The Week's Adventures

Last Monday we left for our adventure in Mombasa. We were at the airport with over 2 hours to kill. It was the smallest part of the airport for domestic flights. It sort of reminded me of something we would have had in the 50's back home. Well our flight was full. When we were allowed to board, we had to walk outside a little ways to get to the plane. We were in line at the front of the plane, then some of the people noticed they were boarding from the back of the plane - you guessed it. The ones in the back wanted to go to the front, and the ones in the front went to the back. It was quite a show! Now the flight was only 40 minutes, and in that time we were served a cold drink (smallest can of coke I've seen) plus a sandwich. Now the sandwich consisted of 1/2 dark bread with some kind of cheese, and 1/2 light bread with egg salad (Mike said he thought they used 2 eggs for everyone on the plane). But at least they served you something, by the time they got to us in row 20, they were collecting the trash because we were about to land!

When we landed, we were met by Francis. He took us to the car and gave us a cold towel, I didn't know what to do with it, so I washed my hands. Smarty Mike put it on the back of his neck. You can't image how hot it was and very humid. Then he gave us cold water for the trip. The trip took 2 hours to get to the resort, we waited a very long time to get the ferry across the island. We drove through the center of Mombasa, so interesting. There were a lot of Muslim women. Most of them were covered, some with their faces covered. The material was mostly black and it looked lighter than I thought it would. Also we went by a few mosques. I was hoping to hear them call to prayer - but that never happened. From the time we left the airport and drove those two hours, we never saw another white person until we got to the resort - and then there were only a few. They have the crazy matatus there, but they also have this crazy vehicle, it is a 3 wheeled vehicle with a cover over it, almost the size of a golf cart. They are used for taxis and tiny trucks. They looked like a death trap to me!

The resort was lovely, we were dropped off at the entrance - a very open building. We were seated on a lovely sofa, they didn't want us to have to stand and wait in line (there was no one else checking in). We were given juice and champagne. I looked down at the floor and saw that it was glass and there were fishes below us. We were taken to our room, which was nice with a nice view. This very lovely resort had no more than 50 people there on the first night we were there. It was deserted. We felt like it was our private place. We had dinner on one of the decks. It was a buffet. The food was pretty good. But between the 2 hour drive and the heat we were exhausted and missed the African Night show down near the beach. The second night the resort had some kind of group in. It was African food night out on the lawn. They had all the tables out there with candle light and the seat with covers and bows. It was interesting. When the group arrived, we could hear them being greeted by African dancers and singers. We wished we had waited to be seated.

While sitting under a shade hut on the beach, I got to talking to one of the guards, Jimmy. He asked me my name and when I said Mary - he said "Mary the mother of Jesus - I am a Christian". That was interesting!!! We had a couple of good talks. Apparently they get very few Americans there - lots of Brits, Germans and French. When I said we were from the States - Obama was brought up. Jimmy's mother came from the same village as Obama's father. Then Mike and Jimmy had lots of political discussions. He was quite knowledgeable, and even asked us what we were going to do with Cuba now that Fidel was on the way out!

I had asked Jimmy about the camel guy. Well he brought one of the camel guys up to meet us, so I made Mike go with me on the camel ride. That's right - we rode camels on the beach! It was about 1/2 hour, which was just long enough. All down the beach we had people trying to sell us something. When you didn't buy, they would say "okay just give us money!" After relaxing from the camel ride, we decided to take a WALK out to the sand bar. The tide went way out - we started where we thought was the best path out there. Well all of the sudden "Captain Bob" comes along with his helper, takes my hand and starts walking us over. Thank goodness he did. We both had something on our feet, but he didn't. He showed us where to step and where not to step. There were sea urchins, coral and then there was the stone fish. Well if we had stepped on the stone fish, we would have been in big trouble. It is very poisonous, and he showed us how bad it was when he poked it with some coral and all kinds of black stuff came out of it. When the tide started back in, so did we. Half way back, Captain Bob tells us how much he should get for his services. Well then we had to start the negotiations. Everything on the beach is negotiations. They were selling all kinds of stuff. We made it back, just in time. The heat got to me and I needed shade and water.

The trip back to the airport was not as eventful. We were glad to get back to see Grace and her Mom and Dad. Grace changed a lot in three days.

Yesterday Kristoffer did a lot of driving and took us to the Rift Valley to a place called Naivasha. You would not believe the view we had - it was the most spectacular view. Then we had lunch at a lovely lodge overlooking a lake. They had arranged for a short safari around the lake, I was unable to go because I was having stomach problems. But they went and saw flamingos, 50 hippos, Masai giraffes, zebras, African Fish Eagles, Egyptian Geese, and large antelope. They took some beautiful pictures. On the drive home we saw all kinds of interesting things (you never drive on the highway without interesting things). There were more donkeys then you can imagine, herds and herds of cows, goats, and sheep. Then, I know you wouldn't believe this unless I had a picture, this crazy bus was in front of us with about 100 chickens tied to the top of it. Kristoffer and Lisa said they were alive, so we have suggestions for Purdue on how to de-feather chickens in the wild. We also saw a couple of big baboons just walking down the road.

Here are the pictures from Mombasa (camels included):



And here are the pictures from our day trip to Naivasha yesterday (bus with chickens included):