Charlie Shugart Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Thanks Ted, Ken and Lil.
I had gone to Kenya with the sole purpose of seeing the incredible wildlife before it disappeared because of the heavy hand of mankind.
Walking around Nairobi for a day while waiting for the safari to begin was a bit of a surprise- mostly because I hadn't thought much about it beforehand. It was a large city consisting only of black people (seeing another caucasian was a rarity). Of course, the people were doing all the things one sees in all big cities. For lunch, I walked into an ordinary cafeteria-style restaurant. About 50-75 people taking their lunch break from the office buildings where most of them worked. I was the only white person there, and I felt self-conscious about it. But I wasn't much of a curiosity to them. As I gazed around, I saw nobody staring at me, or turning suddenly because they HAD been staring. It was another totally logical situation- and yet it was unique to me- and felt a bit odd. Throughout Asia, whenever I was inside a local cafe, I was always an object of curiosity. Or even when I was just walking down a street alone (which was almost always). I spoke to only a few people in Nairobi, and English worked okay, although listening to them talk to each other I heard very little English.
Of course, visiting the Maasai village for a couple of hours was altogether different. The tribal people were not "westernized" at all. It would have seemed okay to say they weren't even Kenyans- although technically that would be incorrect. Certainly they were different than the people in Nairobi.
So I went to Kenya for the wildlife- and came away with some other impressions also. Always a good thing when I travel.
When I left Kenya I flew to Bombay, India, and caught a bus to the Kingdom of Kashmir.
But that involved no wildlife at all, so I can't work it into the Bird Forum ().
Charlie
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