Mombasa, Falls, Work and Matatus

Hi!

The last couple weeks have been very good. Last weekend I went to Mombasa, which is a city on the coast about 11 hours from where I live. I took a matatu from here to Nairobi, then an 8 hour over night bus ride. The city is really cool, it's so humid which was a nice change from the dust here in Nakuru. We stayed in a place called Stilts. It has a hostel feel to it and the rooms are treehouses. I slept outside with only a mosquito net to stand in between me and the great outdoors. One day I was napping and woke to a monkey jumping on my head! The monkeys also took some of my friend's money (not on purpose, but it was obvious they had been in our room and probably just threw it somewhere). Robbed by a monkey...only in Africa! Overall, it was a great trip. I met some really cool people from all over the world - even met someone who vacations in Gravenhurst! Small world...

Yesterday, my roommate and I took a matatu to Thomson's Falls. They were pretty incredible and the drive was cool because we drove right past the equator! We have also become very good at not being tricked into spending money - when we were climbing down the falls, someone came up saying we needed a guide and he would take us and we were like uhhh no we are fine!...and we totally DIDN'T need a guide!

I am finishing up at the school. Tuesday I will be changing placements to an orphanage in town because the school doesn't have enough work for me. They recently got 10 interns so there is really no shortage of teachers there. I am excited to start at the orphanage. I will be counselling young girls, watching the kids and helping out with cooking and whatever else they need help with.

This is the website I have been working on for the school: http://stjohnsprimarynakuru.wordpress.com/
and this is the Facebook page. Watch the video that my roommate, Nessa Tsui made that is posted to the page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Johns-Primary-School/225246980902812

The website and Facebook page are mainly to be used for awareness of the school. Once I show it to the administration on Monday, I will get more a feel for what else they would like to see on it and will be able to teach them how to maintain it.

I will miss the kids since I am switching placements, although since I am here for 2 months still I am sure I will be able to go back for a few days here and there. This is one of my favorite classes - the grade 8s. We got them to write their dreams on paper and hold them up - a lot of future engineers, pilots and surgeons!

These are matatus (I took this pic off the web since I keep forgetting to take pictures myself even though I ride them almost daily! This place looks a lot like where I get dropped off in town - the people like to heckle me because I am white but I have learned how to ignore them and get past unscathed haha)

I find the system fascinating. There are no marked stops but people just seem to know where to go. When you want to get off the matatu, you just hit the roof and the driver will stop. They pile 20 people into one matatu at times, sometimes you will have random kids sitting on your lap or be holding random people's babies - which is also a testament to how trusting Kenyans are! It just seems so crazy that in North America, we spend so much time and money over-engineering and optimizing our public transit systems...but then you come here and this disorganized system works! In terms of wait times, it works far better here than North America, although they are not quite as safe.

In closing, I miss my family and friends a lot a lot! I went to church today and I missed my family SO much - it's just not the same without Max and Phil racing each other to be the last one standing up or without the family trying to make Bridget laugh whenever she is performing. I'm sending lots of love from across the world :)

Until next time!

Lisa