safari ya kenya :: Day 9 :: in Mombasa

Friday, June 20

This morning we finished my shopping. Rod made a deal yesterday with one guy that he would buy 3 chess sets for $15. I wanted to buy one for Trey and didn't really know what to get for Dad and Matt. The guys wanted $10-12 for 1 chess set, but made the deal with Rod. He made sure it was ok with me, and we went and picked them up this morning, first thing.

After breakfast, Rod went to Bamburi to pick up our moms' dresses. He was gone for a couple of hours. I stayed in my hotel and read a book, which was very nice. The dresses look great!

The dresses for our moms

When Rod got back, we took our postcards to the post office (he wrote 2 for his moms in Brenham) and mailed them. 95 KSHS to mail a postcard to the US. The one I sent to Cat in Senegal was only 75 (but that's still over $1 USD).

Then we met up with William and took a ride down to the ferry. We walked along the road by the river, looking at the baobab trees and watching a container ship coming in to the docks. Rod had taken me down there on my first day in Mombasa, but I was able to enjoy it much more today since I wasn't jet lagged.

The famous Mombasa elephant tusks (they are not from real elephants, just a metal sculpture)

We came back to GPO for lunch, then went to the beach. We walked from Pirate's beach down to Travelers' beach. Agie was still working and there was a volleyball game going on. Rod and Agie joined in.

William and Rod on the beach

Rod brought me back to my hotel to clean up while he went to buy some more shoes - his had gotten wet playing volleyball and he didn't have any more shoes in Kenya he could wear tomorrow besides his dress shoes. When I shaved, the top layer of sunburn on my legs peeled off (I'm sure Cat will find that particularly appealing).

We just took it easy till dinnertime. I wanted to try biriani, which has the same main ingredients as pilau, but is different somehow. The first restaurant we went to had only chicken and chips. The next one had only beef liver left. The third one assured us they did have food, but also had a limited selection. Fortunately, one thing they did have left was very good. Chicken fry - which is chicken with sauteed veggies and a tomato sauce. I'll have to try biriani some other time.

safari ya kenya :: Day 10 :: in Mombasa

Saturday, June 21

This morning, Rod decided to close his bank account and open an account at a different bank. We left early enough that there was no line at his old bank (the Kenyans were taught to queue by the British, who make it an art-form), but by the time we got to the new bank there was a long line. At least 50 people in each of 2 long lines (that's a conservative estimate). The new account line only had about 5 people, though. So Rod got an application, which I filled out while he went next door to copy his national ID. Then when he got back, he returned to the new accounts line and I got in the cash deposit line to save him a place so that he could make a deposit into his account after he opened it. I don't know how long I stood in that line. I would guess over an hour. It was great to experience how much more efficient you can be when there are 2 of you.

Then we met Beaty so Rod could buy some fabric for her to make his mom another dress (Beaty and Angeline shamed him into doing this since the other dress they made is from my mom, and he believes his mom deserves everything, so he can't resist getting her something - he is really a mama's boy). He also bought fabric for himself a pair of black slacks.

I tried again to have biriani, but there was none, so I had a fish with the head still on for lunch, but I did not eat the head, as Rod would have.

We had lunch late and finished shopping afterwards. Then we took the rest of the afternoon just chilling, reading, and watching TV.

We had great pizza at Blue Room for dinner. It's the nicest restaurant I've been to in Kenya.

safari ya kenya :: Day 11 :: in Mombasa

Sunday, June 22

We left for breakfast a little after 7:00 this morning and I didn't get back to the hotel till about 10 pm. Long day.

I went to the English service at church this morning. Rod didn't make it because he had to go back to Agie's house after breakfast and change clothes. He wore blue jeans to breakfast, was thinking of wearing them to church too, and he looked nice. But since he was preaching in the main service he had second thoughts about his outfit and went to get nice slacks, shirt, and tie. He looked VERY nice in that. :)

The rain at church

After the English service was a Bible study, during which I had no idea what was going on. Rod had arrived by then, but was sitting in the back. He had left William responsible for me, but William wasn't translating for me.

By the time the main service started, Benson had arrived, and he did translate everything for me.

The English service was from about 9-10. Bible study ~ 10-10:30. Main service ~ 10:30-2 pm. No breaks in between.

Rod preaching

After the main service, the pastor gave me a kind of formal farewell and sent his greetings to America through me. I guess specifically my church, but I hereby extend the greetings to ALL OF AMERICA.

Then, when all the extra stuff at the end was over, I went out of the building, headed for the outhouse. Rod had been standing right outside the door since finishing his sermon, so I was going to talk to him before going to the outhouse, but I had to wait for him to finish talking to someone else first. While I was waiting, one of his cousins (I think her name is Esther) put her arm around me and led me aside so we could talk. She calls Rod "brother" even though they're cousins because Swahili had no word for "cousin." She said she would call me "wifi" (or something like that) which means "one's brother's wife." Her sister also joined us after a while.

