Home is where the heart is...

And our hearts are in the USA! We have had great experiences here in Kenya and have learned so much. This time has given us a new perspective on life and has made us even more aware of how blessed our lives are. We have met many great people and been able to do some good we think. But now that our time is up we are very very happy to be coming home to our wonderful comfortable life in the U.S. Let us all be grateful for living in a country where we have so many opportunities to learn and prosper and work and improve our lives to almost any extent we desire. We are truly a blessed nation and we have so much to be greatful for.

Although our time in Kenya is over we still have several things to share with all of you so keep an eye out for new posts. We will continue to share experiences and pictures after we get back home.

Village Life

The original Yehu office and our home in Mwambalazi.

So we survived the village! I won't lie, it was rough. The people who live like that are tough people - we are less tough! The hardest part was not sleeping. It was so hot with no fans and we were both in a bed just barely bigger than a twin with a mosquito net that didn't really fit over it, so it was pretty miserable. We walked about 15k (we think that's about 10 miles) and with no sleep it was brutal. Other accomodations included solar electricity which gave us a little light at night and no running water. We had to take what we wanted to drink with us. The bathroom was like and outhouse, but no toilet, just a hole in the ground! That was a challenge for some of us. :)

Our bed that we didn't sleep in!

The "toilet".

Other than the aforementioned challenges and general really hard-ness it was a great experience. We are glad we went, glad we stayed just one day and just 2 nights and glad that it's over. We met with 3 centres (groups of women or men) and saw how Yehu disburses loans, and collects payments and savings, etc. We also went and visited some of the businesses that the clients were running which was very interesting. Emily bought a kanga from one lady and some treats from a man with a food stand (both were clients).

A Centre Meeting

The Centre Chief conducting business. Justin looking interested. (We couldn't understand a thing.)

Buying a kanga.

It was hard to belive that people live like that, and that is actually how about 95% of Kenyans live. At the office where we stayed we kept seeing people walk by with water jugs and then coming back with it full on their heads, so we asked one of the employees in the office to take us to see the well. It was just a hole that had been dug at the bottom of the hill to catch the rain water. The people use that water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. It was amazing.

Laundry at the well.

For me one of the neatest things was how bright it was at night time. A few hours after sundown we would walk about a half mile to eat dinner at a little restaurant (a very small mud hut with some small hand made bench seats and tables). We did not need flashlights for the walk. We could see the road, and everything around us with ease. I couldn't believe how bright it was. The sky and stars were very clear and beautiful.

Saturdays at the Beach

It didn’t take us long to find the beach and make it part of our routine. While the actual city of Mombasa is an island, it doesn’t have any beaches. However, where we live in Nyali, just to the north, the beaches are beautiful soft white sand including a large reef and the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.

We learned the hard way that staying on hotel property is the best way to enjoy the beach. They are very welcoming and accommodating especially if you spend some money there. We love to do laundry in the morning and then reward ourselves with lunch at the hotel, poolside, overlooking the blue water. Our first week at the beach we were so excited to feel the sand in our toes we headed straight there and little did we know that as soon as we hit the sand we were the prime target for the beach boys. Unfortunately these beach boys won’t sing us a good song, just the “welcome my friends, come see what I can sell you” song that we’ve heard so many times. We walked about 20 yards and were not left alone and could see several more headed our way so, disappointed, we headed back to the hotel. We have since learned to enjoy the beach from our favorite hotel, Mombasa Beach Hotel. We have made some friends with the staff and learned that if we leave our things at the hotel and look like we have nothing with us we are mostly left alone as we enjoy our long walks on the beach. It is so nice to be able to relax and finally have a good reason to feel hot and sticky!

I'm SO excited to be at the beach!

One of our first weeks, still a little pale!

Last week we gave into the tourists in us and rode a camel! We have seen them every week and it was something I couldn’t go home without experiencing. I thought it might be romantic, like riding horses along the beach, but it was way cooler than that! They are such huge animals! Our camel’s name was Bob Marley and he likes mangos and bananas. He got down on his knees so we could climb on and then when he got up with his back legs I was looking at the ground. Then he got up with his front legs and it felt like we were 10 feet in the air. It was a very cool experience.

We have only suffered the occasional minor sunburn and have thankfully not noticed any side effects from our anti-malaria medicine that can cause sensitivity to the sun! The beautiful Kenyan coast is something we have enjoyed getting used to and will miss a lot.