Whitesands…

We arrived in Mombasa an hour early, at 5am, and were picked up by one of Humphrey’s friends – a cab driver in Mombasa. He drove us to the Sarova Whitesands Resort on Bamburi Beach. When we arrived at 5:30 am to this ridiculously beautiful resort, stowed our luggage with the concierge and sat out by the beach watching the sunrise. This entire trip has been an amazing adventure, but also a hectic one. We have been on the move for over a month now, and it was nice to be able to take a deep breath and just relax. The palacial hotel boasts of 4 restaurants, 3 bars, 5 pools, a waterslide, a spa, and a host of beachside activies. The Hotel was architecturally eclectic - the main restaurant had distictly Arab / Persian features. Beside the open air lounges was a huge Japanse Pond and two traditional Chinese Wedding Beds facing the beachfront. The bedrooms were modern, and relatively unadorned, as the true treat was the amazing view from the wall to wall sliding glass doors. Each room either had a direct view of the beach or of the beautiful gardens.

Over the next three days we just enjoyed being together in a Kenyan Paradise. We took most of the pictures in Mombasa on the underwater camera, so I will update this entry with images after we have the pics developed. We rode camels on the beach, rode on a glass bottom boat and went snorkeling at the Reef and Marine park, we stood in shallow center in the middle of the ocean, played on the waterslides and swam in one of the quieter pools, had massages at the spa, and jet skied in the Indian Ocean, the food was great – thematically linked Caribbean, Arabian, Parisian, and there was live music and dancing each night. Marcus and I are both sporting great tans and were a little sad to check out of the Sarova this morning.

We are staying in Mombasa another day {but had to check into another hotel because the Sarova is booked to capacity with two conferences this weekend – though it would have been nice to extend the stay one more day} and moved a few kilometers north to the Indiana Beach Hotel. Which in all fairness didn’t have a chance at winning my heart after the majestic stay at the Whitesands. This hotel is undergoing renovations, so there were work crews, construction noise, and stretches without electricity or air conditioning. I also was ill the entire day at the Indiana Hotel, so we never went down to the beach. This was a fairly unremarkable hotel, with the exception of a very good 5 course dinner served in a regency era dining room, at the front of the Horel's property.

The Road to Mombasa…

We were scheduled to take the 6:30 train from Nairobi to Mombasa, which travels overnight and arrives at 10 am Tuesday morning. However, when we arrived at the train station the agents said the train was “delayed” and would not be departing on time. How delayed you might ask? One agent estimated the train’s arrival at the Nairobi station for 9 pm, another agent said 10 pm, and a third agent said 11pm. When we asked for an explanation for the delay we were told there was an accident on the track, but everything was fine. Humphrey had warned us previously about unreliability of transportation in Kenya and the train is by far the slowest way to travel overland. The train trip from Nairobi to Mombasa takes 13 hours, the bus takes 8 hours, and traveling by car takes 6.5 hours. We were booked at an expensive 5 star resort on the North Beach of Mombasa and if we waited on the delayed train we would essentially arrive at sunset and have missed a full day on a beach resort, which would have been a huge waste of money. The railroad does not generally issue refunds, but there was a couple in line wanting to purchase tickets for the overbooked train so Marcus convinced the agent to refund us our money and sell the couple our seats on the train. Humphrey took us to the bus station and we hopped on the next available bus to Mombasa.

A word about bus service in Kenya. The bus is the most popular way to travel overland with Kenyans, because it is relatively inexpensive and fast. In sharp contrast to our greyhound experience in South Africa, the long distance buses in Kenya to not have bathrooms, hostesses offering coffee, tea, and cookies onboard. The reading lights did not work on the bus we were on and the gas stations we stopped at did not have attendants or granite trough sinks. That being said for $15 usd you can travel across the country on a reasonably clean quiet bus, leaving at just about any hour you like. The one disappointment was the horrendous bathrooms we stopped at along the way. I wasn’t expecting the beautiful slate floors like the shell stations on the garden route to cape town, but I also wasn’t expecting to have to roll up my pants to avoid soaking the bottoms in the four inches of standing liquid {which I really hope was water} on the floor or Turkish toilets without toilet paper, sinks, or soap.

July 22, 2007

Traditionally each year on our anniversary we check out some live music. The first anniversary we flew to Charlotte to see Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and Floetry in concert. The second year we drove to Atlantic City to see Earth, Wind, & Fire. This third anniversary, the live music came in the form of the small gospel choir at the Ridgeway Baptist Church in Nairobi Kenya. We attended the 11:00 service as guests of Humphrey’s, which was interesting because the church had missionary visitors from Houston Texas, and the guest pastor delivered the word. While the guest minister was relatively unremarkable in his message, the pastor of the church and the congregation were incredibly warm.

For the record nothing is open in Nairobi on a Sunday afternoon or evening.
Nothing.

So we spent the rest of the day packing for our trip to the coast, where we really celebrating this moment in our marriage. As some of you know, this is a transitional time for both of us. My fellowship is ending and I have just accepted a new position with the theatre; Marcus is leaving the army and going to graduate school to get his MBA; and we are finally moving full time into the same house (no more long weekend commutes!). There have been many sacrifices on both of our parts to make the life we have chosen work and today I feel so blessed that we have arrived in this space together.

To quote the pastor “God is good all the time. And all the time God is good.”
Let the church say Amen.