I have spent the last 24 hours trying to recover from the prior 48. Nearly 2 years after moving to Kenya, I realize that I've spent about 2/3rds of that time inside the Nairobi city limits. Sure, I've got a built-in excuse; as a woman traveling alone, it wouldn't be exactly prudent for me to go swanning around in the Kenyan bush trying to play Dora the Explorer.
To be blunt, I think my time in Northern Uganda kinda topped me off in terms of curiosity about rural Africa. Been there, done that, and really quite grateful to have survived. Plus, though my gig in theory requires me to do as much outreach as possible around the country, there's more than enough in Metro Nairobi to keep me occupied.
But when I decided to stay in Kenya for one more year, I realized I'd need to make more of an effort to broaden my horizons. Sadly, the picture above doesn't even begin to capture the extraordinary horizons I traveled over the past few days, accompanying a Daily Nation reporter on a story assignment about men and reproductive health. At first glance, this image probably looks like a bunch of trash or tufts of cotton floating on the surface of a pond. It's actually a picture of the famed Lake Magadi flamingoes, one of the top tourist attractions in Kenya.
Now, I'm not trying to totally diss my trusty little pink point and shoot Fine Pix camera. It has really served me admirably these past few years, and I've actually taught myself a lot about photo composition and lighting with it. But when it comes to images like this one, it simply ain't up to the challenge.
And when you see some of the next shots I'll be posting, you'll understand why I gotta get my hands on a grown-up girl camera ASAP. Hey, if I'm only gonna be living here another year, I wanna capture the real deal, as much as possible.
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