A bus, a bus, another bus, a walk, a taxi, a bus, another bus = Malawi

Hellooooo everyone! I'm finally getting a chance to write my first blog during my cross-continent trip to South Africa! Currently, I'm in Northern Malawi at a place called Nkhata Bay, but in the past week we have also hit up Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Kigomboni (all in Tanzania). It's been a crazy week, guys. I'm seriously exhausted, but having a great time and having a lot of experiences that will stay with me forever. Here's a bit of what's happened since we left Nairobi last Monday...

So after a few hectic days back in Nairobi from our internships (taking final exams, attending final seminars, etc) we finally got our rears in gear to go on this trip. Traveling with me are my friends Joey, Ashley, Aubrey and Andre. We had a bit of a rought time even getting ourselves out of Nairobi! But finally my man Ken stepped in and found us a great bus to Arusha, Tanzania, which is just over the border from Kenya. We took Impala Bus from the Silver Springs Hotel, which I can honestly say will be the easiest and most pleasant bus ride we take on this entire trip...meaning: comfy seats (relatively speaking), we all sat near each other, the windows were big and allowed us to see everything as we drove, it wasn't too hot or bumpy, and we got to our destination after a very easy and simply 7 hours. Upon reaching Arusha, we got picked up at the Impala Hotel parking lot by Gasper (pronouced Jasper), who drove us to our hostel for the night: the Ujamaa Hostel. It was a really pretty and cute house just outside of downtown area. We took our beds, had some (free!) dinner, drank a few beers on the patio, then went in for a really nice sleep under mosquito nets that actually had no holes in them! We were supposed to leave early the next morning to go to a place called Lushoto, where they have half-day hikes in the rainforest, but it turned out that Lushoto was an 5ish hour drive away, not the 3 I had originally planned for. So we decided to stay in Arusha for another night, rest up, then just chug away and get to Dar es Salaam straight the next day. Nothing much happened in Arusha, we just walked around a lot, changed money, etc. But we all really enjoyed the fact that Tanzania doesn't seem to have the serious trash issue that Kenya does. I don't know what it is about Tanzanians, but they don't litter! The roads were nicely paved and easy to navigate around, the sides of the roads weren't covered in rubbish, and it was beautiful and cool and green there. I think we all want to move to Arusha now and leave the dirt and trash of Kenya behind!

On Wednesday we caught a morning bus to Dar es Salaam. Now THIS is where the "real Africa" started to catch up with us. It had been much too easy and pleasant so far! We were taking Scandinavia Express bus lines, which is supposed to be a really nice, luxury coach. Yeah, luxury my ass. It was old and run-down looking, the seats were NOT comfortable, there was a toilet but it quickly began to overflow (which was disgusting to say the least), and though it was A/C capable, they didn't turn it on because the bus was literally going to fall apart! We were 30 minutes late leaving Arusha because they were repairing the bus from its previous trip. Then, about 2 hours into the drive, the fan belt broke again and we cameto a complete stand still on the side of the road....FOR 2+ HOURS! It was hot and there was nothing to do and no touts to buy any food from, so we just horsed around for a while, walked around the surrounding village area, played with some cows & goats, until FINALLY the stupid bus started working again. So with the late start, the frequent stops to let people on and off, and the 2 1/2 hour delay in the middle--what should have been an easy, comfy, express 8 hour trip to Dar es Salaam became a difficult, frustrating, 13 hour trip instead! We got to Dar hungry and exhausted. We had been supposed to go and camp on the beach we planned to stay at starting that first night, but it was so late and we didn't have our bearings in the dark, so we decided to hunker down at the YWCA instead for one night. It was cheap and some other travelers we'd met on the bus had said it was a decent place to stay. Well...what you pay for is definitely what you get. The YWCA was fine enough I guess. It was completely spartan and looked a bit like the remnants of a bombed out building inside, but the rooms were fine, there were mosquito nets and fans in the rooms, and the bathrooms were clean all things considered. Aubrey was not happy with the accommodation though, which I understand because it was in a rather sketchy-looking part of town and didn't feel all that secure. I don't think I mentioned this before, but Aubrey got violently mugged during her stay in Embu for her internship, so now she gets freaked out at night. Anyway, we had no other choice, so we stayed there. We got 2 other young travelers to take us with them to a really delicious pizza place, where we sat and exchanged funny travel stories for a while and fueled ourselves up after the long bus trip. Then we just went back to the Y and crashed. All in all, it wasn't so bad I guess. Just felt bad for Aubrey's nerves!

The next morning, we got up and discovered that the "free included breakfast" at the Y was in fact just a slice of watermelon and a small roll of bread. The other ACTUAL breakfast items, like boiled eggs or chapati or anything substantial, were extra. That annoyed us, so we decided to go out and get some food instead on our way to try and get our Zambian visas. We put our huge backpacks in storage at the Y and set out get some money from the nearby Barclays. Right across the street from Barclays was a huge hotel called Movenpick, which looked very fancy and therefore, we assumed, would have a restaurant or something. So we went there to eat. They had a little coffee shop at the front that we beelined to, which made us some delicious coffee (a rare commodity these days) and me and Aubrey got chocolate doughnuts, lol. It was very comforting to eat and drink as if we were home for a morning. Andre and Joey decided the place was too expensive and went off in search of a cheaper, African option. They came back with delicious samosas and water, so I guess we all won in the end, though me, Ash and Aubrey spent wayyyy more money. Then we went to get our visas. Unfortunately, it turned out they only accept visa applications at the embassy on Mon/Wed/Fri, and it being a Thursday, we were SOL. We decided to go just upstairs to the Malawian embassy really quick, to double check that we didn't need to pay to get into their country. When we got up there, me and Joey started speaking Swahili to the guy at the front desk, and he was so shocked by this that he didn't even answer for a minute! Finally, though I don't think he understood anything we were saying (he was just stupid, our Swahili was perfect for the record!), he just took my passport and walked off with it into a back room of the office, the motioned for me (only me......) to follow. So I did, reluctantly. In the room was a big guy with a huge gap in his front teeth that only added to his menacing appearance. I sat down and waited for him to get off the phone so I could get my passport back. I was a bit nervous, to be honest. I didn't know what they were doing to me, separating me from the group like that. But what could I do? So as soon as he got off the phone, I greeted him respectfully in Swahili, and then he got this HUGE grin on his face! We started talking in Swahili and he was so happy I could speak it, he just kept grinning and was incredibly helpful and nice. We had been right, Americans don't need to buy a visa to get into Malawi. So he gave me back my passport, handed me a free travel book about Malawi, and told me to have a great time in his country...and to tell Barack Obama that it should also be free for Malawians to come into America. I told him I would pass on the message.

