Elective Africa PART 3/3

Read Elective Africa PART 1 HERE and PART 2 HERE before you continue below.


  The next few weeks were ones that i will never forget. The people I meet, friends I made and the whole experience in general----I will never trade. I can't begin to give day to day account of my time in Kenya, That will have to be the longest blog post and you'll get bored. Luckily I already did some posts while I was in Kenya. These are the highlights.......
1. First weekend-----trip to masai mara. Check out my previous posts on the following links Rift Valley, Masai Mara National Reserve,  The Masai Tribe,  Camping site.
2. Places to visit in Mombassa Mamba Village,  Haller Park, Fort Jesus, and the beach---->>>> Definitely

   
4. Other places to visit in Kenya------->>>>> Malindi, Diani beach(pictures below)

Malindi

Malindi

Diani

Diani

    We had very good food as well. Dollars and Lilly cooked for and took care of us. Thank you, miss you.

Chapati and fried vegetables with some kind of soup. YUMM.

    Finally this post will not be complete if I don't take out time to remember "Pebbles" the cat, the official pet for the house. Unfortunately she died before we got back from Masai mara. A very confident, beautiful cat she was.

   And as the day finally came for me to leave this place I had grown to love, these people who I had come to call friends, I was very nervous. I had a cocktail of emotions running through me because I knew I would greatly miss this place, these people and that wasn't even the part that hurt the most. It was the fact that even though we had added each other on facebook, and had exchanged email addresses, promised to keep in touch and even to probably plan a reunion, I knew that distance and indeed time does separate people and that we would get busy when we got back to our normal lives and that this summer of 2011 will just be a memory we will always treasure in our hearts. If any of you guys (anyone i met in Kenya, 2011) are reading this right now, just know that in your own individual unique ways, you made Kenya very special for me and this I will treasure.

  As 6.30pm came, time to leave for the airport, everyone came out to see me off, we took last minute photos, hugged and hugged and struggled to fight off the tears. On the way to the airport, the driver (not Bernard) who could speak very little English, looked up to the centre mirror to speak to me and said "your trip, very good?" and I answered "indeed It was very good."

    Now I know that this is one of the best things I have ever done, one of the best experiences I've had. And now I say Kwaheri Mombassa, Kwaheri Kenya. (Swahili........Kwaheri----Goodbye) 

Elective Africa PART 2/3

     I arrived Mombassa at 7am. I was picked up from the airport by Phares (also an Elective africa employee who was in charge of operations in Malindi and now Mombassa) and Bernard (our driver who took us to hospital and brought us back home everyday). We hit it of immediately, discussing politics, Nigerian movies and accents and the like.
    When I got to the house, the other students were already ready to go to hospital. I said hi to everyone I saw that morning and introduced myself and got settled into my room which I shared with three other ladies.
     One of my roommates (Nikki) was due to leave the next day as she had already spent 4 weeks in Mombassa. She took the day off and was going to go into town for the last time. She asked if I wanted to come and I immediately accepted the invitation as I was pumped up with adrenaline even thought I barely slept the previous night. We went to white sands beach and just walked up and down the beach for hours while all the vendors were breathing down our necks to buy their goods.
    That evening I met the whole "household" at dinner (we usually all ate in the common living area). They all told me their names even though I probably remembered none. I suck at remembering people's names and it takes more than one contact with someone to learn their name.
     As it was Nikki's last night, we all just remained in the living area chatting for hours. I listened most of the time 'cause I was the new one.  There was even a time where this guy, Neil started playing his guitar and singing (and he was really good too). By this time I was sure that I would have an awesome time with these people. All in all, it was an awesome first day. I was happy that I had the courage to embark on this journey even though I knew no one before I got there and didn't know what to expect.

  First night. There was power outage. So you probably can't see me, even I can't see me, lol.
       


 Elective Africa PART 1                                                           Continue to Elective Africa PART 3

  

Elective Africa PART 1/3

    This post is coming very very late. I was supposed to write this in August but I kept postponing it for some unknown reason. Anyway, here we are.
    I found out about Elective Africa from some friends who went to Kenya through Elective Africa. I knew right away that I wanted to go to Kenya after hearing all their amazing stories and challenges as well. I contacted the admin, applied and I was ready to go to Kenya.
   To be honest I didn't know what to expect as I knew I was going into a totally new environment ,  to meet a lot of new people and my social skills not being the best. People think that because I'm Nigerian, Kenya shouldn't be that far off culturally, but there's a lot of ways we differ. The way we think, dress, talk, the languages we speak (except English of course) are different and if I have to pick one thing we have in common, it is the colour of our skin. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to build a divide where none is needed, all I'm saying is people shouldn't assume. Just because its Africa doesn't mean everywhere is the same.
  Anyway, I packed my bags and after a 5 hour flight to Addis Ababa and another 2 hour connecting flight to Nairobi, I was in Kenya. Wohoooo. I arrived very early in the Morning and had to wait at the airport for the first flight to Mombassa. I have to commend 'Elective Africa' because their agent in Nairobi called 'Flavia' kept me company at the airport till it was time to board my flight to Mombassa. I felt special and very welcomed.

                                                           Continue to Elective Africa PART 2