Pomegranate - fruits in our Wild

Pomegranate commonly grows in coast and is occasionally found in the market during the season. The fleshy seed casing contains a ruby colored juice containing vitamin C, carotenoids, and unique antioxidant tannins called punicalgins, catechins, gallocatechins, ellagic acid and anthocyanins.
 
Laboratory studies suggest that pomegranate juice reduces the development of arthrosclerosis, lower blood pressure and has beneficial effects of the elasticity of arterial wall and against prostate cancer cells.
 
It has the following benefits -
Antioxidant
Erectile dysfunction
Dental plaque
Coronary heart diseases
Chronic obstructive airways diseases

Islam Mohammed - He never did it for Money

Islam Mohammed explaining to me about boat making skills

A trip to the village of Kipungani gives you an impression that the synergy of Kipungani Explorer resort is working where so many others may have failed – in bringing the benefits of tourism to those who most need them such as a well-coordinated CSR. I noted that Kipungani Explorer enjoys a uniquely harmonious relationship with the residents of neighboring Kipungani Village. Half of the lodge's staff come from the village, from where the resort buys all the seafood and materials for repairing the chalets and boats. I visited a school in the village and notably they have helped to completely rebuild and equip the Kipungani Primary School through a charitable partnership with donors.

It is through this 4 hours tour to the village, the mangrove in the vicinity and the dunes, that I wish to mention a little bit of one - Islam Mohammed.

Islam was my tour guide in my brief visit at Kipungani and I must say he has mastered his skills to perfection. He will tell you about the crabs, different types of mangroves, be patient with you to observe safe fish hatcheries in back water, take you to basking point of alligators and engage you with the craftsmanship of boat repairs and even facilitates you to have a conversation with the extremely friendly locals. He will helps you to collect pieces of artifacts scattered everywhere dating the Arab eras among others things.

Matonga - wild monkey orange cracked open and partly devoured.

What interested me most is the fact that in the midst of this walkabout and climbing the dunes, Islam anticipated my needs in a most amazing manner. He climbed coconut trees to  bring me Madafu – fresh coconut juice from the palm trees. He had also previously observed that I’m adventurous and some special wild fruits locally called matonga – monkey wild oranges was of special interest to me.  They are plenty on the trees but they are only ready for eating by humans only when they fall on their own. It calls for patience – at times days to get it. However Islam went out of his way and managed to get me two on check out day. They formed my most precious items to take back home with me.

My collection during a village walkabout in Kipungani. 

This is worth mentioning - Having worked in the hospitality industry – at least on average one would imagine hotel staff may go out of their way in order to receive traditional incentives of tips from satisfied guests. But it is not always the case.

Honestly after almost four hours with Islam in the village, it is very right and in order to give a token of appreciation regardless of the notion. Well, surprise! Surprise! – When I dipped my hand in the pocket and gave Islam on the principal of attitude of gratitude – can you imagine he resisted to receive? He politely told me I did not have to give him that kind of money. Can you imagine he said it was too much? I was so moved  because it came out clear – what he did for me – he had done it all from his heart. I had to convince him to take it and that he needed it and in giving and receivng is how the universe works.

That to me is passion taken to the next level and service of the 5^th kind. This are some of the little special things that make Kenya a very unique destination.

He did it from his heart and I will never forget him for as long as giving and receiving exists.

And the following day – as I have mentioned Islam Mohammed caught up with before departure to deliver the fruits which I honestly think should be in the market. I had not even requested him to do so. He anticipated my needs.

I celebrate you Islam Mohammed.

Not in the Wind - but the set of the sail.

I took this photo on 16th January 2014 - from the comfort of my chalet at Kipungani Explorer - Lamu Island

Ever since I was young, I have always been fascinated by water. I enjoy being beside large masses of water. I visited Indian Ocean countless times while in school until I decided to just settle at the coast anyway! I have been to many lakes in Kenya including remote places such as Eliye Springs by the shores of Lake Turkana. I have traveled across oceans and laid back in the backwaters of Kerala in south India and imagined I had seen it all. But none has fascinated and captured my imagination with such intensity as the backwaters of the western side of Lamu island – Kipungani.

Located on the ancient Arabian Island –paradise of lamu, Kipungani is one of Africa’s most remote, relaxing and richly romantic coastal place I have ever been. For this place indeed  oozes with absolute seduction.

It is impossible not to fall in love with Kipungani and its irresistible combination of luxury and view of the sublime mangrove far across. In between watching wind driven dhows moving in opposite direction. But what caught my imagination in my very first evening of sun downer is the sail on the boat and how it works. What a lesson indeed?  Consciously I took a photo. Little did I know at the subconscious level there was something deeper cooking in my quests to learn the little things of life.

In the process of living, the winds of circumstances blow on us all in an unending flow that touches each of our lives.…

It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

What guides us to different destinations in life is determined by the way we have chosen to set our sail. The way that each of us thinks makes the major difference in where each of us arrive. The major difference is the set of the sail.

The same circumstances happen to us all. We have disappointments and challenges. We all have reversals and those moments when, in spite of our best plans and efforts, things just seem to fall apart.…In the final analysis, it is not what happens that determines the quality of our lives, it is what we choose to do when we have struggled to set the sail and then discover, after all of our efforts, that the wind has changed directions. In one of the sun-downer trip, on our way back – the captain had to reposition the sail so that the wind could take us through against itself.