We got out of there, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon writing the papers that I hadn't yet finished for my program at an internet cafe down the street. The others went out to explore Dar a bit. Four hours later, I finally finished and went to meet everyone at a restaurant a few blocks away. Unfortunately for me, it was what I call "siesta time", so all the restaurant kitchens were closed until dinner. I was starving, so we went off in search of an open restaurant for me to eat at. We ended up walking around a slightly run-down part of Dar and thankfully stumbled on a Chinese restaurant that was willing to serve us. So we went in...and it was DELICIOUS! That was a surprise because I figured it would be mostly or total crap. There was an amusing incident with a birthday cake, and then we caught a cab back to the Y, got our stuff, and headed off to catch the ferry to where we'd be staying that night.

The ferry took us to an island just off the coast called Kigamboni, where we caught a taxi to a resort called Sunrise Beach. It was there that we camped on the beach for the next 2 nights. It was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. When we got there, it was late night and the moon was shining down on the ocean and lighting up the beach with this beautiful irridescent glow. We had a big, canvas tent under a thatched roof shelter right on the beach. It was amazing. And the water (being the Indian Ocean) was so warm and perfect. We waded in the surf for a while, then headed over to one of the restaurant's thatched roof huts and sat looking out on the water with some drinks and some incredible samosas. It was a perfect night. We spent the next day laying on the beach, alternating between sun and shade because it was SO hot. Then that evening I went on an adventure with Aubrey and Andre to find this hotel that some of Aubrey's family friends were staying at. It took about an hour to find the place that was only 20 mins away, but it was GORGEOUS there aaaaaand we were invited to stay for dinner and drinks: aka the world's most delicious and well appreciated medium-rare steak and coconut ice cream dessert EVER. You guys have no idea how good it was to eat a piece of meat that a) was not goat b) was not cooked to death twice over and c) had none of the grizzly fat pieces that Africans like so much. AND they had tequila at this place!! I don't know why, but it is nearly impossible to find tequila in Africa. Anyway, we left there slightly comatose and VERY very happy. :) The next day we went on a boat ride to another small island for the day. Andre had bargained the price down w/ a local guy to really cheap....but you get what you pay for. Lol! The ride over in the leaky, hollowed out hunk of wood that served as a boat of sorts should have taken about 30 mins going in a straight line......but we zigzagged across the small expanse of water for FOUR HOURS. We finally got there and found there was an additional charge of 6000 TSH (we paid 14000 for the boat and food) just to stay on the island, which was a reserve of some sorts. So we were cranky, sunburnt, and annoyed at our boat guide. But the beach over there was the kind you see only in perfect movie scenes, so it was kind of worth it......I guess. Oh well. Then we had to go back into Dar for the night cause we had a 6am bus to Malawi the next day. We stayed at the Econolodge this time, which was in a shady area but had A/C in the rooms and was quite nice inside. I had another frustrating time trying to buy some medicine for an infection I had at the hospital because, not only do they not accept or even KNOW about credit cards outside of Kenya or South Africa, but the damn emergency room was CLOSING right when I got there! It was 8pm on a Saturday night and they were CLOSING!!! I threw a fit in the waiting room and eventually got them to give me the medicine at a discount because it was all the cash I had on me at the time (and I'd lost my ATM card by that point, so I couldn't take anymore out). I hate African hospitals.


So THEEEENNNN we had the worst of our experiences yet. The trip from Dar, Tanzania to Nkhata Bay, Malawi. We had put a down payment on express bus tickets to a town just north of Nkhata Bay called Mzuzu with a bus company called Mohamed Coach. It was set to leave the bus terminal outside of Dar at 6am on Sunday. We got there at 5am, only to learn that the bus we had supposedly bought tickets for was already full, so we had to take a bus to the border and then catch the original bus from there. I smelled a scam. I pulled my best Swahili and started arguing with the guy there. I told him this sounded like a rip off, this was no way to do business, he needed to help us take care of EVERYTHING, etc etc. He seemed pretty unfazed, I was just a crazy white girl who was overreacting...like most Americans do. I wont go into too much detail because I'm already mad just thinking about it! But basically what happened is I spent the next hour running around like a madman, taking down phone numbers of people at the border & of the conductor of the bus we were SUPPOSED to have been on (which incidentally never even stopped at the terminal we had been told to go to!), telling the Mohamed Coach people that no, we would not pay the rest of the ticket price until we safely reached the border and got on that bus to Mzuzu, and then making sure we actually got seats together on a bus that was in fact going to the border and wouldn't drop us in some nothing town out of our way. When that was finally achieved, we set out on our journey, along with a pastor and a South African guy who'd also been jipped by Mohamed Coach. The bus to Mbeya, the Tanzania/Malawi border town, was actually a lot nicer than the one we'd be set to go on...AND it didn't break down on the way, unlike the Mohamed Coach one! Haha, our karma was very good. So that was a relatively pleasant 12 hour ride, except for the 3 or 4 times the pastor got up to preach to us VERY loudly from the aisle. I ignored him (politely) and read my book/listened to my iPod.

