Mombasa

I like Mombasa much better than Nairobi,Kenya. On Sunday Oct.21 I got on the Coast Hwy Bus at 8:30am. My seat partner was Rama,a 63 year old Indian woman who runs a school with her sisters in Mombasa. Her brother who is married to a chinese woman owns a restaurant in Nairobi. She spent 4 days with them because the father of her brother's wife was very sick.

Rama's father came to Mombasa in 1926 when the Kenya railroad was being built. He raised a family of 9 girls and 1 boy. Six unmarried sisters live in Mombasa in the family house which is a huge house built by a German. It is called 12 steps because it is 12 steps from the Indian Ocean. She turned the house into a school when she retired from working for the government.

I was very thankful God gave me this Indian woman for a seating partner. I enjoyed her company. Having been born and raised in Mombasa she shared a lot of information about Mombasa.

I was so happy to see Martin Odhiambo waiting for me when the bus arrived in Mombasa.
Martin is with Compassion International and assigned to help with the Visitation program.

He arranged for me to stay in a local hotel while I staying in Mombasa.

Monday proved to be a very interesting and wonderful day. Martin helped me get a soccer ball for Alex Muga, the 13 year old boy I had come to meet. Then we went to a supermarket to purchase a box fill of food for the family.
We than drove to Changamwe Child Development Center where I was able to meet the staff and Alex and his sister Florence who he lives with along with 7 others in a two bedroom government housing unit walking distance from the Changamwe Church and Center. I really like the members of the staff. There was a good feeling between and among us. After coffee/tea and a briefing about the Center and it's program I was given a tour of the grounds and school and later a visit in the home. We did a lot of praying at each place. When at the end Alex was asked if he had any questions for me he surprised me by asking about my grandson Zion. In our correspondence throughout the six years I must have written to him about my grandchildren.

Before I left I taught the 6 grade class "Hukilau"which I promised to do when I visited the classroom. We danced for everyone under the huge mango tree. The kids had fun with the staff and little children watching. I learned that Moses, the project director is also a Scout Master.
I really liked Moses, a slim,tall, humble man with a calm voice. I emailed Teri Sakai saying perhaps Waimea Boys Scouts might like to correspond with the boyscouts here.

I saved Tuesday to rest. I spent the morning at the Blue Room Cyber cafe and took Elizabeth,Paula's friend out for lunch. Elizabeth is a tall 5'9" attractive girl. We spoke on the phone but this was our first meeting. We were getting together to plan our trip to visit Paula,Jean and Boyd's friend, in the next district,Ukunda. I had Elizabeth choose a native dish for me. A big dish came with multicolored rice and skinned chicken covered in a delicious sauce.
It was good but I couldn't eat it all. We also had some nice fresh juices.
Since Paula mentioned bandgages we went to the wholesalers to purchase some to take with us.

Next day Elizabeth arrived with a nice white Toyota we rented for the 2and 1/2 hour trip to Paula's place. Mombasa is much greener than Nairobi. On the bus over there were many long stretches of arid land and so as we got closer it made me feel so much better to see green fields, and lots of coconut,mango,Kumanu and banana trees; all the same kinds of plants we find in Hawaii.

It was wonderful visiting with Paula and hearing about her story and meeting her 11 girls and 11 boys and visitng their quarters. I think that I will need another time to tell you more. I think the story behind is most interesting.

It is almost 12 noon and Elizabeth and I are having lunch together again. Elizabeth is another interesting story.

So until next time,
Alooooha. Joanne