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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

DAY17:24/08/10 (Fort Jesus: Mombasa Kahama)



"Prince Peter & Infanta Raquel."
Morning: Joan and I slept in today and left for Mombasa town as soon as we had finished our prayer time and breakfast.

We strolled down the cool Bombari Avenue and got to the shopping Mall in about 45min-Joan complained that the sun was too hot so we got a free ride from a good citizen who took us to the mall in his car.

Noon: We took the Matatu to the city center and stopped at the General Post Office from where we strolled to the historic Fort Jesus, Our tour guide “Jack” was a very brilliant young man of about 33yrs who spoke excellent English, his manners were so nice that he impressed both Joan and I immediately-Easy and kind personality, gentle and very patient with us. Though he was somewhat tipsy we could'nt help but love this young man.
A Model of Fort Jesus.

His rendition of the historic facts and his deep bass timbre reminded me of Lorne Green and his “The Last of the Wild”

He took us through the coral carved spaces and the Museum and the whole of the Man shaped Fort build by The Portugues explorer, Vasco Da Gama.
Coral Walled Entrace
After the tour we were so satisfied with him that we gave him more than 5times his original asking price (though I had haggled with him earlier to get a very good discount before the tour of the fort and the old city)
We prayed that God would reveal Himself to this young man and many like him around this place-So full of potentials but with little or no opportunities to make anything out of it. Our hearts melted for him and we agreed to keep in touch with him and reach out to him as much as we can.

DAY18:25/08/10 ( Mombasa Kahama Beach Hotel)

Joan and I decided that we are staying “home” today and to hang around the pool side at most.

DAY16:23/08/10 ( Bamburi Beach: Mombasa)

Morning: For the very first time in many days we slept-in and did not have to be up@ 08:00, we went down to the pool side for breakfast.
Our breakfast was made up of a bowl of wheatbiscuits and flakes cold milk, then Spanish eggs and toast (brown) bread with some bacon and susages which we politely ignored.

The hotel staff were so nice you wondered if they were real people, but yes they were and very much so when they are not on the job (we ran into Ali whom we nicknamed Alibaba, once and he was supper nice on the street too, big smile very warm and happy interaction with us)

Joan had a cup of Kericho tea while I had some coffee (we drank our cups with relish reflecting flavor of the time we spent with the people who actually grow and havest these products-we passed a tea plantation near Sotik on our way to Sondu some couple of days back.

Days flow quite slowly here and we did our best to make the most of them. We went out to the shopping mall to buy some food stuff and had to take the famous Matatu (mini bus) for 20 Ksh. (20cents)

Noon: We went for a walk on the beach but most of us were disappointed when we saw how dirty and how unkempt the place was, but strange enough Peter and Raquel loved it and seemed trilled by how soft and sweet the sand was and we all agreed that the people were super nice and friendly and quite entertaining

We haggled with sellers of divers gift items; we also got a good deal to go out and see the marine park and to do some snorkeling.

Some of us had some issues with the whole process of haggling for everything, but it was fun for me and I enjoyed it a lot and I bet the people here love to have that human exchange that is very central to the African way of life.


Evening: We went on a 10 min ride on the Matatu (mini bus) to the Nakumatt shopping mall to buy some groceries and to have a look around

We found the place to be nice and neat.

We made our own lunch in the penthouse kitchen and sat around the table for lunch like one happy family. (Joan and I went out, sometime later to check out some of the nearby hotels and were amazed at how much price value we have at Kahama and wondered how they managed to keep the prices as low as under $17 per person/night (minimum room price) Cecilia and Joan made the food while Caesar and I help with some other tasks.

Joan was not feeling very strong so we let her have some rest and prayed for her speedy recovery

Night: We all went downstairs to the bar area to hang out while they sprayed the apartment with insecticides to eliminate the mosquitoes .

Peter and Raquel were already there having a drink and watching the Manchester Liverpool match on big screen.

Marina and Cecilia were there together while Caesar was nowhere to be found, probably he had gone back to his room early?

Joan and I chatted a bit with our new-found German friend Wagner who has two wonderful daughers of which the oldest is Melanie (11yrs) and her younger sister.

He told us that he works with some Lutheran ministers around the Oyugis area where we had spent about 3 days during our mission outreach. He gave us some of the contact addresses and phone numbers. He and his daughters will be heading to Eldoret by weekend he said.

I found it quite amazing how he handled the girls alone, because their mother who is Kenyan, was back in Germany while he stayed back with the girls.

" Kenya Kaptivated"
We had ample time to share our mission and vision for the people of Kenya and found some helpul insights in what he shared about his own experience working here for the past 12 years.

It was crystal clear to us that there is something captivating about this place and about the people that keep you hooked once you've had a taste of it. Our prayer is that God keep the fire of our passion burning to glorify Him among the nations of this region.

DAY15:22/08/10 ( Goodbye Amboseli Park )

Sunrise Africa: Mombasa.


Since we had done an all day game drive the previous day, we had no other option than to zoom off immediately for Nairobi so as to catch the 13:00 bus to Mombasa..unavoidable to go back to Nairobi to catch a public transport rather than pay the obscene price that private transport would have cost us.

