Mombasa!

---

So, I guess today (Thursday) has been day #6 in Kenya, although it feels as if I’ve been here for at least a month.

VSO showed up on Monday and took Mark, Lucy and me to their very plush offices where we were shown around and introduced; to one floor anyway as they have three in total. We were given the standard finance and admin talks before being shipped off to the guest house for lunch then to the doctors in the afternoon for a medical talk. We weren’t given much information on what the medical talk should involve and neither it seems, was the doctor. The best bit of information he gave me was for a restaurant in Mombasa (his home town) and where to go to get clothes made. Given that we’d travelled so far for the appointment, I felt a bit under pressure to ask a question so decided to ask whether there were any decompression chambers in Kenya. His very calm answer was that they were unnecessary as the Kenyan coast isn’t very deep and in any case the air they use here doesn’t cause the bends. Erm... I decided not to question it - It just didn’t seem worth it.

Then we headed back to the guest house for a peaceful evening of dinner and early bed.

Tuesday was looking like it might be similar when we were picked up early and taken to VSO by Peter’s brother, Isaac. However, instead of a talk we were cross examined on the previous day’s medical examination and it was decided that we had to go back again that afternoon for a second round and to be prescribed some hard drugs to take to our placements with us. The rest of the morning was spent with a Swahili teacher who we wowed with our intricate knowledge of greetings: “Habari za mchana?”, “habari za safari” and the ever so exotic “shikamoo” which apparently translates as “I hold your feet” to which the answer is “Delightful” (or “Marahaba” in Swahili). Nice!

Before our second sitting with the poor doctor we were meant to be shipped back to the guest house for lunch, but decided instead to go to an Ethiopian place round the corner which has a lovely garden outside. It became clear that we had ordered too much and as we were eating with our fingers, there was no crockery to hide the remnants of the spicy beef, oniony chicken or fragrant vegetables under once we were full. In fact our only hope were the warm, flannel-like flat breads provided with the meal, but in the end it was just too obvious. The guy was very nice and told us that he’d let us off the house policy of paying double when you don’t finish as we were first time customers. I assumed he was joking...? After some Ethiopian tea, coffee and incense we went once again to the Sarit Centre, 4th floor and to the doctors’ waiting room. Obviously by now we were blacklisted and so had to wait an hour until we were seen again and apologising profusely we reeled off the question we should have asked the first time (one about a Hep B test and another about PEPs). The doctor in turn (obviously his ear had been bent by VSO too) dutifully prescribed us the dugs that would have been very easy to come by in our placements.

By this time it was clear that my employer would be sending someone to pick me up the next day whereas Mark and Lucy would be waiting for Lucy’s employer to join them on Thursday before travelling up to Busia in the Western Province on Friday. Therefore Wednesday evening involved a lot of packing but also a bit of dinner and some now christened “Mbuhead” (mbu=mosquito) while a bunch of newly landed teenagers from North America sat behind us, played Hearts and joked about how “far out” the Methodist Guest House is. I’d love to see their reaction to the rest of the country...

Wednesday was full on. I got up at five to finish packing, dress, breakfast and be picked up by Peter by 7. We got to VSO early to drop my bags off before heading off to FHI to talk to the country director about my role and the programme I’ll be supporting. I also managed to catch up on some VSO office politics which if nothing else reminded me that I’m still in NGO world! The trip was successful and gave me a lot of encouragement for my placement. Phew!

Charles (my programme manager) and I headed back to VSO to visit Saida, one of Solwodi’s outreach workers who had been sent up to Nairobi in place of the CEO who was busy with some workshop in Mombasa. We chatted a bit about Solwodi, sex work, Saida, me and general stuff.

Once all the formalities we out the way Isaac took us down town to catch a coast bus. To say the traffic was bad was an understatement. Nothing moved for nearly an hour on this one street. It was a good thing we had headed off ridiculously early as we made the bus by the skins of our teeth. Not that we should have worried - it then took the bus nearly 90 minutes to get out of Nairobi. The roads were terrible for the first few hours then improved greatly. Saida is fasting as its Ramadan so took a nap as she’d been up since before 4 when she was able to eat. I’m not sure how she managed it as the road was awful, although to be honest I think I might have dropped off a bit myself. The Mombasa road runs through the Tsavo national park and it was surreal going down the road and seeing a giraffe eating at the road side and a herd of elephants about 10 metres away. At one point the driver had to break hard and rammed his horn as two zebras ran across the road. The main thing about the road is that its very dusty - bright red dust covers everything until the whole world is tinted orange.

Also, by halfway through the day word had got around the other coast based VSOs that I was arriving and I received a lot of welcoming text messages from the volunteers already in place. To be honest I was very grateful for that as I can be pretty negative when I’m tired (those who know me may be surprised to hear) and that helped me from slipping in to some sort of contemplative depression about what the hell I was doing in a dusty, (really) smelly bus waiting to be attacked my some big cats.

We eventually got in to Nairobi about 9.30 - 2.30 hours later than expected. Mostly because of the Nairobi traffic, although Saida also felt the driver was quite slow. Anne, Solwodi’s administrator was at the bus station to pick us up with her daughter Gloria. They took me to a hotel as my flat wasn’t quite ready and helped me settle in to a very comfortable night.

Anne picked me up at 8 this morning with Musa, the Solwodi driver. We stopped by Solwodi so I could meet some of the staff, although I don’t remember a single name (except I’m sure someone was called Rose so I’ll go for that tomorrow). Then we went to my flat which is a matatu (the local buses are mini buses) ride away from the office just on the far side of the Nyali Bridge on the North of the Island (yes, that right - Mombasa is an island). One thing about the apartment is that it is huge. 2 big bedrooms, a large lounge and adequate sized kitchen and bathroom. The area seems pretty local () but very friendly and my landlord and his family live in the flat above. He, Mohamed, and his wife Hawa, are Somalis and very friendly and welcoming. We equipped it with some lovely furniture this afternoon but to be honest, I’d love to be on the Island, a bit closer to work and some social life. I think everyone is aware of this and they got this flat as they were a bit desperate it seems! Anyway, it’s certainly adequate for the time being and its very nicely equipped now. (Although the water has been off all evening and the electricity keeps flashing on and off...luckily Mohamed brought me some water around)

Anyway, I’m off to work tomorrow to meet the rest of the staff (and hopefully the CEO, my boss) and get a matatu lesson from one of the interns in the office. Hopefully I’ll be meeting up with some other VSOs this weekend as well as Patsy and Julie, both ex-VSOs who still live in the area; Patsy in Mombasa and Julie in Lamu, an island up the coast. Hopefully there’ll also be some running water and electricity!

---