The next day I met the group of people that I was travelling with, a couple of Americans, Brits, a Swiss, Swede and a Dutch guy. We where all excited and enjoyed the hotels pools and bars in the glorious weather. The group was a well travelled one; every continent had been checked out – although this was all of our first time to Kenya.
At about mid day we climbed in to a small battered 9 seater Nissan van and head through the city. It was chaos. It seems that if you have your vehicle’s nose slightly in front you have the right of way. Through the tiny windows in our van people constantly offered us all kinds of stuff – coconuts, coke, cashew nuts and more. All the street venders had a great attitude and constantly mingled between the vehicles.
We tried a few places for diesel – 4th time lucky – apparently there was a shortage. Next we had to get a ferry, the inlet was narrow but as huge ships used it to access the port a bridge was out of the question. After queuing for a while our hot and sweaty van chugged aboard. All of the cars pulled up then hundreds of people crammed on and we made the 5 minute trip. The ladies all around us had bright and vibrant clothes on and looked great.
Heading up the ramp on the other side was madness; people, animals, lorries and huge hand pulled tailors had a steep bank to negotiate. Apparently 80’000 people cross the bridge each day. Armed security was all over the place, although most of them where asleep!
As we left the city limits life slowed down, there was less rubbish and fields began to appear. Children began to wave at our van, shouting ‘jambo!’ Swahili for hello.
On both sides of the road people set up businesses of all kinds, fixing bikes, cooking cobs of sweet corn and more. Everywhere we went the smell of burning wood was never far away. Town streets turned in to sugar cane fields, suddenly we where in the middle of nowhere. I was absolutely loving it.
At one point our van got pulled over by the police, they had all kinds of questions and were clearly after a bribe from the westerners in transit. As soon as it became obvious that one was not coming they shoed us away and we set off at great pace.
Everything in Kenya had the motto ‘poli poli’ (slowly, slowly) apart from the driving, which was mental. We paced an army checkpoint, on guy was swinging an AK47 around his finger. Somehow it did not go off!
We ducked off the main road, 25 minutes from Tanzania down a dirt road. The van slid and skidded all over the place through the red mud. Somehow we kept going over 30mph, ducking head on traffic and the walking people. School girls in head scarves and young lads kicking footballs flashed by the window as our rollercoaster ride took us further and further away from the main road.
Eventually the sun set and we pulled up in a slum, wound our way through and our driver, Drew, spoke to nearly everyone that we drove by. We came to a set of gates and pulled up in a simple, beautiful set of cottages. A world apart from the poverty 20 feet away.
We dumped our bags and set off straight in to the heart of the slum. Weary children constantly came and said a cheerful hello. Parents sat close by watching and each building was lit by a dim light from open charcoal fires. We went up and down, round and through the slum and ended up at the volunteer house, at the heart of the community. It felt safe, if not a little mind boggling.
The volunteers were busy making the evening meal, we had a look around and spoke to a few people. The accommodation was super basic, matching their close by neighbours. We received instructions to be up at 6.30am and were ushered back to the cottages to fall asleep.

Interested in the adventure? www.smallerearth.co.uk/programs/volunteering/country/kenya/

(Source: smallerearth.com)