We reached Mbeya, only to find that it isn't actually ON the border. We had to take another minibus there. So about 5 or 6 people escorted the 7 of us from Mohamed Coach to a minibus that would take us to the actual border. All along the way, the pastor kept warning us about talking to anyone because we could easily get robbed. Hmm...thanks father. Very comforting. Then when we actually got on the minibus, the touts were unusually aggressive in trying to sell us their fried bananas, samosas, razors, apples, head scarves, etc...Instead of just banging on the windows and shouting, they actually opened our windows from the outside and stuck everything in our faces and grabbed our arms. I spent a fair amount of energy shutting my window on their hands when they tried to open them. We got on our way and it was a 2 hours drive to the border from Mbeya. Except that we stopped somewhere halfway and switched to yet ANOTHER minibus. When we finally reached the border, it was 9pm and pitch black out and the border station was closed. So with our 8 person entourage escorting us, we went in search of a guest house to spend the night. Most of them were full, but we did find one absolute shit hole to stay in. We also ate some rice & chicken at a local restaurant...aka a shack with some plastic chairs. I shared a twin bed with Ash and Joey in a room absolutely crawling with bugs. We laid next to each other across the width of the bed and propped our feet up on our backpacks. The toilet was an experience best forgotten...I actually preferred the stop we made earlier in the day in the middle of nowhere to pee in some thorn bushes with an easy view of our bare assess from the road through the thorns. So after absolutely coating ourselves in bug spray, we spent a very restless night at the border. The next morning, we paid for our "hotel" (I say this lightly) and decided it had been a very funny experience...now that we'd made it through alive and with all our stuff still in our possession and no deadly bug bites that we knew of. We also paid for the pastor and his friend, which sketched me out a bit because we'd already paid for their dinner the night before and I thought that was the extent of the necessary cultural politeness called for. I warned Andre after that not to accept paying for anything else for them. Then we walked across the border, caught a taxi to Karonga town, caught another minibus to Mzuzu, and finally caught our final minibus on to Nkhata Bay. Our 18 hour trip had turned into a 33 hour saga. But thankfully we made it in one piece, we didn't get mugged, we only got mildly ripped off exchanging our money from Shillings to Kwacha, and even though the place I had planned for us to stay had given away our rooms (we were 2 days later than expected), we found a place right next door that's just as beautiful and cheaper!

So that's the story. It was insane, but we saved a ton of money by not trusting that stupid bus company. And now we're spending 2 days here on Lake Malawi in this beautiful little town! On Thursday we are yet again attempting a difficult cross-border bus trip to Zambia. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes a little easier for us, and when I write from Victoria Falls in a few days time, we will all still be in good moods and fine spirits! It's turning out to be an amazing adventure trying to get across Africa by public transport, and not always a pleasant one, but I'm proud of us for doing it. I feel way cooler than all these other travelers we meet who are doing it easily by plane or with a well-organized and planned out overland bus trip with a tourist company. We rock. End of story.

I love you all and I'll write again from Victoria Falls in Zambia! XOXO!
Alana

Kwa heri Mombasa, Karibu Nairobi!

I am back in Nairobi now and so relieved to be here with my old host family and all my MSID friends! I love being back in my living room with the saggy red couches and armchairs and having Ashley, Joey, Aubrey and Andre coming and going and drinking chai and laughing and chatting. The house is so full of energy and life and I'm so comfortable here. It's like heaven after the discomfort I experienced in Mombasa. Things with my host dad improved quite a bit after he was spoken to, and I actually thought it had worked. Wishful thinking. As I was walking out the door to catch my bus, he decided it would be an appropriate time to bring up the issue.....in front of his 2 boys AND my friend Octavius! I tried to ignore everything he was saying by goofing off with my 7 year old brother, but he didn't take the hint. He just kept talking, and it was clear he didn't think he'd done anything wrong. He thought that my friends were the ones who had gotten the wrong idea! Oh man, I just got so mad when he started saying that, and how he wanted "to be free" with me. How he hadn't been able to be free with me the past few weeks and he wanted to apologize for that because it wasn't his choice. I wanted to SCREAM at him that the past few weeks had been the best yet because he hadn't tried to touch me or talk to me or ask me to go out with him! But all I said was that I wasn't comfortable talking about this in front of his children so he needed to stop mentioning it. Then he finally backed off, I got on the bus, and I hope I never have to see him again.

Octavius and I had booked the nicest overnight bus back to Nairobi because the program would reimburse us for the cost. The bus was brand spankin new with air conditioning and a DVD player and comfy seats...for a minute I actually felt like I was back in America...untillllll the air conditioners started leaking freezing cold water onto us! TIA (This is Africa) haha. They turned off the A/C and we used the window curtains as barriers against the water, which worked relatively well. And by 8am we were back in downtown Nairobi. Alhamdulillah!

So today I had final exams, I have a few papers to finish by tomorrow, and then on Monday we are off to South Africa! Our overland trip will include stops in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia on the way, then Christmas in Durban, South Africa...then flying to Kuwait for New Years with Tamara again! I'm so excited for this to start. We have a plan of where we want to go, but we're going to kind of play it by ear along the way. Things are going to be unpredictable and exciting and fun and hilaaaarious! I will try my best to update this blog along the way. Hopefully I'll catch up with you guys from Dar es Salaam.

Kwa herini loves! Bahati njema for exams and enjoy the start of the holidays. XOXO, Alana

Welcome to Lamu: Beach wear and scanty dresses not desirable in the town.

For my final weekend at the coast this semester, I cut out of work a few days early and headed to the veeeeerrrryyy far north-east corner of Kenya, aka Lamu :) Every year they have a major cultural festival and this tiny island town is overrun by thousands of visitors who come to see ancient Swahili culture replayed in dhow races, donkey races, Swahili food, Swahili music, Swahili dress, etc. The island has managed to stay almost untouched by modernity--there is only one car on the whole island and it is for use by the District Commissioner only. Other than that, your only mode of transportation is walking or....DONKEY ride!! The stone streets are narrow and unlit, so at night the town is almost completely dark but for a few porch lights here and there. All the houses and streets are made of stone blocks, and some are even covered by thatched roofs. The waterfront of the main town is bustling with small fishing dhows (traditional Swahili wooden sailboats), motorboats, small ferries to the mainland, kids swimming out to the sandbars, etc. It is really beautiful just walking along there. And just a short motor boat ride around the island is Shella Beach, a stretch of white sand and blue blue water.