The journey from Amboseli back to Nairobi seemed senseless if you consider that at Amboseli we were closer to Mombasa but the reality on ground due to available infrastructures made it

Mombasa:
Oxygen Bus to Mombasa.
We were met by Maricus who had just come from Mombasa where had some business. He came with the video projector that I had given him for safe keeping but I told him that we still need him to store it and most of the other stuff we left with him.

The bus ride to Mombasa was an 8hr tiresome stretch which was made easier by the interior comfort.
The bus driver drove like a bat out of hell on a truck infested single lane stretch of road. Raquel who sat in "1st", First class Seat said that at one time he controlled the steering wheel with his tommy and at other times with his elbow, while he talked on his cell phone. A clear recipe for disaster but God was on our side all the way-I blessed God who did not let me see any of these.

Sheila, from  our tour operator had booked "first class" seats for all of us@1400ksh each, and for me she had booked an executive seat but Joan would hear none of that so I had to give up my 1600ksh seat for Caesar whom I eyed all the way as he enjoyed the extra large (former airplane business class) seat all the way to Mombasa. Poor me :(

We reached Mombasa@21:00 and we had the bus taxi waiting for us Nasir who arranged for the bus was there also and he made sure that we were safely delivered to the hotel. (Kahama Beach hotel Bombari)

@home in Bamburi Kahama apartment.
We found our accomodation to be excellent for the price at which we got it, especially when we checked out other nearby hotels and realised that we had better rooms for 1/3 of what the others cost.

We retired to our beautiful apartment for the night after over 13 hours on the road.

DAY14:21/08/10 ( Amboseli National Park2)

The Clash of the Titans?


Morning: We started the day very early today just so we could see the rising sun and the Majestic Kilimanjaro (my o my, is this mountain beautiful, it is massive. So huge you can't see it is there because it just rises right into the high heavens and everything around it seems quite small)


Simba.
We had the good fortune of seeing the King Simba during this early morning drive. It is amazing just how many people wanted to photograph the Lion, and just how each and every one of us struggled to get the best shot at the Lion.


I was put off to some extent when I saw the tracking collar around its neck because it made me wonder if it would be worth my while running around taking photos of a dog with collar around its neck? I somehow would have wished that it was a lion that no man or woman, had ever    touched.

The lion observed nonchalantly as a heard of zebras grazed under the early morning sun- our guide Moses, was saying that the Wildebeest graze with the zebras because they alert them when danger is imminent because the Zebras has better eye sight and the former has poor sight and are quite dumb.

@10 am we went back for a Brunch; and excellent feast made up of Chapati, salad with cheese and white rice with a unique flavor that came from the burned rice at the bottom of the pot. The stew had lamb meat in it and was very delicious.


 Masai Caesar.



We all ate and headed for the Masai village where we were greeted by a troop of Masai warriors who did a clasic Masai dance for us.

Their young chief who introduced himself as Joseph told us some interesting stories about the Masai and their culture and explained in details the procedure for the building of Masai house.

Noon: We left the Masai Village and headed out for our evening game drive, we saw all the regular animals, the ubiquitous elephants, some herds of Thomson gazelles, wilder-beast,

Joan & some Masai women.
We went up to the observation station where we saw the whole expanse of the park. We read that that mountain on which the station was built was formed by volcanic activities from Kilimanjaro and that the lake nearby came from melting ice from the same mountain.

After the observation post we went a rather boring evening drive, almost roaming aimlessly around the empty game land-We were rewarded by a pare of Hippopotamus sunken in the swamplands and some white flamingo. The sight was a far-cry from the majestic pink mass of flamingos at lake NAKURU


Evening: We retired at Kibo tent camp, and immediately we loved the place and felt quite at home taking photos and hanging out with other guests at the lodge.
Sunset Africa: Amboseli Park.

Some went off to have a drink at the bar while some tried to catch the last rays of the setting African sun-Agnieszka took advantage of the orange sun rays to make portrait of all members of the team.

We had a lavish dinner and went to bed in our dark tents

SAFARI BEGINS.

DAY13:20/08/10 ( Amboseli National Park1)

It was a little mess this morning as we tried to pay for the safari, finding where to draw cash after we had sent all our Kenya shillings for the mission at Oyugis.

Huxley was so sad and his sadness was somehow contagious. He will have to go back and face the reality of not having his new-found friends and the joy of the past few days

DAY12:19/08/10 ( Kobala Church)

Morning: Huxley surprised me with the news that our transporter has declined from taking us back to Nairobi, so we had to make an ad-hoc transport arrangement. We sent him to Kiisi to get two shuttle mini vans. This he did and came back with two descent gentle men and their Nisan vans.

Our stop over at Kobala was very brief but rich and we quickly had our lunch and said our good byes-Tears and hugs were ubiquitous, people hung on necks and many promises were made on this day.

We left Kobala just after 13:00hrs and raced toward Kiisi and Nairobi.

We entered Nairobi after dusk and retired at Kahama hotel.

Many of us could not stop talking about the way the drivers drove, winding in and out of trafic at hair raising speed.