Ki- Ai!! (English version)

As we promised last time, the update after Mombasa.
Since we arrived home safely in Thika last Sunday, now our story about Mombasa….
Ps: We = 10 children, Nelson (manager), Esayas (karate teacher), Lotte (other Mzungu), the driver and ourselves.

After some preparations the last weeks (arranging transport, accommodation, etc.), we left on Wednesday for Mombasa, 600 km to the east (direction Mekka, later more about that). We hired a bus with driver, named Mbuyu (baobab in Kiswahili), because of his posture. Already after 50 km we had a flat tire! So nice start….not a good sign thinking of the distance still to cover. Fortunately, the rest of the drive was good and after about 12 hours, we arrived in Mombasa at 7 pm. We booked 4 triple rooms and 1 double in Tana Guest House. But on arrival, they just told us that there were only 2 free double rooms available. So after the owner having told how we thought about it and were going to tell all our friends about it, so that nobody would come to that place anymore (so: DON’T GO THERE!!!), we had to look for something else. We knew that there was something else that weekend in Mombasa, so that it was busy, but luckily the Lonely Planet helped us out and we found a few empty rooms in New People’s Hotel. The people there were very nice (there were not enough beds free, but they let us put some children together in the beds). The rooms were basic, the baths had buckets for washing yourself, but fine. The only thing was the location, in a big (and noisy) street, with a lot of traffic during the night). And…….some big mosques! At 4 am we heard some nice words from the Koran being shouted from the speakers. That was the mosque opposite our hotel. After 15 minutes, it was the mosque next to our hotel that was keeping us awake and after that, again another one. And at 5 am, the first mosque started again.
So we didn’t have much sleep (some didn’t sleep at all), but the sun was shining and the breakfast was very nice (mandazi with Chai (Kenyan tea) and eggs. So after the breakfast, we went to the big ‘swimming pool’, as the children kept on saying that. We were on our way to the sea, but only 1 child had seen the sea before, so they kept on asking how big the swimming pool was. After being scared for a little while, they all went in the water and the rest of the day, we didn’t see them anymore, only for a quick (forced…) lunch. So it was a wonderful day!!
In the evening we had some nice chicken from the braai with chips and salad and after having bought some cotton wool to put in our ears for the noise, we had a good sleep!

Day 3 was going to be the first karate day! But the tournament only started at 4 pm, so we had time in the morning to do a cultural tour at Fort Jesus (build by the Portuguese people). So they even learned something about their history (and of course, we also learned something).
After some nice spaghetti for lunch, we went to an Islamic place for the karate tournament. After waiting for 1 hour for everybody to arrive (polepole…), they told us that girls and women were not allowed inside, because of religion…..Not so nice, according to the 8 girls we had with us. When we were about to leave, the organization told us that they moved the tournament to a hotel, so that we could all watch the boys perform. So that was very nice of them. We went with a (very full) bus to the Mombasa beach hotel, were the tournament was held on the tennis field. So with a delay of about 4 hours, the tournament finally started. Our boys had a lot of competition, they made it to the finals, but they didn’t get the medals.
The next day it was up to our (8) girls to perform. It started at 10 am and about 8 hours later, and some medals, we had a good ‘last’ dinner at Wimpy’s. After a good last night at the hotel, with free wake up call from the mosque it was already time to go back home to Thika. After a good, but exhausting drive, we arrived in the evening and had a good sleep in our own beds. Next morning the ‘normal’ wake up call from the monkeys on the roof…..

Love and Kwaheri (bye)
Rob, Anne and the kids