My last post (until my next adventure!)

Hi guys

So it's been just over a week since I came back into Australia, and it's taken a while to adjust back into the daily grind. I find myself saying Asante (thank you, in swahili) to check-out chicks and petrol station guys who don't know what the hell i'm saying. I still hold my bag close to me in case someone tries to take it, and it's taking a while to shrink my big kenyan stomach back to it's original size!
Family and friends ask me 'how was it?', 'is living in Kenya tough?' and it's hard to give them an honest answer. I think everybody needs to go to a place like Kenya to understand what tough living is like. Unless you see with your own eyes people living on $2.50 a day, old women trying to sell food (or anything) on the side of the street just to get some food for their children, that's tough living. Or even just not having running water and needing to fetch it from the well. On the other hand it's a great holiday destination too! So many beautiful resorts, seeing wild animals and collecting funky african bits n pieces to take home, it's pretty fun.

Personally, I'm really glad I got the opportunity to teach kids a very important skill that they will keep for the rest of their lives. I'm happy I got to explore a different country, meet amazing people who live happy lives there, and experience a different lifestyle for 10 weeks. But i'm very happy to be back home. Now it's time to knuckle down and save for my next adventure, wherever that will be..

Thank you for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed it, and that you go out there and have your own adventures.

Kwaheri,
Beth

Donkeys need love too

So since I have last posted, I had my last full day in Mombasa teaching kids (and adults) how to swim. And surprisingly, it was a bit of an anti-climax! No schools turned up for swimming due to school exams and Ramadan (kids fasting, need to save that energy!). I'm just happy I finished the program that I started and did everything on my list:

1. Teach as many children as I can how to be confident in the water, how to swim to safety if they need to, and proper pool etiquette/safety (all the kids now walk around the pool, listen to the teacher and bomb-diving, what bomb diving?)
2. The other teachers and coaches, if they follow my advice, will keep improving the children with a handy step-by-step guide I made (warm-up exercises, drills and games). Now that I've gone, it's all up to them to carry on the good work!
3. Give them equipment to help with the lessons, and also make swimming fun. All equipment and swimwear that wasn't being used, I took to my friend Ashleigh's orphanage where all the kids now use it every day!
4. Made an underwater swimming platform! They say goals that are the hardest are the most rewarding. It was so great to see the little scared ones standing up on the platform and then swimming to me. They looked so proud they could do it! I also taught the lifeguards and teachers how to use it, and I know it will be a hit in the summer :)

As another saying goes, once one door closes, another one opens. I'm finally in Lamu for the first stage of my post-volunteer holiday and my gosh, it is insane. I'm not giving anyone any ideas or anything, but when I get married, I'm coming back to this place for my honeymoon..
Said goodbye to my host family, had brekky and took a 7 hour bus trip from Mombasa to Mokowe. Once there, I got a boat to Lamu Island, then another boat to Shela Beach. I met Moses, a friend of a friend, who has kindly let me stay at his home (for a very reasonable price!). Nice man, but went to shake his hand and turned into an awkward hug, then asked me who he looked like, I said um, the president of Kenya, more awkwardness and silence (I should have said his son Timo who I know well. President, really Beth?). Got to his house by a maze of alleyways, very cool white wash cement houses. Rama, the houseboy, said "You know what that symbol drawn in the concrete pathway is?" Yes, it's the Peugeot logo. Someone must like them cars. "Well the CEO of Peugeot lives in that house". Wow. Doesn't own a Peugeot, owns the whole company! For some reason this impresses me.Moses house is so airy and cool. First level is bedrooms, kitchen (basic but lots of bench space), second level up through windy concrete steps is the outdoor area and dining table, a loungy bed area and cushiony seating in the sun. You can see the beach and the town below.And he has a LIBRARY. My gosh was I in heaven. My main reason for coming to Lamu was to unwind, relax, take swims in the ocean and read. SO yeah, ticked all said boxes. Was a bit parched and hungry after bus trip, but due to Ramadan (and this place is 99% Muslim) all cafes and restaurants are closed in the day. I think it's to ward off temptation. So Rama sorted out a delicious lunch on the rooftop and I was stuffed. He then took me for a trip down to the beach which is so baron and goes on forever, you feel like you're in a weird arab desert land, except that there's a big-ass ocean. Also took me to the neighbouring village in the sand dunes with huts made out of sticks and sheet metal. Saw people collecting water from the well, looks like hard work. There are no roads in Lamu, just little sandy alleyways that you walk or ride a donkey along. I like these donkeys. One came up to me on the beach when I was chatting to a local and started nuzzling me. So I scratched his ear and he leaned on me for a bit. Donkeys are the forgotten pack animal I say! Hooray for the donkey!!
 I like how here people don't expect you to know Swahili but when you do, it makes them happy. And I like practising. By the time I leave Kenya, I want to be able to hold a decent conversation in full Swahili, that's my goal. And sleep in. And tan my pasty stomach (damn that one-piece). And eat as many sea dwelling creatures as I can!
Security around here is very deceptive though. I went to the beach this morning, but made sure I was around other people and close to the shops. When I got back to the house Moses freaked out and said "don't ever go to the beach on your own, a girl got raped there in pure daylight not too long ago", and that in turn freaked me out. Even walking the 20 minute track from Shela to Lamu is considered 'potential rape alley' so against the little naggy scrooge in my head, I will fork out the 400shillings needed to take a speedboat back to the house just to be on the safe side. Besides, mum and dad would kill me if I tried walking.
 I'm always careful about where I walk around (always thinking I may need witnesses if anyone did try to attack me) but just to know that this supposedly friendly town can have a dark side surprised me. I guess every town in the entire world has a good and bad side.

OK back to the bright side, absolutely love Lamu and is well worth the 7 hour trip. Gonna try some fishing and ride a donkey tomorrow, let you know how that goes!

Cheers,
Beth