Melancholy invades our bodies more and more each time… nobody said it was going to be easy, in fact, if it was that easy probably more people would do it right? commuting gives us a different perspective of our surroundings and how most of the people in Mombasa live, although we will never be able to pass unseen through the crowds we are still trying to be part of the community, people become more apprehensive when we say a few words in kiswahili, they always laugh because we probably sound funny but then they realize we are trying, they smile and help us out.
Nice touristic side of Mombasa!!!
The real Mombasa, how most of the population lives!
We are almost settled in completely, or at least that's what we like to think… our place is small, I don't really know how to describe the area though, what we know is that we are the only msungu (white people) around and you can always distinguish that word from a conversation of people walking around so everybody knows we are there, which at times makes us a bit paranoid because in a way we also become easy targets but hopefully everything will be fine.
China has been cleaning the house for days, applying clorox to everything she can which reminds me of the movie "My big fat Greek weeding" with the dad applying windex to everything. We have been placed in a 6 house complex, which is like a big house with small houses inside the entrance is a little blue door unlocked where everybody can go in and out, when you enter you see a small hall full of rope for hanging cloth and of course hanged clothing all the way. Our place is one of the last ones so you have to walk all the way to the end, then our door… another blue metal door, opened on the top so everybody can see the inside of our place but that's what curtains are for so we have one for privacy. The front door is only secured by a big lock so no much security there.
Inside we have a decent size living room, 4 low chairs and a coffee table, a dresser that we'll use as a desk and two other chairs. We already put a couple of posters up and some postcards we brought to have something that remind us of ourselves so we don't loose our minds here. Then a small room with two beds with mosquito nets and a small cabinet for hanging cloth…. our kitchen is small and our bathroom smaller… there is no division between the shower and the toilet so you could basically take a shower sitting in the toilet (no that we would but it's possible), water is a problem though, it comes when we are working and goes away when we are home so we've been filling some tanks out and showering with a bucket…
It's been hard to adjust really, we knew what we were getting ourselves into but to know and to be there are totally different things but then we start thinking how while we'll only be here for two years, most of our neighbors have been living like this all of their lives and they'll probably continue doing so. The funny thing is that we have everything, roof, food, water, electricity and we still complain in our heads, confort is not a necessity and we are used to contort so it's hard not to have it for a while but I'm pretty sure this will change our way of thinking from now on.
Ok, lot's of info for one day so we'll leave the rest for another day and remember, hearing from you guys keeps us sane so keep in touch, write us a line once in a while!!!
