Kenya Photos: Gritty Edition

This week, I have some photos to show you the grittier (and quirkier) side of our Kenya trip.  These probably won’t make it out to any of our official newsletters!

We decided to share some international love in Nairobi by writing “Wash Me” in as many languages as possible on the side of a dirty bus very similar to the one we would ride for the next 6 hours into Garissa.  Only the people who can read Korean will be able to figure out why Eddie is laughing at his own handiwork.  =]

Dorothy said this scene at the pit stop between Nairobi and Garissa really broke her heart (and no, she insists she is not a crazy cat lady!).  How many stray cats do you see in this photo, threatening to scratch my eyes out if I get too near their wheelbarrow of rotting food?

I was up at 4AM to spend a little quality time with the MacBook in preparation for the talk I was supposed to deliver with Steph at a local church that morning.

Eddie and I were perpetually fascinated by the roadblocks at the police checkpoints we passed through everyday, kept there to prevent Somali refugees from making their way into Kenya.  Luckily, none of us Asian folks looked like we had been in Somalia recently.

Morning snack time at the school. It must be lonely being in the minority.

Our entire team gets busted in Garissa. Or … maybe we’re deep in prayer. Or we’re putting up the fence the blew over during the last flood. One of those is true.

This woman must be the keeper of the gardens.  She was amazing, never budging an inch from her post for hours on end. With steely resolve, she watched over … oh wait, I think she’s a scarecrow.

Want some beef?  Come to the Super Butchery!  Most of my teammates could only stay about 30 seconds before they had to leave the stench of the grisly scene, but for some reason I don’t recall being bothered at all.  And I wish I had a video of the butcher hacking away at the carcass with a machete and an ax.

Out in the Bush, you don’t see a whole lot of trash cans and recycling bins.  Okay, I don’t think I saw any.  So if you have some garbage, you can just hold on to it.  And if you don’t want to do that, then I guess you can do what the locals do and “just barn it”.   This photo depicts my “definitely not in California anymore” moment of the trip.

Faceoff: Ken vs. Mike.  I think there’s a clear underdog here.

These were the crazy annoying Acacia thorns that littered the landscape and constantly found their way into (and straight through!) the soles of our shoes.  Apparently, the thorns don’t bother the giraffes at all when they feed on these plants.

This was the saddest little dog I’ve ever seen.  Either that or he was constipated.

This older man was so weak with sickness he could not even make it to the medical camp we set up in his village, so we had to go find him in his grass hut.  Sadly, the only thing the nurse was able to do for him given our limited resources was recommend that he go to town and get some xrays.  Not sure how he can possibly be expected to be able to afford to do that…

I wanted to test out the macro lens mode on my little Canon A650, and what better subject was there than the flies that were everywhere?  I think I spent more time fiddling with the camera than I did eating lunch that day.

You know, they really need to get a break room for the hotel maids.  This was actually not an unusual scene around siesta time; nearly every floor had a sleeping maid.

Our true colors came out whenever Eddie was overwhelmed with sleep.

Zebras and giraffes were not the only things we saw a lot of during our safari…

Hideyo practices some of the effective recovery techniques learned from the hotel maids as we waited for our flight home.

So which set of Kenya photos did you enjoy more?