Written by Eddie LeShure – This piece was written in February, 2002 when Eddie spent a month traveling in East Africa. We continue exploring his time in the Central Highlands of Kenya.
After three nights at Masai Mara, with our new driver Elly we headed to Lake Nakuru National Park. 140 miles northwest of Nairobi and a half-day drive from Mara, it was established in 1960 as the first bird sanctuary in Kenya. Back now in the Rift Valley, this lake is one of many shallow soda lakes formed when springs bring sodium carbonate up to the surface, and with poor drainage and evaporation, leave a high concentration of alkaline deposits in the water. Evidence of “salt farming” is seen along the roads in the area and the algae and crustaceans which thrive in these soda lakes are ideal food for the flamingos that congregate there.
These enormous flocks of pink flamingos can number up to one million, and to see them all wading in the lake is quite a sight. It has been dubbed “the world’s greatest ornithological spectacle”. We spent a night at a lodge in town, got up at 5:30 am, and headed into the neighboring park with Elly, a tall, slender 34-year-old Luo who carried himself with quiet but self-assured confidence. From this point on in our safari, we would have him all to ourselves. We first drove to the lake where many pelicans joined the flamingos in the water as they fed, preened and occasionally honked. Here we could get out of the van and view all the birds, a vast sea of pink! Apparently it is really something to see the flamingos lift off of the water and fly over and I was silently praying that a vehicle might noisily backfire, startling a few hundred thousand of them upwards. But it was quiet, peaceful – and beautiful none-the-less.
One reason I wanted to come to Lake Nakuru was that it is one of the few remaining places where there is still a good chance to see rhino, as poaching has seriously decimated their ranks throughout East Africa. Surrounding the lake are forested areas, grassland and rocky cliffs, and encircling the small park is electric fencing to protect the rhino from the kind of low-life scum that brutally slaughter them for profit. The rhino’s numbers in Kenya have dropped over the last 30 years from around 200,000 to about 500. I do not know who are worse, the poachers who kill the rhino, or the morons who support this heinous crime by buying the end product with some kind of illusion that it provides an effective aphrodisiac. I am firmly against capital punishment, so I say throw them ALL into a squat toilet together, lock the doors, and then force them to listen to blaring techno music for the rest of their natural lives!
The rhino fascinates me as much as any animal that exists. Its appearance is that of a strange hybrid of prehistoric monster and modern military tank. It is extremely near-sighted, ill-tempered, surprisingly agile, and can easily weigh over two tons – hell on wheels! Both varieties, the so-called black and white rhino (they are actually different shades of gray), reside in small numbers in the park and we slowly drove along, eager to spot at least one. I still needed to “bag” both a rhino and a leopard to complete my Big Five/Big Nine collection.
First we saw giraffes up close, foraging from the trees. These were what are called the reticulated giraffe, differing in both coloring and pattern from those we observed at Mara – kind of a tortoiseshell pattern. Magnificent! We moved on. Immediately next to the road was a cape buffalo. We were so close we could hear it munching the grass. On its back was a cattle egret, which feeds on locusts, flies and grasshoppers that appear as the buffalo walks, churning up the soil. The buffalo and us nervously eyed each other. Widely considered by hunters as the most dangerous of all the big game to hunt, it can tip the scales at close to a ton with imposing and distinctive curved horns, and will get no votes either for Mr. Congeniality. Having him thundering at us would be no joke. We moved on.
And then we saw a rhino! And then another. And soon there was a group of twelve, both varieties, calmly chowing down their lunch just a few meters from us! “God they’re big,” I thought. I was totally mesmerized. They totally ignored us. Then we heard Elly’s quiet but excited voice, “Look… here comes a leopard… a big male!” And sure enough, less than 30 feet away was what I think is Africa’s most beautiful animal. He had spotted a herd of impalas and was making his way towards them, and his path would take him directly behind and fairly close to the rhinos, who ignored him, as well.
A solitary and illusive animal, the leopard normally hunts at night and is quite difficult to spot. Sometimes it is seen lounging along the lower branches of the acacia trees during the day where it might have pulled up its kill. The leopard is so strong that it can drag twice its own weight up into the branches to keep his hard-earned dinner from getting swiped by lions, which are much bigger, or hyenas, which often travel in packs.
But “luck” or good karma was with us again. Here in broad daylight was a magnificent male bearing down on his prey. But he would have no success as the impalas had either seen or smelled him and kept moving just far enough away from him to foil his plan. Not as fast as a cheetah, he must make his charge from quite close to bag his prize. But we had surely bagged ours. Chalk up the Big Nine for me!
That day we would leave Lake Nakuru National Park and head yet farther north to Samburu National Park. Our travels would take us past the equator and allow us to discover first-hand the answer to one of our long-held questions: Does water really spin the opposite way south of the equator when it goes down the toilet?