The entire trip from beginning to end was fun and VERY eventful, starting with the bus ride from Mombasa to Lamu port. We took a discount bus line for the 8+ hour journey, and such buses in Africa mean that they will pack it as full of people, animals and goods as physically possible without tipping over. We were lucky enough to have seats at the very front, and lucky to have seats at all! I managed to grab a window seat and spent a pleasant 8 hours with a nice breeze blowing on my face........and the red dust of the road blowing onto me too! At one point, the driver must have gotten pretty bored because he actually began drag racing with another Lamu bus on a rural dirt road! The other bus creamed us and we were (literally) left in the dust!! It came in all the windows and every tiny open space and absolutely COVERED us all. Maryam and I were breathing through our washclothes to keep from swallowing it! I also had a lovely experience with traditional African flora & fauna--meaning that I had two whole pineapples rolling around at my feet (and pineapples are spiky!!) and a box full of baby chicks happily chirping away above my head. I just kept waiting for someone to bring on a few goats and complete the picture in there. In the aisle next to me were also 3 giant sacks of rice and beans, which eventually turned into a seat for a very old man who threw a temper tantrum in Swahili because he wanted someone to give up their real seat so he could sit there instead.



We got to the Lamu port and grabbed a motorboat to head to Lamu town. It was a nice, refreshing 15 minute trip after that long, stuffy, dusty bus ride. And then suddenly we were back in 18th century! The town is just so beautiful--I can only imagine what it must be like when there aren't so many tourists. It was such a reprieve from the horror that is Mombasa most of the time. People were genuinely friendly, no one hit me up for money the ENTIRE weekend! And even though there were thousands of people, life definitely felt a lot slower and more relaxed. It was like taking a huge, deep breath after feeling suffocated for so long.



Our hotel was a verrrry quiet villa outside of the main town. It was actually quite a trek through those tiny little streets to get there! I didn't like how far away it was and how we got lost every single time we tried to walk to or from there (especially at night!). But it was refreshingly quiet, and as you walked to the front gates through the sand, you could look up at the sky through the palm fronds and see more stars than I've ever seen before in my life. That was the most beautiful night sky--so romantic. Too bad I was there with my sister and friend rather than boyfriend! Haha.



Our first night there we were so exhausted from the traveling, we got an early dinner and then headed straight back to our hotel to go to sleep. Around 11, my phone rang and I groggily picked it up, only to realize that it was my parents calling to wish me a happy Thanksgiving!! I had COMPLETELY forgotten it was Thanksgiving back home! I was too tired and the connection was bad so I couldn't stay on the phone (sorry guys!) but it was interesting to realize that I'd forgotten that holiday. I have no concept of the time passing by here because the weather is getting hotter rather than colder. It feels like summer every day, so the fact that it's now December is shocking to me!



We spent our first full day in Lamu taking advantage of all Maryam's connections there, getting free boat rides, visiting beautiful beach homes, sailing on a dhow around to Shella Beach side of the island. Our venture to the beach house was interesting because we took a motorboat to the shore, but the tide was out so the shore began with about 30 feet of deep, squishy black MUD. Maryam is petite and our boat guy was able to carry her across to the sand no problems. But my sister Mariam and I were both about 4 inches taller than this boat guy, so being carried was not really an option!! I used him as leverage to get into the water and instantly sank about 5 inches into the mud. At least I managed to keep my balance though! Mariam wasn't so lucky and dealing with her buibui caused her to trip and get the mud alllll over her hands. We made it to the beach house without getting TOO covered in the matope (mud) and got to wash off and then chill looking out over the water. It was definitely the coolest house I have ever seen. It was huge and spacious, made entirely of wooden posts and woven straw mats for walls and floors! And there was a nice porch swing that we chilled on (and I eventually fell asleep on, haha). That night we also had quite an adventure trying to find me some shampoo & conditioner. I suddenly know what it feels like to not have any hygiene products designed for your type of skin or hair! Those who were in my MLC Seminar will know what I'm referring to. Anyway, there was only one store on the whole island that sold products designed for white people, and we spent like 45 minutes going back and forth trying to find it. We finally realized that we'd passed it about 3 times already and it was just closed so we hadn't noticed it! And it was supposed to be open 20 minutes before we got there, so we figured it would be acceptable to bang on the doors and yell at the people inside to open up :) which they did. Aaaaah Africa. I got my (overpriced) products and we made our way back to our hotel. I desperately needed to wash & condition my hair cause I had allowed Maryam to put henna in it the night before we left for Lamu, which made it a really pretty red color but also made it crunchy as straw! Then we went back to town to meet with my friends Octavius and Shalinda from the program and we got an unimpressive dinner at Busch Gardens on the waterfront. Make a note, if you go to Lamu, that restaurant is NOT as good they say it is in the guidebooks. Go to Hapa Hapa or farther down at the Waterfront Cafe (or something like that).

Our second full day started with watching the FANTASTIC donkey race down the center of the waterfront boardwalk!! It was too funny seeing that. Then I got real coffee & fresh lime and a HUGE American-style breakfast at the only coffee shop on the island. That was refreshing. And theeen Octavius, Shalinda and I chartered a motorboat to go to beautiful Shella Beach for the afternoon. We spent the day sunbathing and swimming in the perfect water, then went back and chilled on their guest house rooftop for a while.

On Sunday we were scheduled on a 7am bus.......or so we thought. After getting only about 4 hours of sleep and racing to catch the ferry at 6am, we got to the port and discovered our tickets were actually for SATURDAY...and the bus was full! We had a hopeless moment, then pulled ourselves together and figured out that we could get ourselves to Malindi at least, which is only 2 hours from Mombasa. So Maryam took the only available seat on the 7am bus, and me and Mariam took the last 2 seats on the 1pm bus. We ended up with the seats in the VERRRRY back of this ramshackle bus that looked like it was falling apart. And it kind of was! 5 minutes into the ride the tired popped and we spent 45 minutes fixing it. And the bus had zero shock absorbtion so 4 hours on the worst road I've ever been on went straight to our asses. I think we were actually airborne for about half that time. It was hilarious at first--nearly being thrown out the window every few seconds as we hit pothole after pothole. But it soon got exhausting and all we could do is try to keep a positive attitude about it all. I mean, what could we do? No use getting upset about it! Definitely the most uncomfortable trip of my life and I was so psyched to get off in Malindi. We stayed there on Monday to rest up a bit because the ride had completely worn us out. Maryam's family is from Malindi so we stayed with her mom and younger sisters, which was nice. And we got food at I Love Pizza, which I recommend to everyone who makes it to Malindi. SO delicious. And I got to go snorkeling among the reefs at the Malindi Marine Park! We headed back to Mombasa that night, and the next day I was back at work.

