Urchins in my foot, floating in the indian ocean and seashells

So I finally took a vacation. This month has been pretty busy for me. My first week, I had to stay in Nairobi for the voting of the constitution which thankfully went peacefully. Last election went not so good and Peace Corps had to evacuate everyone. I then went back to my site for a few days only to turn around and head to Kisumu for a training. After training, a few friends came back to my site, stayed for a few days and then we all left my house, they headed back to their sites and me to Mombasa!!!!!!

August 27th

So I am on the train heading to Mombasa, the 2nd largest city in Kenya. Some of the volunteers are turning 30, 40 and 50 so we are going to throw them a huge birthday fiesta. I cant wait. The train has been interesting. From my site to Mombasa its about a days trip so you either travel by night or the entire day. We picked the train. We got on around 7pm and should be arriving around 10am...but its already 9:12 and I think we are following Kenyan time so….probably more like12. We stopped about 6 times out in the middle of no where. I woke up every time we stopped or went faster dreading the train was going to derail…it has a tendency to do that. As we were eating breakfast, we finally got to see 3 large herds of elephants from the train, including babies…sooo cute! The terrain is so different from my site. Where my site looks like the rolling green hills of Scotland, as we get closer to Mombasa, the terrain gets drier and drier, although more and more palm trees and aloe Vera plants can be seen.



August 28th

We get to Mombasa around noon and meet up with friends. Mombasa is usually as hot as hell during the year except August when it’s a little cooler. We get to the hotel and immediately took a cold shower. We then walk around looking for food. Mombasa has a middle eastern look to it and has tons of delicious food. However, its Ramadan right now so things are closed throughout the day. Its not till the call to prayer that we get to eat and things start opening up. We walk to an old protégées fort called fort Jesus which overlooks the Indian ocean. Surprisingly, Mombasa beaches are not the best. Since Mombasa is an island, you have to go off the island to get to the better beaches. Tomorrow we will go to Mtwapa to visit another volunteer and there we will get to see the beaches the coast is known for and maybe even some snorkeling. Later that night we get food called shawarma. Its heavenly! Its chicken they cook on a spit, shred it, and put it in sort of a soft tortilla/pita bread with some dressing and salad. Sooooo good! Most of us can’t just have 1. Since Mombasa is so hot, there are TONS of ice cream parlors. You can end up having ice cream for each meal. After we finished eating, we headed to a dance club and dance the night away till 4am.



August 29th

We are heading to Mtwapa today which is about a 20min matatu ride from the city. One of our fellow volunteers lives there. Shes had some house issues so she has been staying in a tent for 9 months. it’s a beautiful tent but a tent none the less. Her tent is about a 10 min walk from the Indian Ocean. Its BEAUTIFUL! White sand beaches with sea shells galore, an ocean with about 4 different shades of blue and sea urchins. That was the only bad thing about the beach. I now have two thorns stuck in my foot. But it was so worth it. Later that day we found out our friend may might be getting a real apartment instead of her tent. So we go out to a really nice seafood restaurant. The food was phenomenal! We fell in love with the beach, that day that we spent another day there. Collecting seashells and floating in the ocean. It was the best way to spend our last day in Mombasa. But the time to go came upon us fast. No one wanted to leave but we knew it must be done. We caught the train later that night and started our journey home.