Day 13...last day in Mombasa :(

My last full day in Mombasa already! It is an understatement to say that the 2 weeks in Kenya flew by. And I can't believe I have been back for 3 months already (and I'm STILL writing this blog, lol!)

With still so much to see and do in Mombasa it was a fun-filled and jam-packed last day. We made the usual rellie stops on the way into town and then Shamil and Addib (apologies for spelling!) took Zena and I through the streets of old Mombasa (a trip down memory lane for Zena) and to Fort Jesus.

Zena and the boys at her old house!

I have to say the boys, aka "my new cousins", were perfect tour guides...I learned a lot and always felt safe.

After walking through the hustle and bustle of old town, the quiet and fresh air of the old port was like heaven! And beautiful too.

Down by the sea

Old Port

Below are a few pics of Fort Jesus, which is a UNESCO world heritage site (click on the link to learn more). One of the best parts of the day....the boys convincing the ticket lady that we were all locals so we could get in for 200Ksh as opposed to 1200Ksh!! Awesome :)

Looks quite beautiful despite what happened there...

Where the slaved were kept for "market"

Da boyz!

Kind of creepy but cool

 

Down down...to where the slaves were brought in

Fort Jesus really is a place where you can "feel" the history. It was amazing walking around there and visiting the museum part of it. I really enjoyed being by the sea on a gorgeous, sunny day with great company!

Although, I should mention that I was very sick that day and the cough syrup I was taking was giving me the shakes!

The actual highlight of the day was stopping to take pictures of the Mombasa tusks. Since deciding to go to Kenya last November, this is where I wanted to go....because I have a picture of my Mom there in 1967 (I wasn't even a twinkle then!). Amazing to think we have both stood in the exact same spot, halfway around the world 46 years apart! Priceless. :) I only wish we could have been there together...hopefully one day!

Zena and I at the tusks

So, we went back to Baba's for a bit then Jimmy, Ligia, Zena, and I went back to the hotel for a swim (and a much needed 3 hour nap for me). Had dinner at the hotel, packed up all our stuff for the early start the next day and that was the end of the Mombasa portion of my trip!

Anyone who knows me will appreciate this...

You can't walk by a shoe making place and not buy some $3 sandals! Thanks Z :)

 

Seraphina loves her "bumble bee" sandals, courtesy of Jimmy & Ligia, and I love both pairs of beaded sandals I have! :)

 

Day 12...now this is a vacation!

Apologies for the delay in the next instalment of My African Adventure. Slowest blogger ever! :p 

Last time we spoke I was very busy discovering Mombasa. Well today I will write about a day of total relaxation and a little piece of heaven. :)

After a lie in, it was time for breakfast of champions below (seriously, I could get used to freshly made crepes and omelets every morning!).

Mmmmmm, breakfast included!

 

Then it was time for reading by the pool...

Ahhhh, this is the life!

Ligia reading...surprise surprise ;-)

Then a little stroll along the beach picking up seashells (pleasant except for one of the vendors stalking us....but Zena told him off in Ki Swahili which I thought was hilarious! You can take the girl out of Kenya....lol).

Zena and I with our seashells

 

We had to wait until late afternoon for the tide to come in and then it was swim time! You can't go all the way to Mombasa and not jump in the sea.

 

Tide coming in!

Testing the waters

Swim time!

Rounded out the day with afternoon chai and then dinner at Il Covo again.

Lovely end to a great day!

 

In case some of you are wondering if my trip was "life changing", here are a few things I've been up to since I got back from Kenya. You already know about We Day and starting my course in International Development. I'm really lucky in that I get to take part in quite a few other Free the Children events because KPMG (and my boss) have a great partnership with them. Below is a picture of me and the Kenya Boys Choir (and Mark Kielburger) when they came to our offices and gave a fantastic performance, it brought back really good memories. And if you've never seen Chris Tse do his spoken word poetry, you should really check him out! Awesome.

 

KBC at KPMG!

 

A few days later I got invited to the Achievers Customer Experience conference where I got to see Mark speak again. It was very moving and motivational. This time geared towards HR professionals but with a very impactful message about changing the world, in whatever way you can.

 

On a more somber note, I also attended the Kenya Solidarity event with my parents and Jimmy and Ligia Van Rosi to remember the victims and survivors of the Westgate shooting that occurred in Nairobi on Sept 23rd. Although a solemn event, it was also a celebration of the interminable Kenyan spirit. The Van Rosi's gave an excellent performance, playing all the familiar Kenyan music and there were several poignant speakers and prayers. You could really feel the love and support in the room and tell that everyone still considered themselves Kenyans even though they live in Canada now. Canadian and Kenyan media coverage were there for people to share their messages of solidarity and grief with those back home. 

