People fly to this African country on safari or for the beaches of the Indian Ocean. Emilia Suprun went there to live with her husband. And I’m ready to share my impressions - both tourist and everyday ones...
My friend moved to live in the States, Spain, Cyprus... In general, this will not surprise anyone. How about moving to live in Kenya?! Agree, the solution at first glance is not the most logical. This state cannot be called prosperous, nor the safest.
Nevertheless. Emilia Suprun and her husband Roman have been living for a year in an African country, the name of which many of our compatriots associate with lions, elephants, rhinoceroses and other safari animals. The more interesting!
Emilia is ready to talk about what a person sees and feels when visiting Kenya for the first time, what tourists should do there and what they shouldn’t (in case you are planning to spend your vacation on a safari or on the beaches of the Indian Ocean).
In general, instead of stereotypical horror stories or lures of travel agency managers, here is the real experience of Russian Kenyans. The first part of Emilia's story seems very rosy. Well, well, this is the mood of a person who has lived under the sun for a whole year!... Let's see what happens next.
February morning. November was the same. Photo: Roman SUPRUN.
Life in the southern latitudes, like a drug, causes dependence on heat, sun and sea-ocean. Immediately and forever: smiling every day, you imagine with horror the prospect of returning to our gray and gloomy northern latitudes. Life in warm regions lures you into its net, making you fall in love at first sight with the blue sky, hot sun, inevitable palm trees and hospitable locals.
I also did not escape tropical fever, having first lived for four years in Egypt and then moved to Kenya.
I went to unravel the secrets of the Dark Continent, full of surprises, dangers and trials, and ended up in a country where life is calm, measured and safe. Living in a three-story villa with a swimming pool and an ocean view, at a rental price comparable to a one-room Khrushchev apartment in Moscow, it is almost impossible to maintain a pioneering mood.
It’s these kinds of photographs from national parks that tourists fly to Kenya for. Photo: Roman SUPRUN.
It’s funny to hear how people feel sorry for me, poor, forced to live in a hut and climb a palm tree for coconuts, while every morning they shovel snow from their cars, stand in endless traffic jams and try to choose from the many fruits and vegetables presented in supermarkets that are not frozen, ripe and fragrant.
BREAKFAST ON THE PALM
Yes, my breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner, do not grow on a palm tree, which I have to climb every day, risking my life. They lie peacefully, respectably and very boringly, as befits decent products, on the supermarket shelf
A Kenyan supermarket cannot be distinguished from one near Moscow - in the photo for sure. Photo: Roman SUPRUN.
There are three hypermarket chains in Kenya, Nakumatt, Naivas and Taskys, which provide a huge selection of fruits and vegetables, groceries, haberdashery, appliances, furniture and, in general, everything you can imagine on the shelves of any self-respecting large store.
In Mombasa (the second largest city in Kenya, located on the shores of the Indian Ocean, a shopping and tourist center - Ed.) there are many restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, there is even a bowling alley, go-karting and a 3D cinema. Not New York, not Moscow, but there is no danger to life due to poor infrastructure.
Our people also live in hot yellow Africa. Photo: Roman SUPRUN.
RUSSO TOURIST AND NON-TOURIST
About a hundred Russian-speaking residents live in Kenya, there is even an official head of the diaspora. Despite his impressive business, Alexander always tries to take time to get to know new arrivals and himself talks about local realities, helps in any way he can and advises on how to do what right.
There is a Russian travel company, a car service center, a security company, a swimsuit store, a beauty salon, car rental, a photo studio, a real estate agency - although Russian business is slowly but surely growing year after year, there are still enough free niches for every taste and budget.
There are only a few of us, so we all know each other, even if only through rumors, so when you arrive you can immediately find company.
But are such neighbors, I wonder, a plus or a minus of life in Kenya? Photo: Roman SUPRUN.
CAUTION MONKEYS!
“Some tourists ask us to organize armed guards for them. It feels like we’ve arrived in Chad! Yes, even hotel security here only have slingshots as weapons to scare away the monkeys!” Stanislava Reizin, a Russian guide in Kenya, is perplexed.
Rumors about the horrors of the Dark Continent are greatly exaggerated - at least, living in Mombasa and driving through national parks, I still have not noticed any threats to my beloved.
Yes, you shouldn’t walk alone in the dark along the streets on the outskirts of the city, using your IPhone to light your way... But even in your homeland, such an act would be, to put it mildly, imprudent, right?
