Too Many Goodbyes

Over the past 5 weeks I've seen a lot of people come and go. Some I only know for a few days, some only a few hours. But some I've known and lived with since my first couple of days in Kenya and so have gotten to know quite well. Several people are leaving this week, strangely I kind of miss them more than I do home. That's not to say I don't miss home, just that I know I'll be going back to everything there in a couple of months, whereas these people I'll probably never see again.

No doubt there'll be plenty more people to meet over the next fee weeks, and many more sad goodbyes, but it's been great meeting every single person I have here, and hopefully at least stay in touch with them.

Strikes

Walking back from Junction this morning (after going for a malaria test, not been feeling well the past couple of days so everyone recommended I should - I don't have it) I heard a load of shouting and car horns. I look back to see 4 buses blocking the road, people climbing on the roofs and running around the road. They soon moved off again, but were driving all over the road, forcing people to turn around. A little concerned as to what was going on, I kept my distance from the road, being the only white person around, I figured if violence was going to kick off, I'd be an easy target.

The buses continued like this, followed by even more, about 15-20 of the same company passed by in total, most only having a driver, and 1 or 2 people sitting on the window shouting out or on the roof. I got back to the house to see on the news that there are matatu and bus strikes. From what I can gather, what I saw was the start of the strikes, the fleet of buses forcing other buses and matatu to turn around and go on strike. Walking back to Junction this afternoon, there was not a single bus or matatu in sight. Lucky none of us headed into city centre this morning else we'd be screwed getting back. Taxi drivers must be making a killing today!

Diani Beach/South Coast Backpackers

Friday night a group of 10 volunteers caught an overnight bus to Mombasa, to head to Diani for the weekend (with another 2 already being there, and 2 more on another bus). After 9 hours sat on a humid bus, with only one toilet stop at around 2am in what is quite possibly the dodgiest looking service stop I've ever seen, we arrived in a rainy Mombasa (oh and the windows leaked too!) just as the sun started to rise.

Luckily the rain cleared up pretty quickly, and as we got off the bus we were harassed by taxi drivers, and with us being white, they correctly assumed we were headed for Diani, which is far enough for them to earn a few thousand shillings. The most common taxis in Mombasa are tuk tuks, basically a motorised trike, enclosed with room for usually 3 passengers in the back. With 10 of us, this would get very expensive needing 4, so we opted for 2 standard taxis (squeezing 4 people in the back of each). The journey to Diani includes a ferry crossing across a river, (all I need to do now is ride in a tuk tuk and a train, to have pretty much every transport option covered in Kenya). It's only a 2 minute crossing, but with no bridge, the only option.

This is followed by a 40 minute drive through a couple of towns, all looking pretty standard for Kenya, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Diani, having heard good things about it. But as we reached Diani, with one main road running along the coast (though you can't actually see the coast from it so we didn't realise how close the beach was at this point), buildings became further spread, the area looked a lot more peaceful, and there were signs pointing to some nice looking resorts. Oh and of course, monkeys along the side of the road!

We were staying in a hostel, South Coast Backpackers, for only 850 shillings a night (and 3 for 2 as NVS/IVHQ volunteers). The taxi drivers were pretty confident they knew where it was when they picked us up. However, they took us to a resort, and immediately went to confirm with reception whether it was the right place. It was not. Their excuse was there are two backpacker resorts so they weren't sure which. There was no mention anywhere of 'backpackers' at this resort, but we got back in the taxis trusting they now knew for sure where they are going. Nope.

We drove down the road for a while until they decided to stop to ask people. This seemed to be of no help, so we got our driver to call the resort for directions. At this point the other driver disappeared off elsewhere. We arrived at the resort with the new directions, and waited 20 minutes whilst the other driver got lost instead of following us. When he eventually arrived, he then had the cheek to ask for extra money for the extra fuel used. Maybe next time he won't be so quick to say he knows where somewhere is just to get the business.

It was around 7-8am when we eventually arrived (hadn't slept much on the bus, so was a little tired to remember the time). Technically check in wasn't until 3pm, however we were welcome to drop our stuff off in the room, use the pool, and begin our tabs for drink and food. With 2 volunteers already there (1 of whom kind of works there temporarily, helping at the bar in exchange for cheap stay), we were shown around. For a cheap hostel, it was really nice. Large garden area, decent sized pool, fully enclosed with an electric fence on top of the wall (mostly to stop the monkeys getting in, disappointing for me I'm sure you can imagine), and security at night (Masai people with bow and arrows, again I was disappointed when they wouldn't let me have a go). Plus 2 guard dogs, a one eyed cat named Cyclops, and an unknown number of tortoises (there were 2 initially, but apparently they are at it like rabbits, with up to 20 babies having been spotted around). I had to educate some people on the difference between turtles and tortoises, though this resulted in everyone calling them turtles anyway, just to annoy me!