That was a fantastic trip and I would recommend Lamu & Malindi to anyone who makes it to the Kenyan coast. STAY AWAY FROM MOMBASA IF YOU CAN. It is not a nice city to stay in and there's really nothing to do there anyway, except maybe visit Fort Jesus, which is kind of cool but only worth a day trip. But the smaller towns are gorgeous.

Kwa herini loves!

hakuna matata

Hey everyone. Just a quick update that my host dad was spoken to the other day by my program manager in Mombasa, and it seems things will be much improved now. It was an unpleasant thing to have to go through, but definitely a valuable learning experience. Additionally, my health is now much improved and I hope to never step foot in an African hosptial again! (At least not as a patient). I think I'll stick to traditional methods like that medicinal oil rub I got from my mom! =P

Also, I've been wanting to write about the work I got to do this past week for SOLWODI. I've finally found something that I can be quite useful at. Some of you know that I worked for the Rape Crisis Line in Madison this past year, so I received some (very minimal) training in crisis counseling for rape victims. I've begun putting that skill to good use by providing non-official counseling to some of the women in the TiP program (Trafficking in Persons). This past week I found myself at Mewa Hospital in Mombasa town every day visiting with a SOLWODI cilent who'd been admitted there. For confidentiality reasons, I cannot give her name or too many details of her story, but I can say this: she was a former sex worker in Nairobi who was trafficked to Germany by a German national who promised to marry her and give her money for starting a business. When she arrived, however, he confiscated all her documents and locked her up in an apartment where he would go daily to rape her, torture her, and all around degrade her. He also got 2 Turkish guys in on the scheme. Through some smart thinking, she played along with him until he began to trust her a bit. Then he provided her with a cell phone and she immediately contacted a friend of hers, who contacted the police in Germany and they stormed the apartment and set her free. SOLWODI Germany picked up her case and gave her counseling until they could come up with the funding to send her back here to Kenya to restart her life. She got back and, through the help of SOLWODI Kenya, was able to start a good business. But then the post-election violence occured and her business was looted and everything was taken. She started over with a small vegetable stall in another town, but then learned that the case against her rapist was going to be dropped due to "lack of evidence"(a blatant dodge if there ever was one!). She was plunged into a major depression by this news and sold the business and disappeared for a while. Now, she was in hospital with uterine bleeding from an unknown problem. And that's when I came in. Of course, her situation is very serious and she will be receiving professional counseling. But in the present, she feels abandoned (both by her family, who only want her to send them money that she doesn't have) and by the justice system (which dropped her case against her aggressor). The second I met her, I felt such a connection to this woman who has been through so much tragedy, but is still surviving somehow. And I could tell that the most important thing is just that she has someone who will listen to her, validate her feelings, and help her regain a sense of control over her life. I spent a few hours every day at her hospital bed, just listening and guiding her, and in a week she went from sad and depressed all the time to occasionally smiling and adopting a positive attitude towards her healing process. It was amazing to see the transformation that such a simple thing as listening could do and I'm so grateful I got a chance to meet her. I will be continuing to work with her in the future now, and the TiP Program director, Winnie, saw what I was able to do and decided I could continue doing that work with English speaking members of the program! I'm so excited to have a real purpose in the organization, and I think I will continue to pursue the counseling route...maybe someday in Kiswahili (though I doubt I'll be that good fast enough). I've also started finally doing my own interviews with potential new clients and writing a few reports. It's all falling into place!

Okay, miss you all much!! Kisses and hugs

holy crap......chickens!

I've had a few brushes with the animal kingdom in the past 2 days! First of all, remember how I described the entrance my apartment building in Mombasa? You have to walk through this storage area for the bus companies to get in or out...a small room that gets filled to the ceiling with bags of rice, suitcases, other foodstuffs, artwork, random things. There's usually just a small pathway to walk through. Anyway, yesterday morning I was on my way out for work. I skirted by the enormous cockroach that likes to lie in wait for me on the staircase...but was unprepared for the 4 fat chickens blocking my exit from the storage room!! I just suddenly looked down at these funny brown things and JUMPED when I realized they were live chickens! They weren't moving so I thought, oh ew, maybe they're dead. That's unpleasant. But then one turned to look at me and I swear it was completely evil. I think it was cursing me for its very unfortunate situation. And who would blame it? I bet that chicken is on someone's dinner table in rural Kenya right now. Anyway, I pondered for about a minute and eventually just had to step OVER the row of chickens. Actually...I jumped and ran away fast so they wouldn't peck me and then everyone in the room laughed at the silly white girl who was scared of the devil chickens.

Then last night, I was walking to the ice cream parlour with my two brothers and a family friend who is my age and I saw the world's most ADORABLE kitten cowering in a gutter on the road!! I desperately wanted to pick it up and save it and maybe take it home with me forever and ever...but Maryam (the fam friend) stopped me. I forget that here in Kenya, animals are never pets. They are either food or strays that you do NOT touch. Mombasa has tons of stray cats and Nairobi has stray dogs. I felt so bad and actually baby-talked the kitten a little bit...and again was stared at because I was the crazy white girl talking to a cat. Oh also, in case any of you make it to Nairobi in the near future: they don't call cats "cats"or "paka" which is the kiswahili word. They call them "pussy". So just be warned.

Then today, I took a flight from Mombasa to Nairobi for the weekend. It was my first time at the Mombasa airport because I normally take the bus (I'm a total cheapskate here). And as I sat in the terminal, not only was I defending my sandwich from giant black crows...but then I saw a monkey hanging out by my gate! It was my first time seeing a monkey in Kenya....AND AT THE AIRPORT of all places! Haha, anyway, that was fun.

So yes, lots of animals the past 2 days. Fun times! Maybe I'll get another appearance from the godzilla cockroach now that I'm back in Nairobi for a few days. :)

Take care! Love you all.

Mombasa (finally)

Here is the expected post about life in coastal Kenya. Sorry it took so long!

