• Kenya groove

    23Apr
    Categories: Around The World, Kenya Comments: 4


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  • Diani Beach and the Beach Boys

    23Apr
    Categories: Around The World, Kenya Comments: 2

    One thing we had been talking about since the beginning of our trip was ending our international travel at the Kenyan coast.  Kim had just theimgp6416 beach in mind and we headed out on a bumpy night bus to Mombasa.  From there we drove south and ended up at the Warandale Cottages on Diani Beach. After getting settled we ventured out the beach and quickly realized why it is low season.  The rain started lightly and we decided to walk down the beach anyway. After 15 minutes the real down pour started and we were in for a wet walk back.  One of the good things about the rain was that it kept most of the beach boys away, but not all.  One of the questions asked before going to a Kenyan beach is, “How bad are the beach boys?”  We didn’t quite understand what that meant until we experienced it for ourselves.  The Diani Beach boys are pretty bad, although we haven’t experienced other beaches to which we can compare.

    The beach boys are men who prey on tourists selling an assortment of trinkets or trips out for snorkeling, fishing, or swimming with dolphins.  An encounter with a beach boy usually starts with them zeroing in on you from a distance and then joining your walk down the beach whether you like it or not.  They usually start with a friendly greeting, the questions of where are you from and how are you enjoying your holiday and move into their sales pitch which usually involves some sort of guilt tactic.  They would tell you they hadn’t eaten in a long time, they have a family, or just say “can’t you support a brother?”  We tried many different approaches to kindly decline their offers as they all imgp6339were selling the same things, none of which we wanted.  We felt sympathetic as we know Kenya unemployment rate is quite high.  As we talked with people who worked at our resort we learned that there is work the beach boys can do but they prefer the easy road of selling on the beach.  Of all of the places we have traveled this year these sellers were the most aggressive and persistent.   As we got to know a few of them that were tolerable, we tried giving some basic business advice and suggestions on different things to sell.  John even got one of them to make him an authentic Kenyan ball made from plastic bags and banana leaves which he would kick around with the beach boys.

    Despite being hassled by the beach boys there were a lot of really good things to mention about the coastline.  One of our favorite parts about the beach was having a personal cook, Ali, who was included with the cottage.  Ali shopped, cooked, and cleaned for us every day.  Excluding breakfast and one dinner we ate seafood the entire time.  Yes, even Erin ate and enjoyed the seafood.  We dined on red snapper, white snapper, crab, squid (not our favorite), tuna, and prawns all fresh from the sea daily.  We had many opportunities to talk with Ali and had a good time getting to know him–he gave us some good advice on the beach boys too.

    The weather was beautiful the remainder of our time and we spent our days either by the pool, at the table eating, watching the monkeys play (and try to steal our stuff), or walking on the beach.  We also went on a sailing trip, or least that is what we called it.  It was actually two floating mattresses and a sarong which acted as our sail.  As we passed by people we got many stares and responses like, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”  We successfully sailed about a mile and half down the beach and then had to walk back on the sand against the fiercely blowing wind.

    These five days were a great final “holiday” before we start coming back to the reality that we are leaving for the US on Sunday.

  • Diani Beach Photos

    23Apr
    Categories: Around The World, Kenya Comments: 0

    We just returned from five days at Diani Beach on the Kenya coast. Here are a few photos from our time.

  • Miss Grimes

    23Apr
    Categories: Around The World, Kenya Comments: 1

    It has been nine years since we graduated from college and we have never seen any of our teacher-friends in the classroom. We asked Kim if she could be our first and she happily agreed. On Wednesday morning we were in front of her class sharing about our trip. Miss Grimes also put us to work. We facilitatedimgp6177 reading groups and helped with math corrections. It’s amazing what we have forgotten from the 5th grade! We also had the privilege of seeing Kim work with the kids on diagramming sentences using the Shirley Grammar methods. We had heard her do this many times with our family group and always had a good laugh at it. Sitting in the back of the class listening to them all diagram sentences, we had to be careful not to laugh out loud. It was also a little humbling as any of her kids could easily kick our butts in a diagramming competition. There were many songs she used as teaching tools which didn’t surprise us a bit as we had heard some of her teaching songs before, but when a whole class is singing about nouns and verbs you can’t help but chuckle.

    It was cool to see Kim in action and note the respect she had from her kids and how well she managed the class. We ended our morning teaching time with hot lunch from the school cafeteria which we ate in the teachers lounge with some of Kim’s co-workers.

  • To Hell and back… and other events

    23Apr
    Categories: Around The World, Kenya Comments: 0

    Since our safari, we have been keeping busy enough with little trips and adventures, but have enjoyed having some down time preparing ourselves for our return to the US. It’s been a blast to hang out with Kim, but also get to know her friends and spend time doing things with them as well. The weekend we came back from safari, we headed out about two hours from Nairobi to a national park called Hells Gate. The reason for the name is because of the geothermal activity from the nearby volcano. We spent our day climbing through small gorges, jumping over streams of hot water, and scaling rock walls with Kim and her friends, Scott and Lara. We also spotted some wildlife–zebras and antelopes. We were hoping to see a giraffe, but weren’t so lucky.

    The following day we enjoyed an Easter celebration service at Kim’s church and came home to feast on a potluck meal with a collection of friends. There wasn’t the traditional ham dinner we are accustomed to at home as ham is really expensive here, but there were a lot of delicious potatoes (the most popular potluck dish) and we contributed our famous (at least becoming so) deep fried bananas.

    Later in the week we had the chance to visit a children’s home where Will and Joe, friends of Kim’s, work. Will picked us up at lunch time and we stopped by his place first where we met some of the kids who were out on the property learning to farm. The kids led us out to the field to show us the work they had done. As the rainy season is just kicking in, they are at the beginning stages of planting. There are 38 kids who live at the home full time and hundreds more who are fed daily by the feeding program run out of the home. We had a great time spending the afternoon with the kids, getting whooped on on the soccer field, and seeing the positive environment these kids are nurtured in. It was cool to hear that they are working on opening a home for abandoned babies and a school, on the other side of Nairobi, in the slums.

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