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Bald Eagle and a random
Chook and a random boy on the street. He was delighted to have his photo taken. Mambo!
That, for your information, is the cool way of saying Jambo (hello). It is the equivalent of saying “wassup?” The common answer to this greeting is “Poa,” but we prefer “Freshi!” Clearly these Kiswahili lessons are paying off if I can understand homie talk! Actually, my Swahili is pretty terrible: last night at dinner I asked for wealth instead of rice. For some reason they weren’t prepared to give it to me.
Well, this week has been quite busy. We have had two trips to Mombasa. The first was to get bikes. We got a couple of decent ones at a second hand shop there. Apparently it is best to get them second hand, because a lot of the new ones rust. The bikes are great. They make is a lot quicker and easier to get round, and make us look less like tourists. The second trip to Mombasa was an emergency book hunting mission, because Katherine and I had already finished all our books. (We are both giant nerds.) We found quite a decent bookshop and were successful in this quest. While we were there, we also went to Haller Park and saw some monkeys, hippos, antelope,
Bus Stop
Bus stop in the main street. giraffes (we were allowed to feed them), crocodiles, etc. (see pictures).
We also had a look at a house on Saturday, but it had a few problemos: wasn’t going to be finished for a month, not furnished, nothing to cook on. So we’re still looking around. Chambai (lodge we’re staying at) is pretty good - Chjumba, the owner, often gets us fresh fish (v. tasty) for dinner - but we would like our own place so we can cook our own food and all that jazz.
Most of the rest of the time has been taken up by hanging out with the kiddies. I shall take my camera in at some stage in the near future, so I can show you some pictures of them. They were so excited to see that we had bought bikes. I was exhausted by the time I got home the other day, from taking them on rides around the block for hours. On that day, some of them also climbed up on the roof to kidnap some baby birds from their nest…You can probably guess the result. Three very dead birdies! Was a bit sad.
Apart from that we have been doing some social
things. Had a couple of dinners with people from the lab. Discovered a restaurant which makes great pizza and also a gelati shop (that made my day!).
By the way I did survive the run the other day (seeing as you were all so concerned). Fortunately, we picked a pretty slow Kenyan to start with.
Anyway, continuing my interesting dot points:
·The other day, while we were at the garage getting Katherine’s bike fixed, a man came up to her selling cashew nuts. She told him she didn’t want any, so he pointed to me and said, “what about the boy? He might be hungry…” So now, not only do I look ten years old, but I also look like a boy. Yippee! Apparently that was what I wanted when I was young, so I probably shouldn’t be complaining!
·At the same time, we met the self-titled ‘senior bachelor’ Paddy F. He’s a singer and he writes his own poems. He also wore a shiny, pale blue tracksuit (hot!!). He was desperate for us to come and hear him sing, so he gave us his phone number, and apparently he came looking for us the next day.
Might be one to avoid…
·Speaking of avoiding people: We were swimming at the creek the other day, when a guy came up to us to have a chat. His name was Jimmy and he was 22 years old and he tried to bust a move on me. He said the following things to me, “You have beautiful eyes” and “I can never forget you.” As we were leaving he said to me, “It’s not goodbye without hugging.” I politely declined the offer of a hug and scurried off.
·The African love for us continued on our way home the other day. A group of boys were calling out to us, “I love you” and “I like the way you move.” Very amusing.
·Some of the other Africans were very impressed with Katherine’s swimming abilities. One told her he wanted to “buy her skills” at freestyle and the like. The same guy asked Katherine is she was an artist like her boss at the lab. Katherine didn’t think he painted or anything, and when she asked what he was talking about, he told her, “you know, he doesn’t believe in God.”
·We also saw the spitting
Kilifi Creek
Swam across here this morning. Nice and shady round here. image of Steve Erkle (spelling?) a few days ago, complete with brightly coloured overalls and very thick glasses.
·More amusing Tuk Tuk names: The Survival (they aren’t really the safest things around), Awesome Love of Jesus, The Royal Pride, Hakuna Matata.
·On the subject of vehicles, some of the Matatus (cheap transport - 15 seat minibus) have rather strange seat covers. One I saw said, “Praise the Lord” and another said, “Macho Macho.”
·One the subject of God***, I could have bought a thermos that said, “Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!” the other day. Was very tempting!! Also available were biscuits/chocolates (forget what they were), called Bimbo.
·Subject of God continued: I am starting to learn some Swahili god-songs. They’ve got nothing on Shout to the Lord though.
·This morning we swam across the creek and back before breakfast. It’s about 300 metres across. Being a terrible terrible swimmer, it was very hard work for me, whereas Katherine basically just had to tread water to keep up with me. Also, when I do backstroke, I completely lose my sense of direction and start swimming out to sea…bit dangerous, though must be amusing to watch!
Ok, that’s
Kilifi Creek again
A dhow on the creek, boatyard in the background. it from me.
Peace out dogs.
Love,
B.
P.S. Voigta - let me know if this worked.
P.P.S. Bballers - great to see you're dominating without me (sorry, sarcasm does not become me). Hope you had good time in the 'bool. Could someone please pass on my congratulations to Steph - that is excellent work re. Sudan!!
*** Praise be to Bono.
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Joey
non-member comment
Your mother loves you whether you are a boy or not!
Now that you are a boy, is the penis still invisible or not?