Indian Ocean

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We got up at no particular time to do no particular job this morning. No one was really sure what was going on, but the guys headed to the school to start working. When we arrived later, they were treating the trusses. A lot of the wood that goes into buildings has to be covered in used motor oil to keep the termites out, so that’s what they were doing. Did I mention there was a torrential downpour happening? I haven’t often seen it rain that hard, especially having it come straight down. It rained on and off like this all day.

The people who run the school told us there was a lot of work to be done, but unfortunately we can’t find it. The guys kept painting while we moved bricks and picked up garbage. Irene built a sort of fire pit with the broken bricks to be used for burning garbage. By lunchtime, we were exhausted from finding things to do and hiding from the rain.

After lunch, we headed to the beach. You can walk out probably 100 yards or so, maybe farther. It’s pretty shallow for a while. The water was kind of warm, but the ocean isn’t really my cup of tea. I can only stand in it for so long, so I did a bit of reading on the beach before heading back to the house. It was my first time to the Indian Ocean, but now I have been to 3 out of 4.

The beach and ocean weren’t really what I had expected. I heard about the white beaches of Mombasa, but I didn’t think they were that white. I heard the ocean was warm and clear, but neither was the case. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t cold, but not what I thought it would be, especially for being so shallow. And I imagined it clearer than it was. The first 10 or 15 feet were dark and murky and filled with seaweed, then it got clearer. In my head, I was seeing the Sandals beach resort commercials, and that’s not what it was.

The trail to the beach is sort of long, and very wooded. It sort of reminds me of where my uncle used to live in Woodinville. There are some HUGE trees! I’ll try to get pictures up soon. On the way back, Sarah and I saw some monkeys in the trees. I’m not sure what kind they are, but they have super long tails.

There is a place on the way to the school that smells just like Pizza Hut breadsticks. Those are one of my favorite foods! Sarah and I have been bantering back and forth the foods we miss and pizza is at the top.

I didn’t kill the geese today.

After dinner, I played Skip-Bo with a 13-year old, Tim, who lives here. He’s a bright kid. His brother works for the school and lives here also. We had a nice conversation. It’s amazing how much different the conversation is and the knowledge of kids, and people, who have been to the West versus those who have never been out of Africa or Kenya. Tim spent 3 months in Canada with his oldest brother who lives there. The young kids here make me miss Tato and Reagan and ZMEG, while the older ones make me really miss my high schoolers.

Hopefully it doesn’t rain tomorrow so we can get laundry done and some real work at the school.

Oh, and a special birthday greeting goes out to Pauly-Gone!

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Photos

The In Tide
We walked all the way out to the rock and still could touch!