatta Conference Centre
It is a holiday today so many shops are closed, the streets were rather empty and it was chilly and cloudy on arrival. Now it's about 30 degrees centigrade and very hot and sunny. There are lots of people on the streets as I am discovering, all my goods hidden in different pockets. But I feel much safer than I thought I would.
So I set off to see the city. I got to the area around River road, where the backpackers stay and in where the guidebook says to be really carefull with bags. I must say it was incredibly busy and by now getting really warm! I got all the way down to Halllie Selasi road, where the station is and all the matatus (local vans that carry people around which pick up from anywhere for a set price!) going to the neighbourhoods, with the drivers hitting their horns and the guys trying to incite people!
...I am looking for a Nyama Choma restaurant, as they are where the locals eat their bbq'ed meat. I asked a guard, (as all shops are heavily guarded) and just opposite, with a tiny sign he told me just go up stairs, so I did, third floor and a young lady with a very ill looking hand and his healthy looking baby selling fruit juices, and then besides it, what looked like what should have been the toilet if the building had been finished. Instead there are empty squares, besides which stands a tent, with chairs and a grill with beef and goat meat. People are eating and I get a stage stare! as if to ask 'what the hell is he doing here?'
I was asked, 'do you want to eat here? Tourists never come to eat here.You know what we eat. so I said yes 'Nyama Choma' I just sat down smiled and said if it is good for you, it is good for me! The waitress laughed. I washed my hands from a large container with a tap at the bottom where I saw the locals do the same, and by the time I sat close to the grill and got a plate with a large amount of thick paste - 'ugali' is its name and it tastes of nothing, but then they give you thinly sliced tomatoes, which I shouldn't eat as they get washed with tap water, and could give me diahorrhea. It is accompanied by a green cabbage-like vegetable that is boiled and tastes quiet nice! When I finished I paid 100 shillings for a vast amount of food, which is really a pittance! I went over to the fruit lady and she asked me about my meal, I said I had loved it which I genuinly had. She served me a fruit salad that she was cutting right there and if you saw the water bucket in which the dishes got washed you would have run a mile! I didnt... as she asked me in, a skinny man (I suspect very ill with AIDS) was waiting with his 4 year old girl. So I bought them one each, and got one myself, watermelon, papaya, banana, avocado, and passion fruit sooo yummy! They were 30 shillings each! When I set off the woman said, come any time we like tourist like you here. You are not afraid of Africans! Thank you...so I left with a huge smile and feeling really full.
I went back to my room and fell asleep at around 8pm, it was very noisy, I had not seen a single mosquito, but still I got under the net, it was heavily hot! my alarm went at midnight which is the equivalent to 10pm english time, when I take my HIV pills, my feet were sore, I was really tired, but slept well in spite of the noise!
any way, Jambo is hello in Swahili and Kwa Heri is good bye. hugs to all Jean-Marie
Day two and three
First the good news! no diahorrhea! then more good news, had a good day... So what can I say...first and foremost! I HAVE NEVER in my travels felt so little harrassed, threatened in any way, or have had anyone try to get more money from me, as from anyone else, some places have prices for locals end prices for tourist! Fair enough but on matatus, pubs, restaurants, not a single person has tried to rip me off! I feel safe! I feel welcome! the people smile and say Jambo every where! I was fearing the worst! I have had the best and easiest ride of any of my travels yet!
... so all in all I've had three meetings with Dance4Life and USAID over two days and it sounds as there is much chance that this project might be worked on to try and bring it to realisation! Circus is a totaly unknown art-form in Kenya, so it'll be a double challenge!
Any way, on Saturday, as I was free all day, I decided to go and explore, so I set of by matatu to Carnivore, which is a very famous restaurant 10k out of nairobi where you pay a fee and eat as much meat as you want. It used to be bush meats, but that is now outlawed, so the wildest thing on the menu was crocodile and ostridge! but all the other meats where nicely BBQ'ed and succulent, with many sauces, desert, salads, jacket potatoes, and juices included in the price! Is expensive for kenya prices about 10 pound sterling, it was worth it, very ambientfull.
I met a couple of guys who are working for the mexican embassy developing an international computer program for passport control. They will be travelling for 6 months around the world to set it up, and as they were looking for someone to take their pic at the restaurant I offered and we ended up talking, Spanish obviously... they had all their expenses and transport paid for and their next destination was same as mine 'Bomas' which is a circus like building, where kenyan traditional dances get displayed, and also the typical Kenyan acrobats! The mexicans offered me a lift, giving the driver the excuse that I was another embassy staff member. And so I got a free ride in private van with them.
Bomas was actually rather good and a perfect space for us to showcase our work if ever Cirque Nova gets developed here in Kenya. So I spoke to the manager, and exchanged cards. He wants me to write to him about the project to see where it goes. But...to my surprise, I found out in my meeting with the Nairobi Dance4life person that the event at which I will be performing with Penny on the 29th November, will be a live internet show on D4L, where all the countries of this organisation will be linked by internet and TV to showcase the shows of each country and the one in Kenya will be actually performed at Bomas, so they are already in contact with this organisation, and envisage our opening night for VIP's to happen in the very building, if and when our show with HIV+ Kenyan kids are finally ready to be showcased!.... What is good about it, is that the actual kids who will take part in the kenya project will actually see my performance live on giant screen in Nairobi, and we will get to see their dance show! as well as all the other country events!!! Sounds cool to me!
It had rained very strongly during the show at Bomas and the roads were really wet! The weather is much cooler than I expected. The level of humidity is not as high either, in the evenings/nights it tends to clowd over and get really chilly at night! one needs a long sleeve tshirt in the morning. apart from that, day times are sunny and warm but I see no sign of mosquitoes, and apparently the malaria rates here are alsmost non-existant!
