Kisumu!! Sleepy!! Violent Riots!!!

Kisumu - 29/10/13

Today Fred picked me up from the Kisumu airport and drove me to my accommodation. It was very very basic and both beds had huge mosquito nets "malariiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaa", "malaaaaarrriiiiiaaaaaaaaa" repeated over and over in my head, almost like a really catchy but terrible song. I had not yet taken any Malaria medication but had been advised to swallow a few drops of Eucalyptus oil in the mean time. Well I tried that and nearly punched myself for doing it, I really wish I had just vomited because it was horrendous!!!!!!! Needless to say I took refuge in those mosquito nets fro the entire sty in Kisumu.

When I had finished gagging and asking myself why I necked a bottle of euc oil I decided to have a quick nap. Fred was going to pick me up at lunch time so that was plenty of time to re energise yeah??!! Well lunch time came around and I felt like a zombie loaded up on Codeine and I must have looked like one too because when Fred opened the door he said "Ill give you more sleep shall I?"
So another 2 hours pass and Fred knocks on the door again, I open the door and he says quite confidently "Ok I will just see you tomorrow morning"

Never have I ever slept so much nor appreciated a hard single bed with starchy sheets and stains on the pillows....in my life.

A road somewhere between Yala and Kisumu

The next day a had a massive sleep in and woke up feeling quite meh, but better then the day before.  One of the organisers 'Eliza' was suppose to pick me up at 10am but there was no sign of her. after waiting for an hour Eliza and Molly (another volunteer) knocked on my door. They explained to me that they were an hour late because they ran into a bit of trouble between Yala and Kisumu.

The story went like this.....

On the way from Yala to Kisumu somewhere in between the girls and their taxi driver were caught in  a very violent riot. It was a large group of Uni students outraged by the drop in security levels at their university. Apparently a male student had been beaten to death the night before and a girl raped a week earlier. What I found very strange is how they chose to rally against these 2 horrendous acts of violence. They decided terrorising, screaming, shouting, throwing rocks and threatening to stone people  would help their cause. One of the uni students approached the driver of the girls car and demanded money, he said they would need to pay him 50 shillings or he and a friend would stone them. The driver had no money and after scurrying through her pockets Eliza found 50 shilling and gave it to him. regardless of the bribe another student threw a rock at the car and shattered the back window, spreading glass all through the girls belongings.  The driver did not react as he knew this would outrage them even more and would put his and the girls lives at risk. Once the car was let through they had to drive through residents backyards and gardens to avoid more violence and stone throwing. They had escaped the boys threats with a measly 50 shilling, this is no more then 60 cents AU!!!!!!!

At the end of the day what I could not quite digest was the fact that these kids were protesting against violence by causing more violence....Seems a little contradictory to me!!!!