KENYA - Mombasa, baby!

So, the reason haven't blogged at all last week was because I was in Kenya. I went away for a week, which was perfectly timed with work being super busy and sucky (not looking forward to returning tomorrow! at least only have a four day week). The trip was amazing, I will post up some photos later on today to my flickr account, and it was amusing to note that once I was out the country and not contactable easily, I got loads more 'I miss you' texts from the boyf. I missed him incredibly too, may have to go back and do a safari with him sometime in the future.
We were staying in a place a good 40 or 50k from mombasa near a tiny town called kadiri, i think the nearest big town was Malindi. Our hotel was right on the beach and had two pools, nice rooms and a lovely lounging around and bar area.
I went with my mum so got some good quality time with her, thank goodness we didn't get on each others nerves at all - I haven't done a week on holiday with family for a while! Unfortunately she started to get a cold while we were on the plane on the way out, and it turned into a nasty cough and cold, she had a day in bed with a fever, and had to take antibiotics for her cough - not ideal. She soldiered on though and refused to let it get the better of her. I, amazingly didn't catch it (or at least not yet and I usually catch everything that's going!)
So, a little Swahili lesson for you:
Akuna Matata - no problem (which is said all the time and they have a national anthem of it!!)
Puli Puli - slowly, slowly
Puli - sorry
Karibu - welcome
Kwaheri - goodbye
Kadiri - buildings
Jambo - hello
Maridadi - nice (also the name of a nearby restaurant we ate at rather a lot)
Mombasa express - dodgy tummy!

I have rarely met such lovely, friendly people, even people we met in the tiny fishing village nearby, we did a walk around there, were very welcoming and in fact the greeting everyone uses is 'Jambo' followed quickly by 'Karibu' which means hello then 'welcome', and they really make you feel like you are.
This village was shockingly poor but they invited us to sit down and drink palm wine with them, and talked about their lives and work...we made some friends with the beach boys down there who could arrange tours and taxis at roughly half the price of the hotel, and also we felt that the money was going back into the community rather than to the hotel, who is apparently owned by Indians and they give nothing back apart from a few jobs for the local people. Even though they are very poor they have a pride in their country and their work (showing tourists around!) and a sense of community that is humbling - each one pays a percentage of what they earn to the chairman of their village, who then ensures that if they fall on hard times, they get something back.
It was just sad to see the hotel there in a way, the most unfriendly people were the ladies on the front desk, and they charge everything in dollars which goes straight into some guys pocket...the beach boys (Jonathon, Sam, manfred) explained that the chief of the village sold the land to the indians who promised to give all this stuff back to the community, so the people agreed to it. It turned out that he'd actually done this deal whereby he got rich and a big house built for him, and everyone else got nothing. And now the hotel gives very little back, I guess apart from the fact they now get a sort of work from the tourists which means they are better off than they would be if the hotel was not there....it's all food for thought.
The most sad thing is that this village really needed a pump to pump water up from the well so they can irrigate their crops and grow more maize etc, but they will never be able to afford one - the cost of a pump is £180...this is like a years wages for most of the villagers who have good jobs. How crazy is that? This made me very sad that most of us would spend that on a nice pair of shoes or a dress, and it can keep a family going for a whole year in Africa. The world is a strange place. Mum and I are going to look into buying a pump, if we can make sure they'll actually get it and it won't just go into someones pocket - the thing with such poverty (as with the chief) is that everyone with half a chance is out to make what they can out of life...and who can blame them?