Jambo from Kitale! 24 agonizing hours of hot and dusty bus ride later and we are miraculously back home. During the 24-hour bus ride down to Malindi, we were beginning to wonder if the trip was really worth it…
Boy were we not disappointed.
Hello, Indian Ocean!
It was kind of hard to believe Malindi is in the same country as Kitale. For starters, it is incredibly humid and hot with no rain, versus Kitale’s dry heat with downpours every few days. It’s very touristy, with a massive population of Italians – it is nicknamed “Little Italy” because of how many Italians visit and have summer homes there. When you walk by Kenyan kids on the street, instead of typical Swahili greetings you hear ‘ciao’. When we asked them “sasa?” (the slang way of asking what’s up), the kids didn’t even know how to respond! Weird. Instead of bodas bodas, they use tuk tuks to get around. There is white sand everywhere instead of red dust, and food prices were through the roof because of tourism. And the sun is about 15 times stronger than in Kitale.
Not that we’re complaining. Spending every day at the beach AND the resort swimming pool, eating
Some shots..
The Silver and Gold Sand on the Beach.
All wearing our kokoi skirts before going out for Thanksgiving dinner.
On the wine list: BELLINGHAM!?!
Two Massai men watching Lauren and Drew build a sandcastle.
Turtle Bay in Watamu, where we snorkeled.
Boys Running on the Beach at Sunrise.
Sunrise over the Indian Ocean. Not too shabby...
As great as a vacation as we all had, we were surprised at how quickly we got antsy to get back to Kitale. It was strange being at such a ritzy resort and eating such expensive food while you're missing street kids back home and the beans and rice we eat everyday.
This weekend we are wrapping some projects up before Nate, Drew, and Lauren head home on Sunday. Last night we took the Nema girls out for dinner, and this weekend 4 of us are babysitting all 30 kids at HBF and sending house parents Ben and Virginia to a nice hotel for the weekend. This involves cooking massive amounts of spaghetti for dinner and eggs for breakfast, which is a very special treat for them… and for us... to be cooking in such mass amounts…
More next week!
What gorgeous pictures!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny your mentioning Little Italy because I'm reading No Picnic on Mt Kenya right now, an account of a mountain climb to freedom from a POW camp. It's written by an Italian (Felice Benuzzi) and he mentions life in Kenya before prison, and talks about wondering where his and other men's wives and children are interned. I don't know if he lived in Kenya, just happened to be there, or was shipped there particularly for his internment, but he mentions many Italians who really lived as Kenyans (more or less). It just struck me. I wonder if the people there now, the people you may have met or seen, were or had relatives who were in any of those camps. Crazy.
ps. are you coming home before Christmas? or at all? ;)
ReplyDeleteANDREA!!!
ReplyDeleteHi! I knew you were overseas...somewhere.... But I didn't realize where, or that you had a blog until I saw Anne's comment on Facebook.
This is all amazing, and I'm so excited that you are doing what you're doing. Let me know if you have time to connect when you're home for Christmas--I'd love to hear more, see more...and just catch up with YOU.
Shannon
P.S. "Bellingham wine" is really funny.... Makes me think of seeing "Washington apples" in southern India.
ReplyDelete