Kakamega Forest: Trip 1 out from Kisumu

Last weekend I went to Kakamega Forest with Aaron, my new friend who is a relatively new EIS (Epidemiological Intelligence Service) officer. It was really just an excuse to get away from Kisumu for the weekend. I don't think there are too many people who travel too far to visit Kakamega Forest, but I'm glad we did.

It was a very low-key weekend which involved renting space in a KEEP (Kakamega Environmental Education Program) banda--of note, the KEEP bandas looked exactly like Smurf Village--and eating all our meals at the local "canteen." The canteen looked like a run-down hunting cabin which housed the kitchen, a small store and a few benches and tables which was occupied by progressively fewer chickens throughout the day. The proprietor of this institution was a lovely woman with three children including a little guy who was about 1 and would respond to "Hello" with "Hello" and he would do this forever, Aaron must have said it 50x in a row and then he got bored but the kid didn't. At the end of each meal, we would order our next meal from a hand written menu. We never got what we ordered, but we weren't picky and the food was good, so...

We also took a guided hike in the morning. We were given the options of hiking to the river or to the hill. I asked what the difference was between the two hikes besides the 200KSH more for the river, and our guide, Elsie, said there were more open spaces on the hike to the river. The more open spaces meant more variety of plants and a better opportunity to see some of the over 50 plants with medicinal properties. We chose the hill.

Top of the hill

After she grumped at us for being late eating our breakfast--lets not mention that we were on time, our food was not, we headed out on our hike. She started out like a real tour guide, telling us all about the forest and the animals and the plants, and she turns to us and says, "Did you know there are over 50 plants with medicinal properties in this forest?" Why yes, we did, you just told us half an hour ago.

Aaron and our guide

Within minutes of stopping we have encountered a medicinal plant--it looks like a bush, shoulder high, with pipe-cleaners of fuzz attached to it. She gives us its latin name and says it numbs the throat and gives the mouth a fresh feeling for hours. She looks at us, and the entire time she is dressed in a safari outfit, with binoculars around her neck and sunglasses on that are crooked, looks at the plant, grabs a pipe-cleaner, chomps on it and continues down the trail. I think to myself, how messed-up is she going to be if she continues to sample all 50 of the medicinal plants in the next few hours? She didn't snack on or point out another plant for the rest of the hike, and she was actually quite pleasant and well informed.