And for some reason, media reports about the shootings do not mention that all the incidents occur on the borders with Somalia or Uganda, where semi-wild tribes live, periodically fighting over cows. But if you are of sound mind, there is no need to go to that desert, especially since in Kenya, in addition to the Indian Ocean, there are more than 50 national parks.
Nairobi is the capital of one of the fastest growing countries in East Africa. About 4 million people live here, half of them live in slums. In poor areas, unemployment reaches 40%. Many make money from robbery, prostitution and drug trafficking. There is no sewerage or water supply. How Kenyans live below the poverty line - Gallery of the Present Tense
A large number of slum dwellers are involved in criminal activities. These people produce homemade alcoholic drink "changaa" - an African version of moonshine. Translated from Swahili it means "kill me quickly"
Changuu is made from corn, special sorghum grass and aviation kerosene. After drinking 300-400 ml of the drink, a person loses consciousness, and the next day suffers from a severe hangover
The production of such drinks is considered illegal in Kenya. Police often raid slums to identify alcohol producers and sellers. In the photo - the moment of the arrest of one of the possible sellers of Changia
There are dozens of criminal gangs operating throughout Kenya. Often, ordinary residents become victims of shootings. The man's scar appeared after he was attacked by the local Macader gang. The criminals thought he was a police informer
Kenya is a former British colony. During the colonial period, local residents were forcibly converted to Christianity
Even after independence in 1963, about 78% of the population still professes Christianity.
The slums lack any sanitation. Garbage is not removed from there, so residents simply burn it
Houses in poor areas are made from trash, stolen materials and any other available materials. This is what fast food "restaurants" look like in the slums
This scene is quite common in low-lit slum areas: men helping each other inject heroin
According to estimates by the Kenyan government, there are about 600 thousand illegal firearms in the country. Slum dwellers often carry pistols for self-defense, but simple disputes often end in gunfire
Prostitution is one of the ways in which women and girls earn their living. Alice (left) is now 20 years old and has a child, whom she had at 15. Her husband was killed in a shooting just after the birth of her son. Left without a livelihood, she decided to engage in prostitution. Sitting next to the girl is 17-year-old Claire. She has been in this business for 3 years, but decided not to share her story.
People are often kidnapped for various reasons: from debt to sale into slavery. According to eyewitnesses, the man was thrown from a passing car at speed. Due to numerous injuries, he could barely stand on his feet.
However, the problem also lies with law enforcement agencies. Ordinary Kenyans complain that in most cases crimes remain unsolved, and sometimes the police are even aggressive towards people. Officers, in turn, say that they also regularly face violence
In the photo, relatives and friends carry the coffin with the body of Jackson Mula, who died at the hands of police officer. Jackson's loved ones say he was shot by an undercover police officer in a Nairobi market.
It was sad to leave this beautiful country. “I wanted only one thing,” Hemingway wrote, “to return to Africa. We hadn’t left here yet, but waking up at night, I lay there, listened and was already yearning for her... Now, living in Africa, I greedily tried to take as much as possible from her - the change of seasons, the rains, when I don’t have to move with places to places, the inconveniences you pay to experience it in its entirety, the names of trees, small animals and birds; know the language, have enough time to understand it all and take your time. All my life I have loved countries: the country is always better than the people.”
About travel, hitchhiking and a little about Africa
Sun 21 Dec 2014
Notre vie est un voyage
Dans l'hiver et dans la nuit
Nous cherchon notre passage
Dans le ciel ou rien ne luit.
Traveling is easy and pleasant, you just need to close your eyes.
I go out onto the highway through the city, no matter where, in China or India or Burma - people are busy with their daily affairs, evening, sun, road, trees growing along the sides, riding on the roof of a truck, wind in my face, I close my eyes.
1997 - I travel alone for two weeks to the capital of Tibet - Lhasa from Chengdu along the highest mountain road in the world: on foot, in the back of a truck, wind, rain, cold. Finally, I get to Jokhang, the main monastery in the center of Lhasa. All day I sit at the entrance, watching people passing by me. Overnight - right there on the square in a sleeping bag. In order to get to Tibet for the second time a year later, my wife and I walked around the Chinese post near Golmud, at night we tried to catch a ride - some drunken company of Chinese - probably only they could stop us in such a place. Hello Lhasa - we are going west to Ali, Kashgar, we have lost our rugs, it is hard to sleep in sleeping bags in the open air in Tibet without them, then we also traveled without a tent, sometimes we walk 50-60 kilometers a day - there are no cars. In front of Kashgar we are driving in a convoy with the military, a mudflow destroyed 30 km of the road, rain, next to Mount K2, a mountain river, we make our way along the slopes of the mountains, our hands are bleeding, it’s very dangerous to go, we rejoice at the corn cakes charred on the fire, two days and we are in Kashgar , the Chinese visa has expired, we’re heading to Urumqi, we sleep on the lawn in the city - we’ve lost our camera, film and shoes - it’s a pity for the photographs - barefoot on the highway to Khorgos.
