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Sunday 12th September: Close call, false identity and ‘Le A team’


Arrived in Mombasa….just! Nearly missed my connecting flight at Nairobi as was told in Seychelles that luggage was checked in all the way through, and was given my boarding card for onward flight. Only to get to Nairobi, searching for gate one (departure gate on card) and told had to go to transfer desk. Patiently waiting in queue, front desk resembled scene from Easyjet TV show….lots of cross customers. Eventually got seen, and told had to go to visa queue, (which I had already bought in UK), get my luggage from baggage hall and re-check it in in domestic terminal. So, with 45 minutes now to take off, in very slow queue for visa. Minutes ticking by, so had to sweet talk my way to front of queue, (having to be very polite to Ghanian man, who works for Gideon International, wanted me to come to Ghana to work with him…..he was quite insistent on getting my contact details, and I didn’t want to upset him as needed to get ahead of him in queue, so gave him email address….false one [apologies to some other Nicky Williams who will be getting an email from said Ghana man!]......may God forgive me) passport/visa stamped, rushed to baggage hall…two lonely bags going round on carousel, grabbed them, and ran out of international airport, round corner to domestic airport, checked luggage in, and got to plane with 10 minutes to spare…talk about stressed!

You’ll like this one… on plane from Victoria to Nairobi, still trying to ration my reading so caught sight of film being shown on plane…The A team – excellent, used to love watching the series many years ago. So asked for headphones, plugged in and picked up sound…it was all in French (dubbed over) but reckoned that I could probably follow the action and watching such eye candy as Liam Neeson was worth it. About 45 mins in decided that I hadn’t really got a clue what was going on, and began flicking through my controls to pick up some music to lull me off to sleep….only to find the English sound for the film…ha, ha, I could be blonde (apologies to all those blonde readers – no offense intended)


Window seat on flight to Mombasa, and had breathtaking view of Mount Kilimanjaro rising above the clouds with the sun setting behind it.


Was wondering…was my life this colourful and eventful before this trip? Was I just too tired and busy to notice? I must admit, I do find myself laughing at myself quite a lot at the moment x

Monday 13th September: “Jambo Mama”….knicker update….Bombolulu visit
So holed up in reasonably lovely hotel, overlooking extremely beautiful Indian Ocean. Took myself off on a walk this morning, to hotel down the road that has a dive centre…yes you can’t keep me out of the water for long. Well, clearly tourists do not normally walk, and no sooner out of the gates of hotel and was accosted by tuk-tuk drivers, piki-piki (moped taxis) and boda-boda (bikes with an uncomfortable looking cushion over the back wheel). Said no to them all, and made it to PADI centre, having said “Jambo” to everyone as I walked by, chatted to quite a few locals along the way, grinned enormously to the “Jambo Mama” greeting I received on more than one occasion! So, booked to go diving tomorrow, and then walked to local ‘shopping centre’ as needed ATM, water (without paying extortionate hotel price), and of course…knickers!


Supermarket found, which was a cross between Wilkinsons, a corner shop and a jumble sale. Water found, and yes they had knickers. Not much selection I have to say, and mostly of the Bridget Jones variety, all laid out loose (I couldn’t quite work out whether they were new or not so new…yugh) so my eyes lit up when I saw a familiar neat little sealed packet of not Bridget Jones knickers, five to a pack and turn pack over and yes, they’re M & S! Ah…price…3250 Kenyan shillings…by my calculation that’s about £6 a pair. You know I hate feeling like I am getting ripped off, so minor crisis occurs where I debate buying cheaper, not sure whether they’re new knickers, (but trying to convince myself that surely they wouldn’t sell second hand knickers?) or sealed, desperately overpriced M & S ones. You’ll all be relieved to know M & S triumphed…knicker dilemma over….bank balance reduced.


Then, man comes up to me, identifies me from the hotel I’m staying at, he’s a chef there and he’d clocked me last night. Anyway, we start chatting, and I tell him about going to work in Bombolulu school from next week, and B’lulu is his home, his wife is a teacher at a school, and so off we go…in the crazy matutu minibuses that generally no sane person (especially white single woman) would ever get in…but after buses in Seychelles what could possibly be worse. I then am very privileged to be walking in B’lulu, with Ben, (English name, I can’t for the life of me remember his Swahili name), and visiting the school where wife works, and son goes to. I was made so welcome, and managed to disrupt every class I walked into (hey, somethings will never change!) - the children sung to me, clapped, danced, I met the headteacher, and spent two hours visiting the township which I hope to get to know really well over the next year. I didn’t see the school I am going to, but it is both heartbreaking and uplifiting to see the effort and determination to give these youngsters an education, when they do not have enough money to give the kids lunch some days. A humbling experience.

Couldn’t be bothered to go down to ‘buffet’ dinner so am holed up in room, eating pizza and drinking Tusker beer, thinking I should have bought one of those kaftan things to slob around in, instead of my extremely large ‘Chez Batista’ tee-shirt ….still sulking about my billabong tee-shirt xx