day412

well, now.
it's been a while hasn't it?
well i went to mombasa or coast as it's called in kenya.
this is pretty much how it went.

THE CAR RIDE.
my least favorite part of the trip took about 9 or 10 hours.
imagine it.
4 people in the backseat of a hot, small, Nissan.
i traveled with my cousins, Peter, Eugene, and Jackie, and my aunt, Mercy and my uncle, Paul.

so we started on our way there on a road conveniently named Mombasa Road.
after 5mins we had to go back cause we forgot to get gas.
we got going again and things went smoothly.
but the music!
ugh!
my ears ache just thinking about it.
now i know how some people feel after listening to the things that teenagers listen to nowadays.
if you didn't know i'm a rock/rap/hiphop linkin park/fortminor/eminem/lupe fiasco kind of guy.
but there it was.
the CD of 15 kenyan songs playing over...
and over...
and over...
And i lived!

after an hour of driving,[not me, my uncle] came the food.
i distinctly remember singing the Ice Age 2 song "Food, Glorious, Food" several times in my head.
we ate a huge bag of potato chips [sorry, mom] and a big box of cookies and it was barely 11:00 [sorry again] but it didn't last long.
by 15mins the food was finished and so was my hunger.

i then tried to got to sleep.
Impossible due to the unending combination of music/cramped space/heat.
i decided then to sight see....but there wasn't a sight in sight.
just the sight if trees, grass and sky....
although i did see a cloud shaped like the USA believe it or not.

after 4 more hours we stopped at a pitstop to get some fried chicken and energy drinks.
also not healthy.
it wasn't KFC but it man tasted good.

we got back on the road again and i was about to try and fall asleep again when we saw Zebras.
Jackie saw a giraffe.

then came the horrible smell.
that disgusting nose tingling smell.
the smell that can only be that of a silent and deadly...
fart.
sure enough, someone had passed gas.
it was bound to happen and even more predictable was the fact everyone denied it.

so after 5 1/2 more hours of trying to sleep,talking, music, gas, and sun we reached Mombasa at 9:45pm.
we put our bags in the house and met my Great Uncle, my two cousins Ernest and Natasha, and we all went swimming in the pool.

THE POOL
i think this might have been my favorite place in Mombasa.
the beach had nice sand but the water had so much salt that it seemed one mouthful of water had enough for my french fries and all of my friends'.
the pool was the place to hang out.
in fact this was the routine:
wake up.
eat.
watch movies.
swim.
eat.
swim.
eat.
hang out at pool.
sleep.
everyday my Ernest and i made up some crazy jumps and air styles and some other boys came to swim.
we raced them and made a game of pushing people in the pool.
the pool was a lot of fun.

THE REPTILE EXHIBIT
we all went together and saw alligators , snakes and tortoises.
some snakes were poisonous, some not.
we saw a huge Boa Constrictor, a Python, and a Black Mamba.
the Boa is too heavy to hold ,but did hold the Python.
now if i held the Black Mamba it would have been the last thing i ever held [unless i held flowers at my funeral] cause the Black M. is the most poisounous snake in kenya.

BYE GOAT!
on Saturday morning a goat was slaughtered right in front of our eyes.
i wasn't really sorry for it.
it's like....
it's like we snapped a rock in half.
only a rock wouldn't have tasted as good.

MY PHONE ALMOST DROWNED
on Sunday the pool was being drained so we had not choice but to go to the beach.
we bought a small boat and went about a mile and half of shore and went swimming practically in the middle of the ocean.
we had googles and we saw some fish in the water.
its was really cool.
but i didn't enjoy it as much as i would have if my phone...
well it happened like this.
we didnt know that we were going to be swimming so no one brought anything.
i had my phone in my pocket on the way there in the car.
i went into the water with my shorts and went out of the water without my phone.
i freaked out.
we went back to the car and there it was, my phone lying on the seat.
it had fell out of my pocket before i had even walked on the beach.

KWAHERI, MOMBASA
the phrase above means "goodbye, Mombasa".
and that's exactly what i said.
but i wasn't going in that dreaded Nissan.
nope!
i was leaving in style.
we went first thing in the morning and booked 2 tickets for me and Ernest.
we went home on a coach called a MASH.
it's not much different from a Greyhound Bus.
the only interesting thing that happened was when the bus stopped to let a tall brown spotted giraffe cross the road.

well here i am now.
my skin is two shades darker than before.
my back is covered in mysterious rashes.
and maybe....
just maybe...
my dislike for Kenya is a little less.