America, San Francisco, if you choose a place of residence, of course there, although no - now I will choose Africa. Work in an apartment cleaning company, work in a hospice for AIDS patients, because sometimes people die. Hitchhiking from the West Coast to the East Coast - from San Francisco to Miami, Key West, New York. Night, a truck driver plays the harmonica and steers his car with his feet at a speed of 120 km per hour, he is probably a little crazy, a woman is the driver of a huge truck “No guns, no drugs.” Night on the lawn near the supermarket, we are not visible, a black man is selling drugs nearby, he saw us: What are you doing here? Did you see anything? - Nothing, man. Key West is the southernmost point of the USA, 90 miles to Cuba, we hide at night so that the police don’t burn us down, we sleep under the benches in the summer cinema, during the day we move around the city with a stroller from the supermarket so as not to carry backpacks. A woman every day goes out onto the highway near her town, sits and waits for something or someone, sometimes someone gives her a lift, but she always comes back. A year later, work again there in San Francisco, some money and another trip - already to Mexico, Guatemala - the pyramids of Teotivacan, Palenque, Tikal, sun, ocean, Sol beer, Corona, dancing, small Mexican towns with a church in the central square, evening, people are walking. In Palenque there is a children's costume competition, a little boy in a rabbit costume is crying - he took last place, rabbits are not popular in Mexico, there is a German who gives us a ride to the waterfalls - twenty years ago he went to Mexico for a month and stayed there forever - now he bought a paraglider , takes people over waterfalls. Back to San Francisco when there was one dollar left between us, New York - my wife and I and two of our friends from Moscow ended up in this city simultaneously and independently of each other. One works as a dancer in a strip club, the other is a programmer. Meeting friends, night - driving to Niagara Falls, a couple of cases of beer, fell asleep on the lawn near the waterfalls, morning - tourists around, lying on the grass, hangover. It’s better to look at the waterfalls from Canada, we leave the USA, walk across the bridge, the Canadians turn us back to the USA - they don’t have a Canadian visa, oh well, but we looked at the waterfall from the bridge, it’s beautiful...
India - 100 rupees ($2.5) per day for three - my wife and I and our friend - his first trip abroad. Three months of hitchhiking: India, Nepal, India again, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia. In Allahabad, once every 12 years, people gather for the Kumble Mela holiday to swim naked in the Holy River Ganges. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people from all over India gather in the city, it is impossible to pass, the roads are blocked, people are even hanging on the roofs of trains. We got there by chance, one guy asked us at Main Bazaar in Delhi: have you come to Kumble Mela? That's how we found out about the holiday and went there. Then Varanasi, which is not far. Crowds of people walk along the streets, there are too many people in one city, they distribute free bread, pour tea, this is important for us, there is less and less money. Periodically, people run past, carrying the dead on stretchers to the shore to be burned. Strange city. Then we go to Kathmandu, then to Darjeeling. Toy train to Darjeeling - we spend the night with the team of workers of this train, they offer to go on it in the morning, thank you, no need, it’s too slow 70 km in 10 hours, walking faster, mistake - at the same time as the train we enter Darjeeling in the evening on a truck with crushed stone, we sit in the back of the car on the rocks, mountains, beauty, you just have to hold on tight so as not to fall. Stop to Calcutta, before the city we took the train, at the station my wife faints, it’s too stuffy, I pour water on her, my friend yells - that’s all, damn it, your savings, okay, let’s take a hotel for the day, my wife - no need, she’s recovered. Puri, the temple of the sun, the ocean, a tent on the shore, a week of rest, at night - the sound of the waves, an obsession - like the water is approaching, at night we can be covered by a wave... At night my wife wakes me up and makes me count the number of steps to the water. We decide to celebrate our last day on the ocean in a cafe, by the way, for the first time in India, before that we cooked on a primus stove ourselves, okay, let’s have a blast, we spend a long time choosing the fish that will be cooked for us. We are heading back to Delhi, in one town we spend the night on a railway platform, in the morning we found a dead cow on the rails near us, already swollen, but not interfering with the movement of trains, the locals “suddenly” also notice it, they fiddle for a long time to lift the carcass onto the platform, We cook breakfast on the primus and watch, a pleasant sight. Obtaining a visa to Iran in Delhi, visiting our embassy, to obtain a letter of recommendation for the Iranian embassy, ours extort money, I demand a meeting