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Big Change!

Friday, April 4th, 2008

I am writing from my apartment in Nairobi, Kenya.  Yes, you read this correctly!  I suppose anyone who does not know me may think I just made a rash change going to Oman from Dubai and in one day aborting Oman and my whole trip to relocate to Nairobi, Kenya (aren’t they murdering each other there?!).  But if you know me then you know that whatever I decided to do was based on a long time of thinking.  Things started to go awry with the trip after separating from Pamela in November after seeing Kenya and Uganda with her.  All of a sudden I had something else going on in life which became increasingly more important to me than travel.  The violence in Kenya around the beginning of the New Year really pissed me off because that made any thoughts I had about settling in Kenya seem pretty stupid.  I was busy enough in CAR in January to just shelve it all.  Then I had seven great weeks with Pamela including a return to Kenya where I found things back to normal.  The more I read about Kenya’s problems the more I realized I had allowed myself to be douped by the media (even when I know better!) to believe there was some widespread catastrophy in the culture of Kenya.  The real problem was just a small minority of very horrible people that did some horrible things which enthralled the world and its media outlets.  So by time I left Kenya about three weeks ago, I had fallen more in love with Pamela, felt good about being in Kenya and its future, started to really like Nairobi as a great city and I was wondering if I should be leaving.

I enjoyed my time in Yemen (I still have stories to post soon), but I was sick there from the pollution which made me doubly question my trip.  Then Iran fell through.  Then I was back in Dubai where I certainly did not want to be.  And then there was Oman where I was excited to see some sites, but when they started quoting me about $500 a day for a driver and vehicle I totally balked.  In the meantime, I was thinking about getting back to Kenya and starting a new life.  I was also becoming VERY sick of hotel and restaurant life and staying in crappy places or spending way too much money for a nice place (and of course the worst is too much money for a crappy place!!!!).  It all came to a head and I woke up with a pretty clear answer to the whole mess – leave Oman, fly back to Kenya and try living there.  So I have done just that getting a short-term furnished apartment in Nairobi with Pamela and we are working on a business venture involving development of land that she owns near Mt Kenya. 

In June, I plan to be in Borneo and Vietnam with my friend Rod and some other folks.  I also have a kayak trip in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in October.  In between, I will be in Kenya and maybe America plus I will get back to America for my niece, Jillian’s, wedding in November and probably be there through NYE.  I was suppose to be in Chile in January and I think I will just let that one float as a possibility for now.  I’ll deal with things like a more permanent home in Kenya as things go well.  And if they don’t go well then I come up with another plan.  So the trip goes on, but I am no longer homeless!  Kenya is a very good place to see a lot of the world from.  Kenya has a very bright future and we’ll test the waters to see if that future includes me and whether or not Pamela and I make a great couple.  I figure that no matter what happens, this is a good way to go about it – a commitment, but not too much of a commitment until I am ready.  I guess the blog can now carry on for the travel as well as what it is like for mzungu to start living in Kenya.  Stay tuned for Yemen stuff and I still have a lot to say about the Kenya trip from last November…

Burned Out?

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

I may have over-cooked.  I don’t want to be in Oman.  I don’t want to be anywhere near where I am.  I am working on getting back to Nairobi.  I’m not sure if the trip is over.  I reserve the right to think about it 🙂  Will keep you posted.  I think the 3.5 months in Africa, three weeks zipping through America and 2-3 more months in Africa and Yemen caught up with me.  Being with Pamela for seven weeks and then not is compounding all of it.