So far in our time south of the equator we had not seen whether or not it did, since we had not actually been around a flush toilet yet that worked! But right at the equator itself we were provided with a dramatic demonstration – for a small fee, of course. A young man with a carefully rehearsed canned presentation walked off 20 yards in each direction from the equator sign, each time dropping match sticks into a funnel filled with water which ran into a pail. He then repeated the act directly at the sign. Clockwise…then counter-clockwise…then no spinning at all. We were given written certification documenting our attendance at this scientific feat. I could now live out the balance of my life fulfilled, knowing that I finally had direct, empirical knowledge regarding the answer to one of the age-old mysteries of the cosmos.
Our time in vehicles was spent as much off the roads as on them, and when we were on the roads, it actually felt more like being off. Our roads north, as is true with most in Kenya, could best be described as appalling. Despite this country having enormous natural resources, corruption throughout the government has resulted in a seriously deficient infrastructure. As we bounced along, sometimes slowing to a crawl, Elly turned and mumbled apologetically, “Our roads here aren’t so good.” – qualifying as a classic understatement of massive proportions.
At many times, our drivers were actually better off driving on the shoulder of the so-called road for substantial distances, since the actual highway was in such a sad state. They would have to make choices on which potholes to drive through, as avoiding them altogether was impossible, unless one had a hovercraft. Riding five hours in Kenya is roughly equivalent to spending five hours on the back of a bucking bronco with hiccups, and it is a miracle that we had only one breakdown and two flat tires during our month cruising around East Africa.
Absolutely the dumbest idea in Kenya? Speed bumps.
Organizations such as the IMF, World Bank and the various international aid agencies are now extremely reluctant to loan or donate money for development in Kenya, since they know that virtually all of what they give eventually ends up in a Swiss bank account of some dirt bag politician, rather than being spent on providing something of benefit for the 30,000,000 people of this country.
And democracy has been somewhat of a sham more often than not. Since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, there have only been two presidents, and the current one, Daniel Moi (whose photo is displayed in all public places by law) has been in power since 1978, at times only due to the suppression and intimidation of political opponents and elimination of any opposition parties. It is hard to lose an election when you are the only party allowed.
What the world is witnessing now in Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe’s strong-armed tactics and manipulation of the political process, has been all too common throughout this entire continent since the yoke of colonialism was thrown off, country after country, in the ‘60s, and Kenya has been no exception. Bribery, corruption, conspiracies, attempted coups, political assassinations, rigged elections, tribal favoritism…even the banning of the secret ballot for some time…this is often “business as usual” among those who hold power here. It is not hard for me to understand why violence so often flares around election time in Kenya and other African nations. The level of frustration must be gigantic among the people.
Unemployment, according to Elly, is a staggering 65%. There are just no jobs for so many men and women and the level of poverty, the lack of quality healthcare and high level of health risks and disease (do I need to bring up HIV/AIDS?), the violent crime, the cost of education, and more – all this is a heavy burden for the people to endure. And through it all these people manage to carry on with a magnificent spirit and, almost without exception, a lightless of heart and genuine kindness to all who visit.
There are supposed to be elections scheduled later this year in Kenya and Moi has announced that he is stepping down. This is such an unbelievably beautiful country with many extraordinarily resilient and determined people within it. I commented to Elly about the poverty here and he was quick to say, “Kenya is not poor.” No, not in potential it’s not. Not at all, and not in spirit. But in reality the lives of many are hard, so hard. I asked several people about how they felt regarding the upcoming elections and almost unanimously they expressed hope that things would change for the better. We can only hope so and that better days are ahead for the people of Kenya. They deserve better.
In our next edition, we will further explore the Central Highlands.
Eddie LeShure is an insight meditation teacher and substance abuse counselor whose primary passion is bringing mindfulness practice into the realms of addiction recovery, trauma relief, and self-care. He teaches and leads groups in various treatment and recovery settings, as well as in series classes, workshops, retreats, conferences and conventions.
Eddie began meditating in the early ‘80s, regularly teaches at Asheville Insight Meditation, is a NAMI Family Support Group Facilitator, and is co-founder of A Mindful Emergence, LLC (amindfulemergence.com).
These days, Eddie’s writing centers around his teaching and presentations, but in the past it was quite different. He chronicled and displayed his adventures around the world for several years under the banner, “On the Road With Fast Eddie,” and in more recent times numerous articles on the local jazz scene were published in Rapid River Arts & Culture as “WNC Jazz Profiles.”
Eddie is now co-authoring a manual for treatment centers which focuses on integrating mindfulness practices with stages of addiction recovery.
