Another visit to Bap

My blog is out of order a little sequentially, so let me explain where I am now. After the trip to South Africa with my family in late May and early June, I spent until mid-August mostly working on Millennium Cities work, and only taking weekend trips, all of which I described in the few blogs before the "South Africa with Family" ones. My weekend trips also included another visit back to Cape Town for a long weekend at the first of August, just to see the children, especially one of the one's I adore greatly, Sinazo (pictured here). A full Millennium Cities schedule took me up to mid-August, when I then had two weeks of holiday, to Tanzania and Rwanda, which I'll tell you about shortly. As of today, I'm back working at full steam for some upcoming MCI events, actually sitting here in Kisumu right now, about to take a trip out to Homa Bay for the afternoon and to attend the birthday party for a director, an American women, at Dominion Farms. It will be only weekend trips until end of October, when I travel to Ethiopia. Hope that helps - my ordering of the blogs, I realize, has been a bit confusing!

Scenes from Khayelitsha

Car parts

Houses D17 and D16

Isaacs Shoe Repair

Woman bbq'ing a sheep, skull on log

South Africa with Family – Cape Town

We arrived in Cape Town from our Garden Route drive on Saturday (this was 2nd June), to spend 6 days there. I enjoyed showing them what is one of my favorite places, and most especially to introduce them to the children at Baphumelele.

Unfortunately, the weather this time of year in Cape Town is not very friendly and we had only one day – Sunday – with plenty of sunshine, bright blue skies and a crisp breeze blowing in from the ocean – weather that typifies the city to me. The rest of our visit, it was cold and rainy. But, we took advantage of that sunny Sunday by touring the city from atop the double decker bus, seeing Table Mountain and having lunch on the beach in Camps Bay. I think my family was taken aback by how beautiful so much of the city is, proclaiming they could easily take a beach front home in Camps Bay, Clifton or Greenpoint – at prices, believe it or not, that currently rival those in the Hamptons!

On Monday then, after a Cape Malay lunch at Biesmiellah in the Bo Kaap section of the city centre, we drove out for a drive through some of the townships, ending up in Khayelitsha and the children’s home where I previously volunteered, Baphumelele. I had not been back there since I left in January and seeing everyone brought back a flood of emotions. I believe this visit was hard for my family as well – seeing all of these orphaned or abandoned children, being overwhelmed by the smells of their nappies, illnesses and medicines, driving through Khayelitsha on a grim rainy day, with its tin shacks for homes and containers for stores, its open fires and piles of trash, you see, smell, feel the utter despair and life’s unfairness. My mother cried after the visit to Bap, something not easy.


It is difficult, after a day spent in Khayelitsha, to then head back out to tour some Cape Town’s more beautiful locations, worlds away from the townships. But we did, spending Tuesday out in the wine country of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, Wednesday back shopping and relaxing in Cape Town, and Thursday on a tour to the Cape of Good Hope, Simon’s Town to see penguins and one more winery at Constantia. Then, everyone headed back to the US, and I, back to Kenya.

(Pictured: My mother, sister & I at Table’s Mountain with Devil’s Peak behind; Family at Haut Bay; My father with Jessica and Shakes; Matt & Jesse in front of Fairview winery, also known for its goat cheeses)

South Africa with Family – the Garden Route

I am just back from a two week trip to Zanzibar and Rwanda, and some exciting things are happening on the Millennium Cities front, all of which I look forward to sharing with you soon…but first, I want to finish up the family trip in South Africa.

After the Shamwari Game Reserve, we went back to Port Elizabeth, rented a car to drive the “Garden Route” along the Indian Ocean coast towards Cape Town. The Garden Route has a perfectly mild temperature, year round rainfall and lush vegetation – hence, its name. We spent 3 days and 2 nights driving, but really should have taken a few extra days to allow more time for hiking, kloofing, bungee jumping or kayaking along the riverways, lagoons, coastal shores and national parks that line the Route. Although, I think my parents were all too happy to forgo those activities.

But the Garden Route is breathtakingly beautiful, and every dozen kilometers you hit another picturesque little town with an Afrikaans or Khoi-San name that none of us could pronounce. We stopped on the first day for lunch in Jeffrey’s Bay, known for its surfing and the international Billabong Surfing Competition held each July. From there it was on past Storm’s River to spend our first night at the Fish Eagle Lodge in Knysna. Knysna, considered by some the most beautiful town in South Africa, is situated between a peaceful lagoon and lush forests. It is flanked by the Knysna Heads, two very striking sandstone cliffs that form a channel through which the sea pours into the lagoon. Oysters were the food of choice in Knysna.

The next morning we detoured off the Garden Route for a day, turned north, to spend the night at the La Plume Guest House in Oudtshoorn, located in the expansive landscape of the Klein Karoo. Oudsthoorn is all about ostriches – there are 400 farms in the area and everyone eats, wears and, yes for some, even rides the large birds. La Plume Guest House is an ostrich farm as well and that night for dinner we had, what else, but ostrich steak. And for breakfast, yep, ostrich eggs scrambled – one egg is enough for the entire guest house. The next morning we arose, and although we did not do anything touristy like ride ostriches, we did do something touristy like go pet caged leopards at a nearby wilderness park (or zoo). We then drove the pass through the Outeniqua Mountains to George, Wilderness and on along the coast until we hit Cape Town in the early evening.

(Pictured: Break along the garden route, while watching out for baboons; Family at the Knysna Heads; Doing what we do best on vacation - lounging in the sun at the La Plume Guesthouse; Ostriches in Oudtshoorn, looking remarkably like my sister).