The guys that run the place are pretty awesome. Started by a Canadian named Scott and a French guy named Louis, they also have a couple of other friends working with them, as well as some Kenyans who cook, clean and help run the bar. They all make the effort to get to know all the guests, and are happy to advise on places to go, or even take us to the local bars. Unfortunately, most stuff is quite a way down the road, so there is a lot of travelling on matatus and motorcycles. After this weekend I am far more comfortable riding on the back of a bike than I was when I went to the ostrich farm, it has now become my favourite mode of transport. However I would still never touch one in Nairobi.

We jumped in the pool pretty much as soon as we had been shown round and dropped off our stuff. By 10am we had our first round of drinks and getting to know the other guests. We were having a relaxing weekend away so I think that's a reasonable time to begin drinking. Scott took us down to the beach to have a swim and play some football, and later in the day we headed to the local Nakumatt to get some cheaper drinks (the guys running the place are OK with this), and the whole day was pretty much spent around the pool drinking. In the evening a DJ arrived, and there was a buffet dinner, this was supposed to be a party for 2 of the workers returning, however they were delayed until Sunday, the party went ahead anyway though. Later in the night they took us down to come of the local bars, Forty Thieves. A bit expensive on drinks, but good atmosphere, music, and access to the beach, with a couple of pontoons you can swim out to.

Sunday we woke up feeling a little rough, understandably, so we didn't start the drinking quite so early. Instead some of us headed off to do some snorkeling. We went to the beach where some guys took us out in a wooden boat (slightly leaky, so there was some bailing of water to be done) to a coral reef. Although I've been snorkelling before in Egypt, something about this made me uncomfortable, perhaps partly due to the hangover. I was breathing heavily from the start and out of breath quickly, that I ended up getting back in the boat after about 10 minutes. As I sat watching the others, I began to feel sick. I figured a hangover and sitting in a boat rocking in the sea were just a bad combination. Fortunately the sickness feeling passed, however shortly after my hands began to tingle, followed by completely ceasing up. This is something that has happened before, which I guess is quite lucky, as having no idea what was happening would have been a lot more worrying, especially being stuck out at sea. These same symptoms occurred over a year ago, during a stressful period at work, it was diagnosed as an acute stress reaction, so I figured whatever it was about the snorkelling that had me uncomfortable had caused a similar reaction, though not as bad as the last time it had happened.

I was happy enough sitting there whilst the others snorkelled, and having explained to them the similar reaction before and that it would soon pass, they were happy knowing I wasn't going to die on them. By the time we were finished and back to shore, one hand had fully recovered and the other feeling was coming back to, and I've been fine since. Though unfortunately it seems that wasn't the only thing trying to ruin my weekend. I also managed to have a bottle of Jack Daniels stolen whilst I was at Forty Thieves one night, and chipped a tooth, on a burger of all things. Hopefully my hosts at the volunteer house can recommend a dentist, and that my travel insurance will cover it. Despite all this though, I still managed to thoroughly enjoy the trip. The 4 days were all pretty much spent the same, pool, drinking and playing card games until early hours of the morning. I'm looking forward to getting a good night sleep when back at the house, as I've only slept for a few hours the past 4 nights (on the overnight bus back to Nairobi as I type this so probably very little sleep tonight, and the night before Diani we were out in Nairobi, my body definitely needs a break from alcohol!).

This week back in Nairobi I need to confirm with NVS my extension and pay them the extra fees, as I would have been flying home tomorrow (Wednesday) night, these 4 weeks have gone so quick! And obviously I haven't been able to talk them due to being in Diani. I'll also hopefully confirm my next placement and what I'll be doing for Christmas. I'm hoping for a few volunteers to be at Madison House orphanage, though I think some plan to travel elsewhere for Christmas and New Year.

Anyway hopefully I'll have news on the new placement soon, and will get the chance to actually post all this, and hopefully it all makes sense, as I'm sitting on a bus at 1am with very little sleep.