So to start with, I arrived in Mombasa on a typical hot, humid afternoon having traveled for nearly 7 hours in a bus with no A/C. In fact, just figure from here on out that A/C doesn't really exist here in Kenya! Our new host families met us at the Mash Bus waiting room on Jomo Kenyatta Avenue, right in the centre of downtown. I was the first person to be picked up, as opposed to in Nairobi, where my family didn't even SHOW. Lol. My host dad and sister came to meet me. I was surprised when my host dad gave me a really big hug and kissed my hand when he met me. I knew my family was Muslim and I didn't expect him to be so forward! My sister (who I originally thought was my very very young looking mom) shyly kissed my hand also. She wears a bui-bui (the full body, black Muslim dress conservative women wear), and she didn't say anything, so I figured she would be really reserved. We walked just a block away from the bus stop and I learned that was as far as we were going! We actually live in an apartment building right next to where we got dropped off. It is a 5 story walk-up to the apartment, which I'll admit I was a bit out of shape for. You have to walk through a goods storage area to get to the entrance of the building, and my host dad got a guy working there to carry my REALLY heavy luggage all the way up. He was seriously amazing. It would've taken me about an hour and a lot of pain to drag my suitcase up those stairs! Anyway, the apartment is pretty amazing. It's got very high ceilings in all the rooms, a huge family room, 3 big bedrooms, a big kitchen, a dining room and 2 toilets & showers. It also has this amazing balcony that wraps around 2 entire sides of the building, which is the best part because up on the 5th floor, there is almost always a heavenly breeze that makes all the difference in the suffocating heat & humidity of this town. But don't feel too jealous about my digs...because it may be big...but I have less privacy here than ever before in my life! Living in the apartment is me, my mom & dad, my 16 year old sister (Mariam), my 14 year old (Omar) and 7 year old (Hamiad) brothers, and my 6-month old sister (Khaula). I share a big bed with Mariam and sometimes Khaula. The windows & doors are open at all times to allow the wind in, which consequently allows my siblings into the room too! Hamiad has a very adorable habit of climbing in the window by my head while I'm sleeping or resting and scaring the crap out of me from behind! And anyone who chooses to walk past my windows on the balcony has a clear view of anything I'm doing, whether it be changing or putting away my laundry. The 2 boys & the househelp have seen more of me than I care to mention in this way! So yes, there is ZERO privacy here. And it was strange sharing a bed at first with this stranger, but I like my sister a lot and it turns out not to be a big deal. I don't have to worry about fighting for blankets because we don't use any! Just a sheet covering the bare mattress, and that's it. It's too hot to sleep w/ anything on top of you. Unfortunately, this gives the mosquitoes free access to me at night, and I'm now covered in bites. Hopefully my malaria meds work because I'm definitely being exposed to it!! The toilet is an interesting situation because it doesn't flush. You just pour buckets of water into it until everything goes down. And the family doesn't use toilet paper, they use water (no, I don't understand how). So I have to remember to bring my own in each time or I'm just S.O.L. The floor and toilet are always covered in water, so I also have to remember to hike up my pants each time or they're gonna get wet. There is no hot water to be had, but thankfully here you definitely don't need it! I take at least 2 cold showers everyday because it's just so damn hot all the time.

I know you still don't believe me that I've gotten used to the bug situation here, but if this doesn't convince you, nothing will. There are these pesky little guys in Mombasa, tiny tiny crawling black bugs that are attracted to sweet things. I woke up on my second morning to find them not only all over my soap and shampoo bottle...but actually on and IN my toothbrush and toothpaste!! I don't know if I just missed them on the first day and had a little bug breakfast unknowingly...but you can't really do anything about it. So I just rinsed them off as best I could...and continued to brush my teeth and wash my face. They also made a lovely little appearance in my food that evening. I couldn't bring myself to eat the buggy-fish, even after it had been rinsed. But it doesn't freak me out anymore! And there are lots of lovely cockroaches in our kitchen & living room. I've probably killed at least 10 by now. I caught one in fridge last night too. Again...nothing to do about it, so I just put up with them.

The street we live on is the busiest on the whole of Mombasa island. It is the road that goes to Nairobi and leads onto the mainland, so it's constantly packed with buses and matatus and pedestrians. It's so loud all the time that I just thank the lord I'm a deep sleeper! There would be no rest for a light sleeper in this place. That combined w/ the call to prayer 5 times a day really makes for a unique experience. Mombasa, in comparison to Nairobi, is almost entirely Muslim. There are tons of women in bui-buis or wearing hijab, and the men often wear the long white robes for prayer and the kofia (hats). And lots of people here are of Arab descent. My family is of Omani and Yemeni descent and they speak a combination of Kiswahili sanifu (the pure Kiswahili of the coast) and a bit of Arabic thrown in for good measure. It's a huge change from the Sheng/Swahili of Nairobi. Where I got praise for my excellent Swahili grammar back in Nairobi, here I find myself constantly struggling to keep up! But it IS good for my language skills and I'm slowly starting to improve, though I'm far far from being fluent.

I had hoped to end up living on or near the beach, but such is not the case. The area I live in (called Mwembe Tayari) is pure city. And a bit run-down at that. I don't like it too much right here because there is constantly a huge crowd of horny young African guys with the wrong idea about white women. I try to dress conservatively and even wear a scarf sometimes in the mid-day heat, but not much deters them. I just feel bad for women who are uninformed because the reaction is something you DEFINITELY don't want to experience. A couple weeks ago, I was on the balcony reading when I heard a huge commotion on the street below. I looked down and saw hundreds and hundreds of men flocking to the other side of the street. At first I couldn't see anything, but after a few minutes of the chaos, a single tuk-tuk (motorbike taxi) zoomed away from the crowd as fast as possible. I figured there must have been someone famous in the tuk-tuk and went back to reading. When my host mom came home a few minutes later, she asked me "did you see what happened?" I said yes, but I didn't kn0w why. She then told me, very simply "there was a girl wearing shorts in that tuk-tuk". And that was it...a girl was wearing shorts and HUNDREDS of men surrounded her tuk-tuk and openly stared and harassed her because of it! You have to be so careful here because, since most of the women are completely covered by hijab and bui-buis, the smallest glimpse of skin can send these men into hysterics. It makes me miss the relative invisibility I was blessed with in Nairobi because the people there are more used to Western dress & Westerners in general.

