Well, I'm back in Mombasa now. I was really sad to leave Lamu. It's a great town. Sun was a long travel day. Our plane leaving Lamu was delayed 2 hours. Also ran into my first experience with corruption at the Lamu airport. Luckily Ali took care of all the stuff for us. The people there didn't want to let us take all our luggage on the plane saying it was too much. So they wanted Ali to pay em around 7,000 shillings (about $100 bucks). Ali called Athman and Athman said not to pay and that we should just send as much luggage back as they didn't want to let on the plane and we'd just bus it out to Mombasa the following day. When Ali got off the phone he told the guy that ... read more

I'm now in Mombasa, but I'm transcribing what I wrote in my journal on that day: I just heard and saw the most amazing thing tonight! Egan, Annie, faith and I were walking back from Petley's (a local bar). When we got to Milimamni (our house) we saw Lia outside the house next door. She was just standing there watching and listening. Inside the house there were a ton of men. the room was packed and the lights were out. The men were singing/ chanting and sort of dancing. Lia said they'd been singing for at least 30-45 min. before we got there. The music was so powerful and beautiful. We found out from one of the ladies that had gathered that a woman inside was sick and all the men from the surrounding homes had ... read more

I've only got extraordinary things to write about. Swahili class is going great. Learning lots really quickly and am having a blast doing it. This weekend was another amazing one. It was the weekend of our dhow (traditional sailboat) trip. At 6am on Fri morning we all piled into 2 boats and took off for Kiwayuu. It's an island north of here. Unfortunately we didn't get to sail on the way there. The view as we made are way among various islands was once again amazing. It was pretty peaceful (except for the sound of the motor). We stopped breifly on an island for a bathroom break. The beach on the island was white, but the dirt a little ways up it was a deep red/orange. The colors here are so vibrate. We soon climbed back ... read more

Have you ever arrived at a place and just felt it was right? That's what I felt like when we got here. On Mon. we took a plane from Malindi to Lamu (only 25 min.). The airport (which is just a few shade structures) is on the mainland. We then had to strap on our bags and walk down to uor dhow. We had to cross two other boats to get to ours and trust me, it's not easy climing through other boats with a big bag on your back. But anyway... We then headed for the island. Lamu has a population of about 20,000. It's a gorgeous island. The house I'm staying in is beautiful and the view from the roof is amazing. The city is surrounded by a palm tree forest. The houses are ... read more

Hamjambo, I'm writing cause we have some free time. After our Swahili class we were all partnered up and given a place in the city to find. I was partned up with Lia and we had to find the Ganjoni Health Center. All they told us was to take lots of water (it's scorching out here) and sunscreen with. We had to find people along the road and ask them how to get there. We have til 4 to be back at the office (We started at 11). Lia and I found it with few problems. Most everyone that we stopped to ask was very nice and helpful. We had to walk through some very very poor parts of the city. We were almost there, but wanted to make sure we were on the right road ... read more