Big Change!
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…
Tags: kenya
vagabondrick
Rick, It is wonderful when one of the light bulbs come on and that part of the future becomes crystal clear! I think you are absolutely doing the right thing to go for it with Pamela!!! I’m sure you will make the best decisions possible as you go forward with a new life. I am seriously considering a return to Kenya and Tanzania next year so maybe our paths will cross again. Best to you and Pamela.
hello vagabond rick! It’s Danielle from the Tanzania group with marion, jessica et al from June 06 (God, was it that long ago?) Hope you are getting and enjoying my emails, just sent some photos of my S America/Antarctica trip. How many countries are you at now? I just read the last few of your blogs as Marion said you were with someone called Pamela in Nairobi and I didn’t know who Pamela was. I’ll have to go back a bit. I enjoyed your pollution and crazy driving stories, can’t remember what made me laugh but it’s a pleasure to read your observations. I’m sure you have had innumerable adventures by now, good for you! I agree mideasterners are very hospitable. Question: in a country such as Yemen, where women have to wear burquas, what about foreign women? Would I have to wear one? I don’t think I could visit if I had to.
Better run, have to go pick Rachel up from daycare. I have been home from work nursing a foreign stomach thing I picked up from somewhere and am also wondering how you manage to keep going – don’t you get sick?
take care,
Danielle
great stuff Rick, am really pleased you have settled in your mind on this. after the last post i was starting to imagine you like the littlest hobo or bruce banner at the end of each incredible hulk episode. i hope it all works out for you, it was mine and Gem’s second anniversary yesterday – seems like only yesterday we were all in Tanzania together
all the very very best wishes from Manchester
Ben
Dearest Rick: I am so glad to hear of your decision and frankly think you made the right choice. (It sure would be nice if Pamela could attend Jillians wedding too) So you are no longer vagabond but testing the waters Rick! Give my regards to Pamela and her son (sorry forgot the name) too.
Rick – this is great news! Figured the journalists were having afield day with the Kenya upheavals. Although our friend Isaac in Kampala has had an influx of refugee children from Kenya – and prices of staples in Uganda have gone sky high because access is by truck through Kenya and that was disrupted for quite a time.
Best wishes from the three of us – please get in touch when you get back to the northeast next. Love to see you and your sister. And if Pamela were able to come that would be fabulous.
Anita, John and Alex
Hi Rik,
Please can you help me? I am a wwoofer from the UK, and I am trying to get in touch with a farm in Cameroon. I have read your post about being near Kribi. I too want to go there, but the details I have off the wwoof website are wrong; the email and telephone numbers simply don’t work. If you could dig out your contact details I would be most grateful.
Your travels look amazing, well done you!
Yours hopefully,
Jack
>>kathy C Says:
>>Give my regards to Pamela and her son >>(sorry forgot the name) too.
c’mon Kathy C – it’s Beckham – how could you forget that !!! :o)
rick-
i’ve been getting caught up with you via this amazing technology. i am amazed at your journey and the idea that you could be in kenya for some time. happy, happy, happy for you. hoping to see you in the not too distant future in this continent or that.
besos,
safini
p.s. i’m googleable now.