Thanksgiving in Paradise

First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I am SO incredibly thankful for all my family and friends who have supported me throughout my life and during my time in Kenya. I honestly wouldn’t be where I am today without all the care, love, inspiration and support you all provide me on a daily basis. THANK YOU!!
My thanksgiving was really fun. Of course, I missed everyone at home, but it was nice to celebrate the holiday with my Kenyan “family” (all the volunteers and friends I’ve made here). Mary had a bunch of us over for dinner at her adorable apartment in Old Town. We didn’t have a Turkey because a) they are expensive here and we don’t have that chapaa (dough) and b) No one in Kenya has an oven, unless you’re really wealthy….so none of us do. But not to worry, I had a “bird experience” the night before thanksgiving that made up for us not having a turkey at thanksgiving. On Wednesday I had to make dinner for my family because my host sister was held up in town. She had me get a whole chicken, which I had to tear apart with my own hands (breaking bones and manhandling the meat). The worst part was that the guts and the heart were still all inside (they’re usually cleaned at home). It was definitely an “interesting,” and slightly disturbing experience. But it definitely gave me a similar experience to preparing the turkey.
Instead of Turkey, the guys made steak for Thanksgiving. I made a “bomb-ass” salad with fresh lettuce, tangerines, walnuts and blue cheese (it was pretty amazing), Sasha made some really yummy candied yams, Mary made garlic mashed potatoes and Amanda brought Kenyan pancakes with bananas and chocolate sauce for desert. It was all very yummy. Kati (the woman I may work for if I come back here) came with her kids, which was really awesome. She is SO cool, and both her kids are very eloquent and outgoing even though they are only 10 and 12. Mary also invited some of her other volunteer friends, which she has met during her year here, who were also very cool. Overall, it was a great success and tons of fun!
The day after Thanksgiving, Amanda, Sasha and I went down south to Wasini Island. Wasini is just off the coast of Kenya, about 1.5 hours from Mombasa. We had a pretty intense matatu ride there, but got there safe and sound. At one point there were 27 people crammed into a 12 person van. It was VERY smelly, very crowded and there were about 4 people hanging out the door…we just all laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. The matatu was also pretty rickety and the last 30 mins (although it seemed longer) was on a dirt road. There were many points when we thought the matatu was just going to burst apart…but it didn’t ☺. We had a really nice matatu conductor that told us all about Wasini and where we should go and what we should see. As life would have it, it turned out that his cousin was the main captain for the only hotel on the island (which we were staying at). The captain, Ali, met us at the matatu stop with some of his crew and kinda took us under his wing and showed us around. We were a little hesitant at first because past experiences have showed us that when Kenyan men try to show us around they either want money or us. But we soon realized that they just wanted to be kind and helpful. There are apparently a lot of volunteers from America on Wasini who work with the coral reef and dolphins, and Ali and his crew were friends with all of them. So they were used to hanging out with people like us. Ali gave us a free ride to the island with the locals (a ride that usually costs 1,000KSH ($13.50 USD)) and gave us a tour of the island. Wasini is a coral Island (i.e. the entire island was formed by coral) so there is a coral garden—this means that there are beautiful formations of coral (almost sculpture like) in the middle of the island. During the full moon, the water from the ocean comes into the coral garden and surrounds the coral sculptures. There was also a mangrove forest, which was cool to see. There are only 2,000 people that live on Wasini. They are all Muslim and they are all related. When Ali said that the people on Wasini were all a big family, we just thought they were a really close community. But then we found out that they all marry their cousins…so they really are one big family!
After dinner we hung out with Ali and some of the other crewmembers (Babu, Mr. Cool and Finger) at the hostel. They were all chewing miraa (a local plant that most men chew, which has the same affect as coffee) and we just talked about plans for the next day and what life was like in Wasini.
In the morning we woke up at 6am and went back to Shimoni to meet the other members of the snorkeling group that Ali placed us with (to make it cheaper). The trip to the Marine Reserve was amazing!! We saw 5 dolphins that came right up to our boat and beautiful views of the coast. The snorkeling was incredible. We swam in one of the most preserved coral reefs in the world. The fish were literally surrounding us and they were all so beautiful and colorful. I saw so many fish that I never new existed. It was like swimming in the new Academy of Sciences aquarium, except WAY better because it was in the beautiful Indian Ocean. After snorkeling the other members of the group were taken to a fancy lunch at the hotel we were staying at. But the meal cost something like 900KSH and we just didn’t have the money to afford that. We told Ali about our budget the night before and he mentioned off hand that we could just have lunch at his house. We thought he was just being nice and didn’t think much of it. So we just went back to our room, packed up our bags and sat down to have some fruit and crackers. But before we could start Babu was outside our balcony asking us if we were ready to go to Ali’s for lunch. We were so surprised!! We were completely welcomed into their home and had a lovely lunch of Pilau (a traditional Swahili dish of seasoned rice with pieces of beef and tomatoes) with Babu. We were all just so taken aback by the kindness and hospitality of the people we met on Wasini. AND none of the guys made any comments about our looks and none of them asked us to marry them or to go out with them. They just wanted to be friendly. It made me feel so warm and happy inside that there are people in the world who are truly just kind, with no strings attached. The guys we met in Wasini were definitely some of the kindest people I have met in my entire life. I’m not even exaggerating here. This kind of thing would NEVER have happened in the US.
So that was my Thanksgiving weekend. It was a ton of fun! I will definitely always remember the Thanksgiving I spent in Kenya. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!! I look forward to hearing all about your holiday festivities ☺

Oxoxox Anna