Kakamega Rain Forest

Caution: This is a long one…

The social aspect of living at IU house is pretty great. It’s similar to living in dorms – just in a house – where all 40 of us live, eat, and work together. The cool thing is we’re all medical and can have some pretty interesting conversations. Someone is always ready to do something and there is never a dull moment. Ashley and I have been waking up every morning before work to run. We get up when the sun rises (around 6am) and take a nice jog through the farm lands close to our house. Sounds good, right? Except we are at an elevation of 5,000 ft. You can really feel the altitude difference in everyday things such as climbing the stairs, walking to work, and exercising. The first day, we about died as it is all hills here. We cracked up when we were both huffing ½ mile down the road and had to walk even though we both run at home. We have worked our way up to 1 ½ miles, but I tell you, it’s hard. Eldoret is the training place for many world class runners specifically for the elevation and hills. Many Olympic gold medalists have trained here and when a pack of them are out running for the morning it really is amazing to watch. They are so lean and fast and look just like on TV during the Olympics. The Kenyans are proud of us though. They even clap sometimes when we go puffing by….which makes us laugh all the harder.

Sonak has a second-hand living room set up with a TV and some game systems (including rock band – Anna’s jealous) and the medical students and residents and the four of us gather to hang out and watch movies. We watched Slum Dog Millionaire which our preceptor, our role model, ripped from the internet. It was very good, I recommend it. Has a nice Bollywood ending to poke fun at.

We also get to play sports in the evenings which are another good way to get some exercise. So far we have only taken part in soccer and volleyball. Ashley and I frequently cream Avery, Alan, and whoever else dares take us on in volleyball. We make a good team.

This brings us up to the past weekend. I explained earlier about our goat-roast on Friday evening. Our Kenyan counterparts in the hospital joined us and it was a great way to socialize and meet others from the hospital. It was just unfortunate a young goat had to lose its life in the process.

How often does one get to go camping in the rain forest? Not many, so sign me up! We left early Saturday morning to head to the Kakamega Rain Forest which is in the Western Province. About a 2 hour drive from where we are in the Rift Valley Province. The drive was incredible as the roads are pretty much potholes within another pothole. Many times we flat out abandoned the roads and drove in the fields next to them. The children were quite excited to see us pass as it’s not everyday you get to see a “muzungu!” as the children yelled and waved at us. This literally translates to “whitey!” which is what they call all foreigners. They were very excited to practice their English such as “Give me my can-dy” (aw, Haiti memories, Julie, they just need to whisper it creepily into our ears) and “How are you? Give me money” and, my personal favorite, “Take me to Chicago.”

So we actually stayed in little cabins as none of us had the foresight to pack tents, sleeping bags, and other camping gear in our carry-on. We stayed at the Rondo Hotel in the middle of the forest where electricity was scarce and animals were high. Within minutes of arriving we were greeted by monkeys chattering in the trees, birds squawking, and mosquitoes buzzing. It was great. As the forest is very deep and grown up, you are not allowed to venture out without a trained guide. Our guide was Joe and he was pretty darn cool. He was very intelligent and taught us about the ecosystem of the forest. He actually trained in forestry at a nearby school and has a deep passion for preservation of the forest. This is a few things he taught us:
- The Luau are the tribe which lives around the forest
- Kakamega is the only rainforest in Kenya and home to 70% of butterfly species in the world
- Three kinds of monkeys, the grey, red, and black and white collubus live here
- Other animals he pointed out were wild pigs, baboons, flying squirrel, mongoose, and small antelope

Dad: You would have loved walking through the woods and checking out the trees, though you couldn’t have brought your saw mill along for furniture. Many of the trees’ bark are used for traditional medicine to treat malaria, upset stomach, fever, and other things. There is also the Demon Tree which is not allowed to be cut down as tribal folklore states if you chop this particular type of tree, it is inviting demons into your home.

Mom: The flowers were absolutely gorgeous and I even saw a chrysanthemum like Grandma has next to the house. Every color you could imagine for flowers…neon orange, pink, and yellow as well as purple, blue, and red. It was wonderful walking through with the massive amounts of butterflies swirling around you. Also, there are native ferns here that grow to be about 7 ft tall. I don’t think you could have hung those off our porch like you do ours at home!

Elliott: Again, the butterflies. Your collection would have quadrupled easily. There was one butterfly in particular I tried to photograph for you. It is called the “map” butterfly as when it closes its wings it looks like the map of Africa. Kakamega is also the home to many species not found anywhere else in the world.

Camille: You would have had to hang tight with your guide as I’m sure you wouldn’t have been able to find your way out. Swinging vines fell from every tree and we attempted to swing across a rapid on one. OK, just kidding, but we would have had fun attempting it together.

Anna: (and Oriana) MONKEYS EVERYWHERE!! Some were particularly cute with babies on their back. The black and white collubus looked kind of like a skunk though with its pattern. I took pictures for you but it will be a bit to get them to you.

I had a hard time focusing on the forest as I was watching my feet closely. Probably the most hypervigilant I’ve been all trip. Kakamega is home to the viper and 17 other poisonous snakes. Yuck.

We hiked most of the day on Saturday including one four hour hike in the evening. We made it to the top of the tallest mountain in the forest to watch the sun set above the canopy of trees. The colors were gorgeous and it was such a feeling of accomplishment knowing we made the 6,396 ft trek to the top – and that’s not including the already 5,000 ft elevation! The sad part of the trip was that the top of the mountain had actually burned the week before and everything was covered in black soot – including us from the knees down.

We made a small stop enroute to the top of the mountain to check out a bat cave. Joe asked us to bring our torches along but, having left that one on the plane as well, I took my flashlight. Mike, a med student, Avery, Alan, Ashley, and I went in with the first group Joe took. We went in the cave about 200 ft before we found the first group of bats. Joe blinded them with the light so we could get pictures of their beady eyes and disgusting little rodent bodies. Everything was going well until Joe wanted to move further into the cave and Ashley decided she didn’t want to pass the bats. The order we were in was the same as I mentioned above: Mike, Avery, Alan, Ashley, and me last. Ashley grabbed onto Alan about the time he stepped in a pile of guano – or maybe it was mud – and she slipped in it too. I’m not sure of the order of events but it ended with Ashley and I screaming and startling the entire cave of bats. They took off flying as the two of us ran toward the entrance leaving our boys and guide behind. No one shared with us that if we kept the light by our faces they would leave us alone, no, instead we ran with bats hitting our faces and brushing our backs and nasty little bat wings fluttering next to our ears. I started half laughing, half screaming, as I thought I would pass out from fright otherwise. I eventually made it to the cave entrance to a bunch of flashes as the other med students, who heard us (and the bats) coming and had their cameras prepared to get us on our run out. They are quite amusing shots and we now have a good story to tell. Unfortunately, we caught jungle fever from the bats and ended up dancing under the moon with vipers. Okay, that’s a lie (only the jungle fever part), but I did it for Scott because he cracks himself up.

We crashed after our hike and woke the next morning for breakfast and our last hike in the forest. We made this one a silent hike which is quite a feat for 12 twenty-something year olds traipsing through the forest. This was nice as it was also Sunday and we got to enjoy the beauty of outside in reflective thought. After a bumpy two hour ride home, we prepared ourselves for the coming day of work. It was a nice weekend to bring all our housemates closer together and to have a little fun exploring the Kenyan terrain. We are already at work planning our next getaway. The possibilities are endless.