with the consul, okay, the consul - some person comes, I say, the consul, although he is just a clerk at the embassy, I say (yell): Do you think that we are idiots? I need a consul - okay, wait. While the screaming continues, my wife and our friend are quietly and peacefully snoring in chairs in the corridor - tired after the stop from Puri. The consul comes - okay, let’s give you your passports, we’ll write you letters of recommendation - wow! what are your last names? Yes, your relatives are looking for you in Moscow, there was an earthquake right there, we didn’t know anything, a week on the ocean shore in Puri. That's how they found us. Cool. By the way, it’s the same at our embassy in Nepal, where we received a letter of recommendation to the Pakistani embassy for a visa. Amritsar, the Golden Temple, is eaten simultaneously by hundreds of different people who find themselves in this place. You reach out with two hands, and a warm and tasty flatbread falls onto your palms. For us, free food is simply a necessity - for a month and a half of travel through Pakistan and Iran, there was only $50 left for three of us. We live for several days in the Golden Temple - a magical place. Pakistan - during a month of traveling around this wonderful country, we spent the night in a tent only a couple of times, we didn’t need money at all, oriental hospitality works. A small town near the Afghan border, we spend the night with the police, late in the evening there is shooting, the police are blown up and go to the mountains, the shooting subsides, they return, the chief of police tells us - it’s good that I dissuaded you from going there in the evening, you’re lucky, you’ll go in the morning when it’s calm , reads his poems to us in English before bed. Iran. Night highway, our truck is rushing along it, the driver asks my friend - what do you do? - also a driver, but in Moscow - great, then get behind the wheel - we swapped - the Iranian sits next to me, takes out a small Primus stove, puts it on my knees, lights it, heats up the knitting needle, a small ball, through the handle we inhale opium with him in turn, driver to my friend - try to slow down - it doesn’t work, what the hell? – don’t be afraid, the brakes will work on the third pump – damn, you need to warn! A few years later, I return to this country with my one-year-old son and wife - super!
I discovered a short route to Southeast Asia: Kazakhstan-China (Urumqi - Lanzhou - Chengdu - Kunming) and then to Laos or Burma, then to Thailand, Malaysia, etc., perhaps through Vietnam and Cambodia. My wife and I traveled for several years in a row, for three months at a time, usually from November to February. Kunming - Mandalay we cross the border into Burma by land - there is no information, but still we get to Burma from China by land, the golden triangle, Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake, Yangon - we spend the night in temples. Literally fell in love with this country, an ordinary truck driver gives us a lift, shows us his diary - there are his poems in English, reflections on his life, I remember “in a person’s life there are two things that cannot be acquired, they can only be spent - these are love and time " We climb to a sacred place in Burma - a falling stone - we spend half a day climbing up the mountains with my wife, women are not allowed to touch the stone. A couple of years later I’m returning to Burma on bikes from India with a friend. We celebrate New Year 2007 on the seashore, live on the shore in a tent for several days, play football with the locals, discover the local Sky beer - straight from the palm tree, fresh, super! Thailand is cool to rest there for a couple of weeks after hitchhiking from Russia; stopping there is very easy, probably the easiest in the world. The best place in Thailand is Koh Tarutao National Park - several islands in the southwest of Thailand near the border with Malaysia. My wife and I set up a tent in a national park near Hua Hin on the east coast, evening, sea, fire - no one, strange, only arrogant dogs begging us for food, the next day we learn about the tsunami, donate blood for the victims. China, the money is completely gone, we sing Russian folk songs on the street, some yuan for beer. Every time we make the return journey from Thailand to China in the winter, usually in February, from Kunming it starts to get a little colder, towards Urumqi it gets really bad -30 below zero, of course there is no money left for the return trip, like 10 - 20 $ for two for the whole of China from Laos to Kazakhstan, it’s hard to spend the night in a tent at -20 below zero - we take advantage of the hospitality of the Chinese or the warm buildings of railway stations, it’s warm at night, and you can wash yourself. The Chinese have the best food in the world, and the concept that travelers need to be fed (with delicious food) too. True, driving is not very good, a truck, a tired driver - at full speed we crash into another truck standing by the side of the road, the cab is crushed, I fly out of the front window, ... Three weeks in a Chinese hospital, my wife injured her knee, we return home by train.