 

Many spoke out against the heinous terrorism that occurred at Westgate but were also very careful to say that they hold no ill feelings towards Somalians in general. That the terrorists do not represent any region or religion but act on their own agenda. I thought that was great to see, in the face of such tragedy the kind-heartedness of the Kenyan people and I was glad I was there to stand along side them. 

 

 

Kenyan Solidarity Event

 

Sisi ni nguvu kwa pamoja - We are stronger together

*please excuse this translation, if it is not correct feel free to comment

 

WE Day Toronto 2013

I'm going to take a break today from talking about my African Adventure to share with you an amazing experience I had this week attending WE Day Toronto 2013. It's not entirely unrelated since Me to We and Free the Children (FTC) put on We Day(s) coast to coast and they were also the organizations that planned and hosted my Kenya trip.

Since going on my trip and starting my new position in Community Leadership at KPMG this past summer, I have become very familiar with Free the Children and Craig Kielburger's story.

Please click and read the hyperlinks in this blog to see why I am so passionate about promoting this organization and the good work they are doing around the world and right here at home. And also, the amazing speakers from We Day and their inspiring stories.

I've seen first hand how the FTC programs (education, health, clean water and sanitation, alternative income, and food security) are helping people in Kenya and I know they have programs like these in other developing nations like India, Ecuador, Haiti, and Ghana. Their unique Adopt a Village model is revolutionizing the way countries like Canada can help countries like Kenya.

Some of you may not know that I've also started a course in International Development this month. It's early days and we're only just starting to talk about "what is culture?" and how to effectively communicate with cultures other than our own (something to think about, it's not as easy as you might think) and already it's apparent that a group of people from one country cannot come in and tell another country how to change and what to change and expect those changes to 1) be the right things for that particular country and 2) be adopted whole heartedly by the recipients of this "help". Free the Children seem to really understand talking with the community to learn what their challenges are holistically....that is to say, "why aren't children going to school?" as opposed to "how many school houses would you like us to build here?". That is where the Adopt a Village model comes in.

So, that's the international part of Free the Children which is near and dear to my heart. But what I saw on Friday right here in Toronto really blew my mind!

First of all, the scale of this event and what it takes to pull We Day off! Many of you have been to the Air Canada Centre (or stadiums like it) for hockey, football, or concerts - well, picture it full of 18,000 screaming school kids and their teachers from Toronto and surrounding regions,1,000 volunteers like me, and 1,000 sponsors and honoured guests of FTC up in the boxes.

 The students and teachers almost all arrived

Secondly, the amazing line up of talent/speakers - I mean where else are you going to see Demi Lovato, Imagine Dragons, Barenaked Ladies, Martin Luther King III, President Johnson Sirleaf (first female president of Liberia), Kathleen Wynn (premier of Ontario), Chris Hadfield, the Kenya Boys Choir, and FTC motivational speakers Marc Kielburger (who by the way is a total cutie and I got to meet!), Craig Kielburger, Molly Burke, Robin Wiszowaty (if you get a chance, read her book "My Maasai Life", it's great), and Spencer West....all in the same room on the same day! See, mind blowing! They each had a positive, motivating message that I think really resonated with everyone there. I know I was impacted, hence this blog!

 Martin Luther King III - 50 years after "I have a dream"

 

Those lights are the applause after the video of Martin Luther King Jr.'s

"I have a dream" speech was played 

Robin Wiszowaty and President Johnson Sirleaf

Kenya Boys Choir

But what really moved me the most was to think that all these kids were there because "caring is cool". You cannot buy a ticket to We Day, you have to earn it. That means, every one of the 18,000 kids did at least one local and one global volunteer activity over the past year. In this day and age when all you seem to hear about is bullying, suicide, gangs, and other horrible things that kids go through and then you come to an event like this and hear people speaking about being nice to each other, helping those in need, dreaming big, and anything is possible - it's so inspiring! Especially when you see a 10 and 12 year old (Hannah Alper and Vishal Vijay) get up on stage in front of thousands of people and talk about what they are passionate about and doing to create change. Their passions are the environment and anti-child labour respectively...but their message was the same, it is their generation that is going to change the world for the better. And I believe them!

Craig and Mark Kielburger

 

Oh Canada!

