Pole pole

Mombasa Day One!
It was a little strange to arrive at night in Mombasa zooming crazy through the streets to Jen's house. It was hard to get a sense of how the city laid out and what surrounded us. We got in about midnight, the streets were alive with people out at roadside bars, on motorcycles(no one wears helmets here), on bicycles and walking along the street. The taxi driver(taxis here aren't marked or work for a company, they are just someone you know to be a taxi driver and have their number. They drive any sort of car and you would never be able to flag one down as they have nothing differentiating them from the rest of the cars) stopped at the supermarket on the way to drop us off to get more minutes on his phone and there was lots of hustle and bustle around the market but we had no idea what was going on.
When we pulled up to Jens building we had to be let through a gate with security(aka Eskari in Swahili)and pulled up to a large white building about 6 stories tall, very nice with a nice parking area. Jen met us at the taxi and we followed her up 6 flights to her 3 bedroom apartment. It smelled a little of smoke but was light and airy. She pointed out the burning trash dump behind her building and we, blurry eyed tried to make sense of it all. Jen said the power had been off and on a lot lately and the biggest effect was that the fan would stop and it would be hot, also the water was on the fritz but it should be fixed soon. We went straight to bed.
We slept off and on until at 5am we awoke to a prayer over the mosque loud speaker about 20 yards from our window that included chanting type singing lasting over 15 minutes. It was really quite beautiful, just intense at 5am. Then again at 7am. The mosque call to prayer woke up the chickens and any rooster that didn't tell you what he thought of the first call to prayer was defiantly in the game on the second. I lie in bed thinking that there must be like 20 different species of birds out there and I can't wait to check out the scene after I sleep some more! Then came the alphabet. Sung at the top of the lungs of 6 year olds. By 10am we were up.
It was amazing to look out the windows and see Mombasa for the first time. We could see thatched roofs over what looked like cinder block homes, corrugated aluminum roofs with roof top laundry hanging, streets and passageways of a light sienna colored dirt, a school across the way with kids playing in and out of the dilapidated aluminum fence door, a pit about the size of a football field filled with smoldering garbage, a street busy with foot traffic and our fenced parking lot with nice paving stones and neatly manicured shrubs.The power was out. The only problem with that was the electric kettle was rendered useless thus no coffee. The water had lost pressure so we went to check on it. Jen lives on the 6th floor and has a water resoivor(cistern) in the ground on the bottom floor behind the building but also has a water tank on the roof for when the power is out and the water pump can't run the water up. We went on the roof which is just above Jens apartment, it was amazing, a 360 degree view of the area around us. Jen showed us all the landmarks and we went down and filled the tank.
I had taken a doxycycline, which we are both taking for malaria prophylaxis. This was day 2 of the doxy for us. We had taken one on the plane at some point. I felt a little nauseous after but attributed it to the plane food. This time we hadn't eaten in 20+ hours. We were sitting talking about going to get coffee and kept feeling sicker and sicker...and barfed, ugh. I thought maybe it was the lack of food and had a few crackers and we started off to lunch.
This was our first time leaving Jens compound and I wasn't feeling so good at all so it was a little difficult to take it all in. We went out the large gate and said hello to the eskari who are in charge of opening and closing the gate and monitoring anyone coming in and out. They are there 24 hours a day. We walked along a paved road out to a main road and past some shops and construction about a total of 5 blocks to a strip mall type cineplex that was very small and what we would consider a little run down. There, we sat outside at a little cafe called Cafe Mocha. We were sitting for about 5 minutes until I was on the verge of getting sick again...just about the worst thing that could happen when you are somewhere you don't know and doubt their restroom standards. I asked Jen for a bathroom and was delighted to find that there was one just down the hall! It was quite clean and certainly far from the worst bathroom I've barfed in. YAY Kenya!
I made it back to the cafe and ordered lunch, a sundried tomato and cheese panini and an iced coffee. I ate very slowly and quickly felt a thousand times better! Ahhhhhh, now I could be a little more aware of the world.
We walked back stopping at the supermarket for some snacks, bottled water and beer. The local Kenyan beer is Tusker. It comes in huge 500mL bottles. It's pretty tasty, light a little sweet, easy to drink but really low in alcohol. The supermarket was pretty normal except milk comes in a bag.
We walked home passing lots of construction. They seem to be building a lot of apartments all around Mombasa. The construction sites are wild! No safety considerations at all! No hard hats or neon, just 6 stories of scaffolding made of twisted sticks lashed together. It looks very treacherous but people were working away. There is also people digging a deep ditch along Jens road. They have pick axes and shovels with a twisted branch as a handle and are digging a 6 ft deep hole that stretches for miles which we would normally see a back hoe dig in a day or two. Word is they are putting in telecom cables. The soil they have been digging up has been in big pink chunks. I looked closer and noticed they are big chunks of coral, so neat! Then I realized that all the buildings I thought were built with cinder block are actually built with these blocks of coral. They weigh about 30lbs each and are solid quarried blocks. Everything is made of it! I need too look up some Mombasa geology!!
We decided to go to the beach before we were supposed to meet some of Jens friends who were making a dinner of South African food. This was the first time we got to ride a matatu!
I urge you to read this excerpt from another blog on matatus before you proceed...
http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2010/10/08/the-mombasa-matatu-a-“how-to”-guide-from-a-daily-commuter/
All and all, they are crazy! A driver and a "conductor" pull up alongside the road in and old beat up Nissan 15 passenger van decked out in hip hop or pop culture regalia and full of people and yell their destination. You jump in and take off. You then have to pay, which is a nonverbal negotiation based on the route, where you tell him you want off and his attitude. The music is typically very loud, to the point where you are pretty sure your ears will not recover for a few hours. There is no personal space, seat belts or time for error. This being our first ride Jen warned us to be swift with our entry and exit, just sit where ever and she would handle the paying. The be swift tip was the key! We waited on the side of the road and up approached a van at full speed with a man hanging out yelling "Nyali!! Nyali!! Nyali!!", Jen waved, they swerved over into the dirt next to us and barely stopped as we hustled in and we were off! To get off the matatu you knock on the side of the van, then the conductor knocks on the side of the van then the driver pulls over. For people that have done it before it goes like clockwork, you can get picked up just about anywhere and it's extremely efficient to get around the city as well as affordable.
We survived our first ride and walked a short distance to the beach. Wow!! The white sand feels like flour in your toes! The water was a teal clear blue and warm. It was beautiful. The beach here is full of what are known as "beach boys". These aren't the lets go surfin now ones we all think of. They wander the beach and approach people to try and sell them things. Things like coconuts carved like monkeys, beaded bracelets, tours, boat rides, pretty much anything. They are very persistent. To the point where you cannot walk without one walking with you and when one gives up another swoops in. It's a bit annoying when you are trying to enjoy the beach. Jen is good at fending them off with her Swahili and patience where I get frustrated and just want them to go away and they never do. They aren't threatening, maybe a little sketchy, but mostly a nuisance. We left the beach to make it home before dark. Word is you don't want to be out walking after dark! We grabbed another matatu and were home quick.
We walked to Jens friends house for dinner. A big home he grew up in. A charcoal fire in the back yard held a dutch oven filled with lamb neck, potatoes, carrots, some other veggies and had been roasting for 7 hours. Its a traditional So.African dish called poikie. They made rice and we all dug in. We stayed and chatted for quite awhile then caught a rid from a friend home. Time for bed after a long day...
I'm having trouble with links and putting the photos in order, so bear with me till I figure this out!