My work has proven to be very interesting, though at times frustrating and exhausting. My minimal Kiswahili allows me to do only the basic things required in the language, and the rest of the time, I find myself just listening to my colleagues as they work and trying to figure out what I'm doing there. I get to go out and do field work sometimes, which is always enjoyable, but the heat makes me dehydrated very fast, and by the end of the day I have a terrible headache and I could just fall asleep on my feet! But slowly slowly things are improving. The girls who are currently being trained in making shoes have gotten to know me and they include me in a lot of their activities, like singing & drawing, with enthusiasm! And as they start to trust me more, I feel more comfortable asking about their histories. They all came to SOLWODI in some way related to commercial sex work, abuse, and poverty. The programs take in girls who are either already engaged in sex work or who are at risk of entering the trade because they have no other way to make money. Many of them have lost one or both of their parents and they are supporting huge families of 6, 7 or 8 siblings. Some of them already have their own children, though they are younger than me. I met a girl the other day whose parents both died years ago and who doesn't know where her older brother is. She is the 2nd born and managed to get to sophomore year in high school before she had to drop out to support herself. Her younger siblings are supported in going to school by another organization, but it doesn't support her. She was living with some friends and engaged in commercial sex work, but got kicked out of that house. Now she lives with a man who she found on the streets of Mombasa. He forces her to have unprotected sex with him every night in exchange for a place to live and food to eat. She is only 20 years old. In a couple weeks, the man she is staying with is leaving Mombasa to visit his family at the rural home. He won't bring her with him, and he wont let her stay in the house. Essentially, in a couple weeks she will be homeless again. It's a tragic story because she's very bright and could have a good future...she just needs the financial and emotional support to get there. I'm hoping that SOLWODI will accept her as a client, fund her return to school for a college certificate in some useful trade, and provide her with counseling. SOLWODI also locates and helps children who have been trafficked to the coast for forced labor and/or sex slavery. We identify them through the help of informants and churches/religious groups, find them a temporary place to stay, and find a way to return them to their families. I've begun to do a lot of research on the topics, and it's disgusting how many people find themselves trapped in situations like these. The driving factor in all of it is poverty, which is way more prevalent here than it was in Nairobi. Every day, in town, on the beach, near hotels, out in the field...I see women and children who are clearly involved in the trade. And there are tons of street kids here. You see them everywhere, slumped on the side of the road in a small bit of shade with a water bottle full of glue hanging from their mouths. Glue sniffing is extremely common among street kids here and you can see what it does to them. Their eyes are dead and their bodies ravaged by the toxic drug. I'm so sad everytime I see them, but I can't give them money because they'll just go and spend it on more glue.

I haven't been out to explore much of the city or the surrounding areas yet because I've been so exhausted all the time. I thought it was just the heat that made me so tired & completely took away my appetite. But nope! It was my first brush with disease in Africa! Yay! Lol. Those of you who were with me in Madison this summer probably remember the hacking cough I brought back from Europe. Well, 5 months later, it was still with me. I finally gave in and went to the hospital to get it checked out about 2 weeks ago. I mentioned my lack of appetite and the stomach pains that had been bothering me since I got to Mombasa, but those symptoms were pretty much ignored. I don't blame them. They thought I had TB and wanted to get that checked out ASAP! They examined me, gave me a chest X-ray and drew blood...all the while allowing my completely over-bearing and ridiculous host-dad sit in and control everything! He used to be a psychiatric nurse, but now he's a fish monger. He thinks of himself as a doctor though and wasn't quiet in letting everyone in the hospital know that! I found it annoying at first, then uncomfortable, but the most horrifying part was when I went to get blood drawn. My host dad decided that the technician wasn't doing a good enough job locating a vein in my arm......so he grabbed the needle himself and tried to do it for him!!! I had been gently hinting the whole night that I wanted him to back off, but this freaked me out completely. I yelled at him to just let the technician do it, but that damn technician didn't listen to me and my host dad just told me he was an "expert". I realized there was nothing I could do to stop him, so I gave in and just made him put on gloves at the least. Yes...he was going to try and take blood from me WITHOUT GLOVES ON. Of course, his "expertise" was a crock because he also completely missed my vein and ended up just giving me a huge bruise. They had to eventually take the blood from my hand instead. The image of my host dad coming at me with a needle will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. Tests showed I had an elevated white blood cell count and some small infection brewing in my lungs, so they gave me antibiotics and sent me home. My cough started to clear up, but the stomach pain didn't.

A week later (this past Tuesday night) I was watching TV with my host family when the stomach cramping came back. I ignored it...but this time it didn't go away. It just got worse and worse until I was sweating with the pain and effort of trying not to throw up. The nausea hit me in waves, but nothing was coming up and the pain was causing me to hyperventilate. I went into my room and collapsed on the floor, then lost all feeling in my hands and feet! Apparently, that was a reaction to the heavy breathing, but at the time I didn't know what was happening and it really freaked me out. Then my hands started cramping and I couldn't get them out of this strange, claw-like shape. This led to my first brush with traditional medicine here in Kenya. My host mom said I was reacting to the change in climate from Nairobi to Mombasa (I had visited Nairobi that weekend) and told me to remove my shirt because I was too hot. Then, with a kanga covering me as best I could, she proceeded to slather my arms and legs in this medicinal oil mixture she'd put together. She massaged it into my cramped hands and feet, then poured cold water over my head. Then she ordered me to lie face down on the floor and open my mouth. I didn't resist because the pain in my stomach was still so bad. So, half naked on my bedroom floor, she poured the rest of the oil on my back and rubbed it in. The herbs in the oil stayed on my skin and I swear I looked a chicken ready for the oven! My brothers and sister thought this was quite amusing and watched from my bed. The distraction calmed my breathing and I regained feeling in my hands and feet, but my stomach was still cramping horribly. Again, my host dad tried to play doctor and forced me to take some pills which I think were pain killers, but at the time I didn't know. When I still didn't feel better 45 minutes later, I decided to just go back to the hospital. Of course, as soon as I got downstairs and into a taxi, THAT'S when the nausea really hit me and I threw up all the way to Aga Khan hospital. When they drew my blood this time, they discovered that the anti-biotics they'd given me the week before had done nothing because my white blood cell count was almost double what it should have been...higher even than the week before! They decided to admit me for observation and to give me IV anti-biotics, so I spent the next 2 days in the hospital with a needle in my arm. I've learned that medicine here in Africa is very different from America, probably because most people don't have insurance so they don't run so many tests. In America, I would've gotten a thorough review of all possible diagnoses, and even when they learned it was a bacterial infection in my stomach, they would have tried to figure out WHICH bacteria specifically it was. Here in Africa, they do things only if they feel they absolutely have to, which saves money but can also be dangerous (if you ask me). Had they paid attention to all my symptoms the week before, they might have caught my stomach infection much earlier and saved me the in-patient stay. I came here with a very high opinion of the Kenyan health-care system...but experience has caused that opinion to be lowered significantly. The doctors didn't even do a thorough history, which is completely standard in America! And they never bothered to keep me informed about the test results or what meds/IVs exactly they were giving me. Had I not piped up, they wouldn't have known anything about the medications I'm on or the history of my symptoms and I wouldn't have known anything about my condition. Pretty ridiculous. I'm not ragging on the doctors themselves...they are just as educated and highly trained as anywhere else. But I am disappointed in the SYSTEM. One more reason to appreciate America I guess. Anyway, I'm much better now, though the insane number of meds I'm on make me sick when I take them. Such is life, huh?

