This week Edwin rewarded us with some lovely days off to catch up on projects for WOPLAH, explore surrounding Mumias and spend a little time outside of the familiarity of our compound. So what did we do? We travelled to Uganda to buy kangas, took a sunrise hike through the rain forest and did some yoga… taught by me!
On Tuesday, our mama Gladys accompanied us on a 2 hour, cramped bus ride to Busia, Kenya where we went in search of beautiful kangas (Kenyan material) to make clothing out of! When we got off the bus in Busia, we were slightly overwhelmed by the chaos of a bustling border town as we wound through putrid smelling fish stands and lines of large trucks waiting to cross the border. We followed Gladys like baby ducklings through the markets and before we knew it we had crossed the border into Uganda. There was no passport control, no customs, not even a single question from any authority – I felt like any second we would get stopped. But, we got through as if we hadn’t crossed any border at all.
When we finally walked into the shop Gladys had in mind, we were all of a sudden engulfed in stacks and stacks of bright, patterned, East African Kangas; my eyes could hardly stay focused on one fabric at a time without quickly getting distracted by the next one. Because the fabrics were terribly organized – folded into squares and then placed in stacks that practically reached the ceiling – we quickly became the most annoying customers the shop owners had ever seen. We would require help to remove one folded fabric from its stack because pulling it out merited the strength of multiple people, and then more often than not we would decide we didn’t actually love the pattern after separating it from its place next to the other vibrant kangas.
I would have to say this was more of a stressful shopping experience than an enjoyable one, and I was a bit relieved once I settled on three different fabrics. We stopped by the tailor’s shop on our way back home to get fitted for some cute African clothing! But, you’ll have to wait for another post to see what I had made!
On Wednesday we took a bus to the Kakamega Rainforest to spend a night somewhere different with the goal of relaxing and rejuvenating a bit before finishing up the rest of our internship. We found a guesthouse with a “banda” or cone-shaped grass hut that would accommodate the 5 of us. We had planned on taking a night walk through the rainforest to see nocturnal animals, however it seemed that the rain followed us from Mumias and it poored all evening. That was a bummer. We also met some slug friends in our banda. You might know that I am terrified of snakes and frankly any creature that doesn’t have limbs is equally disturbing to me. So, although carefully tucking myself into my mosquito net in fear of encountering more unpleasant creatures didn’t make for the most relaxing night in the rainforest, our sunrise hike the next morning made up for it.
We woke up at 4:30 on Thursday in order to trek through the mud up to a hill overlooking the entire Kakamega rainforest. When we sat on top of that hill waiting for the sun to rise, the music created by the awaking birds and monkeys below was perhaps one of the only pleasant sounds I have heard in the last 4 weeks. It was quite impressive to look out over the tree canopies that stretched further than I could see. As the lover of the mountains that I am, I felt a sense of comfort sitting on that hill that allowed me to look out over everything around me while watching the sun rise – this was perhaps the closest to home I have felt since arriving in Mumias. That feeling became a bit tainted 10 minutes later when our guide, Abraham, explained to us that this hill is coveted by the Luya tribe, as it is often where males are taken to be circumcised during their coming of age ceremony. Oh well, in the end our rainforest trip accomplished what it needed to: a quick break from our everyday routine and work here in Mumias!
When we returned to our compound, I even had the chance to teach the other girls a yoga class! This was the first class I taught since receiving my teaching certification over a year ago. Although I’m sure it was a bit rusty, it seemed like everyone enjoyed the needed benefits of practicing a little yoga!
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