Night Out In Nairobi

Last Thursday we had a couple of volunteers return from Masai land for the Diani trip at the weekend. We took this opportunity to go out in Nairobi, first time for me. We headed to a club about 9.30, apparently it had been pretty good there previously, not so much tonight. After one round of drinks and an argument with the waiter after he gave us wrong prices then tried to charge us more, we left (we were the only people there). We headed across the road to a bar our taxi driver had recommended.

We arrived to hear singing inside and quickly realised it was karaoke night, we decided it could be fun, so we walked in, and of course had everyone stare as we were the only white people there. Everyone was pretty friendly though, and we even did a group song. As the karaoke finished we thought it was pretty much the end of the night. We started to get ready to go, paying off our tab, when a Kenyan guy named Jimmy got chatting to us. He ended up offering us drinks, so of course we accepted and stuck around. The music continued, and the bar staff started dancing. As we chatted with Jimmy some more he ended up buying us more drinks, and the bar staff dragged us up to dance with them. The only way I can really describe the dancing was a borderline lap dance, the girls bending over in front of one of the other guys, Mac, and I, rubbing their butts against our crotches. Certainly was not expecting that.

More drinks from Jimmy later, and we started to think something was odd about this. I don't think many Kenyans can afford to buy 4 people more drinks than we had bought ourselves all night. We think he may have been doing it in an attempt to hook up with one of the girls with us. Of course we made the most of the free drinks, and then tried to slip out. At this point he was offering to arrange us a lift home. We decided our best option at this point, having not already called for a taxi, was to decline telling him we had one waiting down the road, and walk quickly down to The Junction to catch one from there.

Maybe Jimmy was just a rich, friendly guy. We'll probably never know, and are probably better off not knowing, if he were to attempt anything. But thanks anyway Jimmy, I really enjoyed the Jack Daniels (doubles even) he was buying me all night!

Side note: walking through Kibera slums hungover is not the most pleasant of experiences.

It's Official - 20th January

After the airline office here contacted the London office to confirm the costs for changing my flight, it turns out I am entitled to one free change! Of course, any difference in ticket price would still have to be paid, so finding a cheap date was a little tricky. High season is until 15th January, so any dates up to then would cost an extra £180. 16th-19th were fully booked in economy class, so an upgrade would cost £75. Although tempting, I decided it would be worth hanging on a few days to get it free, the money saved is more than enough to keep me going those few days. So I won't be back in England until the 21st January!

7km Walk, Ostriches and Motorcycles

Add to that bus and matatu and that's 5 modes of transport in one day. Wednesday this week I and a couple of other volunteers, Amber and Kylie, headed off to an ostrich farm in Kitingela (after the girls had attempted to go there on Tuesday, but ended up getting lost before they even got out of Nairobi). It took a couple of matatu rides to get to Kitengela, where we stopped off at Kylie's old host house for chai tea and chapati, before catching a third matatu to the farm...or a road 7km to the farm. From here we could either walk or jump on the back of a motorcycle, we opted to walk there.

An hour later we arrived at the farm...after the 10 mile bicycle ride at Hell's Gate, it was pretty easy, but still pretty tiring in the heat, so first thing was a cold drink. Then off to ride an ostrich. Not the most comfortable of things to ride, but still pretty fun, despite how short a ride it was. Once again I forgot my camera, so I'll have to get photos from the girls at some point to upload.

There was no way we were walking another 7km, so we called for a motorcycle ride. My first time on one here, and the road wasn't the smoothest, sand, rocks and big bumps. I'm usually OK on roller coasters and such, but this was pretty scary, not being able to see exactly where rocks were in relation to the wheels and thinking we're going to be thrown off. The driver must have enjoyed watching my facial expressions in the mirror. After the 7km road however, the road was smooth, so I was happy to continue on back to Kitengela, it's cheaper than a taxi, and more fun than a matatu (and arguably safer...no one is able to pick pocket you, but in just shorts and T-shirt, no helmet, it could be safer, I'd certainly never get on one in Nairobi the way they drive there).

In Kitengela it was back on a matatu to Nairobi, followed by a bus back home. Nothing exciting to report about that part of the day. But we got home to find we had a working DVD player in the house, so we no longer have to crowd around a laptop...unless the power is out, then it's that or playing cards.

Headed to the airline office again today hoping to confirm my flight change, however I'm now waiting to hear back from the London office to confirm the fee, as the lady I spoke to today gave a cheaper price. Hopefully I'll have that all confirmed tomorrow as most of us at the volunteer house are off to Mombasa tomorrow night for the weekend leaving very little time to sort it next week.

MONKEYS!!!