December 18, 2010

Well I arrived at Dulles around 9:30am for my 12pm flight.  I was flying on Ethiopian airlines through Addis Ababa, ET then on to Mombasa which would take me about 18hours flying time.  Our flight was delayed until almost 2pm, I thought I would miss my connection for sure.  I decided to splurge and upgrade to Cloud Nine (first class) for the longest section of the trip (the 13 hours to Addis).  It was pretty sweet.  The chairs turned into beds and I had my own private flat screen TV, not to mention amazing 3 course meals! Yuuumm!!

Snow in Baltimore before I left!

I sat next to an older gentleman named Richard, a retired marine now working as a contractor for the state department leading peace keeping missions in Africa.  He had some very interesting stories and insight into Kenya.

I arrived in Ethiopia around 10:30am (my flight was supposed to leave at 10:15) but they held all the connecting flights for our plane.

I was met by Lucy and George at the Mombasa airport after clearing customs and changing into a t-shirt.  Moi airport is completely open air & I was immediately hit by the heat and humidity.  Time to get rid of the winter weather gear!

First observation, that I failed to think about.......driving on the left side of the road.  Needless to say over the next few days I would nearly get hit by several tuk tuk's (small taxi like things) because I looked the wrong way! :)

Got to the volunteer house, which consisted of 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms on the 2nd & 3rd floors.  Angela (the "house mom") stayed on the first floor with the living room, dining room & kitchen along with her rooms.

Lucy took me for a walking tour around Mombasa for about 2 hours and I thought I would DIE!!! The heat and sun are unbelievable.  I had sweat literally pouring down my face, really attractive!  We walked past Tusky's (grocery store), down to Old Town, Ft. Jesus, Moi Ave and she showed me the currency exchange and Internet cafe's.  All of which, except Tusky's, I could not remember how to get back to.

The signature Tusks on Moi Avenue in Mombasa

Returned to the house and took a cold shower, it was AMAZING!  I have no need for hot water here, that's for sure.  Laura, a girl from Panama (living in London) was packing up to head home.  We had dinner prepared by Angela; beef stew, spaghetti and kale.  All very tasty, except the kale.  I'm not a fan of cooked greens, yuck!

After dinner I took a solo walk down to Tusky's for some bottled water and Bauny cookies (Kenyan Oreos) and an orange Fanta!  Headed to bed early, trying to get adjusted to the 8 hour time difference!

Observations from day 1:

Everyone is very friendly and seemingly unaffected by this heat.

No one wears sunglasses!

Traffic is extremely loud, between diesel engines and honking!

Buildings are very old, but you can see some of the history in their architecture.