Finally, we went to eat some pilau, and I got to use the restaurant's outhouse, which is a nicer one that the one by the church. [This is an important part of the African experience so I will describe it. If you don't want to know about outhouses, skip to the next photo.] There's really no plumbing, just a hole in the ground. But the hole isn't like our outhouses that have a little chair over the hole. It's actually a hole in the ground that you have to squat over. The ways the restaurant's outhouse was superior: 1) It (the restaurant's outhouse) has four full walls, a door, and a ceiling. The one by the church is a corrugated tin lean-to. 2) You can't see down inside the hole at the restaurant. By the church, you can see everything that's in there, which is mostly...um...worms...So that was nice.

Me and Benson Sunday afternoon, after chai

Then we went to Aliston's for chai, which was made from a plant we were sitting next to. At first I thought it reminded me of chamomile. But it may have been something like lemon grass. They crushed the blades of grass and made chai with it, which we drank sweetened but without milk.

We sat with Aliston, Ben, and William for a while, then went to Pauline's. She made us Mahamri. We didn't have time to sit and eat with her, but she wanted to make us mahamri anyway and send it with us.

Then we went to dinner with Florence, who I was originally supposed to stay with. It was a great dinner, with great conversation.

With Florence and her sleeping children, after dinner

Coming back from her house was a muddy adventure. But none of us fell in the mud. I did slip and slide around on the mud a lot, though.

Rod says that mud is my official welcome to Kenya.

Our muddy shoes, though not as muddy as the next day...

safari ya kenya :: Day 12 :: in Mombasa and Kambi ya Waya

Monday, June 23

First thing this morning, Rod asked me, "How about going to the country this morning and coming back to Mombasa tonight?" So that's what we did. He says that my love for spontaneity and flexibility is the reason he loves me, but not the only reason. He said it would be an adventure, but we got more of that than we expected!

The plan was to take a bus or express matatu to Malindi, then another matatu or small bus from there to Kambi ya Waya (means Wire Camp). The bus stops to pick up and drop off, but the express matatu goes straight to Malindi. Then from there, the small bus stops closer to Rod's mom's place but only goes twice a day - around 10 am and 3 pm. The matatus run constantly, but there is a longer walk to the house.

We opted for the express to Malindi, and hoped we'd be in time for the small bus to Kambi ya Waya.

We were barely out of Mombasa when we stopped for gas, but the driver decided he didn't like the prices or something and drove off without filling up. We kept going...for about 50 feet. Then we ran out of gas. All of us boarded other matatus that stopped, but they were not express. They just go from Mombasa to Kilifi, with many stops along the way. In Kilifi, we got aboard a third matatu to take us to Malindi. Suddenly, it started overheating. Apparently, when they had filled the radiator reservoir, they didn't put the cap back on. So the fluid had been coming out the whole time we were driving. We waited on the side of the road for it to cool off and be filled with water, cap replaced this time. And then finally went all the way to Malindi. We were too late for the small bus so we took a matatu and then walked for about an hour. Part of the way was just dry red sand. But part of the way was standing water in muddy, slippery, sticky clay. Had we gone last week, the whole way would have been mud, and the water would have been much higher than ankle deep, as it was today. It might have been waist deep even.

The road to Mama's house

We finally got to the house and surprised Mama Esther and Janet (Wilson's wife). We gave Mama her dress from my mom and took pictures of her in it. Then they asked Rod to kill a chicken and made us lunch.

Mama Esther's house


Mama Esther in her new dress and me


Hoeing weeds in the corn field


Me and Rod


Chicken and ugali


In the mud

We had to go back soon, so after eating we walked through the mud for another hour, and took matatus back to Mombasa with no more incidents.

safari ya kenya :: Day 13 :: in Mombasa and transit

Tuesday, June 24

Today we had breakfast at the same place we had breakfast on my first day in Mombasa.

Rod had some pictures printed from yesterday and Sunday - to give to Florence and show Angeline and Beaty that we took Mama Esther's dress to her. We picked them up after breakfast and headed out to Bamburi one last time.

There was enough fabric left over from our moms' dresses that Beaty was making dresses for Khadija and Chorus - the only siblings of Rod's still living at home. One was already together when we got there, and Beaty put the other one together before we left. Rod abandoned me there so Beaty and Angeline would talk to me, but we still didn't talk much.

We had lunch with Benson. I finally got to eat biriani. Rice, meat, and sauce. It was quite good. Not really worth all the trouble it took to get me my first plate of it, but I'd eat it again.

Benson had to leave us around 2 because he had to work and then take a test in his computer class. We passed the next hour window shopping.

Beaty, Pauline, and Janet (not Rod's sister-in-law, but Beaty's sister and William's girlfriend) met us at my hotel at about 3, which is also when our taxi arrived. Then we went to the airport. I didn't have to check in until 5:30, but the traffic would have been worse then, so we went really early. I spent my last shillings buying everyone sodas and we sat and talked until time for me to check in. William joined us eventually, too.

It was strange to me that they all wanted to see me off at the airport. I kind of wished it could be just Rod and me so we could cuddle the whole time until I had to leave. But I probably would have cried more then.

31 hours till I'll be in Austin...