Last weekend we took a day trip with some of our fellow missioners to the Kakamega Forest. It was about a two hour drive from Kitale through some beautiful country. We had views of Mt. Elgon, the Nandi Hills, fields of tea and sugarcane among all of the maize.
Funerals are usually held on Saturdays so people can travel to attend. Funerals are a big event and anyone associated with the family, tribe and village are expected to attend no matter how far they must travel. We saw three funerals on our drive.
Our destination was the Rondo Retreat Centre in the Kakamega Forest run by the Trinity Fellowship. It was a beautiful compound for guests. We arranged for our tour guide there and had a delightful light lunch in their dining hall. The grounds are a paradise in the middle of the forest with beautiful landscaping. John and I plan to go back to spend several days there when we are on holiday from school.
The Kakamega Forest is the only tropical rain forest still existing in Kenya. Once upon a time this forest would have spread from the Atlantic coast of Africa across the continent to the Indian Ocean. Some of the animals that live there don’t exist anywhere else in Africa. There are over 300 bird species, over 500 species of butterflies, 27 types of snakes (John jumped when he heard that), five kinds of monkeys plus many others. Fortunately the snakes aren’t often seen.
We took a short two hour hike with a guide through part of the forest. Since it was about 10:30 when we started most of the animals weren’t visible. We did see several birds, butterflies and ants including the vicious soldier ants. We saw a type of orchid, several mushrooms and several plants that are used for practical or medicinal purposes by the local people: toilet paper, sandpaper, stomach ailments, and diarrhea.
On the way home we stopped for a roadside glimpse of the Crying Rock. It is a huge rock pillar that stands high above the land with a smaller rock on top. When it rains water seeps out from under the top boulder running down the pillar leaving a stain that looks like tears. As we were sitting alongside the road looking at it a small boy about 10 years old came over to the car and wanted to know if we’d like to hear the local stories about the rock. Of course, we said yes. Unfortunately because of the traffic zipping by on the highway we weren't able to clearly hear the stories he was telling us. However, the part that we did understand is that there are caves at the base of the rocks. In these caves local people still perform cleansing ceremonies when someone's actions have harmed others.
We enjoyed the day very much getting to see another part of Kenya.
For more photos of our trip click here.
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