Beautiful Mombasa

Jambo Friends and Family,

I arrived in Mombasa, Kenya late last night after traveling for about 25 hours or 35 if you count the time change. Mombasa is located on the coast of Kenya, on the Indian Ocean. It’s been in the news recently whenever the Somali pirates (Rrrrr!) are talked about since the pirates are intercepting goods that are traveling to Mombasa.

Last night I was only able to sleep for about 3 hours but persisted through my jetlag today and have fought the urge to nap! Today I went on a tour of Mombasa town, stopping at a craft shop where you get to watch all the craftsmen make their goods. Their carvings are then sold on a consignment basis and were very high quality. I really wanted this carved giraffe that was about 6.5 feet tall but feared Northwest could not let me carry it on. We also went to Fort Jesus. Fort Jesus was built in the 1500’s by the Portuguese (well, they made 4000 locals build it and they oversaw it). It’s a pretty amazing place because it was actually carved out of coral and then some layers of stuff went on top. The walls are about 3 feet thick and you can see the coral in the walls. It’s pretty crazy. It’s about 2.5 acres big and was built in just 3 years. We also toured Old Mombasa, which is like stepping back in time. Mombasa is mainly Muslim and old town has the most beautiful carved Arabic doors I have ever seen. These doors (some were also in Fort Jesus), date back to the 15 and 1600’s.

The weather here is fantastic, very hot (about 90 degrees with very high humidity) but there is a wonderful constant breeze that comes from the ocean so it feels very pleasant. I was able to lay by the pool today for a few hours, I think it is the only time this week I’ll be able to do that. Tomorrow our training starts. This is the training that I went to Uganda for last month but had to come home early because of the riots. Then on Wednesday our annual PrEP Workshop starts and we are hosting 140 of our local staff members for 3.5 days of conference style meetings and breakout sessions. I’ll be leading a few of those.

The food is great, the hotel serves a good selection of “coast food” which is mainly Swahili food. I had coconut beans for breakfast this morning. Coconut beans are black beans that are cooked in a coconut sauce and curry, they are super tasty! I also had fresh chipati with lunch. Chipati is like nan bread or a like tortilla. You use it to scoop up your food.