MOMBASA

The beginning of June, my co-teacher and I flew to Nairobi where we met up with 2 of the teachers from Nakuru and then flew from Nairobi to Mombasa together.  We four had so much fun relaxing, laughing, and just having a great time.  Mombasa is a city on the eastern coast of Africa.  We had a lovely place on Diani Beach with a quick walk down to the white sand and blue, blue Indian Ocean.  

my co-teacher, Charity

Jan and Delores

I didn't take many pictures, because I was too busy soaking it all up in real life.  In reality, I was too lazy and now I'm wishing I had a little more visual proof here to show you exactly how beautiful it was!  Since I don't have better pics of our place, here are two phone pictures... The first one shows our house at Marula Park.  The second one was taken from my upstairs bedroom balcony one evening.  It was so much fun to wake up every morning to this lovely view.  

Here's a picture from Kivulini Beach Villa where Marlin and Lavina's family was staying.  They came a few days after we did and stayed a few days longer.  They were approx a kilometer away, so we got together a few times for meals... This picture is a shot of their front yard...they were right on the beach...no walking for them... :) 

One of my favorite days was Tuesday.  We seven youth headed out bright and early and traveled for about an hour and a half... Got all of our alien card and passport and payment jazz taken care of and then spent the day out on the water.  The day was just topnotch! We had a semi-delicious breakfast, happy music, and good times ...until the good times got even better and we spotted dolphins.  Now, dolphins are fun to watch and these were no exception, so I enjoyed that part of the day so much!

Our breakfast of crab cakes and bread...

Another favorite part of the day was snorkeling.  We dropped the guys off first and then we girls jumped out farther up the reef.  That was just great!  I truly felt like I was swimming through my fourth grade A Beka science book with my students.  Hundreds and hundreds of bright neon fish that really didn't look "real" at all... Seeing several manta rays down below...swimming in sync with a big ole sea turtle ... checking out the beautiful coral... a brilliantly blue starfish ... and many, many fish that were just plain down fascinating.  I had never snorkeled before and definitely enjoyed it kabisa!! The guys saw several octopuses and a lobster, so that was pretty cool!  We hopped back on the boat for a quick break, but then a few of us headed back out for a little.  The second time I was having some serious issues with my paraphernalia and I felt like I spent as much time with my head above the surface trying to fix my equipment as I did looking at anything underwater.  My mask insisted on being leaky and fogging up and my snorkel kept malfunctioning and giving me salty tastes of the sea.  Not to mention that these fins were apparently not the pair I had just been wearing and were beginning to introduce blisters to my feet in rapid concession.  And!  Did I mention that the sun wasn't doing such a splendid job of shining and it was cold!!  So I was happy to climb back on our dhow and head to Wasini Island for lunch... 

We ate our crab, fish, rice, potatoes, chapatis, and fresh fruit (oh and some seaweed too) and enjoyed the magnificent view before leaving for the mainland.  Toured a cave that had been used for holding slaves at one point and then hit the road again and journeyed all the way back to our stretch of the beach.  It felt great to be home, but wow, what an awesome day!!!!

Our view during lunch...

A group pic in the cave :)

Jan and me

Charity, Jan, Delores, and me

On our way back to Kisumu we picked up Rhoda, Charity's replacement.  This picture was taken at her welcome/Charity's farewell... You would have thought that we youth girls had planned what to wear for the evening... :D

Stacy, Rissa, me, Sylvia, Rhoda, Charity