Riding it Out on the Coast

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I decided to head to the coast for a few days to wait out the tensions in Nairobi. The girls have not been able to have regular skills training and the NGO is mostly focused on securing the property, their school, and daycare.

I took the train down to Mombasa. It was a lovely way to see the landscape on the 5 hour ride down. Mombasa was the original capital of Kenya. During that time it was an important center for trade of spices. gold and ivory between Africa, India, and China. The architecture is a combination of traditional Swahili, colonial Portuguese styles from the 16th century and modern Islamic designs.

The temperatures are much hotter here at low 90s with humidity. Not my ideal weather, but appropriate for being along the beach. I spent 2 days in Mombasa and then moved about an hour down to Diani beach to get closer to the Kisite Marine Park.

I found some beachside restaurants to work from during the day and by 5pm the sun is low enough for beach walk. Yesterday I did a day long trip to visit Kistie Mpunguti Marine Park which is on the the border of Tanzania. There was an hour long boat ride between islands to get to the protected park. There were lovely coral reefs that were quite shallow so scuba diving was not necessary.

I plan to fly back to Nairobi tomorrow. While there are protests planned for tomorrow only once have they taken place near the airport so I expect I should be able to return

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