The city is getting to me now, am a bit bored, I have also started chatting to this gorgeous Italian man, Gianlucca, who arrived here with no cash, and got himself to the hotel just with what he had in his pocket, to find that his bank card maestro is not accepted here in Kenya, and as he arrived same day as myself, he got stuck with no money, no food, nothing for 3 days as it was a bank holiday! his luck was that the staff of the hotel kind of adopted him and paid his hotel bill for him, his food, his water and even beers!
...So on Monday, I had my last meetings with the people of D4L, had a couple of drinks with GianLuca, and on tuesday we set off early in the morning after a good Breakfast to Mombasa.
The bus was OK, not great, but it would do the job, we thought it be fast, but it actaully took us 8 hours with a 20 minute stop only for food to get down here, no aicon and I got a big mama sitting next to me, pocking me friendily at every village to let me know what tribe lives there, and to show me when something unusual showed up!
Photo of Jean-Marie Akermann with a giraffe
We were travelleing on the high road from Nairobi to Mombasa, got to see giraffe, zebra, and some antelopes, as well as meerkats and baboons, but not enough of this all to make the journey worthwhile it was bloody hard going with no aircon nor fans and as we got closer to the coast the heat became heavier, humidity is huge, we were drenched in our t'shirts doing nothins, and the land scape was often and much of it monotonous Savanah, just low lying bushes, some times hills and many poor villages, incredibly in the most remote aeras where all one could see was a few straw shacks, at school exit time we still could see all these kids dressed in proper school uniforms and wondering where did they go to? As the school seemed really in the middle of nowhere...
We saw a few watering holes where women where filling cans and dragging them home to cook or wash, I imagine as we see on tv reports, and some children bathing in the water! so it made it worth seeing that that way of life really is not just in some areas out in the far away bush! nope it is actually the normal way of life of most people here, cattle raising local people of Kenya!
Once in Mombasa, we set off to find a hotel, all the very cheap ones too dodgy and the middle level ones mostly full or too expensive! we finally got somewhere for 1800 Kenyan shillings, which is about 15 quid, as the pounds has gone down and the exchange rate is now 120 to the 1 sterling! Nort so good for my small budget! but I'll survive!
One sorted, we had a beer and I called Kasena again ( I had tried calling on arrival but also before leaving nairobi, but the telehones here are a nightmare! unless one has a mobile phone which I havent got here!)
So we arranged for him to meet us today in the morning. We set off with another couple of Kenyans tring to9 make a buck out of us to find a restaurant, but it all seemed very expensive where being led to, we, or rather I as gianluca doesnt speak much English, made the kenyan guides aware that we're very well able to make our way alone, so we paid them a beer and told them to leave us be!
We set off to look for some sea food, but what we found was dissapointing, but we found several places to get beers at a variety of prices too, which was suprising as this place is really very Muslim - many veiled girls, and mosques and asian people.
What surprises us both is that we just don't see ANY tourists at all! if we see eight white people a day it is a lot! but that makes it even better to be honest! I am loving it here and yet again no troubles at all, although a guy got chased away from our restaurant as he tried to approach us! it seemed a bit aggressive!
This morning we were up and ready rather early, as the meeting with Kasena was at 9am, as he arrived we made our way by public transport again to his HIV/AIDs center and sat down to watch some young people rehearsing a play. I made a presentation to 25 young people of a variety of backgrounds, religion and sex and sexualities about my HIV status, about how difficult it was to come out as HIV+, and telling them about my project, before I started I looked for a few ropes, that I covered in an old t-shirt cloth, and hung it from the roof of the stage where the young people were rehearsing.
As I made my presentation I got onto the ropes and explained what kind of work we would be teaching them, how it would give them employment for the future, a new art-form to discover and a way to bring HIV awareness in deep kenya, traveling as a small local circus show! There was also a presentation from a girl from an American NGO. She is staying here till September 2009 to teach a variety of dances, from Ballet to contemporary and street dance. She made the link between circus and dance, the kids showed off their dance skills and asked the USA girl to dance a bit too. I had tears in my eyes, and feel really excited about all this, I have seen the faces of these 17- 22 year olds brightening up as I am present them with a new choice for life and they made me feel emotional and happy to try to do this for them! I just hope we can now get the money together for them.
They are clever kids, and asked very serious questions about insurance, security, and a gamut of issues that they worry about for the future! Also questions about my HIV status, my drug regime, etc. so it was really a good afternoon! I am not putting the pictures on now, as I want to enjoy some sunshine and beach now. I am stinking of sweat after doing my aerial tricks and teaching them some moves on the improvised ropes, and need a good bit of sunshine now!
Elephants having a mud bath
Tomorrow we will probably rent a car to go to a nature reserve to see the big 5! also maninly an elephant reserve with a beach as well, and then the day after we will be heading more north to go scuba diving! So from tomorrow on the real holiday begins! Today my last duty as director of Cirque Nova has been done.
Mombasa seems less a big city although more chaotic and more traffic! the humidity is incredibly heavy! There is more poverty and crime! Drug use rates seem to be high due to many italins coming here on holiday and expecting to find a market in heroine, which there is and which has increased the HIV infections through needle use! so the HIV problems are different in diverse areas. Many gay Italian men seem to come to coastal areas for male prostitution! Malindi seems to be a big italian area, they call it little Italy in Kenya and apparently the locals speak more Italina than English!
hugs JMA
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last updated: 2008-10-15 13:43:30
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