To Sindo

09/23/05

My fever broke last night. I went from body chills to sweating in a matter of minutes. The wave of illness had all the same symptoms that I remember from my bout with malaria in 2001. All of them. I hope it doesn't come back. My big fear was mixing my South American malaria with African malaria, creating some sort of unholy superbreed.

Daniel woke me up at 7am because he needed 50/= to get to Rongo. I finally have some empathy for the guy after hearing about his attack. Although that was still pretty annoying. I'm going to Kisii this morning, and then this afternoon we start the adventure to Mrs. Kaundh's home district.

I ate a quick lunch (which upset my stomach) and grabbed my gear. I started the hike to the Kaundh's. It was hot, and I was sweating when I got there. We left around 3:30pm, Robert and I sitting in the back of the Camry, two locals up front. We passed a funeral dirge on the way. I actually thought it was a celebration. The hearse (a modified matatu truck) was led by a dozen guys in red robes holding tree branches, jogging, wailing. The leader was blowing on an instrument made out of a horn.

It was a long bumpy ride down dirt roads, the worse I've been on. A man led three donkeys down the path. The landscape got dramatic around Lambwe and Ruma National Park. Tropical hills jutting up, deep lush valleys disappearing into mist. The dirt road was over taken by 50 cattle. We stopped in the middle of the road and killed the engine. They passed on either side of the car. Another cattle procession, this one going our direction, led by two young boys, started to make way for us. I hung out the car the window and took pictures of the boys as they ran alongside the car, waving and shouting, jumping into the air.

We reached Sindo, the capital of Suba District, a small town on the shore of Lake Victoria. Another 2km and we were at Mrs. Kaundh's newly constructed and almost completed colonial mansion (by local standards) on the shore of the lake. Really beautiful. We talked and had soda. We had a walk along the shore as the sun set. We took a look at her banana and papaya farm, the prospective site of the Gille Memorial Resort (they are building little cabanas on the beach and will put a bar in when they get electricity and start letting tourists come and camp.) We had a feast of chicken and beef and ugali and spaghetti and wine on the (candlelit) veranda overlooking the water (that was lighting up with fisherman's lanterns, reflecting the brilliant stars that were coming out in force. Venus hung low in the sky, between the two.)

After dinner we went down to Bedrock, the bar/hotel that the Kaundhs own. Big, and slightly filled, low lighting, the requisite pool table, B&W TV, and white plastic chairs and tables. This was a fisherman's watering hole. Mrs. Kaundh explained how all the barmaids were sex workers. Her uncle-in-law is the manager, has had them all, and is HIV+. She brought me to the Bedrock because she wants to turn it into a rehabilitation center for the sex workers. We agreed that would be better than what it is now. I filmed; some of the guys were none too happy about it. The girls too, I think I was interrupting everyone's 'business.' In any case the bar was too dark and the footage was no good, and we left after a while. We came back, I brushed my teeth, and I went to bed.

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