One Love Island

I have been battling a bout of an illness commonly  experienced by Peace Corp Volunteers.  I’ll spare you the details and instead write about the highlights of my trip to the coast.

While in Mombasa, we took a tour of Fort Jesus.  Fort Jesus was built by the Portuguese (in the 1600s?) and was eventually taken over by Arabs.  That is pretty much all I know about it, so you’ll have to Wikipedia it if you want more information.  I just thought it was pretty cool to view the pirate infested Indian Ocean for the first time from atop an ancient fort.  We also saw the “Kenya Burning” photography exhibit.  The exhibit consisted of pictures of the election violence in Kenya from late 2007/early 2008.  Its hard to believe that crisis gripped the country just over a year ago.  But its safe now (for the most part.)  After our brief stay in Mombasa, we headed north.

The next highlight of the trip was One Love Island.  One of the business volunteers works for a tourist organization.  By organization, I mean just one man and his mom (and of course his PCV).  Basically the man is a huge Bob Marley fan and look- alike who may or may not own a small island.  Not surprisingly he named the island, One Love Island.  It is a nice little set up.  His mom cooks all the food and we just hung out on the island for the day and night.  The sleeping arrangements were not the best.  At one point in the night I was woken by mosquitoes.  So I got up,  lathered on the insect repellent, and laid out under the stars for the rest of the night.

After our island trip we went back to Kilifi.  We met up with another business volunteer who helps out another tourist organization.  This one seemed to be more legitimate.  We went snorkeling right off the beach.  I was excited to use my “waterproof” camera and I took some sweet underwater pictures.  Yes my camera is supposed to be waterproof and yes, it is too good to be true because it does not work now.  Damn you Olympus.

That pretty much sums it up.  The day after snorkeling I made the long trip home.  Oh and we also ate pizza, cheeseburgers and enjoyed cold beer.  That was probably the best part.

I’ve been back for a few days now.  Since I’m sick I do not have the energy to do anything (as you can probably tell by the length of this post).  I have about ten episodes of The Office on my laptop that I have been watching over and over.  School supposedly starts on Wednesday.  At least that is when the students are supposed to arrive.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they do not show up for another week so who knows when I officially start teaching again.  I am looking forward to having something to do.

In other news, Nestor just broke my window again for the third time.