Exploring

When we first arrived in Kenya I was confused that there were no shops near our home. Today I realized that there were many shops near where we live, but most of them are not on main streets and even more do not have signs. Grace and I went out “exploring” into a plaza near our house. It had a bunch of interesting shops including a full-fledged grocery store. We had been paying about 400 Ksh (6 US dollars) to get to the large shopping complex where we had been shopping since we had arrived. We also discovered that some of the other local shops had all of the things that we were getting at Nakumatt (the more distant shop). We also found a thrift shop, which is a rare find considering that most of the goods sold here are second hand, and a sporting goods store – all within a block from where we live. We all went into town on a matatu, which we usually don’t ride all the way to downtown. It turns around in a part of town that was really busy with weekend shoppers. We ended up discovering an entirely different side of Mombassa’s downtown. We found gelato for 40 Ksh (about 60 cents), and saw some restaurants highly recommended by tourist guides that we have. This was all before 11 am. We then each pulled out about 20,000 Ksh out of an ATM to pay for our safari. It’s a bit scary walking around the third world with this much money even though in US terms it’s not all that much. All of the bills I'm holding were 1000 shilling notes.


(p.s. like the new haircut?)


We gave 80,000 Ksh (by the way, Ksh is the way Kenyan Shilling is written) to the man book our trips. It seemed like SO MUCH MONEY. Grace and I then went to church. She taught some other members the basics of the piano and then we listened to a short lesson with a bunch of other college age kids. After church Grace and I went back to one of the restaurants we had passed called Pistachio, and had a very late lunch. Pistachio serves European style pizza at relatively fair prices. When we got there four of the five customers were non-tourist white people, a rare sight most places in town. It was a great meal. We shared a pistachio flavored milkshake (my first shake in months), and two pizzas, and I had a Coca-cola Light (which is like diet coke but tastes more like regular. Even though its called Coca-Cola Light on the packaging, no one really has an idea what you’re talking about unless you ask for it as diet coke though). I think we ended up paying 9 dollars when all was said and done. We explored some more and went home. The more time we spend here the more I realize that there is a lot to do. There are still a million things I miss at home, but the country is becoming much more livable.


No shoes, No goggles, NO EYESIGHT. I remember a boy scout leader once telling us you could look at a welding torch with the naked eye for 30 seconds before you go blind. Imagine 8 hours a day. Do they have OSHA in Kenya? HECK NO