I've spent the past few days now just resting and sleeping a lot. I ventured out for work a bit yesterday, but the trade fair I was volunteering at turned out to be outdoors on the hottest day I've ever experienced and I got dehydrated really really fast. I had to come home and sleep because I was about to pass out from the heat! Today was the first day I've really felt like myself in a few weeks now, and I woke up early and spent the morning playing with my baby sister. She is so so cute, but such a handful! I was so grateful when she passed out on my bed after I fed her. Then my mom called me into the kitchen to teach me how to cook coconut fish stew and coconut rice with prawns. I actually squeezed coconut milk from fresh coconuts by hand!! The stew is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted, I swear to god. And I hand-picked through the rice to clean it then slow-cooked it with baby prawns and coconut milk. And as the stew and rice were cooking, my mom and I sat on the floor and cut up fresh pineapple, papaya and bananas for a fruit salad. It was so much fun! My mom is a truly fantastic cook and I can't wait to learn more from her. Yes, Maria, I am taking notes and will try to replicate these dishes in Madison next year! Though nothing will beat the fresh coconut milk, squeezed by hand! =P

So there you go, a little taste of life here in Mombasa. It's definitely not how I pictured it at all, but I'm enjoying myself most of the time. I cannot believe the semester will be over in just a few weeks! I need to do some serious thinking about what I might want to do next semester...if I want to come back to Mombasa or stay in Nairobi. It's a tough choice but I still have time to consider it. And the outcome of the situation with my host dad will also play a role in my decision, I'm sure. Nobody freak out please, but I have been having some additional problems with my host dad besides the needle thing. He is a bit too friendly with me, if you know what I mean, and he makes me uncomfortable a lot. He is also rather sexist, so nothing I say in protest to his actions really registers. I am eternally grateful that my homestay in Nairobi didn't have a father in the house! From this experience and the experiences of my other friends, I can say that many African men are difficult to live with. Maybe this is a taste of what life was like in America before women's rights...except escalated by the fact that white women are particularly desired and conspicuous here. It's very hard to describe what it's like. Anyway, I finally decided to report my host dad to the program, and in the next few days I expect someone will be talking to him about his actions. I don't know if this will help or hurt in the long run. The situation could be resolved and he could become more respectful...or I could end up having to move to another home, which would suck because I absolutely ADORE my mom and siblings. Anyway, I've been told by my Nairobi family that I am welcome back to their house anytime I want. And it's a tempting offer because I love that house & my family & boyfriend there...and I miss the comfort of Nairobi, where it's not constantly hot and no one really cares about the white girl walking around. But I'd also be missing out on my job here and the great Kiswahili and the beaches & beautiful towns that I have yet to explore. I guess we'll just see, huh? Cross that bridge when I come to it.

Okay, I know I also need to write about Obama's win & my birthday a little bit, but I will have to do that next time because this post has taken me nearly 2 hours to write! Take care everyone, loving you and missing you a lot! XOXO

whoopsy.......

Okay, this is not the update I promised yet. I have to run back to work soon or they'll get suspicious! But I just HAD to put this up immediately...

So I've been working really hard to improve my Swahili here on the coast. I've hired a tutor to work w/ me 3x a week and I've started trying to incorporate Swahili into my daily life, at work and at home. Last night I was home with my 16 year old sister, 7 year old bro, my mom and the baby. My mom had bought this special kind of bread that is sooo delicious--it tastes a bit like coconut flan...except more bread-like. Anyway, she told me the name of this bread in Tanzania (where she's originally from) is "mkate wa kumimina". I wanted to remember what she said, but the last word was new and gave me some trouble. So I said...out loud...to everyone: "okay, so the bread is called mkate wa......ku..ma..nina? Kumanina right?"

I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that I had said something completely ridiculous because my bro looked shocked, my sister and mom looked at each other with surprise, and then EVERYONE cracked up with mildly nervous laughter. It only took me about 4 seconds to realize that I had inadvertantly said an EXTREMELY vulgar swear word. Roughly translated, "kumanina" means "your mother's pussy". I had learned it from my friend Ashley's host-brother in Nairobi a few weeks ago because he kept yelling it at people while we were driving! Up until that moment, I hadn't even REMEMBERED I knew it. I was horrified that I'd said such a thing to my very Muslim family!!! Luckily, they thought it was funny and they understand that I'm learning and that I will make slip ups like that occasionally. But I do think from now on I'm just going to call that bread "mkate wa nazi" (coconut bread) to avoid any future problems!

I promise to write a long post about life on the coast soon. Promise promise promise.

Oh, and YAY OBAMA! His win was the greatest birthday present I could've ever asked for. Love you all! :)