I am sitting on our little porch in our new compound watching the 20 or so resident chickens do their thing. They are much more beautiful (and funny) than one might imagine. They have been good for no less than an hours entertainment so far. Unfortunately I have no pictures to post as they are trapped in my camera which has been infected by a nasty virus since late February. I will be quite heartbroken if my pictures are lost. Fingers crossed that our Kakamega IT guy can retrieve them.
It is odd being back after a week in Mombasa. I got a cold while we were there which challenged my ability to sleep the last two nights due to lack of oxygen when I lied down. We've had three nights in our little ground level apartment here... and so far no sleeping. Breathing is better, but no airflow, stifling hot, and a stupid mosquito net that drapes over our faces and never quite closes, trapping mosquitoes and air. There is also a little bug zapper here, so I spend hours each night swatting mosquitoes and flies, chasing the small sense of satisfaction that comes with the pop and zap accompanied by the unpleasant smokey smell of triumph. Sigh. What lengths I will go to for the illusion that I have things under control.
So, Mombasa was just ... delightful. We were hosted by a lovely, spunky Rotarian, Leah Bryant, and her 10 year old daughter Tatyana. We met Leah at the PETS conference in Nairobi a few weeks ago and she invited us to come... so we did. Pictures will say so much more than I will be able to here, but I'll give it a go. She lives in a big bright pinky-orange house that was build in the 50's. Leah is a practicing Buddhist and has a lovely alter with mediation cushions, candles, artwork, and bowls. She and her daughter chant every morning and every evening. I asked Tatyana if her mind feels calm after she chants and she confessed with a smile, "I mostly do it for my mom."
We had breakfast every morning on the veranda in the warm, muggy, Mombasa air, served by Janet, Leah's Luhya nanny. Having "workers" is something that would definitely take some getting used to. It was strange hearing, "Janet, get me my (fill in the blank)... NOW," many times a day. Leah lived in New York for 22 years and has definitely carried some of the get-er-done attitude home. She is much like Terry -- staccato pace. When she returned to Kenya after so many years in the states, her mom warned her about her soft attitude toward workers -- Leah was saying "slavery is over." But, over the years she has come to set clear, strong boundaries, otherwise she would be helping long lost family members from all of her workers (as she did for years), while less and less work was being performed at home. It is a different world. We have learned, as with many things here, to hold our judgements because there is no way we understand all the layers of complexity here. Nothing is as it seems at first glance.
Leah's driver, Ali, gave us a good peek. It is so wonderful to have a driver at the ready, never having to worry about traffic, or parking... but the tricky part is that Ali is a devout Muslim and a very heavy sleeper. On more than one occasion when we returned to the car we would find Ali sound asleep and it would take much knocking on the car widow to wake him, or he would be gone... car locked, no where to be found. Muslims pray 5 times a day and there are mosques on nearly every corner, so Ali would often slip away to pray.
Leah has 5 dogs, 2 cats, 2 parrots, one big tortoise, lots of little tortoises, hedgehogs, pea hens... I think that's it. Her big tortoise was run over by a truck a few years ago. His shell was cracked and is held together with wire twist ties. She has to shellac his shell and bring him in in the rain since his shell has been compromised.
Our week in Mombasa included much lounging on the beach, eating delicious seafood, drinking cappuccinos, watching movies in a big luxurious theatre, riding camels on the beach, buying lots of curios, site seeing, visiting Rotarians, sipping sodas under the stars on a boat on the creek. Total decadence. We were quite surprised how easy it was to switch from $3 a day on lunch for two to $30-$50 for a meal. Yikes. We didn't even skip a beat.
No comments:
Post a Comment