The first post.
Long overdue. I apologize (mom).
Mmboy, i'm sure in a bit of a bad mood right now.
So i'll be a little more brutal than is probably accurate.
Oh boy, how to wrap it up? Put it all into a few quick sentences?
Okay, how about this: expensive
Here's another: underdeveloped
How can the two co-exist do you ask? Probably rampant, flagrant corruption. All I know is it's certainly not a backpacker's panacea. In fact I think I may have seen only 2 backpackers in my week and a half here, and I'm not certain that they weren't some kids on a mission trip taking a weekend trip.
Well, being the only backpacker around is mighty fine for authenticity and everything - I want to be in the REAL Kenya without all those WHITE tourists - but that's not what it is. No no. The white people are here, but only for a week or two and almost entirely to be carted from place to place in a private van and taken to their hotel and then to watch some wild animals defecate while they snap pictures and then maybe over to some curio shops so they can say to their friends, "I got this in Africa!". The tourist market in East Africa is simply for those looking to burn $6,000 in a week or two.
Have I met interesting foreigners? One, and she placed in my mind the question that has been nagging me since I arrived. (More to come)
Can I do things on the fly? Maybe a bus ride but that's about it.
Can I do things on the cheap? For food and lodging it's possible, but not for many activities.
And there's where the real icing on the cake comes. Maybe some things are cheap here - but you have to fight for it every step of the way. It helps that I can speak some Swahili, but if a Kenyan sees a white face they think it's completely acceptable to try to charge you double or triple or more. In the places of interest (National Museums, old ruins, old fortresses) this practice is institutionalized - you pay 800 to 1000% more for a ticket if you're a foreigner). People say, well, it's money that's going to the government and it's a large source of income - and it is, but let's talk about accountability? How is it spent? How many government agents got weekend trips or bar tabs or more? When I first arrived I was friendly, replying to everyone's Jambo. Coming over when beckoned etc. At the first hostel I stayed at I helped a guard who said his wife was sick with typhoid and malaria. I bought the necessary medication and gave it to him (it cost about $16).
But now, I've experienced that 1 times out of 20 maybe 50 a person is friendly because they want something from you.
Here's a fun anecdote:
I went to this beach town called Diani south of Mombassa for a day or 2. The place I visited was from a recommendation from a group of Irish missionaries working in Nairobi. I get there, and, of course, there's no one around. There's 4 local guys who work there, but that's about it. 40, 60 rooms - no one. So I go to the beach and I meet some guys who are friendly. They say, "Buy something", I say, "I don't really want any of it." Then they say, "but we are hungry, there's no tourists here because of the violence". So, I feel sorry for them. I feel like helping them out. I take them to a local stand where we eat beans, ugali and chapati. I buy their meals - in total about $10. Then they take me back to their village, they show me different plants and their uses, I buy us some coconut alcohol to drink, they talk about how the government takes village land and then sells it to foreigners to develop. Land that they used to farm and land that they used to live on. They talk about how the Big Fish always eats the Little Fish.
So, by now I'm thinking these guys are pretty cool; they cut me a coconut, we talk about different swahili music artists. I'm trying to think of some way to help these guys out; I ask them about charcoal made from corn cobs - maybe I could do some sort of a start-up here? Maybe I could do a village restaurant - for some tourist - created authenticity - anyways, after about 3 hours they take me to their village tree where they have meetings and tell me that they do these "tours" all the time and foreigners usually give them some money. I'm suprised, but i ask them to tally it up.
They want 3,500 Ksh - that's about $53 for a 3 hour "tour" I thought was me making friends. As we walk back I'm weighing my options. I'm a little paranoid from the "local flavors" they offered me and i'm thinking maybe they'll try to take the money if I don't give it to them. So I go back to the hotel and ask some people what to do; I finally give them 100 Ksh ($1.40) in total. They shame me and say they can't believe it, but I walk away. Then, over the course of the next few days I think to myself - was i being selfish? Did I cheat them? But all I can say is - no, those guys were assholes - they never told me what was involved - that was extortion.
And that's how it's gone.
I met a girl in Mombasa etc. etc. Are we friends? Even if I buy your meals? How do I know?
Money always muddies the waters of friendship.
So, I met this lady last night who has backpacked extensively - although she's only here for a spa-tour, and I asked her, "Why do the Kenyans think it's alright to overcharge me? Why does any "friend" always want something from me? In other places I've dealt with that, but never on this scale." And she had a simple answer - Racism. If they treat you different based on the color of your skin, that's racism. So, what am I to believe. Are they all racists? Is it fair to say that from a positionof privelige?
Here's what I can say, the country is poor, and i think so much of it has to do with their attitude. It's "get as much as I can right now". The government takes land from people so they can get some quick money for a new car or a trip abroad. The people use pity to leverage money out of foreigners pockets. I'm sure people do it to each other as well I just don't know how yet. Here they talk about Umoja - unity and Undugu - Brotherhood, but they act on self-interest, not in the capitalist way where people's diverse activities are co-ordinated by markets to produce surplus for society, no, they work piecemeal, un-coordinated, trying to get what little they can, when they can - bribes, pity, extortion or overcharging - and that's what keeps them poor.
There's the dark, hateful thoughts that have been tumbling around in my brain
When I go out drinking, I like toasting to something very un-P.C. like "Kill all the whales" - it's good for a cheap laugh.
Here goes another:
Here's to disillusionment and racism in Kenya.
