August 29th - First Weekend Off & Giraffes

Despite wanting to visit Africa for as long as I have, going on safari was never a strong pull – and yet, when I learned we would be taking the kids on an excursion to a local wildlife park, I was excited. Saturday morning 9 GVI volunteers/staff, 1 teacher and 10 excited kids from Standard 5 (ages 10 to 12) headed off to Haller Park. We all crammed into one matatu and were there within the hour. We had a tour guide who was excellent – he told us the story of how the land had been reclaimed from stripped quarry to nature preserve – if I remember correctly, they had bred special bugs that transformed into really, really good dirt from which everything else was able to grow and gave the animals their habitat. First we saw tortoises just wandering through the park and then crocodiles, fish, snakes, baby crocodiles, albino crocodiles (very cool) and a hippo – or at least the back of the hippo as he was well submerged in a pool of water! I also realized that Haller Park is the home of Owen & Mzee – the subjects of a book I'd bought my nephew years ago – the hippo Owen had been rescued after the tsunami and had befriended an old tortoise Mzee – however, I learned they had to be separated as Owen grew up and became an unintentional danger to Mzee. The absolute highlight of the day however, was feeding the giraffes – very, very cool! The kids loved it – though it took a while for everyone to warm up to putting our hands before their very, very large tongues. I found them very feminine animals – their eyes with these beautiful long eyelashes, they looked like they had mascara on. They are just pretty and so elegant. Definitely my favorite!

We were back by midday and the “young'ns”, both volunteers and staff, headed off for a weekend at the beach while Barbara and I stayed at the house with two of the GVI staff for a quieter weekend. Barbara and I decided to be adventurous and headed out on our own to explore the other supermarket and also a local restaurant for dinner. After an initial concern that we were on the right the matatu (“this is the wrong direction, let us out” ... “it's not, are you sure?”) we made it to the supermarket and then, thanks to a good map, the restaurant nearby. We had been warned that the choices were limited – chicken or pork – and that the food would take time ... which was true, as an hour later, it arrived – and was very good. We were definitely outsiders though – sitting in this outdoor area under a canopy, the only two women, let alone foreigners, amongst about 10 other tables filled with Kenyan men there to watch Arsenal vs. Man United ... somethings are the same no matter where you are in the world and men and sports is one of them! After partially negotiating the taxi, we made it home and I have to say, felt ridiculously proud of ourselves that we'd navigated this adventure. And I have to say, the conversation was great, the beer cold and I slept well that night.

Sunday was quiet – a little cleaning in the morning (I definitely have a dirt threshold I wasn't previously aware of ... and despite sweeping every day, the dirt and dust just seem to seep into everything), and then we then headed out to explore more of Mombasa and do a little shopping. We had another rough map to work with and we made it, city chaos and all. Found our way to the fabric street and then back to old town where we'd seen some souvenir shops. Barbara was in search of a mask to add to her collection and we went into every store ... all of whom were quite desperate for business (there weren't a lot of tourists at all). She found a great mask whereas I did my usual scope first, and then I'll be back to buy later ... We found our way back to the main street, back on the matatu and home – we were definitely getting the hang of it. All in all, a really good weekend.