"There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it."

5/21/2011. En Route from Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania

Charles Dudley Warner was right, but by no means did I originally perceive this journey to be a pilgrimage. But as is with all things in life, perception constantly shifts according to your evolving past, present, and future.

As I said before, our journey/my pending pilgrimage began at a Jesuit University. I could totally try to think of a philosophical segue to match Jesuit principles with my forthcoming mindset of a pilgrim, but I'm not going to. Here's the entrance to our floor of the building, safety first I guess (until we realized that we were being locked in not out... to keep the bad guys out or the good souls in, I still can't tell):

Pretty bars, I bet if prisons used these the inmates would be in much better moods

I was pretty exhausted at this point, so specific details on how we got on the bus that would take us from Nairobi, Kenya to Arusha, Tanzania are a bit fuzzy, but it happened. Here's a picture of our packs at the bus stop in Nairobi:

I enjoy packing gear and doing inventory of all my travel/survival shit

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again... I love bus rides, car rides, boat rides, any sort of ride. The rougher the road, the better. I didn't sleep a wink during the 4 hour ride, but why would I. I had been waiting for this my entire life, a chance to see with my own eyes what Africa has to offer. And god did it deliver. Here's a view of the countryside at one of the stops we made:

Arrow's pointing the wrong way. Paradise Gallery is literally anywhere and everywhere you turn your head.

This particular rest stop was cute and friendly, and if I remember correctly, this is where our group made its first souvenir purchase (my friend Tyler bought a Massai knife). The vegetation here was everything I had hoped it to be... lush, green, novel to my eyes but again strangely familiar.

One of the more beautiful rest stops I've ever been to.

My friend Rajeev and I

My other two friends who happen to be engaged now, Tyler and Annie

Cool paintings on the back of the building, my question is why would you put these in the back?

Back on the bus, heading full speed ahead to Arusha. Here are some quick thoughts I jotted down during our bumpy drive (it was a nightmare to decipher what the hell I actually wrote): "Some of the trees here look like spindly brown fingers that sprang up from the ground to balance fuzzy green dinner plates. Clouds of dusty red smoke rise slowly above the savanna from both the feet of local tribesmen and from the hoofs of the cows they herd. Tribal women walk near the side of the road wearing shiny silver jewelry and vibrant-colored clothing. It's the little things like these that I have to remember, I cannot forget these little things..."

One of the highlights of the drive was when we saw a giraffe just chillin' on the side of the road. But actually, for me, this evoked an opposite reaction to everyone else. We all scrambled on one side of the van to try and get a good look/picture of the beautiful animal (including me), but amidst all the excitement and pointing, I couldn't help but think that this shouldn't be as rare of a sighting as it is. I don't know, I just had a sudden overwhelming sense of sadness after seeing that lone giraffe. Pathetic maybe, but the fact of the matter is biodiversity is decreasing exponentially in Africa thanks to human interference. And I absolutely despise this.

Live on dude, may you never see people again!

 Alright, it's time for me to continue on with my day, so unfortunately I won't be able to finish this post. But I'll update as soon as I have some more time.

Forgotten First Impressions

"Initial thoughts on Africa (Nairobi, Kenya): Reminds me a lot of San Juan, Costa Rica (I'm not much of a world traveler yet, so I can't compare what I see to what's beyond my breadth of current knowledge and understanding). Streets are well-paved, signs are bright and clean, but there is something about my surroundings that continuously reminded me that I am far from home. My first "wow I'm in Africa" moment came when I saw the color of the dirt. Weird, I know, but it's true. The color of the earth here is more reddish than any other country I've been to, rawer and more familiar in a way.

More things to observe... They drive on the wrong (beg pardon, I mean "wrong") side of the street. Our driver listens to Lady Gaga and Kanye. Remnants of smog are visible under the street lights. Urbanization comes with a price; this is unbelievably selfish for me to say, but I hope there will always be parts of Africa that remain close to mother earth."

Shall I Recommence?

5/21/2011. 12:15am. Nairobi, Kenya.

"Well, we made it. I'm sitting at a desk in my own private room on the top floor of a Jesuit University (yep, we spent our first night in Africa at a Jesuit University). It's been an incredible journey so far, and we've only just embarked."

A little figurine my dad got me from Singapore before I left for Africa. Our family's big into traveling.

Where did I leave off? Ah yes, we had just finished proving our pompous independence and Americanized youth by desecrating London's most prized landmarks. I'm still not quite sure how we managed to catch our 5:30am train back to Heathrow, but we did. And a good thing too, because I'm about to recount to you the most tantalizingly liberating and ethereally invigorating experiences of my life. And I'm not just talking about summiting Kilimanjaro.

British Airways took us the rest of the way from London to Nairobi. Not much to recollect here, I slept through 99% of the 8hr 15min flight again, and again I became cranky upon the realization that I had missed the Cajun Chicken dinner.
I somehow always manage to wake up whenever the captain (supposedly) announces their initial descent (I can NEVER understand what the damn pilots are saying; ENUNCIATE for crying out loud, the speaker systems are bad enough as it is without you people forcibly commanding your lips to move as little as audibly possible). So I was lucky enough to be awake for my own personal descent into Africa. It was a monumental moment for me; I had dreamed about coming to Africa for years, and it was finally happening. [Unfortunately we arrived in Nairobi at 9pm, so strictly visually speaking this touchdown was not dissimilar to any of my other evening flights. But the skidding tension of wheels against an airport runway had never elicited such raw emotions than that night, such overwhelming... overwhelming... something. A convoluted array of excitement, precursory fulfillment, a somewhat dispersed sense of anticipation, joy... I suppose the best way to describe it is to simply say that it was personal. Complexly personal.]

Moving on, how was Nairobi International Airport? I think it was exactly what I expected it to be; not unpleasant, but no overtly welcoming either. I didn't feel particularly vulnerable, but considering Nairobbery's infamous reputation (Nairobi+Robbery=Nairobbery for those of you who don't follow), we were very glad that Solomon's friend Paul (who very quickly became our friend Paul) was kind enough to meet us at the airport. The 6 of us clambered into a sizable van that was relatively small when you consider how much gear we had per person. After Tetris-ing our bags and bodies to just barely fit inside the van, our openly friendly and talkative driver Alex took us to grab a small dinner before retiring to our Jesuit home-away-from-home. This quick bite was our first meal in Africa, and I must say it was both anticlimactic and disappointingly ironic: first drink I had in Africa = orange Fanta; first meal I had in Africa = fried chicken and fries. There appears to be no escaping Westernization.

"It is now 1:53am, and I must sleep. Tomorrow we meet Paul at 8am then venture off to Arusha, Tanzania at 1pm. It's surreal, I'm writing in my journal in Africa. S-u-r-r-e-a-l."