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.