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Journal of African trips
African trip [II]
Agelasto2004-05-20 21:05:41
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The heart of Africa
19-23 May - Nairobi, Kenya and Arusha, Tanzania
When most people think of Africa (which Americans do quite seldom), they think of big game
animals, tiny villages, bushmen (the Gods Must Be Crazy), famine, poverty, AIDS. This is the
part of Africa I am now visiting. The continent might be divided into three sections. Islamic
Africa covers the top end (bottom end if you are oriented in the southern hemisphere where the
South Pole is considered ?up?) and goes down (or ?up?) the east coast. The opposite end of the
continent is Southern Africa - the Republic of South Africa and its 5 neighbors, with large
numbers of white people and first-worldish living standards. In between these two collections of
countries, below the Sahara and between the tropics, lies central Africa, which this century was
colonized and abandoned by Europe and more or less ignored by the rest of the world.
I flew into this heart of Africa at Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, which has the highest standard of
living in the region. At the airport I was checked for my Yellow Fever vaccination certificate and
was told at the information desk that the train to Kampala, Uganda, which I was planning to take
that afternoon, no longer existed (despite the high recommendation it received in LP). I misled
you in my previous correspondence. True, I don?t have day-to-day plans, but I do have an overall
picture - I am trained as a planner!) I had prepared an itinerary that included train and ferry
travel. I had planned a boat and train circle that took in parts of Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania,
Burundi, Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, Kenya and Zanzibar. Busses and informal arrangements
were to be avoided at all cost. The LP had disendorsed Nairobi, describing it as a place well
worth avoiding. It now seemed I would have to spend time there so I could
...
See photographs from:
Zambia Gallery
,
Tanzania Gallery
,
Malawi Gallery
,
Kenya Gallery
