Peter's Story

My introduction to Out of Africa began when my Mother visited the Out of Africa craft shop and bought me some fairly traded goods. I was impressed by the idea and decided to check it out myself. By stroke of coincidence I had seen a poster about Out of Africa at college, where they were requesting for volunteers. I ended up helping out in the shop and at an exhibition. I continued with my interest in the charity, keeping in touch and helping when my studies allowed. As the exams approached, my godfather offered a safari/trekking tour in Africa if my results were up to scratch.

Julie, founder of Out of Africa, saw the opportunity for me to discover a greater chunk of Africa than just the tourist trail. She suggested that I might like to teach at one of the schools supported by the charity. This was an opportunity that was too good to be missed.

Julie arranged for me to stay with one of the teachers and their family whilst helping at Kigaa Primary School.

I prepared myself for the tropics. I was laden with gifts for the school, letters from sponsors and a few clothes for climbing Kilimanjaro on the second leg of the African journey.

I was overwhelmed by the hospitality that I received from all parties upon my arrival in Kenya. Everyone; even strangers in the village were friendly to me. I quickly learned the correct greetings and began to feel at home eating the food. The school teachers guided me as to the best way I could help out. I was marking increasingly more essays until my pen nearly ran out of ink.

Teachers at Kigaa

After I had settled in the teachers ventured lessons with me as a teaching aid. I found myself standing up in front of the class to the excitement of myself and the classes. Easy it was not. However we persevered, the children listening and me, talking. Then the other way round. They were brilliant at debating; I quote from one of the students at age 15. "So then my honourable friends why don't you come over the fence and join us by saying that .......".

Every person at Kigaa Primary School would use their own two feet for transport, and ?the school run? takes on a whole new meaning when there are hundreds of kids kicking up dust on the road. I enjoyed walking but for the first few journeys I felt a little intimidated by some of the people who loiter on the route, outside the many bars. These bars are painted concrete shells with no glass in the windows, no doors, just a large mural indicating, ?the solidarity bar? in jollifying colour.

More slightly are the many ?shambas? that line the wayside. Shambas are the much larger equivalent of the kitchen garden. They sustain the family who cultivates it with maize, kale, cabbages, banana trees, amongst other crops. The family may actually grow ?cash crops? such as coffee but there is a problem with the farmer?s co-operatives who are supposed to manage the international wholesale market. Although the farmers are required by law to trade through the co-operative: they are not being paid for their produce. The vicious circle was reported by the ?Daily Nation? (Kenya?s national for the discerning, politically aware). The newspaper told of a battle between the farmers and the army outside a co-operative building.

The people of Kenya who go about their business up and down the road are the most interesting topic. Admittedly many will have sad stories behind their smiles but I would not have been aware of this without the proximity I was given to life in rural Kenya. They were so glad to see me and this made me doubly glad. I greeted a Kikuyu mama in her language, she returned the gesture and I was at home. Her business was spread out on a thin cloth at her lap; avocados, potatoes and some other fruit. She gave me an avocado.

I moved on from the school, everyone wished me well for the rest of my time in Africa. The other part of my visit to Africa involved a safari over the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. This national park is separated from the Masai Mara by only the border between Tanzania and Kenya. The national language of Tanzania is Kiswahili as in Kenya so I tried to recount the few phrases that I had picked up as the bus transported a group of tourists from Nairobi to Arusha. I realised that I was a tourist also. Anyway, the excitement was building up inside me again as it had done when I was travelling to Kenya in the first place. I had met some of the group who I was going to spend the next few weeks with and we eagerly discussed the prospect of the sights to come.

The safari truck was well designed for the purpose; a sitting room area was to be our travelling space over many bumpy miles of Africa whilst keeping keen eyes open for the wildlife.

We did not have to look very far. Zebra and gazelle lived in close proximity to towns which we passed through, unfortunately two zebra were victim to a road accident. We could not possibly imagine how though! Well, after a grounding image of such creatures, we proceeded to climb the edge of the Great Rift Valley above Lake Manyara where the world?s only tree climbing lions inhabit the fertile ground. Further on from the Great Rift Valley toward the edge of civilization as we know it. The park entrance marked the last real settlement except for the Maasai compounds which we were to come across.

The animals that we viewed were many miles of deserted landscape away from the gate to the park, in amongst the still green strips of bush that run alongside a few streams. The dry season was strong and there were no herds of wildebeest, they had moved up onto the Maasai Mara.

Still, we saw all the famous creatures and felt very satisfied. Even crocodiles which I really did not expect to see in the middle of Africa. However do not think that you are going to be in the middle of nowhere with absolutely not a soul in sight. There will be others and the filming of wildlife programs remains a mystery to me; how do they avoid filming the large number of safari trucks that mill around the well beaten tracks. Having said that the national parks authorities are very much environmentally aware in this instance. The animals are not perturbed in the slightest and carry on with their eating, hunting and various other wild habits. I think that the number of trucks and the places where they can go are somewhat restricted.

Two days of sleeping in lion country and we moved on to Ngorogoro which is a vast crater, supposedly the remaining sides of a long disappeared volcanic mountain. The camp where we stayed above the crater overnight gave us easy access to the crater the next day and a surprise in the middle of the evening just as our camp dinner was going down. The event is related as follows; after the main course provided by an excellent chef, I felt the need to visit the camp toilets. Not very incredible so far, but, whilst approaching the toilets I caught the outline of a very strange shape in my weak headlamp. Firstly I thought that it was an elephant because it was so big. But then I realised that elephants probably would not come up to the campsite. I stepped to within 10 metres of the toilets and my eyes slowly focused along the first metre of the huge tusks of the bull elephant that was towering above me?..ok. I stood quite still and considered my situation. I knew that the elephant was aware of me but I was not sure how it was going to react to me walking even closer to get to the toilet. I did not really need the toilet I decided and carefully backed up a safe distance and then turned and bustled off nearly bursting to tell the others who were sitting around the fire. Some came quickly but we could see that others had begun to pick him out. One even ventured a photograph.

Ngorongoro is a wonderful place; flamingos and the black rhino inhabit it. A large lake means that water is there all year round and therefore animals rarely feel the need to leave. Some animals such as giraffes cannot enter because of the steep sides, I must admit that the sides made a hairy journey down by landrover. Ngorongoro authority is even more cautious about the circle of life within the crater and only allow a certain number of specially licensed land rover type vehicles each day. The experience improves with the solitude and I became a little solemn myself knowing that day would be the last day in which such animals and life could be seen.

I was transferring back to Arusha the following day for the ride to Kilimanjaro and the attempt on its summit.


Many thanks,
Peter