all huge journeys must come to a close, and today's epic closed with an orange sunset
low in the eastern sky, throwing the facades of Stonetown into an otherworldly glow as
the slow local ferry packed with brightly colored kenyans sputtered its way into port.
the timing was perfect after an arduous 9 hour journey from steamy, hectic mombassa....snapshots of a day's journey in east africa....
...young soldiers in crisp, green uniforms straddling machine guns as our armed escorts through the bandit-ridden country, approaching the lawless somali border posts
...brightly clad nomads selling camel milk in jerry cans on the side of the dusty, broken road
...clapboard and cement block towns, too numerous to name, strung out along the lone dirt road traversing this parched land; concrete painted with cell phone ads, children playing with makeshift toys in the dirt, market sellers yelling, jostling for livelihoods
...a bus groaning under the weight of a standing room crowd, cracked windows barely moving the stifling, dusty air; africans laughing and carrying on, unnoticing the discomforts which can so easily fill and control the western mind, for hours on this broken, desolate road
...my pack falling from the overhead rack and directly out the bus's open door as we careened down the early morning Mombassa road, the truck screeching to a halt and conductor dashing madly to retrieve it before it sprouted legs and ran off into the bush, all before i even realized what was happening (luckily, the pack is still with me...)
...and finally, lying in bed, indian ocean breeze filterning in through the broken window slats, fishing boats metallic clanking lulling me to a dreamy end to another day in africa...
