October Half Term Trip to Mfangano Island

I have been meaning to visit Mfangano Island (in Lake Victoria) for ages as it is where Gregory's family is from and he has inherited land there. I am SO glad that we went this holiday as it is beautiful and there is so much of his family history there that it was really interesting.

 

It is a long 7 hour drive from Nairobi across to Mbita and then anything between a 20 minute to 1 1/2 hour boat ride, depending on the type of boat that you take. We were collected by Gregory's Uncle (his Dad's cousin), Jack, in his speed boat; the lake was rough and I wasn't really enjoying the ride (due to being 25 weeks pregnant) so we went slowly and it took an hour to reach Mfangano.

 

 

This is the Suba Luo Peace Museum that was set up by Jack. We stayed here all nights but the one when we stayed up in the hill with his Gregory's other family. Jack is an incredibly interesting man, he speaks English, Swahili, Luo and Suba and he told me all abou the history of the Suba and Luo Tribes on Mfangano and how they got there. Gregory's family is Suba and they intermarried into a Luo family, hence him having the Luo surname Nyakiamo. There are a number of family tribes on the island and Gregory is connected to all of them but two. There are also lots of cave paintings on the Island, thought to be at least 1000 years old, but we didn't go and see them as I had had enough of bumpy piki piki (motorbike) rides.

 

 

 

The day after we arrived we headed up the hill to visit some of Gregory's other family and to see his land.

 

 

Gregory's land is on the middle hump, with the forest growing on it.

 

 

The view from up on that hill, with the forest behind us and beautiful Lake Victoria in front.

 

Inside Gregory's forest, where there are monkeys!

 

We spent a night with Gregory's Great Uncle, Fredrick Obogno.



 

Me with Gregory's Great Uncle, his Dad's Cousin, Kesia, and Dad's other Cousin's (Odhiambo) baby, Kate Zawadi (this means Gift in Kiswahili).

 

Babu (Grandfather in Kiswahili) and me eating lunch - they killed a chicked for us; it was very tasty but SO tough!

 

Family photo: (L-R) Dad's Cousins wife , Gregory, Babu, Me and Kate, Dad's Cousin Odhiambo, Odhiambo's other children Robert and Cecelia. Just after this photo was taken Kate did a wee on me! Babu said that this is a blessing and it means I am having a baby girl and should name it after my mum... we will find out if this is true in a few months!



After spending a night sleeping on the floor of Odhiambo's mud hut we headed back down the hill. Early the next morning we woke up for sunrise over Lake Victoria and met the fisher people collecting their nights catch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later on that day we took a 10 minute boat ride over to Takawiri Island (this is the only island on Lake Victoria that has natural sand) to have a swim. Luckily there are no hippos hanging around here! 

 

 

 

After 5 days on the Island we headed back to the mainland, this time the Lake was calm and the boat ride only took 20 minutes!