Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Write a Travelogue (11/06/14)
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TITLE: Under the Palms | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
11/09/14 -
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None of the Kenyan groomsmen were about to be outdone by the fluttering dream girls that brought the ululations and cheers from the audience. Each escort strutted and paraded his moves and charm from the front gazebo to meet his princess half-way along the carpet. The pair now gyrated and formed their own rhythm together and drew new applause from the guests. Eight bridesmaids and eight groomsmen proved that the music was deep inside trying hard to get out.
Across the stretch of glittering white, aquamarine sea waves lapped against swimmers on inner tubes, snorklers fixated on streaks of rainbow flashes schooling all around them, reef explorers stepping warily around urchins, and tourists in glass bottom boats. The indigo wall leaping up from the horizon was a phenomenon moving quickly toward the procession. The eyes of many glanced nervously in that direction. They saw it, but they didn’t move.
The bride changed the focus. She floated down the carpet on the arms of her parents and met her Kikuyu groom as he stood beaming in front of the white-robed preacher. The bride was from Michigan. The groom from outside Nairobi. A milk chocolate hand joined with a burnt almond hand. Then it started to sprinkle as only tropical storms can do. The guests dashed for cover and watched the proceedings from under the concrete overhangs.
The thirty sunflower robed choir members were left to soak up the falling water until their tribute was done, then they too scrambled for the hotel’s blue-and-white striped umbrellas sprouting up like mushrooms over every white wooden beach chair. The rain began to bounce knee high off of the concrete walks.
The bride and groom scrunched in under the gazebo with the robed preacher. Others in the wedding party tried to assist with more blue-and-white umbrellas along the edges of the arch.
When the vows were done, the storm well on its way, and the beach boys back to peddling their trinkets, the real party broke out, almost until dawn. The Coast of Kenya is hard to beat for life in the sun or for life after dark.
The elephants, birdlife and wildlife of Amboseli Park, on the way into the heartland of East Africa, were also magical and majestic with the dynamic imprint of their Creator’s love for diversity. Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya were two sentinels guiding our vehicles into hidden mysteries. The illusion that all was beautiful in Africa would soon be shattered.
East Africa contains what is fondly known as the horn of Africa. I heard that horn in multiple versions as I was escorted through the 6 lanes of dented, scarred, chugging vehicles competing for space on a two lane road into Nairobi, Kenya. The sound reverberated through the walls of my hostel all night long.
I was glad to move out of Nairobi, but it wasn’t easy to escape the sound of the horn. It sounded all along the highway as matatus [taxi vans] plunged recklessly into oncoming traffic on the curves to pass overloaded buses, semi-trailer trucks and cars trying to avoid the potholes liberally sprinkled through what was once a tarmac ribbon tying a country together.
I heard the horn through Kampala, Uganda since every diesel belching bus, every dump truck packed with human cargo, every one of the million motorbikes, every tourist van, every jostling taxi and every passenger vehicle, had some version of the horn. It became an incessant part of the landscape flashing by.
It was part of the cattle trucks charging over the hefty muram clay speed bumps along the main roadway. It was part of every little town market from people calling for attention. It was the language of the road which everyone understood, even if they didn’t appreciate it.
The quiet of Kabale in Western Uganda was amazing. Rich green banana plantations flooded the hills 6500 feet above sea level. Hundreds of bicycle bells replaced the horns of motorcycle taxis in the bigger towns. I settled in for my first real sleep, dreaming about a dancing bride and groom.
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