Mombasa,, work.. and a better understanding of African life

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It’s been a while! The past month I didn’t have a lot of time to write any new stories, and besides that because of the work the weeks were also a little less exciting 😉
But now the work is finished!! So happy! Arrived in Nairobi yesterday and I will hit the road with Lindsey after lunch to do some traveling. So here’s what I’ve been doing the last weeks…

Last time I left you with the story about my trip to the Taita hills, the weekend after we decided to go to Mombasa. It started of quite promising when we fetched a nice ride with an empty safari van, 10 x more comfortable than any of those other crammed busses or matatu’s. The drivers of the car also seemed to be really nice and genuine guys and they took us all the way to Diani beach, and arranged us some accommodation… This is a beach south of Mombasa and is supposed to be really nice. One of the main things we wanted to do in Mombasa is eat some nice Italian food. But according to these guys it was best to eat something in the centre of Diani beach, where there was no Italian food, and that it was impossible to eat close to the hotel. So that’s what we did, to find out on the way to our hotel that there were about three Italian restaurants on that very road. . They took us to a hotel which was so to say a complete rip off. I shared a room with Lindsey, crappy bed, a mosquito net that was too small to be used by two persons, so I slept without (hello musquito’s!), didn’t close an eye and decided to get up at 6.00 to go the beach. Where rain started to poor down on me. So no relaxing on the beach, we went back to Mombasa when my phone got stolen in one of the matatu’s. Jaja that weekend was fun! In Mombasa we actually found a nice hotel! In the evening we went out to some place called Casablanca, casino/bar/dancing/special shows. Highlight of the weekend, especially after a lady came to negotiate with Gabriel, about me. An old, fat, very very rich Indian guy wanted to make me an offer. I am still curious about the actual amount of money he was willing to pay hehe. He came over to talk to me though, and we had a nice talk, apparently he owned a mine (gemstones a.o.) and he had a hotel in Mombasa. Later on Gabriel wanted to see the pole dancing, so we joined him. I must say the look on his face (shocked) was quite enjoyable. So far Mombasa, a weekend of joy, full stop.

Since then we’ve mainly been working. During three of these weeks we went to all 15 schools, one per day. This meant waking up between 5.00-5.30 every day, driving to the schools, setting up our camping lab, and in my case analyzing blood samples. It was pretty exhausting, and after the first week I ended up with a fever, on my only free day.
The children were lovely, and very brave. The phlebotomists took two venous samples plus two small tubes of blood from a finger prick, and usually there was only one child a day that was crying/screaming. This was very fortunate since we were always sitting in the same room…
Best part of the day was picture time. In every school we took a group picture from all the children in the school. You won’t believe how exciting they get about making a picture. They all start running towards to sport field, which sounds and looks pretty much like the wildebeest migration. In one of the schools we asked the children to sing something, like they do during their morning assemblies. I filmed it, and it’s so beautiful!
Last two weeks we’ve been busy entering all the data we gathered in the school, completely boring, definitely not a thing to do when you’re in such a beautiful country. But yeeeh Tuesday night at 21.00 I finished, great feeling!

Apart from working we’ve been to our favorite bar a couple of times, to dance and these days to watch football. I also managed to make a local friend, James, nice guy, great dancer. He showed me a bit more of the real African life. Meaning living in a very small room with an entire family, heaps of garbage in the middle of living areas, open sewages, no electricity, no running water, and horrifying toilets. Despite this people are still smiling, and always very hospitable. After I ate at his place a couple of times I decided to cook for his mother last week. It was really nice, sitting in front of their little home, cooking on firewood, making pasta with tuna. It was really great to meet them, and seeing how the people live here just kind of enriched and completed my experience here.

Then there was Wunyiva, a 3 year old girl. About a week ago I was walking through town with Lindsey when this girl came running to me and grabbed my hand, she walked with us for some time, refusing to let go. Last Friday I was walking past the football field on my own when she came running from the other side to grab my hand once more. This time she kind of pulled me into the direction of her house, were I was happily invited. They immediately bought me a soda from the little money they had, and told me all about their lives. Well she became my best friend and whenever I walk there she’ll just run for me, so cute.

And that was Kibwezi  I’ve had a really great time up there, although the work was sometimes hard. As I said right now I’m in Nairobi, and I already miss that little town. All four of us left Kibwezi yesterday, and it was quite difficult to say goodbye.
Now I’m at Gloria’s place together with Lindsey, we’re about to go to the David Sheldrick wildlife trust. In the afternoon we will probably travel to Mt Kenya, and the coming week we’ll make a tour through Rift Valley.

Sorry for this incredibly long story, I hope you enjoyed it, I feel some pressure after some of you said that my last stories we’re so nice 😉 Next week there will be one more story probably written from Nairobi airport about my last week, and then I’ll be flying home!

Liefs, Annemarie

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Comments

[Sonja]

Lieve Annemarie
Fijn om weer te lezen wat je de afgelopen weken hebt gedaan. De leuke maar ook de minder leuke dingen. Wat vertederend te lezen hoe zo'n klein wildvreemd meisje naar je toe komt, je hand pakt en jou vervolgens haar huis en familie laat zien. Deze reis is vast en zeker de meest indrukwekkende die je tot nu toe hebt gemaakt. De grote verschillen met de westerse wereld zo zichtbaar en voelbaar. En nu nog even genieten van de laatste week. Lieve Annemarie een goede reis terug naar huis en tot gauw. Kus, Sonja