MCC retreat, Kenyan coast

MCC Kenya retreat

American Thanksgiving Day some 50 of us, MCC service workers, national staff and families, headed out early for Diani Beach, near Mombasa, for several days of retreat.  The pope was in Nairobi that day and it was declared a public holiday, so we left early before all the town's streets were closed.

It is the short rains in Kenya right now, so we had rainy parts of the trip.

After some 5 hours on the bus, we stopped at the bathroom - the bushes (the tree was too far to walk).  Since it happened to be in the middle of Tsavo Natl Park, which was on Evan's bucket list, we had to take a picture there!

Getting to our destination in Diani Beach, to the south of Mombasa, meant driving through the middle of town and then taking one of the ferries across Likoni channel.  The ferries are quite...old.

It was nice to take advantage of the ferry to finally get out of the bus and stretch our legs.  Here the boys are with James, Daniel and Joy (MCC national staff), and Kara (SALTer), along with a bunch of MCC kids.

At 6 a.m. the first morning I got a call from Evan ready to go running on the beach, so we enjoyed the sunrise together.

High tide in the morning, with hermit crab tracks around the palm.

We had a good run on the beach, and a short bit later Alex was also up and ready so I had a second run.  We were joined by Kenyan "runners" (actually, locals trying to get to know us to sell us day snorkeling trips etc)

At low tide the water exposed large flat sandy areas and coral reefs.

Locals were plying various opportunities for tourists, here to have camel rides.

The weather was much hotter than Nairobi, but in the shade and sea breeze it was great for reading, relaxing, and conversing.

With the tide down, there were nice pools to hang out in.  The boys (accompanied by a local guide) went trekking out on the reef and found sea cucumbers, brittle stars, a stonefish, sea snake, and other interesting reef animals.

Back on the road coming home to Nairobi, a typical scene through the bus front window as the driver calculates when to try to pass trucks.  The road is the major (only, really) way to get goods in and out of most of East Africa, so as a 2 lane highway is clogged with long lines of trucks.  The 300 mile trip took 13 hours each way, so it's slow going!

And lots of minkeys!!  Here a Syke's monkey who was in a troop raiding our pack on the beach.

The area is known for its colobus monkeys.  These are Angolan colobus monkeys, a different species than is found up in the highlands.  The had amazingly long white shoulder hairs.  Here a mother has her baby.

Nov 8 update

Public transport in Nairobi is by matatu.  Tatu is the word for "three" - originally these vans/buses cost 3 shillings (now they're 20-50 shillings).  The matatus are privately owned and run.  They can be a bit exhausting to ride, with loud music blaring and negotiating price, etc.  But they're also more regulated than most public transport we've been on in developing countries.  Nobody can stand in the aisles, the matatus can only stop at certain stages (stops), everybody must where a seatbelt (that one seems to be entirely theoretical; the others are mostly followed...sort of).

I suppose it is the British influence, but Kenya is a mix of chaos and orderliness.  In fact, the matatu system has garnered attention for being just as structured and efficient (in some ways) as centrally planned systems, despite what appears to be chaos.

Matatu drivers fearlessly find the quickest way through traffic, they take any opening, drive on shoulders and sidewalks, and (as I found this week driving out of town) apt to drive on the wrong side of the highway if there is a traffic jam, even on a 6 lane divided highway.  I've learned the lesson of selecting roads in towns with fewer matatus.

Riding a matatu to the CBD (central business district, downtown)

Our field trip this Saturday was a journey downtown.  Among other things, the mission was to find the one yarn shop we (read: Cristina) know of in Nairobi!  It was found, and yarn was bought.

Selecting yarn for Alex's afghan, Cristina's current project.

Cristina spreads the gospel of knitting; Kara (an MCC SALTer this year) bought needles and yarn to learn knitting.  Apparently knitting was quite common by women on matatus in the past.  But now with cell phones, there is no knitting on matatus...everybody stares at their phones.

 Traffic in Nairobi is notorious, one source cited it as the 4th most congested in the world.  The roads are basically still designed for a town of 350,000, now the population is at least 10x that.  Virtually all activities are scheduled around traffic issues - it governs all of daily life.

A usual traffic scene, driving back from one of the schools. The school is 14 km away; it took me 2 1/2 hours to get home.  unfortunately that is usual.

Looking west from the highway south of Machakos town.  In that direction are big plains that stretch way down to Kilimanjaro.

The hills of Machakos, down by Kola.  Rains have started spottily, so things have started greening.

On our trip downtown we picked up some souvenirs.  Here Evan is wrapped in traditional Maasai shuka (blanket that they commonly wear wrapped around themselves).  He's playing an African bow harp (we think!) - tourist version but still is interesting.  A recording of Evan playing the instrument.

We rented bikes in Karura forest after church Sunday, and had a ride through the forest.  Nice to be on bikes again!  Mine (Doug) broke at the farthest point out, so I had a nice walk with it back to the parking lot...

And Karura is always good for finding animals!