On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in London, I logged onto my computer to spend an hour learning all about Kenya. I learned about the people, the language, and the culture with my friendly guide Samson.
It is hard to view a virtual tour in the same light as the real deal. I’ve taken a few tours in my time, where I’ll admit that I’m barely focusing on the information my tour guide is telling me, because I’m far more interested in taking pictures of that beautiful building or staring in awe at that stunning landscape outside the coach window.
Exploring a new place and meeting new people is something that pre-pandemic, I don’t think any of us would have opted to do online rather than in person. Yet, I know that I will not be confident to travel for a while, and when I do, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to afford a trip to Kenya.
So, these virtual experiences, although different to the travelling we know and miss, do have their benefits. This particular experience focused more on history and culture, and in all honesty reminded me a little of being back at school. However, as an adult, without the compulsion to go to school all day, every day, I actually find learning about this sort of thing extremely interesting, and (dare I say it) fun.
Samson started the experience by telling me a little about himself. He’s been a tour guide in Kenya for seven years, and started hosting online Airbnb experiences 10 months ago, when it became obvious that the pandemic was not going to end any time soon. He asked me some questions to get to know me and what I was interested in, and used that to adapt the lesson.
A big interest of mine is food, so we spoke about Kenyan food and national delicacies, as well as tea and coffee for a while before jumping into the lesson. Kenyan food is heavily influenced by India, and has many dishes in common such as samosas, potato bhajis and masala chips. However, Samson explained that Kenyan food is much blander; their palettes generally prefer no heat from chillies/black pepper, and use fewer spices. They also use coconut milk in a lot of their dishes, including their mandazi donuts, which can be eaten with both sweet and savoury food.
Next, it was time to begin the lesson that covered as much about Kenyan culture as possible in the hour we had. Samson started by explaining that there were 44 different tribes in Kenya, and although we didn’t have time to go over all of them, he had selected 3 of the main tribes to give me a good sample and idea of the range of different traditions throughout the country.
The three tribes he chose were the Masai, traditionally known as warriors. Samson explained that now there is no fighting to be done, the men of this tribe mostly drink and sit in the sun. Next, Samburu, including the woman’s refuge village of Umoja that is a sanctuary for FGM and abuse survivors. Finally, we explored the Mijikenda Tribe, who are an Islamic community with influences from India and Persia.
Within each section, he taught me about traditions of marriage including polygamy and dowries, religion, houses, dress, education as well as traditions specific to each tribe.
Next, Samson taught me a few phrases in Swahili, the official language of Kenya. These were just basic words such as ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’, ‘thank you’, and my favourite, ‘friend’, which was ‘Rafiki’. I pointed out that this was of course from the Lion King, and he replied that ‘hakuna matata’ is also a very common Swahili phrase that you will hear many Kenyans use as an excuse for being late. After this we continued the language lesson, by counting from one to ten in Swahili.
Next, we travelled down to the beautiful coastal city of Mombassa, where he gave me a virtual tour. He showed me Fort Jesus and the art of making Swahili wooden doors that take 2 months to finish, and are worth thousands of pounds. Finally, we visited Naibrobi, the capital of Kenya with a population of 4.3 million. He showed me one of the main tourist attractions in Nairobi called The Giraffe Manor, which is a hotel where guests pay $17,000 per night, and $270 per person for breakfast.
I’m surprised at just how much Samson managed to fit in to the one hour without making it seem rushed. He was always friendly, asking if I had any questions. He welcomed any comments I had and was always up for a chat and a joke.
I learned a good deal of interesting information during the lesson, and although all of this information can probably be found online with some research, you cannot compare that to talking to a local and knowledgeable guide, who is friendly, chatty and happy to answer any question you have as you have them. For just $10 per person, I think this is virtual tour is definitely worth the money.
