Part 8

Wow I have just read my blogs from start to finish (well where I am up to) what a journey I have been on and I am only a quarter of the way through my contract!! I have learnt so much when I look back at the early blogs, for a start there are so many spelling mistakes regarding Swahili terms, the things I miss has definitely changed and if I’m honest I feel my opinion on so many things has altered, don’t tell my dad but I was even contemplating a tattoo (obviously somewhere discreet) but seriously if you’d of asked me that 6 months ago there would be no way I would be having something permanent scarring my body which would still be there when I was 80!! Think my outlook on life has changed drastically!

Anyway since my last blog I got into trouble for not actually mentioning people by name, I had chosen to do that for a reason as I didn’t want them to feel like I was telling lots of people about them without them knowing however ‘Tania’ had a hissy fit so I am mentioning her now!! She will feature in many of my stories in this blog – she’ll no doubt now complain that I am talking about her!!!

You’ll be pleased to hear some trauma has returned in my life (I know u all secretly pretend you’re not bothered if my blogs are boring and uneventful but I know you like nothing more than to hear of my misery!!) but we will get to that.

I have now been on school holidays for 3 weeks and although we haven’t travelled greatly as we had planned it has been perfect, pampering, sunshine, action and parties what more could a girl want! I’ve had a few good boat trips too one in which involved – in fact both of which involved near death experiences luckily the first trip was someone else’s life in the balance! Boys being boys some friends had come up with the idea of parasailing from the back of the boat, one of the guys does a lot of skydiving and has parachutes and the other a boat so they thought what better to do on a Sunday afternoon than run off a tiny beach surrounded by mangroves and be lifted 100m in the air attached to a moving boat only by a thin rope!! The thin rope turned out to be the problem on the first 4 attempts as the rope kept snapping, meaning the guy in the air generally landed in mangroves! However on the fifth attempt and with a shorter but double thickness rope it worked!! It looked painful but it worked! Next time they possibly need to work on their communication as the guy in the air kept shouting ‘go’ and the guy driving the boat thought he was saying ‘slow’ it meant the guy in the parachute kept dropping and then was heaved back up needless to say his body was a wreck afterwards!!

I decided that during the hols I needed to make more of an effort at making my very bland flat look more homely, the first item on my wish list was a hand carved giraffe I had seen one when I first arrived at bombulooloo workshops but would need a car to transport it, so now I have Delilah I had planned my first purchase however whilst shopping in Shanzu I saw the cutest most thoughtful looking giraffe and couldn’t help but take him home and name him Geoffrey!!! Geoffrey then made some smaller friends, Hamilton the Hippo and Riley the Rhino. I also managed to find a local carpenter to make me a proper mosquito frame as I was sick of rolling into my net and losing half my bed space to the net!! Next step is buying some frames so I can put some pictures on the wall and also a painting my friend has done for me which I love!
The second boating near death experience came on my first ever fishing trip a couple of weeks ago, I have always wanted to try fishing but wasn’t sure I had the patience to be unsuccessful however with 3 of us on board one being Tania! We set sail will a stack of food and a massive tank of Pimms; I don’t always travel well by sea so I was handed pregnancy sickness tablets and a glass of pimms at 7.30am! We had an 8 hour trip ahead of us and sensible as ever I thought factor 15 sun cream would be more than enough!! Apparently not!! Despite not catching a single fish, (although we lost a fair bit of bait they we’re just being sneaky fish and stealing the bait without hooking on!) I had an amazing day saw flying fish, massive sea turtles and above all a massive shark!! We saw this giant fin in the distance so the others thought it would be sensible to sail right up to it – I had my reservations but was fascinated we sailed right over it and it was bigger than the boat we were in, an epic moment!! All in all getting a hangover at 8pm and having very painful sunburn was all worth it!
I have been desperate to go to Haller park since I got here it has hippos and crocs and giraffes plus other animals and if you go in the afternoon you get to watch them all being fed and even feed the giraffes. So I was super excited to actually get to go (everyone has already been so had to find someone who didn’t mind going again) we started at the giraffes which were amazing, I then fed a giant tortoise before heading to the snake enclosures, as you may of figured out in my previous blogs monkeys have some amount of front out here! You may have also read about my courageous encounter with a rhino, tiger and crocodile!! Well I’m sure you’ll all be stunned to hear that that story wasn’t strictly true!! So here goes the actual story!!! I was casually walking along, monkeys are everywhere! I don’t like them and they can obviously sense that, 1 rather annoying and very cocky monkey decided it would be fun to attack the petrified muzungu girl! It ran towards me I ran and screamed, I stopped, he stopped, he eyeballed me, he then ran towards me again (looking aggressive) I was watching the monkey whilst attempting to run away from it in flip flops, I tripped, performed a slow motion dive across gravel, whilst still trying to escape the monkey. I stood up to find I had a deep graze in my wrist, cut knees and toes and a grazed shoulder and above all a massively bruised ego! I went to receive first aid only to have the guy take me back through the monkeys!! We were then locked out so he asked me to wait there – right near the monkeys! He then proceeded to pour iodine on every graze I think in that moment I experienced a pain similar to childbirth!! My word!! Unfortunately the monkey incident had a damning effect on the rest of my afternoon I jumped at every tree rustling I would not walk down paths where monkeys were sat waiting for me and I made us walk around in a group!! I still have horrible looking scabs which people always feel the need to ask what happened hence the rhino story!! These injuries are not helped by the level of tanning I have managed to achieve it has just made the scarring look incredibly pink and like it will never disappear. I look forward to facing my fears and returning to the park when my mum and dad visit I might take a shot gun with me next time!!

