KENYA IN THE EYES OF A UGANDAN

This is an article that our dear friend Martin Karungi wrote:

The entire thought of having to leave my motherland to go and study in a foreign land was no joke. I guess your wondering who I am. My name is Karungi Martin, I am from Uganda (Pearl of Africa) and am pursuing my degree in Business Information Technology at Strathmore University, its one of the best and most recognized business universities in Africa.            From the books and journals it has gained its name, as the most crime filled city in East Africa and that was the notion with which I came with from Uganda.
I had never been to Nairobi in my life and all I was praying for was not to get mugged as I got off the bus to get to my place of residence. But I wish to proudly denounce that this notion of Nairobi is wrong. I have been here one month now in company of
Lucas, Francisco and Daniel, and I can only say that it’s been a wonderful experience. The whole idea of having three different societies Europe, Central America and South America is awesome. The diversity in culture, language, customs, way of life, food, mode of transport, and most of all the people.
            Life in Nairobi is rather faster than where I come from. The pace at which people move early in the morning to work is unbelievable it’s been a complete switch in all aspects and I am enjoying it.           Rather it has been challenging when it comes to spending money because when they realize that you can’t speak there language they use all sort of tricks to make you pay more than the actual fee. It happens in shops, matatus, bars, and kiosks. I have lost quite a lot of money but I was ‘consoled’ when these three lads from I.E university arrived coz I think these lads have lost close to a ‘billion dollars’. But as I have advanced with time I can now tell who wants to rip me off.
All in all I have no regrets being here, it has taught me to appreciate the value of the little we have back in Uganda. I guess I still have a lot to learn coz I am here for a long time (4 yrs), yes fours years and stop rising your eyebrows, its a short time.I guess that’s all for now and if you ever come to visit Nairobi please do make it a point to visit Uganda (Pearl of Africa).

Thank you Martin for your article!
See you around guys.

Hell’s Gate Experience

The second smallest national park in Kenya, but small we can’t call it. It’s

probably bigger than any of the national parks back where you are from and I can assure you it has nothing in common with the ones you are used to.

We got to visit this fantastic park thanks to our friend Jotham, who invited us and took us by car. As always you are charged here as a tourist, so you pay at least 4 or 5 times more than a local to enter, but in the end it is worth what you pay. The best thing is to hire a mountain

bike so you can get closer to the animals. While you pedal you have animals all around you, from the usual giraffe and zebra to the dangerous buffalo. This last animal is the scariest for locals, you may ask yourself why this is, since there are a lot scarier animals than these like lions and cheetahs. But the truth about these last ones is that they rarely attack humans as they are seen as normal by there eyes, buffalos are animals that protect their space and can attack you in any moment.

The most shocking thing about this park is that you have, after a few hundred meters, cliffs on both sides, which make the scenery even more spectacular. On these cliffs you can also see monkeys in their caves or hanging from trees.

After a long time cycling, you reach to what they call the Hodge, that is where you do a two-hour trekking through a dried up river. The trekking is sort of technical having to climb and even jump long distances. You do not know what you can find while doing this; we found two young kids that came out of nowhere and guided us during the trekking. They were two very nice Masai kids, with whom we took various photos without problems. They thought they were guiding us, but we knew exactly where to go.

After cycling back to the park entrance, we drove back to the city in exhaustion due to the long and tiring day.

Keep connected for more stories on this wonderful country.

ASANTI SANA (Thank you very much)

Kawanguare - Video

Check out how was our visit to Kawanguare, one of the slam areas of Nairobi, and know one of our friends Paul. Some parts of the video are hard to understand because of the noise but its hard to avoid noise in this kind of places. Give us feedback!

Muzungu II

Some people, and I do not want to generalize, think you are a billionaire and give out money for free because you are white. Every week we have people asking for something or trying to trick us in paying more in everything we want to buy.

People follow you around and play with your temper or just want to charge you more when you are buying things. For them we are money! You realize after giving sometimes something you are not thanked after. In my opinion there is a type of thought by these certain individuals where they think it’s your obligation to give them something since you are white and an outsider. If I had given what they have asked me to give on my trip until now we would have spent over a billion dollars.

On matatus, in shops, tourist office… we sometimes have to discuss prices because we see that the guy in front, paid three times less then what we are being charged, and we hate when people think you are dumb, or do not care. We dress worse than people here, but that does not help, what matters is the color of your skin.

Even when helping people in the organization where we work, we sometimes are asked for money by them or even wanted to do all the work without them helping, which in the end is for their own benefit. We have even been told that sometimes when organizing events that are free to assist they ask for money for assisting when it is for there own benefit.

To clarify this is not everyone, this is not the nice and loving Kenyans we have mostly met. We like the people that work and earn fairly what they have.

Masai Mara (Photos)

Here are the photos we took while our trip in Kenya. Stay close to read the article about the trip!
Click on them to watch them bigger.

Kawanguare - Preview

Francisco and Daniel went to know one of the biggest slams in Nairobi. This is just a little sample of what happend that day. On sunday we will show the whole story.

David's Video

I promised to preset you guys to David. Here is a video that he maid to win a Samsung competition, in which he got the third place and won a camera. In the video you can also see the handcrafted product that he makes. Let us know what do you think about the ornaments!

See you around guys.