Kenya: A Safari in More Than One Way

How did you spend your New Year's Day? Maybe you went snowboarding? Maybe you drank beer and watched football all day? Well, I had quite a different experience in Nairobi. Instead of boisterous toasts and songs, the Kenyans called in the new year with riots and tear gas in what the Kenyan newspaper I picked up called "Kenya's Darkest Week."

I'm not sure if any of you had actually realized at the time (other than my poor mother and father who probably sent a combined 15 emails during the 4 day period when everywhere in Nairobi was closed or without power) that your dear friend Sean was traveling through a warzone, but you can now say that you know someone who has seen a Civil War unfold.

I was by no means in the middle of the action, of course. What I saw firsthand was a group of protestors wielding tree branches marching to exercise their right to assemble in Uhuru Park, only to be forced to flee back to the suburbs by a heavily armed military truck firing out several rounds of tear gas. The really striking thing was what I didn't see: people; on the day that the ODM called for a Million Man March on Uhuru Park, every single business (except for one restaurant, thankfully) closed, work days were called off, and all the citizens of Nairobi who weren't protesting retreated indoors, leaving the normally bustling, cosmopolitan cityscape looking like the post-apocolyptic movie set of 28 Days Later. Police dressed in riot gear like Ninja Turtles (refer to the pictures) made rounds in packs through the empty streets while thousands of military personel surrounded Uhuru Park, so as not to allow the ODM supporters to assemble.

I could write a lot more about what I saw and felt in Nairobi that week, like political discussions with locals in which even supporters of Kibeki agreed that the incumbent President rigged the election or my cameo on Kenyan TV standing near the Chief of Police as he addressed the discovery of a car full of homemade bombs parked outside the restaurant where I was eating lunch, but I'll save those other gems for another occasion.

For now, HERE ARE THE PICTURES

India: Pictures

Up until this point in my trip, my photography has focused mainly on landscapes and scenes. To really capture the essence of India (which is undoubtedly the eccentric population), I shifted my concentration largely to portraits. Crusted skin and tough eyes scream out at the daily struggle to survive in modern India; it seemed to me like the deep grooves of wrinkled faces could tell the stories of their hard lives like a Braille book. Here are some photos from my collections across India:

Album 1 - Udaipur

Album 2 - Agra (Taj Mahal)

Album 3 - Varanasi

Album 4 - Pushkar

Update: I Have Not Fallen Off the Face of the Earth

My apologies for the absence of recent posts. It may have seemed to some like I'd suddenly fallen off the face of the Earth. Well, I may have come close to doing so while swimming in 'Devil's Pool' (above) on the top of Victoria Falls' 100m cascades (and even closer when I leaned my upper body over the canyon below while a native Zambian held on to my ankles), but rest assured I am fine.

I hope that some of you are still checking on this site periodically - indeed if you're reading this then you have been. I still fully intend on updating with pictures and a few stories that will bring us to an end of my year-long adventure.