Africa. I’m discovering this continent, using a bicycle instead of hitchhiking. Nature, wild animals. People... there is no clear feeling from Africa yet, I’m hooked, I want to come back again. People are hardy, patient, friendly, silently enduring difficulties, many children around, illnesses, people with weapons, a lot of sun. We're drinking with Russian pilots at the Four Turkeys bar - the main place for hiring prostitutes in Entebbe - we're also sick of Africa, we've been here for 10 years, buy a plot of land on the lake, build a house, why not? They work for the Ugandan army, they fight with Joseph Kony, already on the territory of the Central African Republic, there are weapons there, back there are jerboas (that’s what they call corpses), Ugandan soldiers die from malaria, drown in rivers, die in shootouts. They want to give Josef an orange T-shirt so as not to accidentally kill him, some are at war, and some are his own mother. Nightlife – Nairobi, Lodwar, Jinja, Kampala, Entebbe,.. Dancing until the morning, all wet with sweat, completely dissolving in the crowd of dancing people. Kenya, small town of Lodwar in the very northwest, nightclub. A couple of hours ago I returned from Lokichogio, the border with South Sudan, my companions refused to accompany me here, they stayed overnight in the guesthouse, citing fatigue. Another bottle of beer is running low. Someone shouts something in my ear, I nod in response, barely understanding what they are talking about. I move to the beat of the music, a local girl is trying to teach me to dance and asks me something. A crowd of people moves in some strange dance, I am just a small part of it all.
One, two, on the count of three I wake up. Moscow, the metro, everything around is somehow unreal, gray, people are fussing around, running somewhere. I open my eyes.
Door to summer
Mon 15 Dec 2014
"In any place you will find only what you took with you"
In the back of the world, like Europe... I probably wouldn’t take so much with me there. It wouldn’t fit on a plane, a bus, or a car.
These are not the best of times in Kenya. The country, which has a well-developed livestock industry, is experiencing its worst drought in the last hundred years. In addition, the country is severely overpopulated, which in turn prompts many tribes to fight for resources and territory. The tribes that settled near Lake Turkana and began to engage in fishing, practically ceasing to engage in livestock farming, will soon begin to look for a new place to live, because dams have begun to be built near the lake for a hydropower development project in Kenya. Celebrity photographer Brent Stirton traveled to Kenya to take these images, showing the world how the country is experiencing its worst drought in years.
1. Many skeletons lie under the scorching sun at the site of a cattle slaughter that belongs to the Pokot tribe, Kenya.
2. The shepherd sits on the site of his burnt hut.
3. Place for slaughtering cattle, top view.
4. The soldier is looking for suspects who are hiding from the law and weapons in the houses of the Samburu tribe.
5. A Kenyan soldier guards the herd that the Rendili tribe stole from the Borana tribe.
6.
7. After livestock seizures began in Koya territory, this place turned into a deserted desert.
8. The Ewaso Nyiro River is the only big river in the entire country.
9. Houses in the Rift Valley.
10. Watering goats.
11. Shepherds who illegally graze their cattle in the Mara National Reserve wake up very early.
12. Farmers are working in a corn field.
13. A small town on the outskirts of the National Park.
14. Masai tribe.
15. School.
16. Children of the Masai tribe at boarding school.
17. A shepherd covered in flies early in the morning in the National Nature Reserve.
18. Small hospital. The main patients are children with malaria and pneumonia.
19. Maasai warriors walk through their land.
20. Sometimes shepherds work as cooks for visiting tourists.
21. The rest are trying to entertain tourists by dancing.
22. Top view of the houses where tourists stay.
23. Saruni Lodge is considered a luxury getaway in Kenya.
24. The Kibera slum that you see in the picture is considered the largest in Kenya.
25. Mosque in the city of Kajaho.
26. Somali and Kenyan schoolgirls go to school.
27. And here is a general view of Lake Turkana.
28. Cattle graze near Lake Turkana.
29. Dassanekh tribe.
30. Children swim in Lake Turkana.
31. Circumcision ceremony in the Dassanekh tribe.
32. Circumcision ceremony.
33. Telapia fish, which is caught in the waters of Lake Turkana.
34. Before fishing, you need to prepare your nets.
35. Telapia fish lies in a pot, which stands neatly on the woman’s head.
36. Work at archaeological excavations.
37.
38. A worker stretches after several hours of work.
39.
40. A woman is worried about her daughter who has epilepsy.
41. Workers are repairing a windmill that delivers water to the city of Ileret.
42. Lectures by the peacekeeping contingent for the Dabra and Dasenech tribes.
43. Omo River.
44. Shepherds wash in the river.
45. Warriors of the Kamo tribe are preparing for clashes with warriors of the Bume tribe for ownership of lands along the Omo River.
46. Kamo tribe warrior at the firing line.
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