I’m glad I paid attention to the sails. For at Kinpungani one is privileged to be both the observed and an observer of the little things in life.

Idyllic and enchanting. These words aptly describe Kipungani Explorer as an exclusive haven. The place indeed oozes with seduction and peace.

know therefore brethren - It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

Lamu - A place in the heart

Kenya is a country of great diversity of people, culture and race, customs and tongues, each with its own identity yet all linked together like a necklace – but we know so little of each other. Lamu had pricked my curiosity in the recent months. I heeded the call. To know Lamu is to love it - love it for a little longer and you became intimate with it. There after – you forever want to be part of it. I visited Lamu the best of time this year. A good time to visit for every January, after the heavy-duty festive crowd goes home, Lamu largely reverts to its centuries-old ways. In the winding alleyways, fully veiled women scurry toward the outdoor market, their eyes darting beneath black bui-buis. Interestingly, centuries after the Swahili first ancestors settled on the Island, the town authenticity is still strong to date. The cultural heritage, the narrow, cool and quiet streets have an amazingly intimate spaces enclosed by massive stone buildings with thick coral rag walls give the town its distinctive texture and colour. The silence is occasionally only interrupted by the braying of donkeys and the devoted calls to prayer from the twenty six mosques on the island.

There is a deep history tied to this place that draws you to it. A lot has been written about the history of Kenya. It is said Arabs and Persians settlers colonized East African coastal towns between 650 AD and 800 AD. From interbreeding between Arabs and Persian settlers and indigenous women arose the Swahili race. 85 years later in 1498, then came the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama fleet anchored in Mombasa. Yet long before that, the earliest known document describing parts of East Africa coast is the The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, attributed to an unknown Greek or Greek speaking Egyptian written sometimes between 95 Ad and 130AD.The town was also mentioned in writing by an Arab traveler, Abu-al-Mahasini, after his encounter with a judge from Lamu who was on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1441. There are however some other accounts that mention the Chinese ships of Zheng He’s fleet sinking near Lamu Island in Kenya in 1415. It is now confirmed that the survivors who settled on the island intermarried with the local women.

The dunes have a story too. Folklore speaks fondly of the lost city of Hadibu, an Arab settlement buried beneath the rolling dunes of Shela beach, when the islands of the Lamu Archipelago grew wealthy on fortunes brought in from the East over the ages.

In a nut shell - this place is a paradise of all paradise and it is not hard to understand why. Still yet, no amount of words comes even close to describing its beauty. We could mention the clear waters embracing the flawless white sandy endless beaches where tiny villages nestle among coconut trees as dhows and speed boats ply the quite turquoise waters, pristine deserted beaches, of rolling dunes, the winding streets, carved woods and traditional houses evoking the everyday sights and sounds of another age. The people are amazing. The culture and history is mind boggling. Or, you could just judge one of the world’s most beautiful beaches for yourself. Lamu is an exceptional place like no any other. And no wonder it is in the list of   World Heritage sites.

Read the charms of Lamu in my next postings for words are all I have for now. 

P. D. Shaw - He was our hero

In 1966 P.D. Shaw became a full time administrator for the school, his salary sponsored with funds from Save the Children. He used much of his salary on the children, taking them to agricultural shows and the Nairobi National Park and other outings.

Though strict, I must bring to your attention – he was a very generous man generous to us, he would pick five of us up in his Audi, later a Volvo and take us to the Nairobi National Park. Before reaching the entrance a few of us would have to get out and hide in the trunk so PD wouldn’t have to pay our entrance fees. He’d drive a way out of sight of the askaris before letting us out. After the safari, PD would pull over before the exit and have the same number of boys get back in the trunk…but never the same boys that he put in while entering. 

In 1977 in Embakasi, PD with the help of three other students and the police rescued a man stranded in a tree from a flood. A couple of weeks later near Nairobi West Shopping Mall, Shaw and a group of students rescued two Asian youths trapped on top of a car that had be washed 200 yards down the road – a boy was enlisted to swim to out the vehicle with a rope! 

 

Pat Shaw was Romeo 9 - check this YouTube out ..

John Kirkwood - Thank you for your great Deeds.

John Kirkwood was a volunteer at Starehe boys’ Centre for some years. I remember seeing him walk his dog very early in the morning. He was virtually interested in all the activities of the school. If any school club wanted to make visits – john always provided us. I at time think he bought two land cruisers purposely for our sake. My first near encounter with him is when one of the student was dying of cancer. The Late Philemon – he used to arrange transport for us to go and visit him in the hospital.

I went for many school trips –visited schools like Limuru girls and Loreto in the name of clubbing. I recall at some point I was an official of a club we had just formed – Theological debating society .. we did deep debate some of which is captured in Milele Africa – my first book. We went to alliance boys at some point for a presentation. 

Visiting Turkana for one week was the climax of all and I will never forget it. We had just left school and a few of us joined John in giving his mother a Kenyan trip. It is in this trip I saw acres of petrified forest, The impact of this trip was so tremendous that I knew telling it to the people when I went back to Nairobi would not be enough. I started writing note on the way.

John Kirkwood has been working in Uganda for some time now. 

Thank you for touching our hearts and showing us the real world when you could.

The below link tell a little of his story –

http://www.lordsmeade.org/founder.html