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Another relaxing Sunday spent in the summer winds of Kisumu, though it started earlier than I had hoped as I inexplicable awoke before sunrise! While on the phone the night previous (or yesternight, as it is referred to here), I had run out of Safaricom shillings and needed to go into town to buy more, since I was expecting Beldina to call when she was downstairs to pick me up for church (I mentioned this yesterday…have you been reading?) Thinking I would be oh-so-coordinated, I got completely ready for church and headed into town, hoping to buy airtime and get a decent cup of coffee at the Kenshop Internet Café – it’s also an inexpensive internet option if I’m just checking facebook or email, too cumbersome for photos or posting though. Alas, not much is open early on a Sunday morning in Kisumu, a lesson I apparently didn’t learn well enough last week. I returned to the guest house to partake of the breakfast they offered there. Confusion reigned supreme when I decided I needed some milk. I tried to order the special with coffee and milk. “So, I bring you white tea?” Thanks, but try again, I was trying to get a cup of coffee and a cup of milk. “So, I bring you white coffee?” Again, no, and I had to use to gestures to indicate two separate drinking vessels, one with coffee, one with milk. And before you ask, this wasn’t a language thing. She spoke perfect English. It was more a cultural thing, but how large a cultural thing I didn’t realize until she brought me hot water, instant coffee and a cup of warm milk. The instant coffee I was expecting, hence the reference to the decent cup of coffee at the Kenshop. What I failed to remember is that no one drinks cold milk here. Aaarrgh. Beldina was as frustrated as I was when I told her the story ;)


With my stomach full of increasingly milky coffee, I headed to church. Wow, what a difference a week makes. Beldina now attends the Christ Church of Kisumu, and other than a belief in Jesus Christ, the two churches couldn’t be more dissimilar. We walked in during the music section, which I later found out is called the Worship. Very Sandi Patti-esque. [I was trying to think of some other singers of 70s-80s contemporary Christian music and realized I couldn’t]. The pastor of the church is an American who brought his family to Kisumu in 1995; some of the children have returned for college, but his oldest daughter leads the Worship and has a fairly riff-y gospel voice for such a white girl ;-).

Of course, they make visitors stand and be recognized, you must know how I loved that. The offering is done very publicly – no pass-the-basket for these folks – the baskets are at the front of the church and everyone has to leave their seat to contribute, and don’t pretend people aren’t watching. Today’s sermon (not sure if that’s the right phrase) was about building strong relationships with God and with each other. A simple enough concept, but a theme that got drummed to death for about an hour and a half. It gave me time to sit and reflect on faith and spirituality and my grasp on the concepts. Fairly soul-searching stuff, and not entirely appropriate for this blog, but I did spend some time jotting in my personal journal. Oh, which reminds me, people were taking notes during the sermon! At the conclusion of church, Beldina introduced me to everyone we ran into. One of her church members is head nurse at Kisumu District Hospital, and plans were started for me to observe some operations there, perhaps this week.

We went to lunch, where we lamented that no one in Kisumu has figured out what a hamburger really is. Then, she dropped me off at Impala Park Sanctuary. Only a brief description, and then some photos. Probably more to be posted on Facebook later. First, the reason I wanted to go to the park: during my boat ride two weeks ago we saw a clearing through to the shore, and there were people strolling about with impala grazing around them. The guide books had warned that it was not such a fantastic “zoo” with animals in small cages, etc. But, given the free roaming impala, I was willing to give it a chance. [By the way, Beldina confirmed that it has only been recently that they have enlarged the animal enclosures, and that it was truly sad as recently as last year. Haunting memories of the Anchorage Zoo, circa 2001]

Immediately upon entering the park, the impala are everywhere, and generally not too skittish when it comes to the people in the park. You can get as close as about four feet before they scamper off. They also have some monkeys that have free reign of the park. I saw one little family group playing around me while I was sitting by the shore reading and resting my aching feet (sandals + walking rocky trails = not a good time).

The animals in the enclosures seem well-tended, enough so that I wasn’t hit with overwhelming remorse at having patronized the place. They have African buffalo, jackals, cheetahs, lions, hyenas, baboons, and some kind of antelope I haven’t identified. The park could use a little work on its signage.

After doing my best to angle all my shots so that the animals didn’t seem caged, I decided to follow the trail along the shore. Now, while I did know that the park was under 1 sq km, I neglected to work out that since it was only about 1/2 km in width, that would make it almost 4 km in length… I persevered, and it was worth it, as I found little hidden gems of landscapes that I really enjoyed.

Then, I encountered probably my biggest “wow” moment of the trip so far. Walking back toward the entrance, my head was down texting Beldina to come pick me up when I heard a scuffle, not unlike a small group of horses, in front of me. I raised my head and dropped my phone, eyes wide open as I groped for my camera. They had free-ranging zebra in the park! A small group of five. I followed them for a bit, and then as suddenly as they entered the main path, they left it again. P.S. I had to go back to get my phone. ;)

I leave you with a not-quite sunset picture, but I liked the framing of the sun. Nothing like a long trip to acquaint you with all the features of your camera…