Friday (4/9), I forgot that the PC office closes at 1, so I came in around 4 to pick up my credit card, passport and WHO card so I could fly and no one was here! I called the duty officer and apologised profusely and she tried to figure everything out for me. Our medical officer left us for Morocco, so we have an interim lady here and she doesnt quite know where everything is and our medical secretary had left for the weekend to visit her family. We couldn't quite figure out how to get my WHO card until Saturday, when I came and picked everything up. I flew out on Sunday and without my credit card, I was unable to purchase my second ticket from Nairobi to Lamu, so as soon as I got into Nairobi, I had to quickly leave the airport and rush over to the smaller, local airport and buy a ticket on the flight leaving in one hour! I got the last seat on the plane and made it with more than enough time. I ended up buying a $2 kit kat while I waited! The flight down was crazy full of white people, we stopped first in Malindi then continued on to Lamu. A lady sitting next to me was part of a wedding party and the bride came around offering cake and to be nice offered it to me also. It was pretty good. I got into Lamu and had to take a boat over to the island where jon was waiting. We hit the ATM, then took another boat over to the jetty and then caught a ride with someone to his village and the walked to his house. His house is really nice. He is the 3rd volunteer to be at that site, so when he got there it was fully furnished and already had a lot of things, so he used all of his settling in money to decorate and make it homey. Its really flippin hot and humid though!
Monday and Tuesday we took the boat over to Lamu, then Monday we walked to Shella beach and Tuesday we took a boat. Shella is a very touristy area and is beautiful! Monday, we saw some rain clouds rolling in over the ocean, so we quickly packed up and ran to one of the fancy hotels where we sat and had drinks until the rain stopped. It was high tide, so we couldnt walk along the water and had to take a path through the 'forest' to get back and catch a boat to the mainland. Tuesday, we spent the whole day at the beach, but didn't make it before the rain began. We jumped on a boat to go back to Lamu town, but got caught in the rain while on the boat. We got SOAKED! But it felt good cause it was so hot out.
Wednesday, while waiting for someone to come through town going towards the jetty, we saw a big bus and jumped on that to get a ride and there were 4 PCVs on there going to Lamu for vacation, so we showed them to their hotel and hung out with them that day in town. On the way back to Mokowe (Jon's village), we got caught again in the rain on the boat and had to wait for a bit at the jetty before catching a ride and then we had to walk through the rain, trying to avoid the giant puddles that had formed in the last few days (when I arrived, there was one small puddle, by the time I left, it was a giant wet lands and there were no dry areas to walk on) back to his house. Thursday was super cloudy and rainy and we were unable to take our Dhow trip, so we went into town late and just hung out with the girls in town and got food and juice (Lamu is known for its juices). Friday, we got up early and went over to Lamu to take our Dhow trip. The 6 of us went with 4 crew and we sailed out into the Indian ocean where we went snorkling, fishing and had lunch on an island. I cut my foot on some coral after snorkling for only about 10 minutes and couldnt get it to stop bleeding, so I spent most of my time in the boat. The captain got me to help with the fishing for lunch and I caught one! They made the most delicious lunch with coconut rice from real coconuts (which we got to eat some and drink the milk), a vegetable stew, grilled fish and lots of fresh fruit. We sailed over to an island and walked through the water a bit to get onto the land and ate lunch there, but the tide came in quickly and we ended up having to swim back to the boat. It was definitely the best part of the trip! We stayed in Lamu that night and slept at the hotel the girls were staying in and caught the early bus to Mombasa the next morning. It was about a 7 hour bus trip (which is my travel time from site to Kigali) and when we got in we immediately walked over to the other bus company to buy a ticket for the next morning to Nairobi. Little did we know it was so far! Its already so hot and humid in Mombasa, and a 20-25 minute walk with luggage in the city is NOT fun. We took a tok tok (the three wheeled cars) to the hotel afterwards and just laid in the air conditioned rooms. We met up with 6 other PCVs and all had lunch, then went back to the hotel after going shoe shopping for Jon. We met up again for a late dinner and then went out to a bar cause it was one of the guy's birthdays. I went home early because i was tired and really excited about the AC! I had my own room, so I just sat and watched CNN for 2 or so hours before sleeping. I actually got too cold at one point, quite a luxury after being so disgustingly hot the previous 6 days. The bus to Nairobi was almost 9 hours and by the time we got there the cut on my foot wasn't looking so good, so Jon called the PCMO and she said she'd send a car for me in the morning to take me to the office so she could look at it. I had dinner with all the Kenya PCVs in Jons group and we hung out that night and Monday morning I went to the PC office in Nairobi and got my foot cleaned up and bandaged. I got a ride to a shopping center where my taxi guy who drove me to the other airport when I first got in was meeting me to take me to the airport. I walked around with one shoe on and went into clothing stores, book stores and grocery stores (yeah, Kenya and South Africa have grocery stores in their malls). He was an hour and a half later than I asked him to be cause of some crazy traffic, so I got picked up from the shopping center an hour and a half before my flight and got to the airport less than an hour before my flight. Luckily, there were no other passengers waiting to check-in, so I got checked-in and through security in less than 5 minutes. Even had time to shop around in Duty free before flying back!
Had a wonderful time, but I'm happy to be back. Rwanda really is starting to feel like home to me. I was constantly praising this country and defending it when the other PCVs would ask me questions or criticize. Kenya was awesome, but I love Rwanda.
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