Salimia Kenya

“Ukirudi Kenya, salimia hao” she said with a mangled smile, exposing her crooked teeth and her two gold incisors.

We had just spent the night in the a god forsaken desert town of Torbi, yes, you will probably not find it on the map as most of north eastern Kenya has been alienated, like malignant toe cancer, over  the years.

The lunatic excursion dubbed the “VaLu VaLu” was in its dying stages.

We had started off on a journey to Abyssinia, moguls call the enchanted land of the queen Sheba Ethiopia, while spiritualists have sang many a song of the far, far away land where “Jah” lives. From an initial crowd of over100, only three of us eventually made the trip by road. A long treacherous journey! #BlackMzungu they called me, the two White Mwafrikas I called my compatriots.

Trust me, travelling from Nairobi to Addis Ababa by road is an eye opening experience, the scenery is breath taking & the people welcoming…but doing so without a guide and by using whatever public means one can get, hitch hiking at times is a nightmare! The good kind of nightmare that leaves you thanking the universe for that early morning alarm clock that wakes you out of your stupor! The non-existent roads will leave your body aching in the weirdest of parts due to all the bumps and sudden maneuvers of the old cranky car the scorching sun’s heat and the constant fear of running into bandits or worse; terrorists…then while all this was running through our minds our driver slowed down…

He spoke in hushed tones to his turn boy in Amharic who in turn ordered us all to be quiet, the heavily armed soldier in full combat gear stood up, you see every car traversing these parts must be escorted by an armed soldier, he then started corking his gun, more like his war machine for that thing was larger than any Rambo gun I had seen on screen, he then moved to the front of the bus and lay flat, gun pointed straight ahead, ready, waiting…