Mfangano Island

Yesterday Jenny wanted to go and visit one of the Suba Laker Girls soccer players out on Mfangano Island.  Not having much to do, Joyce and I invited ourselves along.  Actually had 6 of us in all.

This being an island of course caused us to have to take a boat ride.  We chartered a boat, one of the few steel boats on the lake, at least in these parts.  The boat maker and captain is actually a British chap who has been living here in Mbita for 23 years.  It would take at least 23 blogs to describe this man.  Quite an interesting fellow in a number of way.  But we hear he makes a killer pizza in his brick pizza oven.

It was a great day for a boat ride on the lake.  Had cloud cover most of the day.  The boat also had a tarp over the seating area – which can hold over 20 we are told.  It was about a two hour trip out.  The lake was calm, the breeze just right, so all we were missing was the rum punch.  A lot of the time we were close enough to shore to see the sites.  A lot of little beaches the people come to bath, wash themselves or dishes or both,m or park the boat.

Where we live Rusinga Island is just across the water, connecting with Mbita (main land) making our area look like a bay (which I guess it technically is since the two are connected with a causeway. Mfangano is also in view, along with a few smaller islands causing the lake to not look all that big.  But once you get past Rusinga on the boat and can look out to the lake, you see nothing but water all the way to the horizon.  The lake is 160 by 200 miles, so it does go on for a ways.  The average depth is only 130 feet, so pretty shallow over all.  And it sits at an elevation of 3700 ft.  Okay, enough of the geography lesson.

 So our destination was Wakula Beach.  Doesn’t this nice sign just remind you of some nice Hawaiian beach call to the tourist?  Actually the sign is part of some cultural museum located on a different part of the island, but you can come to this beach and take a 90 minute walk to see some rock paintings.

This is a fishing village which generally go by a name that ends with Beach.  There were 6 dozen or so home and a couple little shops just off the beach.  From town things spread out to the surrounding area with many more homes.  The place is remote, being that it is surrounded by hills like you see in the background on all sides.  But there must be a number of families around.  We took a short walk and found the primary school not to far away.  It had a nice football pitch and some new buildings being constructed.  I was actually kind of impressed with how nice the school property was.

Wilson, the captain, seemed to get stopped quite often.  Seemed like many people know him even out here, not that he knows them.  But within minutes of arriving he got asked to look at the posho mill (powered maize grinder) and someone’s boat engine (which was very similar to ones that he is the representative to sell in the area). 

We came to this place because Joe and Jen wanted to visit one of the girls that was on the Suba Lakers Football team.  She just turned 15 a couple weeks ago and has a new baby.  Since she is kind of in a remote area, this was a surprise visit to her.  Joyce and I didn’t actually go to see her, since the other four were there to do that and we didn’t want to overwhelm her with a couple white strangers.  Her place was a 30 minute walk from town.  But they wanted to come and see the new baby and encourage her.  She made it through second term before she gave birth.  The school says she can’t come back third term – they need to make an example out of the girls how get pregnant. I don’t think I agree with that stance.

Joyce and I hung at town, other than our little walk.  Had fun listening to Wilson talk with the locals.  Watching the drunk fishermen try and talk with us.  And entertained by the drunk older man waving the walking cane and threatening various stuff.

We headed back to Mbita a little late.  Once the girl’s mom returned, she insisted on cooking them lunch – fresh from the garden and chicken from live to table in about 30 minutes.

Again, saw much local life on our way back, complete with swimmers waving at us

(see them  over Joyce’s shoulder).

And a special treat on the way back.  We stopped off at the Mfangano Island Camp.  One of those overly plush resorts in the middle of fishing villages that you don’t expect to be there.  Only like a minimum of $250 a night per head.  There’s a new manager and Wilson wanted to meet him, since he has done work there before wanted to make contact in case they needed work in the future (see I told you 23 blogs to cover Wilson himself).  This is the open air bar – the manager, a youngish English lad that only started a couple weeks ago, bought us drinks.

On the way back you got a good view of the haze the hangs on the lake. you can see that the hills are more obstructed the further they are.  Also note the bland blue sky at lake level and the gradual brighter blue as you get to the top of the picture.  Wilson told us that it’s from farmers on the other side of the lake burning to get ready for the growing season.  But I’ve noticed it all the time, so something else must contribute to it also.

Do to the late start on the return it ended up a sunset cruise.  The haze made for a remarkable red sunset on the horizon.

That’s Wilson in the corner.

From a day on the lake,

Paul