Swahili Doors

The swahili like the Arabs dont have art or any decorations in or on the house so they get fancy with the design on the door which is allowed. The doors usually state the wealth, occupation and the type of family the man comes from.

Allah & Jah

This game of dominoes as well as the paint on the walls of Lamu clearly depicts that there is a universal development and exchange of ideas. This game is played just like the Jamaicans play it on the island. There are partners that are diagonal from each other. Objective is to  get rid of your dominoes first going clockwise. Everyone gets Seven dominoes. Anyone with the double blank and/or double one's must show it. That person must get rid of that domino before the match is over or else it would be a 50 point deduction.  The winner of the match adds up the partner that lost's dominoes and that will also count against them. First team to 101 loses.

First time I played my partner and I won in three games with only 20 points against us.

Today's Lunch

Lunch at Labama. Biriani na N'gombe (beef) 230 Shilings/ 80 = $2.87

Great meal!

Swahili 101

Arabic Verbs (Arab Fathers Words)
Kurudi- to return                  I will return after my trade.
Kusafiri- to travel                I am traveling see you in a couple months
kujaribu- to try                     I'll try but not promising anything
Kusubiri- to wait                  Bantu mother wait for me i'll be back
Kujibu- to answer                Answer me.
Kufikiri- to think                  I'll think about it.
Kuhitaji- to need/ have to    You have to respect me
Kusahau- to forget               I forgot
Kusamehe- to forgive          Forgive me
Kuahidi- to promise            I promise i'll try to come back after my travels. Wait for me then i'll have to
                                           come back.

It is said that these are the words that the Arab fathers were using on our Bantu women; so i made up the above sentences using these verbs.

Bantu Verbs
Kutoka- to come from
Kuitua- to be called
Kukaa- to stay/ to sit
Kupenda- to like
Kutaka- to want
Kufanya- to do
Kufanya kazi- to do work
Kuelewa- to understand
Kula- to eat

The Swahili and The Chinese

     For those that don't already know Swahili is a culture of trading coastal people and Kiswahili is the name of their language. Kiswahili is a language with Bantu origins which arrived in the east from the west due to the Great Bantu Migration. Some scholars use to try to separate the Swahili from their African origins saying that even their language was arabic based so therefore it was other influences that made these people as prosperous as they were. Linguistic historians like Nurse and Spear have however been able to confirm what we knew, which is that though Kiswahili has many loan words from many languages it is definitely of Bantu origins.  The Swahili had connections to the Arabs, Indians, Chinese and Europeans.


     There were actually ships of Zheng He that sunk near Lamu Island in the Early 15th century. There are Swahili here that have chinese feature and some actually as their real Swahili name have the swahili word for "China" in it. The chinese have recently taken interest in this shared history for multiple reasons as we could all imagine. This shared history gives the Chinese a way into africa without appearing to desire exploitation. Which in no means that they don't posses dreams of such actions. The Chinese are aspiring to do what the Europeans are did/are doing but instead of using race as a means to separate they show another way. There is no bad blood between Africa and China at the moment so the Chinese are welcomed and free to move in the shadows. 


     The swahili woman that's name was basically indicative of her past heritage had a daughter that also really had chinese features. After DNA test  by the Chinese government it was clear that she was part chinese and as a way to reconnect the Chinese government offered her a full scholarship to study in China and learn Chinese. She accepted. 

     This shared history and trade is evident in the collections of porcelain dishes that decorated Swahili homes till this day.

Lamu

Beautiful 6:30pm. Before Prayer sight and yes it was a full moon.

First Mosque Built in Lamu in the 14th Century

The Island known for having no cars. Lamu's narrow streets and structure is so old that it can nott support land motor vehicles but there are definitely a colorful array of Dhows, sell boats and speed boats which the "beach boys" operate. The Beach Boys have locks that have become lighter from always being in salt water like the Jamaicans. Lamu is a very muslim small island that has 29 mosques (Msikiti) in a ten mile diameter. One could never miss prayer here.

Safari Cont... What's the difference between a Safari and a Zoo?

While we Safaried through one of the biggest safaris in Kenya I couldn't help by notice a few things and since I haven't had time to get into it deeply; I pulled out the phone and jotted down some notes under the title, 
"The Illusion/Obsession/Folly of Natural/ Authentic."

