Rusinga: Round 2 & Lake Victoria

Today Isaac, Khalela, Polycarp, and I ventured to Rusinga Lodge nearby. Rusinga is a tourist destination on an island (we can get there by car) and has kayaking, a swimming pool, food, drinks, and a spa!So, I got a facial. For the first time ever! And it was fun. I realize that I look like I am sick and in the hospital (I'm fine everyone!) but the lighting was poor and I had literally just woken up from a 3-minute power nap that didn't provide much power. Welcome to 60 days without makeup...you just learn to deal with it & I promise that this is not what I look like daily. Hopefully you all can get as good of a laugh from this picture as I did. 😂Polycarp took photos (by photos I mean literally hundreds) but some were blurry. I hope to get them from Isaac later to post. It was so fun seeing how excited he was and I'm glad he stayed with us for the day! At Rusinga, I WENT KAYAKING. YAY! This has easily become one of my favorite hobbies and I went two times before coming here this summer. Cassie and I went in June and it was really fun! Kayaking in Lake Victoria...check that off the bucket list. I took Polycarp, our Kenyan driver, who can't swim and has never been on the water with me the first go-around and he enjoyed it! I'm glad to have been able to take him and safely give him a first-time experience. We wore our life jackets of course and the water was really calm. ((To clarify, we didn't really go "kayaking" deep into the "dangerous lake in the world" (more on that below), it was more like sitting in a kayak paddling near the shore and doing circles for maybe 30 minutes. Not dangerous, but still a thrill!)Isaac and I went at like 1:30....and the water was not very calm, hahaha. We've always heard of Lake Victoria getting crazier as the day goes on (currently sitting in my room with my back door open at 9PM and can hear the waves CRASHING against the shore) but haven't "experienced" it like some people have on our travels. It wasn't dangerous, by any means, but if we would've went any later in the day, it could've been trouble.We watched as some fellow tourists hopped right into Lake Victoria and went swimming. Hold up. That's crazy dangerous. And bad for you. If you thought the Lake of the Ozarks was yucky, we are considerably blessed compared to the parasites and bacteria that call Lake Victoria home. According to this website, the lake is actually known as the most dangerous body of water in the world and an estimated 5,000 people die in the lake each year. It says that the "first [reason] is that the lake has a ‘mini climate’ all of its own and this can cause extreme changes in weather conditions in a very short period of time" and that's SO true. Like I said, as the day goes on it gets worse and worse and it's dangerous to travel on it any time in the early afternoon on throughout the rest of the day until morning. Another website says that "although going out on the lake is fun, it is, unfortunately, a disease-ridden body of water, and even though there aren’t always clouds of mosquitoes, the malaria risk is quite high. Snails carrying bilharzia also flourish in the reeds around the fringes of the lake, and although the Luo wash and swim in it and sail their vividly painted, dhow-like mahogany canoes on it, the danger of bilharzia is all too real. It’s very rare to get the disease after brief contact with infected water, but you should avoid getting wet, as far as possible, if you’re fishing or boating, and don’t even think about swimming." I avoided getting wet as much as possible, cleaned off in the pool, and took a shower as soon as I got back to Mbita so I think I'm fine but these people were literally having the time of their lives in the water. I hope they don't end up sick. We ate lunch there and chilled out by the pool. It was a very relaxing, fun way to spend our last weekend (tears) in Mbita. This was the first time I've worn shorts and a tank top ALL SUMMER (absolutely crazy) but I did get pretty sunburnt. After getting back to Mbita, I cleaned my room, took a shower, and then got ready for dinner. Chapati and chicken stir fry for the sixth night in a row...and I am NOT complaining. This is my favorite meal (that and extra extra extra servings of fruit!) and I LOVE it. I'm going to miss it so so much. If only I could cook! At dinner, I watched Miss Teen USA prelims and Khalela, Isaac, and I reminisced over Justin Bieber, the Friday Song, and funny Facebook videos. Not even ashamed that I know every word to "Baby". Isaac rapping Ludacris in the middle shouldve been recorded. Ken-ya believe it? We can't escape Justin anywhere :) It was SO much fun...and eventually the Guest House staff kicked us out so that they could close up, but thanks Biebs for making the  12-year old girl in me happy.