Advertisement
Should we enter??
Any tips on how to do a good cutwalk? Hi dudes!
Been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time… Sorry, in a silly mood. So, anyway, it has been ages since I posted a blog. In fact, I’ve been putting it off for the last week as there is just a monumental amount to write about. We've definitely adjusted to Africa time also, which makes us completely incapable of doing anything quickly anymore. Hope you’re all well and happy, and that you have the patience to read what I’m sure will end up being a very long update. I’ve just finished my cup of tea, and Brigid has refused to bring me another even though I asked her very nicely in Kiswahili. What kind of a sister is she?!?
Well and truly the wet season here at the moment. Kenya actually has 2 wet seasons - the long and short rains. These are the long ones, and we’ve had more rain in the last 3 weeks than I’ve ever seen in my life. And that’s still the case even though it’s barely rained for the last week. In fact the only 2 times it’s rained this week, we’ve been
caught out in it. Got nice and wet riding home from work today. But, it’s still a big let up from the last couple of weeks. Can’t believe I’m complaining about rain - given the lack of water in Australia I feel a bit guilty doing so, but monsoon rains do become a bit of a pain after the novelty of how much water there is wears off. It’s the kind of rain that soaks you in less than a minute, keeps you wet all day, and brings out the (very noisy) frogs in a huge way. It can rain heavily for days without letting up. The road to Mombasa was impassable for a couple of days with vehicles having to divert through the villages in order to get through. And, traffic was stopped on the Mombasa-Nairobi road for over 20 hours due to flooding! We found ourselves going a little stir crazy at times not being able to get out, and a few times did ride to and from work just to get some exercise even though we arrived muddy and sodden (thank goodness for waterproof bag cover and changes of clothes!). We’ve become such good customers of Taxi
Anyone hungry?
Street stall in Mombasa. Just watch out for the knife... David (as he is known in my phone) that I got a free trip the other day. It has been nice the last couple of days to go for some long walks and get back on the bike. One thing we can’t complain at all about is the fact that the temperature has dropped significantly. The days are a very pleasant temperature at the moment, and you need a long sleeve top on at night. Sleeping is so much easier than when we first got here. We are no longer sweaty messes, which is lovely!
We were welcomed to Africa in the most lovely way last week - the ‘here, have one of our festy infections’ way… There is an outbreak of adenovirus conjunctivitis at the moment. Apparently sunglasses have become number one fashion item here recently. Just about everyone has been sick and we were no exception. Most people we’ve seen with it had mildly red eyes. We looked more like devil children, with very impressive subconjunctival haemorrhages, revoltingly oozy eyes and puffy eyelids (the latter made Brigid look like a cat - she told me she ‘officially hates’ me when she caught it from me). And, I
Serious red eye
This is well and truly on the mend. Don't have a good photo of the serious festiness of day 1... also managed to get periorbital cellulitis - had a really swollen bulging left eye - so, resisted the temptation to visit the ‘Rise up and walk’ herbal medicine shop and got some IV antibiotics. Wicked. Have learnt 2 things from this ‘adventure’. Firstly, IV flucloxacillin stings. Secondly, if IV flucloxacillin hurts so much you almost pass out, there’s probably something wrong with the drip. My hand is not quite yet back to its normal size after having a 30ml push of antis into my tissued drip! Despite the fact that we’re far from the only ones with bung eyes, eyes like ours are far from inconspicuous around town and we have become rather well known. It has been an interesting insight into Kenyan culture being obviously unwell here. Everyone (literally) stops you on the street to say ‘pole’ and to ask what happened. Pole is the Swahili word for ‘sorry’ and in this case means ‘poor you’. Kenyans love to use this word (so do we now). If you fall over, it’s pole, if you drop something, it’s pole, if your sister hits you, it’s pole and, if you look like a devil child, it’s pole sana (very sorry). Takes
Fatty McFathand
Post IV (actually intrahand rather than intravenous) antibiotics. a while to get down the street with all this - was a bad week for my sunglasses to break. But, all this kindness does make you feel a bit less lousy, and also very welcomed around the place. One tuk tuk driver (who I’d never met) stopped his tuk tuk when he went past us to tell me that he thought my eyes were looking much better today!
