I spent the holiday weekend on the coast of Kenya in the city of Mombasa. I went with 11 other students, and we rented two cottages on Tiwi Beach on the Indian Ocean. The place was absolutely gorgeous! The sun was great, water was warm, and we had a great time. Along the side of the blog are photos from the weekend.
We left Nairobi on Friday night and took the night bus to Mombasa. Now, I like to think I'm an easy traveler, BUT this ride definitely tested my limits. We left Nairobi at 930pm and the first hour was interesting as our entertainment was something like the Michael Jackson lifetime music video collection- we all got a kick out of this. At about 1am our bus stopped and did a U-turn on the paved highway, we proceeded to cross over a rocky median and began driving parallel to the highway on a dirt road. I thought we were for sure going to get a flat tire. All the while the air conditioning on the bus has stopped and we are all sweating through our clothes as we are trying to sleep. The dirt path we had decided to drive on was so bumpy that none of us could sleep, and I think it was at least 90 degrees on that bus. It was so hot not one part of your body could be touching another or the person next to you-it was even grosser than your hottest day of runs, in overalls, in Appalachian heat. Well I suppose I've made this point very clear. The dirt road situation put us into Mombasa about 2 hours late, this was good however, because in Kenya you are never supposed to get off your bus before about 7am for security reasons.
We got off the bus and took a tuk-tuk to the Nakumatt (Kenya's chain grocery store). Tuk tuk's are three wheeled vehicles mainly used as cabs. At the Nakumatt we bought food for the weekend and of course, a crate of Tusker, Kenya's favorite beer (Their version of American Idol is even called Tusker's Project Fame). From there we walked to the ferry and got in line at the gates. There are literally two flood gates that fill with people and when they open everyone sprints down to the ferry, quite an awakening experience at 7 in the morning. But we all made it safely on and over, the trip is only about 5 minutes. We were a little apprehensive about the ferry because we were told that ferries here sometimes sink, but this seems like a problem that is too costly to not figure out the cause of- I don't know if they were overloaded or what, but we did not encounter this problem (obviously).
After the ferry we took a Matatu to Maweni Cottages were we had rented two cottages. The resort had a private beach and we basically did the beach thing all day Saturday and Sunday. The Indian Ocean is beautiful and very warm. The high tide and low tide are very drastic. The high tide made for a great swim and during low tide we took a boat out to a sand bar and sat with hundreds of starfish (photos coming soon I promise). This relaxing weekend on the beach was exactly what I needed after being sick. My congestion was essentially gone in Mombasa (and is back now in Nairobi, I'm going to assume this is largely due to the dust- and I've already made my case about dust).
We checked out Monday morning (Monday was a national holiday-the end of Ramadan) and had 10 hours to kill in Mombasa before our night bus home. We went to Fort Jesus, a fort built by Portugal, and also shopping in the Old Town- kangas (wraps with swahili sayings) and scarves were our favorites. Dumes (my friend Emily) and I bought a kanga we are going to have made into a skirt. They sell Kangas in doubles and they cost about 300 shillings or $4, and having them made into a skirt here is only 500 shillings- so hopefully I'll do that soon. :)
This week class has been alright. We started our "tracks", I'm in the education track. Our first lecture was pretty dry but I'm hoping they get more interesting. I really want to learn about private v. public education in Kenya, as it appears no one attends the public schools. I also want to learn about the Christian influence on formal education-my host sister goes to a Pentecostal school and last week she brought home a quarterly exam, in between all the math and reading questions there was one question that read "Who is your best friend?", and the answers to choose from were 'Teacher, Satan, Jesus'. Now I think we can all guess what was marked as the right answer- but this was so interesting to me. Also there was a question that read "My mother, father and I make up a ____" and the answer options were 'community, family, clan' and family was the correct answer- from here I'm sure you can guess the cultural implications of this, and the absolutism that is so overwhelming in questions like this for a six year old. Feel free to post thoughts/comments in the comments of this blog~
So ed. class is going alright, Swahili is going well- I'm not great but learn more every day. My host mom likes to quiz me, and they think its funny that in the US we 'eat' porridge because here they 'drink' it. I love the development and country analysis professors. For those classes we have logs that are due weekly about our experiences, observations and how they relate to development. I'll include a sample POR or Personal Observation Report on a side bar-- check it out.
We played the Kibera girls in soccer again- they beat us 5-1 this time. Half of them play without shoes and we played again on a dirt dirt field. This got me thinking about how soccer is such a simple game, yet we have made it so elaborate in the US. You really don't need shoes or shin guards to play, yet that is how we define soccer. For what its worth we have essentially 'developed' the game of soccer, and then by our definition of the game, drawn conclusions of others style of play. If you saw the two kids I saw yesterday playing with plastic bags balled together and tied with rope barefoot in the street would you consider it undeveloped? Now on face value, I think most of us would, but really we are comparing it against the image we have of soccer-something we have made into a best cleats, green fields game. Just some food for thought, I hope I'm not getting too preachy.
I think soccer is a great metaphor for development, I'm writing my POR #2 on it so I'll try to post that later.
Well that about sums everything up, wow this was a long post, I'm happy your still reading :) This weekend I'm 90% sure I'm going to Tanzania (no travel warnings) for a little adventure. One of the students on the trip, Molly, studied there earlier in her college career and knows a great hostel to stay in and is pretty versed in traveling there. So I figured I'd like to see Tanzania with Molly rather than go it alone at a later date. There are about 10 of us going and we leave tomorrow afternoon. We'll stay in the hostel she knows, enjoy soon food and a reggae festival and come back Sunday. I'm looking forward to it :)
I'll write again soon, love and miss you all!
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