mombasa

the train was late, as you know already. people were squatting on the platform until midnight when the train slowly came to the station. we weren't allowed to enter straight away - it needed another hour or so to be cleaned. it left the platform. after some time it came back. we knew it was time to go. so did other people. they started jumping on board before even the train came to a halt. so did we. in the 3rd class, there are no numbered seats so you have to fight hard for a place to sit on. fortunately, most of the crowd that was waiting for the train must have given up so it wasn't that crowded in the end.

the ride took 16 hours. first at night, freezing, then during the daytime watching the beautiful savannah of Tsavo. train kept stopping every now and then, in the middle of nowhere to let some people out or take some more in. how does the train operator know where to stop?
the new people often joked a bit about the three wazungu that ride with them.

then we arrived in mombasa... it's not at all as i imagined it. i thought it would be collonial, white, considerably rich and touristic. none of this turned out to be true. it's a crowded, busy, dirty city with some beautiful but run down portugese and british buildings and lots of provisor shacks. people are a mixture of africans, arabs, hindus and swahilis wearing colorful khangas, white kanzus, black burquas (here called 'buibui' - swahili for 'spider'). it's beautiful.

apparently there's quite a lot of european and american young volunteers teaching at schools and in orphanages, but we don't get to see them at all...

peope really do speak swahili!!! we don't understand much, but we're making an effort :)

the project is going well. we have quite a few interviews and photos. this morning we got a great interview with a great-great-grandson of a founder of the biggest company trading khangas in kenya :) we'll have a lovely article based on that interview!

funny, i rarely miss people when i travel. but now, i miss warsaw, phila and benin a lot... sitting and watching the indian ocean in the evening puts me in a really melancholic mood :)