• Safari's are premeditated and not natural. Animals are unnaturally attracted to the roads that we travel so that we may exercise our folly and consume the illusion of seeing the animals in their "natural environment". This underground molding and shaping of the natural so that it could live up to the perceptions of African safaris is done through the construction of space and place by the manipulation of them either through the landscape which provide shade, water and grass by the preset routes.
• There were Cellphone Towers in the middle of safari on a hill.
• There was a random mansion on an adjacent hill
• Every Safari truck that passed had the same components. There was an Africa Guide driving and anywhere from 2-6 Europeans in each car with their sunscreen and large lensed cameras. This is done for lack of a better word intensionally; if one were to look at the cost of "getting such a natural experience". Only some can afford such luxury.
• Power Dynamics/ Power to define
• Privilege and entitlement
• I felt that anyone who comes to Africa has a sense of this which Cheickna and I discussed and everyone else was being tricked by the "natural" experience. An experience in which we drive in metal protective trucks and never really interact with the safari. Back to privilege. I think that people on purpose come to Africa and other places like it in order to feel superior and on top of the world which is done through the economic systems which makes one dollar 80 Kenyan Shillings. The illusions that foreigners impose on Africa could not be done in France or those European countries that make more money on tourism because you cant jus be instantly rich coming from another country were as there is no African country in which you aren't guaranteed that your money will increase.
• Illusion of Safety while in the safari. If the animals really wanted to harm those that pass the metal cars that we are in wont safe us. Recently in Kenyan news there was a story about a safari truck that hit an elephant causing the elephant fall on the truck and crush everything. No one could approach to help because the other elephants came to rescue one of theirs.
• Tourist.
• Too much to say about them
• Compare the African Mask infatuation and decontextualization in Mali that has caused a whole side culture that is commodified and sold though it has nothing to do with the culture normally.
• In Countries that dont have autonomy offer it's economy depends on tourism for majority of it's income which gives great demand power to these tourist which few and any has used at all to benefit the people.
• Final remarks
• Programs like sit that try to essentialize an authentic experience might just be adding to stereotypes of these "3rd world" places and attains more personal or company gain then it gives back to these culture it is exploiting. 
• 
  
  I don't want to fall into the binaries of good and bad but we must critically  check the work our actions, perceptions and intrusion are doing to the cultures at large. 

Voi, Red Elephant Lodge, Safari

On Top of The World

Hardest Hike up Mount Vuria in Taita. It was suppose to take three hours up the mountain but we did it in 45minutes Running. It looked like we were jogging because the incline was so high.

My little Brother in Taita, Lennox

Life in Taita

The palace is on that second hump and I live where picture was taken

The rocks we smashed

The foundation

Break!

Woke up to the sound of a rooster and the household blasting the radio at 6:30am. Took a shower (Kuoga in Kiswahili) ate bread and drank tea (chai) then it was off to work. Yes, manual labor. We walke to the local school which i was fortunate was not far from my house and we helped the locals build a library from ground up. We sledgehammered huge stones until they became pebbles which were used to start the foundation of the library.  We wheel barreled sand from on top of the hill to the foundation. This work started at 8am and lasted till 11am then we walked up to the "palace" which was 35 minute hike up a mountain. It's referred to as the palace because it's the best/biggest house in the village and it belonged to a member of parliament who rented out to my program. This is where we ate lunch cooked by a man named MC Hammer (because his real name in swahili means hammer) and had to have at least two hours of swahili lessons everyday.

Taita Feb 4- Feb 12

Road up the mountain to Taita

My "rural" housing in Taita and the family I stand with. They were REALLY Catholic

Took a Matatu (Kumbi if you are in South Africa) which is like a mini van made in Japan from Mombasa office to Taita. It was a three hour journey. 

Fort Jesus

The Soccer field where we first played soccer in Mombasa.

Tourist have a string hold on the parallel side of fort Jesus which this picture depicts. Notice the big hotels and villas built by foreigners. That area was suppose to be public for beaches and parks but clearly money talks and can change that.

Fort Jesus was constructed in the shape of a man laying down if one had an eagle eyes view.

In Mombasa was first built by 400 "forced labors" under the rule of the Portugese who were driven out by the Arabs of Yemen who then were replaced by the British. Each had a little over a century of influence on these coastal people.

Heading to Taita

Leaving in a few hours then it off to wearing a wrap and being n the village islands. If not by luck i wont be able to post again for two weeks. Kweheri.

Side note best food so far at Mombassa is at Amore Cafe for only 350 Shillings and you get a banana and water bottle with your meal. hahaha

"You taking a Picture of me"

I watch them watching us. Who looks silly?

Chris Rock jokes about it but it's true. I stepped out my balcony and there were european tourist beneath that started taking pictures of me with out asking or anything. The Kenyans on the street said nothing when they took their picture but I shouted down "HEY WHY YOU TAKING PICTURES OF ME?...Huh Did you ask me if you can take my picture." Hearing my english he was uncomfortable now and knew that he was wrong so he tried to make it "equal" by saying that i can take a picture of him. Which would not be equal at all. The day i show up in europe and see him on his porch relaxing with his family then maybe it would be equal.

Mombasa Day 3

Today we had a scavenger hunt on the island and the stops that we made are General Hospital, Cerebral Palsy- Mboya School, and the Pirates beach  

Entrance to Hospital where we spole to nurses and observed maturity 

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