We’ve postponed our trip to Lamu (which was supposed to be last weekend) given we were sick, and will go in two weeks now. But, we have managed to get out and about a bit. We caught a matatu down to Mombasa a couple of saturdays ago with a visiting Aussie post-doc and some of the med students for a look around town. We’d been there a couple of times before, but had managed to see very little on those occasions. So, we went to see Fort Jesus (an old Portugese fort made of coral), wander round the old town (lots of interesting architecture) and Biashara street (which has lots of street stalls and heaps of tailors - some sewing on the footpath). Had a hilarious guide take us around
Fort Jesus who had some words of wisdom for every situation. He thought Aussies were fine but English and American people are ‘bullshit’. He did seem to be a fan of the Chicago Bulls though. And, he was trying to tell us something about kangaroos only being able to survive in Australia, but I didn’t quite understand what he was on about. Found the tastiest samosas of all time in a little café on the main street. Definitely worth coming back for. Am on a samosa tour of Kenya (well, Kilifi and Watamu anyway) since then but haven’t found any quite as good. Came home via Nakumatt (the supermarket) where we did a massive shop (spent $200 all up which is a hell of a lot of food at Kenyan prices) including buying in bulk all the essentials… and some non-essentials like chocolate cake mix. I love Betty Crocker. Also managed to find bike helmets - $12AUD a pop so can’t guarantee the quality, but there was no alternative and they’ve gotta be better than nothing. They look ok too - I was envisaging only being able to buy those old style ones that make you look like a mushroom
Look out tower at Fort Jesus
Now just provides a good view of the ocean! head.
The following weekend, we headed about an hour north to the Gedi ruins, which are near a resort town called Watamu. We caught a bus up there with 2 of the girls from the lab, Cleo and Leah. Our trip got off to a slow start after we had to stop and change conductors because ours had been arrested. There was a traffic blitz on that day - the police were pulling over all the buses and matatus and arresting all drivers/conductors who didn’t have their licences in order. The drive north is a really interesting one. There are lots of small villages by the road….. huts with thatched rooves (amazingly strong - grown men can sit on a roof and it will hold)……. nude kids bathing with buckets by a stream…. then you reach Arubuko Sokoke Forest Reserve, the largest coastal forest in the world, and the villages stop and thick green vegetation begins. We were hoping to get to Arubuko that day as there are apparently some lovely walks here, but rain got the better of us - it started to pour just as we got off the bus. We visited Gedi Ruins, which are (strangely
Door at Fort Jesus
There is some pretty intricate carving here... enough) the ruins of a wealthy community that lived here from the 13th until approximately 17th century. They are a very short walk (about 3 minutes) from the main road. Some of the locals tried to convince Cleo and Leah that Brigid and I might need to take a tuk tuk as the walk might be too much for our weak mzungu legs! The ruins here are quite amazing. They are much bigger than those at Mnarani - there are a couple of mosques, a palace and lots of other rooms - and seem right in the middle of the forest. Had a ride around Watamu after that in search of some lunch. It’s currently low season and a lot of the coastal restaurants have shut up shop. So, did a lap of the town in a tuk tuk, going through some massive puddles that a vehicle as rickety as that shouldn’t be able to negotiate, and ended up eating at a local joint back where we started, where we were served by a lovely young man called Heathcliff. People have some odd names here…
That night was one of the highlights of our trip here so far. We
Fort Jesus slave hold
The whole of Fort Jesus is made of coral. This is where slaves where held overnight before being taken away to be sold. They often crammed 80 or more people into a room that is probably no bigger than 5x6m went with a couple of the med students in search of a live band that was supposed to be playing at a local bar. There was unfortunately no live band there (just a DJ, some beer and feral smelly drop toilets), so we went down to the local night club for a dance. This place has quite a large drinking area, and is fun for checking out the local crowd. It attracts a fairly young crowd (I felt pretty old), and everyone is dressed up - the girls very skimpily and a lot of the blokes in tight tight tops. We felt more than a little out of place in our still-wet shorts and t-shirts (actually, Brigid had her Melbourne footy club jumper on!!). The dance floor is basically a hole in the ground measuring about 6x8 metres and was jam-packed full of people. We danced for a couple of hours to some very catchy African tunes, and had a tiny little girl (probably about 4ft 10in) try to teach us the African bum wiggle. Had some rhythm issues - think I need some more practice before I master that dance move. But, lack of rhythm didn’t stop us from
Henna Door
A store in the old town where people get henna tattoos in preparation for celebrations. firing up - it was great fun and man, were there some good dancers there. We’ll have to get them on our turf and play them Bon Jovi and see how they go…
Klein is now much-loved by us despite her cheeky killer ways. She is actually 2 years old, not a puppy as we thought. She is also only half rottweiler, ¼ great dane and ¼ I’m not sure. Apparently her mother and uncle were ‘killer dogs’ although I’m not quite sure what that means. Apart from an incident involving me trying to get her to come for a run with me in the rain (as it was getting dark - I think the headlamp I was wearing so that I could see the potholes freaked her out) and her biting me, we’re all getting along great guns. She is partial to eating grass, but this sometimes makes her vomit. I managed to step in her vomit barefoot the other day, much to Brigid’s amusement!! Also, she killed a rather large animal the other day and ate its whole guts out quite literally. I wasn’t home when this happened, but Brigid was and she said you could hear
Old town fruit cart
We bought bananas from him and then ate them while we sheltered from the rain in the fabric shop doorway... a lot of squealing. Yuk! The animal was pretty big - bigger than a cat. Not sure what it’s called, but apparently a type of rodent. Looked a little like a possum crossed with a beaver. Had a long tail. So, guess we’re not really going to have to worry about pests with her to keep them at bay!! She also got out of the gate when we were going out the other day, and ran into the sisal plantation. Was quite a sight, I imagine, watching me chase after her through the long grass as she frolicked around (serious frolicking was occurring. She was loving herself sick. We need to take her for more walks!!!), but eventually we got her to come back. Cheeky hooch. Lucky there were no snakes! I think we’ll find it quite hard to give her up come August - we’ve become quite attached.
