Back from the coast

So much to write, but I'll try to limit myself...

I'm back from the coast - amazing time!! Four of us girls took an overnight bus on Thursday night to Mombasa. We then had to take three matatus (I'll explain these another time) and a ferry to get to Diani Beach. Our place was right on the beach, which was awesome.

There are monkeys all over, so, of course, there were signs around our cottage saying "please do not feed the monkeys." We, however, were not as careful as we should have been. Our first afternoon in Diani, Lora went into the cottage and came out yelling my name and laughing. Monkeys had broken in cottage, stolen our peanut butter and thrown around our bread. We found the peanut butter jar outside w/ monkey prints in it. Later on, we saw a monkey take the PB jar and climb up a tree to eat it. It was hilarious. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only time monkeys broke in. On Sunday morning, Julia woke Lora and me up saying that monkeys had been coming in thru the bars in the door we left open in our room. Lora said she actually heard what she thought was a monkey run past her bed, but she was too sunburnt to turn over. Speaking of sunburns, I have a pretty nasty one. We're really close to the equator and did not think abt the fact that our malaria meds make our skin significantly more sensitive to the sunlight until way too late. Oh well.

Other than laugh at monkey antics, we had a really good time. We laid out, hung out on our patio near the beach, went snorkelling and spent a lot of time at a beach cafe. They had (fairly) Western food, so it was nice to take a break from lentils and cabbage. Snorkelling was really cool. We saw some starfish and a number of beautiful fish by the reef.

I guess the bus rides also had some interesting elements. On the way to Mombasa, our bus had to slow down b/c a giraffe was crossing the highway. No joke. We also sat for TWO HOURS in one place due to construction. I almost felt like I was back in LA. :) There were a number of spots where the road was just dirt b/c they were working on it, which definitely made things interesting. Also, on the way back, I guess there was an elephant along the side of the rode. I didn't see it, but Lora asked the driver, and he confirmed it was there. So crazy.

After another overnight bus ride last night (it's abt 8 hrs to the coast from Nairobi and another hour home), I'm back in Ngong - exhausted but excited to be around the kids again. Of course, things are somewhat of a mess. Lucy (orphanage owner/director) fired Margaret ("auntie" who cooks and cleans). Margaret works for the orphanage for free in return for room and board for herself and her two little kids. It was apparently for stupid reasons and seems to be fairly dramatic, but, ultimately, I guess it's for the best. Since Margaret was not making any extra money here, she didn't really have the chance to move forward with her life. I'm sad b/c I really like her (and LOVE her kids), but it looks like she'll be able to stay until she finds a new job and her kids will still come to the orphanage during the days. Hopefully, the end result will be good.

The orphanage is out of food again. There is some $ coming in from UK donations, but the waiting period is still in effect on the checks. Rachel bought some food for them today. They also need to build some kind of wall/partition in the outdoor classroom so the little kids do not have to go to school in the slum. I'm planning on paying for the wall, so hopefully that will turn out okay. One of Lucy's son's is in construction and gave me a fairly reasonable quote.

The orphanage is also out of water. Luckily, buying barrels of water is cheap, but the kids have to help carry heavy containers of water to the home. Currently, we're trying to figure out how to get the orphanage hooked up to a water pipe, so there is water all the time (well, as often as possible). It looks like it'll be fairly expensive (ha what else is new), but having enough water means that the home has a better chance of passing its health inspection, which means a better chance of getting a charity ID certificate, which means that businesses will be more likely to donate (since there will be a charity ID number). It's really rare for orphanages to get certified, but a past volunteer knows some companies in the UK that will donate if there is a tax ID number.

Other than that, we're starting to plan the Valentine's Day party. We're buying supplies to make cards tomorrow. The kids don't know yet about the party, so hopefully they are really excited.

Hope everyone is having a great week!