Mombasa is a fairly large city in Kenya and is the major sea port city. As we drove down the main road from the airport, we noticed that they've renamed the road Barack Obama Road. In Nairobi airport, the book shop (which was closed at 7:30 am) had its display shelves filled with books by and about Barack Obama and I saw several people wearing Barack Obama T-shirts.
From Mombasa airport, rode in the shuttle bus for about an hour and a half past many buildings painted with advertisements. Rather than advertising on billboards, they simply paint houses or other building with corporate logos, most of which seem to be mobile phone companies. Often the buildings are painted very vivid colors such as fuscia or kelly green, with logos appearing in several places on each wall.
As we drove up the highway north to Kilifi, we passed a HUGE sisel plantation (sisel is the stuff they often use to make rope or twine and looks quite similar to pineapple plants) which seemed to go on and on endlessly. Finally, we entered the Kilifi region and we passed a sign that had the Wild Living Resources logo on it (the organization I am planning to work with) and soon we turned into the driveway of the Mnarani Club which will be our temporary home for the next two weeks.
The Mnarani Club is a resort with a huge swimming pool that appears to blend into Kilifi Creek/Indian Ocean, which the pool and many of the rooms face. Our room is quite comfortable, a second-level room with a balcony that overlooks the Mnarani marina on Kilifi Creek. Although they call it Kilifi Creek, it's much more like a river (the Yarra River in Melbourne, for example, is much narrower!) and we are really situated just at the mouth of the creek and can see the ocean from our room as well. Often there is a good sea breeze that keeps things cool, but in the evenings, our housekeeper comes in to turn down the sheets, set up the mosquito net, close the screened windows and turns on the air conditioning unit.
The place is very well staffed and they really cater to all your needs, so we aren't suffering too terribly! The resort also has a few boats for hire and Susan and I went with one of her colleagues for a sail on a little catamaran yesterday afternoon. They also have other various activities: mountain bikes, snorkeling, scuba lessons, Swahili lessons, bush walks, road trips to Mombasa and other nearby towns, etc. There are some resident monkeys that also hang around the pool area and it's quite entertaining to watch them as well.
Yesterday, we met Susan's new American colleague, Laura, who picked us up and drove us around Kilifi so that we would know where the shops and markets are and to see some of the houses where we might be able to live. We did go to see the house we thought we might live in, but it's still being built and nowhere near finished, so we're not sure that place will still be a viable option. In the meantime, we'll be staying at Mnarani Resort for two weeks and may have to stay in Laura's spare room or elsewhere until we get something a bit more permanent.
