International Camel Derby

As if I needed more adventure in my life . . . this past weekend I went to a town north of Kenya by about 6-7 hours by car (Maralal) for the International Camel Derby. It's Monday today, I'm sun burned, sore in places I didn't think possible, and sluggish, but had a once in a lifetime experience.

Our motley crew met Friday morning at Java House for breakfast prior to heading out of town. The group was: MacHarg (Vandy / Duke / Acumen Fund), Mike the Accenture Intern, Amy & Ana (Acumen Fund folks), Ed & Jason (McKenzie folks working all over Africa), Kathy & Emily (Kathy has been in Africa for years now, Emily is her friend that has been working in Tanzania), Kenya Joe (ex-Peace Corps turned TechnoServe consultant), Rohan (Deloitte consultant), and Shannon (professional photographer). We had a RAV4 as well as a 9 seat 4x4 mini-bus / van (not sure exactly what to call this thing, in Zambia it would be a combi, here I guess it is a Matatu, anyway, a big van type mass transport vehicle). We left at around 10am and arrived in Maralal at 7:30pm. Along the way, we stopped in Nyahururu to pick up a friend of Joes’ (Kevin). We also had to stop in Rumuruti to convince the police to give us an escort up to Maralal. The road between the two towns is plagues by bandits and cattle raiders. It could range from having to give over money to death, and as it turns out, not so much into dying. Joe spent a good long while trying to get them to come but to no avail. So I strolled up, flirted a bit, hugged the head officer, and we were in business. The rest of the ride was fine, except that Kathy lost her muffler on the way (literally, it fell off). MacHarg was able to string up the exhaust pipe with some chain and a carabineer. Go MacHarg / MacGyver!

The evening was a throw back to college. I ended up sharing a room and a queen bed with Shannon, which I have not shared a bed since I can’t remember when. We went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner (yes, the chain opened a post in Maralal just for this weekend), where I experienced Somali food for the first time. Then back to the Yare Lodge where we were staying for drinking games. I cannot remember what we were playing but it devolved (as expected) into discussions around sex and drinking.

Race day – you could feel the tension in the air, the camels were nervous, the handlers were nervous, all of the amateurs on edge, hoping, praying that they would win the race and the big prize money. Ok, so not at all, but it was fun. Not sure that man was meant to race 10K on a camel to be honest, as it is not easy on the back side (for the person – bounding with no padding, not so much, for the camel – beating the living daylights out of it with a stick). That being said, I must just have the worst luck, as I got a camel that had no interest in racing whatsoever. The race starts, and my camel (Bore – who I was either calling Borat or Fernando at any given time) runs for a bit, and then decides that he is not so into winning the big prize money for me. We go on for about 3Km, and then he runs me into a tree. I start bleeding (nothing serious) so we stop for a minute. I realize at this point that there is no way I am going to catch up, so I tell my handler that we should switch places. At first he is skeptical, but after some convincing, he is on top of the camel and I am leading it. My handler (LeMoge) actually starts telling me to run, like the camel is going to listen to me more than it did to him. All in vain, the camel ride turned into a camel pull. I stopped at the BP to buy a coke and a water, I was tempted to ask them to ‘fill ‘er up’, but I was already pushing it with pulling into the gas station with my camel. People were looking at me strange as we headed back to the finish line, a muzungu leading an African around on a camel, but I like to be different. I came in dead last as far as the race is concerned, but 1st in the camel pull (the event I was actually competing in).

The rest of the day was filled with ethnic dancing, singing, a Tricamelon (that Joe won for the 3rd year in a row – bike, run, camel), a fantastic trip to an escarpment where I saw one of the most beautiful vistas I have ever seen, dinner, and drinking. The next day we got up early to see the start of the peace run (3 feuding tribes were brought together for a 3 day retreat before the race to promote peace and understanding), the professional camel race, and the ½ marathon (which the Kenyans finished in like 1 hour 10 minutes). I got to see a goat slaughtered and the prep for a Samburu wedding ceremony.

Icing on the cake? Stopping for a picture at the equator. Half in the northern hemisphere, half in the southern hemisphere. I think that sums up how I have felt being here, half in one world, half in another.