I've survived the first week and am loving it!

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Can't believe it's been a week.... what a busy week it's been. I'm now in Malindi. It's a city up the coast about 2 hours from Mombasa. We drove up on Fri. It was really neat to get to see some of the countryside along the way. What a difference from the city. There were mud huts along the side of the road. And the further from the city we got the more women we saw carrying loads on their heads and more villages with mud (or manuer walls) with thatched roofs. Just a little before we got to Malindi we stopped in Gede. It's a little town that has a national historical preserve. One of the oldest swahili settlements was there. We got a tour of the ruins by the guy that runs the park. It was sooooo neat. It's such an amazing feeling to walk around the ruins of houses and a mosque that were built thousands of years ago. Can't wait to show you pictures of it. We also got to see monkeys while we were there! =)

Malindi is an interesting town. It's about 20,000 people, but it's not really safe to walk around here at night, even in a group. Malindi has a very big drug problem. The day we got here we had the afternoon off, so we got to go swim in the Indian Ocean. =) The beach here is gorgeous and we almost had it all to ourselves. Yesterday we had another drop-off. Leigh and I had to find Gongoni. We had no idea what it was, so we asked a couple people how to get there. We got to the main street in Malinidi and got on a Matatu (taxi-van). That was an interesting 30 min ride. Even when the van was full we picked up people, they just sat on laps or hung out the door. Personal space doesn't really exist here... or it's really really small. People crowd in very close to one another.

We finally arrived at Gongoni. It was a town. Neither Leigh nor I really knew what we were suppose to do, so we just started walking around. I have never ever felt so awkward in my entire life. The town doesn't get any tourists, so there weren't any other whites around and people were just staring at the two of us. Several asked us what we were doing there and we said we were just supposed to walk around and find out things about the town. It didn't take long for the kids in the village to start following us. They showed us around. Katana (he's 16 and in the 8th class) was the one that talked with us the most. It was fun to get to use some of our swahili and the kids taught us some more. Katana took us to meet his family. We had to walk down a dirt road quite a ways before we got to some huts a little ways from the rest of the town. We met his mom on our way there. When we got to the huts Katana's mom told him to get us chairs, so he brought out their best chairs and cushions and even put two nice doiles on em for us to sit on. The kids just gathered around us. We walked into Katana's house to meet his dad. His dad used to be a cook, but had to quit because of a disease in his legs. He can't get around anymore and spends his day sitting on a little bench in the hut. I don't know how the family supports themselves. Katana is the oldest. He has 6 younger siblings.

When we left the kids walked us by the school. There are 51 students in Katana's class and only 1 teacher. That's a lot of kids. On the way to the main road Katana asked if we spoke another language. I told him I spoke German, so he started asking how to say things. It was fun. I told him how to say I eat, I walk, etc. and he told me how to say them in Swahili when I didn't know. I wrote them all down and gave it to him before we got on the Matatu back to Malindi. When we left I saw all the kids gather around Katana. It was a lot of fun, but it was also really weird at first. I have never felt that much of an intruder. I also wish we had been able to stay for lunch, Katana's mother had offered to cook for us. I want to try to visit the town again once I can speak Swahili. I had also never seen such poverty. It's one thing to sit in a classroom in the States and talk about how horrible it is that Africa is such a poor continent and all the injustices than to be walking among the huts that people call home; watching the people carry jugs of water in the boiling heat back to their homes. See chickens, goats and donkeys wander around the town. It's not something I can describe well in the short amount of time I have here. It definetely was quite an experience.

Today we got to go snorkeling!!!!! It was amazing! The fish were beautiful! So many different kinds... unfortunately I'm not a fish person, so I can't tell you what we saw. We took bread out to feed the fish, so they were swimming around us. I even held some bread for a while and they ate from my hand. I stopped that when one of the fish (probably about as long as from my elbow to my hand) bit my pinky. It was still fun though. I really wished I had an underwater camera with me. I saw fish with long pointy noses, I think there was a parrot fish, and lots and lots of very colorful ones. =)

These past few days we've all been in the sun a lot and it's showing. Most of us are sporting some good burns now (although, mine's not too bad). Poor Sally's legs are very burned from today. It's been nice swimming 'cause it means our legs have been able to get some sun. =) Lamu is supposed to be very very pretty too. We fly there tomorrow. We'll be in Lamu for about 3 weeks. Probably won't be on much 'cause there's only 1 internet cafe. While we're there we're also going to be going sailing for 3 days around some islands off the coast. =) Really looking forward to that.

I'm gonna get going now. I miss you all very much, but I'm having a blast!!! Oh, and before I forget, if any of you have read about the protests in Kenya about the cartoons they were in Nairobi and were mostly peaceful. Nairobi is quite a ways from here, so don't worry about me if you were. =) I'm quite safe and am having the time of my life! Take care and I'd love to hear from you.

Kwaherini!

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