sunny weekend

friday after work i had some happy hour beers in the canteen with friends and the motor pool staff, stole josh's bike for a few glorious laps around the parking lot and sat in traffic en route to the train station to meet jonathan. i found him and we upgraded to first class (ohhh! ahhh!) and got on the train, bound for mombasa. our compartment was small but the one next door was open so it all worked out. we got to hang out the window and look at stars, eat some chicken for dinner and i slept pretty early. the train is this wild snapshot of history, now really only utilized (at least 1st and 2nd class) by traveling white people attempting to bask in the colonial history of what it must have been like when one had to take the train. also, not much has changed on the train since it was built. the history is here.

leaving the station at night

jonathan in the retro-cool food car

the next morning a staff member came around and said "the train is stopping here. and won't move all day." of course. silly of us to assume our train to mombasa would make it all the way there. so we hopped off, quickly followed the 3rd class kenyan passengers through the little market and got on a bus. one hour later we were in mombasa, on a tuk tuk and en route to another bus which would take us to watamu. i napped in the 2 hour ride. and, well, watamu is gorgeous and quiet and white sand exists and so does a ridiculously large italian population. we had good pizza from an italian man that didn't speak english or swahili (??). apparently lots of italian older women ("...with white hair") come to kenya in search of "a kenyan man" for the weekend. one notorious pair of said italian women didn't get what they came for and wrote a disapproving review of the whole hotel. i heard all of this from a cabana boy who was trying to court me into marriage (i didn't give him our phone number, dad) 'cause jonathan thinks it's funny to tell kenyan beach boys i'm single "and looking for a boyfriend." it never ends well.

view of the quiet, beautiful beach

view of the ocean when the tide was out

we did a lot of sitting. lots of lounging. some swimming. even went to a spontaneous beach party put on by rebellious beach boys. we left before it "started at 2am" though. then we sat in a matatu back to mombasa. that ride was hot. we wandered around old town, found a perch overlooking the water with men drinking strong, ginger-full coffee and had a cheap dinner. it was a nice, chill weekend. just some nice sun and swahili people. i made it to work this morning in what i wore on friday and a head scarf 'cause i didn't bring shampoo to the coast and i looked like a ragamuffin.

my sunburn and i stumbled upon the old SIT office!

a view of jonathan's head on the waterfront

and it just dawned on me that i haven't gotten my weekly 'this modern love' in the reader 'cause of the nytimes paywall. BLAST! that was always the highlight of my monday.