Again in Tania’s company we took a trip to Malindi to a beach called Che Shale it was beautiful, a really glittery beach with sand dollar shells which I love, unfortunately the locals tend to get up early pick up all the sand dollars then try and sell them to you!! Was really nice to just go somewhere different! It was a nice start to the Christmas weekend!

Speaking of Christmas, Christmas day in Mombasa was definitely very different to England! Christmas Eve 3 of us decided to stay together so that we didn’t wake up on Christmas morning on our own!! Awww!! We had a lovely steak dinner, watched as much of the pantomime DVD as we could physically and mentally take and then headed to bed to wait for Santa! Christmas morning was very relaxed a full cooked breakfast, a swim in the pool and a heap of fruit, we then headed to Tania’s where about 12 of us were getting together to spend a very random Christmas day! By the time I arrived I felt a little stressed (I know those of you who know me well must be shocked!!- we were LATE!!) But when I walked into a beautiful house with a lovely pool and sea view the stress drifted away! I got to Skype my family which was amazing and then took a dip in the pool, alcohol on tap and not long to wait for Christmas dinner!!! We had a fairly traditional Christmas dinner; roast ham, turkey, dates wrapped in bacon (amazing), pigs in blankets, veg, stuffing and roast potatoes, followed by mince pies and mulled wine! We then hopped back in the pool watched the sunset and let the drinking continue. We had organised a secret Santa which was good we had a 500 bob limit and it was amusing watching some of the gifts be opened!

The week following Christmas 6 of us took a girly trip to the south coast, Diani, which entails a short ferry crossing and about an hour drive, I’ve heard so much about it but never got round to going, we left early to avoid queuing for the ferry and made good time, we arrived at a bar/restaurant called 40 thieves which is right on the beach front. The beach is a beautiful white beach with really clear water. We were lucky enough to be there whilst there was a kite surfing competition on which was really cool. We had planned to also rent a kayak but unfortunately the tide was out for most the day so there wasn’t enough water, even the kite competition had to be delayed! But laying on the beach watching hot guys strut their stuff was a good compromise!
These holidays have brought quite a bit of partying one of the guys is moving to Uganda so he had 2 leaving parties 1 was a James Bond/black tie theme which gave all the girls an excuse to don a dress, true to form here most of the guys wore a shirt and kikoi!! We then had to prepare for New Year!

For New Year there were many options of parties and places to celebrate. We had managed to get tickets for Kilifi boat yard where a few of our friends would also be celebrating. It was a dinner dance with a DJ. It started fairly slowly but once the music got going we spent 6 hours nonstop dancing! To top off the whole evening I had been speaking to some older ladies in the bathroom when it struck me that one of them looked really familiar I was convinced she was an actress off coronation street I went back and shared my thoughts with everyone but of course no-one knows coronation street out here. I then realised it was Rula Lenska – I knew it!!! I was overly excited! I even held hands with her whilst singing Auld Lang’s Syne such a random place for her to be!!

New Year’s Day we headed north to Watamu where some other friends were spending New Year and it has a reputation for continuing the celebrations in to New Year’s Day! We arrived at a beach bar with a stunning view and spent the day swimming in clear water, meeting new people, eating and drinking!! These holidays all I seem to of done is eat and drink! But I have loved every minute of it I have eaten some amazing food, spent time with great friends and seen and experienced new things. I am really excited about 2012 I think it could be a very good year!!

Well that brings me to now 1 week left of the holidays to relax and enjoy. It has been a very strange time of year but I am glad I have experienced a warm Christmas with white sand rather than white snow! I still miss home but more specifically the people at home! Can’t wait to catch up with everyone in the summer meeting new babies, attending 2 amazing weddings and spending quality time with family and friends!. I no longer miss the same things as I did at the start however I realised as sad as I am that I was missing crime watch but luckily I managed to download an episode to fill the void! I still miss home foods like chicken parmo’s, mild cheese and broccoli pasta and sauce, fajita kits and generally just easy things to make like dolmio pasta sauces but truly I think it’s just laziness as so much of the above is convenience. So I will leave you with my New Year’s resolutions.

1. Learn to cook or at least experiment more with cooking
2. Care less about what people think and make decisions based on what I want rather than worrying how that might look to others!
3. Learn something new

Happy New Year!! Best wishes for 2012 I hope this year brings you all love, laughter and happiness!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Steph xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx