East Africa beat...
My trip has been awesome… No words to describe what is happening inside me.
I am writing all this in my laptop, since the access to internet has been one of my biggest headaches, but also one of the few ones.
Kenya end up being quite an experience. I got a digital camera to have pics of my experience, but it seems life wants me to keep those memories in my mind. I lost my camera in a ‘matatu’ that is the name that Kenyans give to their small buses for public transportation. By the way I want to highlight that ‘I lost it’, I’ve never being mugged until now and not even close to be, I don’t know if it is because AIESEC members over protect me or just because Africa is not the dangerous place that people picture us on TV all the time. I prefer to think that is because of the second option.
View of Nairobi - Kenya
Kenya is definitely crossing for a transition period and the future for the country looks promising. People are getting more and more aware of their responsibility towards their country and this is especially strong in youth. I was amazed by their perspectives and their passion about that future. They are definitely building themselves to be the leaders of a much better nation.
The time to travel to Uganda arrived; I took my plain to Entebbe. The trip was short, however in the flight I was able to see the Lake Victoria and the landscape was an image of a paradise!!!
Nobody was waiting for me at the airport :(
They arrived almost one hour late, but their reception was unique.
Uganda is more green that the part of Kenya that I was able to see since it rains very often. We traveled immediately to Kampala which is the capital of the country.
Fruit seller
Kampala is build in a continues chain of hills – completely the opposite of Nairobi that is in a plain. Most of the hills have their own name, even the University of Makerere is all built in a complete hill! The soil is red and plants completely green which gives the city a special touch.
Uganda is an extremely religious country – no matter what your religion is, you are very influenced by it in different ways. The nice part is that this doesn’t create any barriers within the people but creates a completely homophobic nation, which is the bad part.
Everybody seems happy and smiley, quite an unexpected detail.
I just loved the food!!! Loads of plantain, cassava and beef!!! By the way in East Africa fried beef is not fried beef (I was expecting a fried steak) but a kind of soup with beef pieces on it, imagine my face when I asked for it (picturing my teeth in the meat) and imagine my face when I received my dish, a whole poem… Anyway the taste was awesome and I kept asking for that dish in the following days.
Members of AIESEC Uganda, 'Matatu' at the back
The days in Uganda pass by like in a second, and I ended up feeling for second time like I don’t want to leave as it did happened in Kenya. I took my plain to Tanzania, of course after having visa issues and missing my plain, paying the bills for change of ticket with money that I didn’t have since in Uganda no ATM receives ‘maestro’ debit card, so if you are planning to go to Uganda take precautions in this matter :)
Once I arrived to Dar es Salaam the capital of Tanzania, the music was all around. The first thing that came to my mind was the color. The colors of Africa are many and they change everything around. Nairobi was brown, Kampala was red and now Dar es Salaam was pale gray since the soil is sand because the city is at the coast in front of the sea.
The smell of the sea captured me during my stay in Tanzania. The world moves very slowly in Tanzania and that gives you a lot of time to get in touch with the heart of the people, the city and the country itself.
I kept myself being positively surprised by the development around. Africa is not like CNN and BBC picture it. I do not deny that there is poverty, but there is also a part of these cities that is moving forward, big buildings, wide avenues, parks, businesses, it is not like you are getting in a jungle. They are cities like any other city in the world, with one big difference: you can feel them alive! That sensation touches your heart.
Life is in every corner of East Africa, drums, music, people, kids, plants, food and matatus (by the way in Uganda people call taxis the matatus and ‘special hire’ the taxis, while in Tanzania they call ‘dala dala’ the matatus because at the beginning the original fare for taking a matatu was one dollar → ‘dala’).
'Dala Dala' from Zanzibar. The moto taxi is called 'boda boda', there is this extrange trend to repeat words :)
East Africans are very proud of their continent, of their part of their continent and of their countries. They know their history, they really know it. They understand the implications of the past in their today and a whole new generation of people is starting to wake up to the fact that they need to build their solutions by themselves.
I had the chance to meet with people from all sectors of society in these three countries. From CEOs of one billion dollar companies to small HIV/AIDS NGOs workers, from University Deans to Banks managers. All of them agreed in just one thing: the solutions for African problems lie within Africa itself. I am discovering the same.
I thought that the process of getting into Africa will be hard, but is happening very smoothly. I feel I melt with the surroundings and fade slowly until almost becoming one more in the crowd. Suddenly the screams of little kids on the streets woke me up when they said: ‘muzungu, muzungu’ which means white man, and the enchant of being one more African is over.
In Uganda I face one of my unknown prejudices. Kids where surrounding me saying ‘muzungu, muzungu’ and I tried to avoid them since I though they were going to ask me for money, but they just kept saying ‘muzungu’ and shaking their hands saying hi. I just smiled to all of them and said ‘hi’, they all laughed to death and run back to continue playing what they were playing before. I was wrong, they just wanted to say hi and welcome me. How stupid 'muzungu' can be, isn't?
They look at the camera of the 'Muzungu'
I asked myself how many times in life I didn’t allow myself to experience such nice moments because of my paradigms. I stopped counting and decided to be more conscious next times, definitely ‘muzungu’ is a land mark for me and my life.
Thanks East Africa I hope to return to you soon!
