Mombasa 12th Aug

12th Aug 10


Jambo to you all back home,

We are now at the end of our 2nd week here in Mombasa, it has been raining quite a bit but this keeps the place cooler at night to sleep. We have monkeys in the trees all around o ur place and if you have a banana they will come to you. So far they just look at us and keep us at arm’s length as the locals shoo them away as they can be a pest sometimes. There are more white people here now as it is high season, mostly German, Italian, French and a few Americans. We still have not had any contact with any of them as they tend to eat and stay in resorts. Yesterday we saw some fresh ones, young girls looking a bit bewildered when they got dropped off in Akunda the town. Akunda town is a busy place, with markets, churches (they are mostly Christian here) and very little else. We only come here to visit Victor’s village and give sweets out to the little ones which go mad for any type of sweet. Victor looks after the cottages where we are staying and he is trying to teach us Swahili and has shown us around the orphanage yesterday. The orphanage is quite well provided for in an African way and has donations given to them from tourists and the government. We are going to see if they need any help from us with our healing. We have helped a few people with healing like two local girls who have lost their father & one of them has stopped talking, we will need to see them many times until they get to know us better for the counselling part to be beneficial, and it looks like we may have to go to charities to see if we can help as opposed to walking into the villages alone. English is taught to all in schools here and Victor has helped us when we want to communicate better. Also it helps to have a local with you so you do not end up paying double or triple for things. We are thinking of popping back to Nairobi to check out a VW van there, by bus it is 8 hours from here and the cheaper option. We could do with a vehicle so that we can explore more, the buses are OK but crowded and if you want to go further afield you need a taxi. We have not had much beach action it is very windy and unlike Thailand or Goa in India they do not have places on the beach to hang out. We both find this a little weird and you cannot go into many beach resorts unless you are a resident. The beach near us is lovely and when the weather calms down we will venture there more with our sarnies in tow. There are lots of different tribes here and lots of Masai who come to entertain the tourists and sell their jewellery, the Masai have moved with the times and really only work within the tourism industry but still retain their dress and live in their traditional manner. Until the next time, Kwa Heri (goodbye)xxxxxxxxxxx