Late Post from Lamu

This video is from a dhow ride we took on Lamu. We were headed to a floating bar to watch the sunset. Bob Marley, on a boat and a floating bar...this was one of my favorite memories from the trip. Close scrutiny of the video would reveal that our captain couldn't carry a tune in the bucket he was using as a drum. No matter, on that boat ride, he might as well have been Bob Marley himself.

Untitled from Ashley Petersen on Vimeo.

Dance Lessons

A few friends came over on Friday for pizza and drinks. Pizza and Drinks turned into dance lessons and dance lessons turned into a full fledged dance party. When the electricity in our apartment ended up going out, we were ready to hit the town.

Dance Lessons 2 from Ashley Petersen on Vimeo.

Things I Love About Nairobi: Public Transportation

Ok...public transportation isn't just one of the things I love, it is absolutely my favorite thing about Nairobi. The Matatus (15 passenger vans that are usually transporting a minimum of 25 people) don't have seat belts, doors that close, or adequate head room. However, the sacrifice of these amenities is easily made for bumping reggae/hip hop music, black lights, flat screen TV's playing music videos, and drivers that don't look a day over 14. Not to mention, each matatu has a name. Some of my favorite names so far: Shut up and Dance, Beyonce, Baraq, Assassin and Glory to the Lord. At a matatu spot on any given day their are typically 10 to 20 vans with young guys (I call them spotters) standing at the door yelling where they are headed. Once you figure out which van you need to be in, you climb in and over anyone who happens to be in your way. Reggae blaring, the spotter hops in as the van drives off. Matatu drivers are notoriously

reckless and will literally drive down the wrong side of a divided highway if it means passing up a few lanes of traffic. The spotters hang out the side of the van holding up on their fingers the number of spots open. There are always at least two spots left, even if someone is sitting on your lap. Getting anywhere on public transportation in Kenya is a great adventure, not even being sarcastic, I love it. On our long bus journey from Lamu I had fallen asleep for 15 minutes and awoke to find 30 people standing in the aisle of the bus, a baby in my friend's lap and three live chickens pecking around under our seats. The bus in the above picture is named " Rock University Graduates" and had an actual guitar welded on the back of it. Public Transportation =Amazing.

Things I Love About Nairobi: The Corn Cob Mystery

This post is the first in a series I will be calling "Things I Love About Nairobi". The corn cob mystery has been troubling me ever since the first week I arrived in Kenya. Everywhere you look, there are corn cobs laying on the ground. You can imagine the ankle rolling hazard this becomes in such a dense city. With so many corn cobs, I started to look around for people actually eating corn on the cob. To this day, I have seen hundreds of corn on the cob sellers but only one person actually eating corn on the cob. One person, hundreds of corn cobs. Are corn cobs some sort of ancient styrofoam, an accumulation of this one person's habit over the years? Is there an underground, corn-on-the-cob-eating fight club that only takes place in the alleyways and shadows where I can't see? Whatever is really behind this mystery, it is just one of the intricacies that I love about this city.

Lamu Paradise

Those of you keeping up may have noticed my absence from the blog last week. The coast was calling and we took some time to answer. For our vacation, we headed to Lamu Archipelago off the north coast of Kenya. The hectic bus, matatu and ferry rides (deserving of their own post) were well worth the paradise we encountered on the island. This is, by far, the most unique place I have ever been. The pictures hardly do it justice but enjoy!

Camels just chillin on the beach waiting for unsuspecting tourists like us to come along.

No cars on Lamu, just donkeys. This sounds like an enchanting idea until a donkey drop gets stuck between your foot and flip-flop while walking through the streets at night.

The local telephone booth graveyard.

It was an interesting experience to try and enjoy the warm weather while also respecting the local Muslim culture. Lots of scarves.

Dhow riding...pole, pole (slowly, slowly)

The street in front of our house