Kenya: Mombasa Raha

Got back this morning at 6:15 am to Ngong from my weekend on the coast. Went to Manaseh afterwords. LONG weekend. Officially been to the Southern Hemisphere now though!

Highlights
First bus ride: 7 hours, overnight. Bumpy, COLD, unbearable. Three to a two seat. Children grabbing hair. NO SLEEP. HELL ON WHEELS.

Enjoying Mombasa. Beautiful city/beach. Walked down to the beach (a long hike) saw MONKEYS just chillin', also chameleons and lotsa crabs. Fucking fantastic.

Matatu into town. (Gideon's friend lived in a suburb outside near the beach). Slept a little.

Fort Jesus. I deemed it the Tower of London of Africa. It was this old, odd Portuguese place, please satisfy your curiosity on google until you get a look at my pictures. It was wild.

Delicious fruit salad. Mm...

Dinner at a fish place, I ate a WHOLE FISH. I mean, it was served with the head on and all, and let me tell you, it was one of the most delicious meals I've ever had. It was served with a side of curry, too, which was also extremely delicious. I am hungry, could you tell?

Going out to a bar on the beach to watch the Man U vs. Barcelona game. Awesome music, good game even though I don't like soccer. Gideon & his friends were entertaining.

It should be noted that prostitution here is legal as long as the two parties are both consenting adults above the age of 18. I guess the oddest thing I've seen here is the "Beach Boy" phenomenon, which are basically these really attractive men who pray on sex tourists or lonely women. I guess sometimes they don't even get laid, but just get dinner and a night out on the town. Strange to hear about, stranger to see, especially because I expected older women, ugly women, but many of the girls were young, probably about my age and they were hiring these beach boys! My philosophy about it: why pay when you could probably get it for free? Also, they all have STDs and many have HIV and it's a huge public health disaster. Of course, I also bore witness to the classic prostitute, beautiful, young, probably very diseased. Dance like nothing I've ever seen (remind me again, why doesn't my butt shake so wonderfully like that?) I saw this very old, corpulent, smelly Mzungu all over this girl who appeared around my age. I kept looking at them and feeling bad that that was her client, and he could do (and did) whatever he wanted with her. He must've felt ontop of the world. I wonder if she is there by choice (which I guess many of them are, as they make bank here, which I am coming to find increasingly is rare and hard to do) or if she was forced into it because of unfortunate circumstances, perhaps a child or a family or debts or something. That guy was really nasty though, poor girl.

Sweatiest sleep ever. The heat on the coast is crazy, it envelopes you and then seals you in until you sweat half your body weight off. It was uncomfortable.

SWIMMING IN THE INDIAN OCEAN! I just laughed for like ten minutes as I dove into and out of the waves. The water was warm and was a welcomed relief from the unbearable heat of the morning. Beautiful beach too, no whities, just locals. Even though I went swimming alone (African people, from what I've seen, in general, can't swim) I had a great time!

Raw coconut, cracked on the beach for just me! It was delish.

Bus ride home: more bearable, made less so by lack of ipod (died) and the incredible cold that infiltrated the bus as we neared Nairobi, which is at a considerably higher altitude over the coast. Also, my ears popped. Didn't realize I was up so high.

Today at Manaseh was great too. Good day. Drew the Solar System. I have the drawings to show everyone when I get home, I might even upload them on this blog because I love them so much.

Lowlights

Before we left Nairobi, I saw two men, thieves presumably covered in human feces and bloody. Beaten by cops. Handcuffed. May have been more disturbing, scary experiences of my life. Never see that in the States.

Mosquito bites, I think I've counted up over 50 by this point. Watch as I contract Malaria, regardless of the pills I've been taking.

Almost lost my debit card. Didn't though!

Sweat. Inescapable sweat.
_____

That all being said, I'm happy the weekend went off so well. I was pretty apprehensive about going with only one person (male) and meeting only a couple friends there. He was vouched for by Millicent and her daughter, Carol, though, and he knew them from church, leading me to believe that he probably was a decent guy, but one can never be too sure. I think I liked that situation in the end better though, as it was less overwhelming, less of a struggle to socialize because I've learned the hard way that in large groups people tend to just slip into swahili, and I end up getting lost. I was also very lucky, I know, that Gideon was not a creep and the whole situation remained platonic. It was great, but definitely risky. I regret nothing!
(Ok, maybe I regret not putting enough sunscreen on, this sunburn hurts. Only where I missed though! only on one shoulder!)