Monday, October 26th, 2009: Last day in Mombassa

Woke up with lots of misquito bites even though I used the net!!!!  Upset stomach today.  Not like Hillie and Denise though.  Napped a bit and went down to the beach to find JJ for more key chains but no luck, the weather was turning for the worse and many of them were going to pack up soon.

Vendors are very pushy here, don't make eye contact and if you don't like the price they are negotiating with you, just walk away.  If they can they will call you back.

Camel rides were negotiated for $350 ksh each, but I didn't go on one.

It ended up raining around 5pm.  No monkeys today but a cat was on our roof.  Ginger one, not sure how he got there!

Getting a bit homesick now, scared to call home because I might cry on the phone.  Miss my family but will be home soon.

Safari is tomorrow and 1 night there, then to Nairobi, 1 night there, then fly to London and 1 night there!  So last 4 days.  I would love to bring my family her, esp to room 42/43 as it works really well for a family and use Paul as our driver.

Before dinner, I went to the bank and got fuel for the van with Paul.  Hillie was at Livingstone's home to see his mom and dad.  Went for dinner at the hotel, there is a nice Italian restaurant next door on the beach side.  Very nice restaurant, almost unusual for Kenya, it looked new.  Owned by an Italian.  Service was good and the food was excellent.  Bit pricer then what we have been paying in the past, but I only spent $11 for my pasta and it was really big.

Rained a bit through out the evening, much cooler but still nice.  Wore my new shawl I had bought in Limuru for $4.  Nice yellow!

Made sure we were packed up for the early morning departure and possible power outages due to the rain.

I decided to itemize items and their typical canadian prices for future reference and for the kids at Senator Riley.

100ml of toothpaste $1.90 (now I see why they don't brush their teeth)

toothbrushes $1.50

200g box of plain cookies $1.25

250 g peanut butter $1.25

455g bag of hard candies $4.00 (this is another treat for them)

1 roll toilet paper  28 cents (they sell a lot individually)

loaf of bread 50 cents

50g instant coffee $2.40

2L sprite $1.71

Beef  1 kg $3.15

Bananas 1kg $2.75

nail polish 85 cents

200ml shampoo $3.00

200g potato chips $1.31 (no name brand)

Tomatoes  14 cents each at the market

750 ml Vodka $14.50

can of beer $1.15

So to us the groceries are pretty cheap, but to them many items like the meat, are just too expensive.  That is why they all have gardens!  And why they ask us tourists for lotions, candy, nailpolish etc.

I had also done some tallying of what we spent at the orphanage.

$320 on furniture

$1072 on groceries, household items like sheets

$679 on maintenance like the gate, the paint, the fence (not including what Denise had sent previously)

$290 on shoes

$246 on labour