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

Sunday, October 25th, 2009: Day of rest, finally!

The monkey who came into my room and stole 5 bananas!

Today is beach day.  Bought some keychains for most of my friends.  They carve the names on safari animal shapes such as Lion, elephant, cheetah or rhino.  Only $200 ksh each.  JJ was the vendor.  Hope to get more tomorrow.

Drank beers at the hotel bar after suntanning on the beach for a bit.  Quite hot.  Beach is nice but they don't comb the sand, so there is a lot of seaweed and little sandcrabs at the water's edge too.  No chairs or loungers like on the beaches in Punta Cana or Montego Bay.  So next time I would bring a mat and a blow up pillow.

Also did some hand washed laundry today.  While I was in the bathroom a monkey came into my room and stole about 5 bananas.  Scared me as I was coming out with my wet laundry as he was still in my room.  Cheeky bugger, wouldn't leave right away and kept eyeing me thru the glass doors and I had to hide the bananas in the fridge outside.  I was scared he was going to pluck them right out of my hands!  More monkeys came out later, before we went for dinner and we did give them a few bananas.  I was trying to get food to the mom's with babies but the big ones kept stealing them.  The little ones were really cute, the big ones scared me!

We all has nice warm showers to get ready for dinner.  I really did not bring anything to wear out, wasn't thinking that we would have time to go to a disco.  Hillie had a cute black skirt, and I wore it as a dress LOL.  It worked.

We went to one place for dinner.  Chicken and chips.  Took Paul, Julius and Livingstone with us as a treat.  Had tuskers and watch the soccer match.  Went to the disco later, ladies free, men $100 ksh.  Lots of dancing!

Saturday, October 24th, 2009: Mombassa bound

The common area of the Hotel in Mombassa, covered patio with kitchenette and sitting area.

Beach in Mombassa at the Banburi Beach Hotel, where you can take camel rides!

Well that hotel in Nairobi was very noisy.  Disco was pumping till 4 am, and then the trucks across the road started up.  Slept about 5 hours.  Denise is sick now.  We planned to head to Mombassa at 8am or so, since it is a long drive.  Roads are crazy.  Some areas are so bumpy, other area smooth, and when you go through a town there are speed bumps!  Hillie and Denise were both under the weather, tough ride for them.

We did see zebras, giraffes, camels, and baboons on the drive down.  Very exciting.

Got into Mombassa and hit the supermarket for groceries as this hotel has a kitchenette.

The hotel is right on the beach, called Bamburi Beach Resort.  Pretty cool hotel.  We have the upper floor which is only 2 suites, plus the common area outside under a thatched roof.  1 room had a kingsize bed and the other 2 twin beds, both had their own bathroom.  On the patio is a kichenette with a fridge, stove and sink.  There are 2 tables both with chairs.  I really like the set up and would be good for the family.

Had to call the Doctor for Hillie, he thinks she has a parasite and bacteria so he prescribed Flagyll and some other Rx's for her.  She wasn't doing well at first but once some of the drugs kicked in she seemed to be a bit better.

Denise was just really cold and shakey, she thinks she has the flu.

Hillie's friends Livingstone and Julius came for a quick visit.  So we sat out on the patio with Paul and had a few drinks and a peanut butter and jam sandwich for dinner, just too tired to go out for dinner!