We’ve discovered some good food and drinks here - the latest one is a drink called Stoney Tangawazi, which is sort of like ginger beer. There are a number of good local joints where you can get quick cheap lunches (for <$3, drink included), which we frequent for lunch with
Old town fruit cart again
You see guys pushing or pulling carts like this everywhere around Mombasa. Often in the middle of a few lanes of traffic... great names like Minnie Supa Duka and Chef’s Pride. But, if we feel like something other than African cuisine, we tend to go to Titanic - the restaurant/pub in the main street that is owned by Italians and has pasta, pizza and ice cream…. Mmmm… And plays cheesy 80s and 90s music….Mmmmmm….Also has a balcony with great vantage point to watch people on the street, and we may have claimed a table there as our own. The waiters there are highly amused at our slowly evolving Swahili and indulge as by engaging in small talk at ridiculously slow pace!! And - drum roll - they have a Miss Titanic competition coming up. A banner across the main street invites contestants to ‘do their cutwalk’. This is one event we will not be missing. The first heat is Thursday - stay tuned!!
So, overall we’ve settled in here pretty well. Have met some lovely people - mostly through the lab - Kenyans and expats alike. As everyone (Kenyans included - almost no one from the lab is actually from Kilifi) is working away from their homes and most people don’t know too many people here away from work, there is
Good time to wash the school bus...
... in the pouring rain. Not sure why the hose is necessary. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos of huge puddles. You'll just have to take my word for it. a lot of socializing amongst work colleagues. This has worked very much in our favour as there is always someone to have dinner/drinks/go out with. We’ve barely been home. We were talking the other day about how quickly things that were initially strange now seem very run of the mill. One of our friends here had his parents over from America to visit and he said he felt that it was like seeing the strangeness with fresh eyes - the fact that, as you walk through the hospital to get to work, there are chickens and cows wandering about, and that people are burning piles of rubbish outside the paediatric ward is strange, but you don’t think about it after a while. I wonder what it’ll be like for us when first dad and Liam and then Justin come over. Odd things about people and our encounters with them are no less strange though, and do provide us with a lot of amusement. People love to tell Brigid that they love her. Some women also said ‘hello, you beautiful ladies’ to us the other day. Not sure what they were basing the beauty on as it was dark! We also
got invited to a wedding the other day by Dennis (the menace, a 40-something-guy who stopped us on the street to chat) who we politely excused ourselves from after he told Brigid she was pretty! Brigid is having a great time at the orphanage. For those of you who haven’t seen her blog, have a look at www.travelblog.org/bloggers/weena/ for some rather amusing - and some poignant - stories of her antics with the kids.
Best be off now - this is getting too long and I have to get back to the FACS machine. One day I might tell you all a bit about work, and show you some photos. But for now, you’ll have to be content with what’s here, and with hearing that I have 192 samples to process this afternoon…
Oh, and I have some photos of the kids (special treat, Joey!) which I’ll put up on the blog tomorrow. Don’t have them on me at the moment. So, stay tuned. K x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.28s; Tpl: 0.044s; cc: 17; qc: 109; dbt: 0.172s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb
Craig
non-member comment
you have the hottest sister
your sister looks so hot in those photos, katherine...i wish i was like her. from TC