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Published: July 11th 2010
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Day 3, or so it feels. After sleeping for 4-5 hours, it's time for local orentation. Walking around this crazy, strange land with a local guide, R and AM. By the way, my room...yeah. The kind of place you would walk in and immediately leave were you at a hotel in the states. Dirty, stained floor in the bathroom, oscillating fan with the stand cut off hung from the ceiling, ripped screen door to the balcony, European style bathroom with an open shower (no shower curtain) one step up from the toilet, open outlets with exposed wiring--completely not up to code. The toilet paper looks dirty? Kinda scary, so I use kleenex to wipe which plugs up the toilet--fantastic. The pluses are that it is critter-free and the sheets are clean. The door locks and shuts completely with no openings (some doors are so off-kilter, there is an inch or more gap) and no broken windows.
So back to the walking tour with R. He speaks very good English but with a heavy accent so I have to ask him to repeat himself often. We leave the hotel and walk down the road/alley to the road that leads to the
beach. At which point, R says not to ever walk the road to the beach with your camera or phone because you will likely be mugged. I, of course, have my camera and my wallet with all my money in it thinking it was more safe with me than in my room. I keep my purse rather close to me the whole time and we head towards the main road which is less than a minute's walk. This is Bahari Beach Rd, named for the area we're in. There is a police station on the corner which consists of an open-air, abandoned-looking building with one person sitting in it. No car. We go left for a quick jaunt over to Tegeta "road" which is a dirt road that has been washed out quite a bit during the rainy season and has huge holes and ruts in it. We run into the AIT director, K, and his young son in their car. They will give us a lift to Tegeta. The way is really slow-going with all the ruts and dips and bouncy to the point of being almost painful. But we're glad for the ride as on the way back,
it was a 50-60 minute walk.
Tegeta is busy and very, very dirty. There is trash in the gutters and on the "sidewalker"--dirt trails on the side of the road and it must be common to litter as our tour guide died so quite matter-of-factly. There are signs on the bars that say "clean" and "safe" though I'm not sure they are. There are businesses in "strip malls" that look like run down storage units. There are also stands thrown together with whatever was around and many shanties--very tiny, with common walls and all with antennas sticking out. There are people everywhere! Here in Tegeta are the closest working ATM's which R calls cashpoints.
On the way back, we walk by Bahari House which used to house volunteers and now is used as Bahari Nursery School and is where the Adult English classes are held. There is also a music studio there owned by AIT to serve their label, Mzuka Records. It looks to have once been quite a nice house but it is run-down and not well taken care of which seems to be the theme here. We also walk by a bar/open air restaurant, Mchuno's, which
is very popular with the volunteers as it is only a 5 minute walk from the hotel. We meet, E, the owner. She's very nice and welcomes us with hugs. Last on the stop is Bahari Pharmacy. Very small, but seems to have most of the bathroom items you would need. This is also where the dala dala to town leaves from. (More on dala dalas later) We come back to the hotel and it's dinnertime. I meet a lot of the other volunteers and they are all really nice and friendly. Dinner is a pot roast stew concoction that is pretty good. Especially considering it is the first meal I've eaten since breakfast around 4am. I'm still exhausted so I go to bed early. I have to use the bathroom in one of the rooms upstairs since mine is not working, then head to my room where the light won't turn on. So I go to bed in my clothes with my purse, my phone, a book, and Rhino--a stuffed rhinoceros I picked up for the boys at Heathrow Airport.
Oddities-there are animals everywhere at the hotel--several dogs, (with fleas) one of which sleeps on the steps and
doesn't bother to look up (or move) when you walk by. A few random and very small cats, chickens, a rooster and goats. Also, the landlord jogs on a brick paved area by the outdoor dining room/bar for almost an hour at night. Except it's more like a medium paced walk, but he picks up his feet as if he's jogging.
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