 

Some of you may be wondering what I did as a volunteer. There are many different jobs you can do from Transportation (directing traffic and making sure everyone gets from the parking lot to where they are going), Registration, hosting, escorting talent or guests etc. I signed up for "Honoured Guest Suite Hosting"....which I feel a bit guilty in saying was a pretty cushy job. Aside from one coffee emergency I pretty much got to watch the whole show from one of the corporate boxes and met some lovely people from Tory's LLP.

View from the box I was "hosting"

Two days before the event about 800 volunteers went down to the ACC to get our wrist bands and learn about our duties for the actual day. We also got a tour of the venue and got to see some cool sound check stuff happening.

Setting up 2 days before

Backstage tour for volunteer training

Way up there in the 600 level (under the Rogers sign)

is the volunteer area where we had breakfast/lunch

 

We day is happening in 9 cities across Canada this year (I believe) so if you get a chance to volunteer I strongly suggest you do, it's a life changing experience. Maybe your company is already involved whether it's pro-bono work or as a sponsor - so you may be able to volunteer through them, like I did through KPMG. Super cool it's also expanding into the US and UK!! So, my overseas friends...get yourself to London and check it out. But remember, you heard it here from Canada first! :)

Day 11...Discovering Mombasa

No rest for the weary! At least not today, so much to see and do in Mombasa.

The day started off slow with breakfast at the hotel, changed rooms to a sea view room, and a bit of reading by the sea. Ahhhhh, bliss!

The beach :) They actually rake up the seaweed, nice touch

 

Can you see the gecko?

Baba picked us up at 11am and took us into town. On the way, we stopped at "Aunty Jean's" salon....Jean was married to my cousin Kevin. Aha, I am related to these people. :) In fact, the whole trip I was referred to as "Kevin's cousin"....even though Kevin and I have never met. But people seem to recognize the Gunputrav family resemblance right away...must be the nose! ;)

Jean, myself, and Zena

Then we met up with another relative, Aunty Fifi, for some local market shopping. I'm so glad we were with a local, I've never been good at bartering, especially when the prices already seem so reasonable with the exchange. On the other hand, I want to pay a fare price too. Fifi hooked us up! :)

Zena, Fifi, and me

One of the market streets....possibly Chicken Mango St...I'm not joking!

 

A beautiful dress I got for 1500 Ksh...about $15

 

 After shopping we jumped into a couple of tuk tuks and headed to a café for some falooda  (and samosas for me)! I never thought I'd say any of those words in a sentence together, lol.

Tuk tuk driver...nice shirt! :)

 

Love this café sign!

Fifi, Ligia, Jimmy, and Zena waiting for falooda

Ligia very much enjoying her falooda

 

Back to Baba's to meet more rellies and chat. It was a great but exhausting day, especially just dealing with all the noise and traffic and congestion in Mombasa - I fell asleep in the chair where I was sitting! Good to see I have not lost the ability to nap anywhere :-p

After a quick shower at the hotel we went out for dinner at Il Covo...a lovely restaurant that just so happened to be next door to our hotel. We walked on the beach since the tide was out. So happy Zena came back with us so we all could spend more time together.

 The BIGGEST prawns I have ever seen 

 



 

Me, Ligia, Zena, and Jimmy at il covo

Fire dancers performing back at the hotel - nice surprise!

And finally bedtime! What an amazing day full of new sights, sounds, food, experiences, and people. I was not kidding when I told Seraphina that "Aunty Tash was going on an adventure"!

 

 

 

Day 10b...Mara to Mombasa

Up early to say goodbye to each other and go our separate ways. Although there was one more day in the itinerary full of fun things to do in Nairobi, many of us had separate trips planned.

Saying goodbye was bitter sweet. On the one hand, I had just spent almost every waking hour with a great group of people that I was just really getting to know and I was sorry to see that come to an end. On the other hand, I was excited to start the next part of my African adventure, see where my Mom was born, and spend time with family...not to mention relax by the beach! :)

Thank God, a bigger plane!

I was very lucky that Free the Children organized my transfer to the Nairobi international airport where I met up with Jimmy and Ligia and together we flew to Mombasa. From there on out my brain went on vacation and I just "went with the flow"! :)

Hello Mombasa! It's hot here!

Nothing could have prepared me for Mombasa! Talk about a culture shock coming from the tranquillity of Bogani and the Maasai Mara to the noise and chaos of Mombasa! I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this kind of dirty, extremely loud, bustling, Arab-influenced, predominantly Muslim, port city.
 

City Mosque

 

Culture shock!

 

When I first started this blog I said that it was the people who really made this trip amazing and my time in Mombasa was no different. The moment we landed, Jimmy's cousin, Baba, picked us up at the airport, took us to his home for "tea" (which was really an amazing spread of food and drink), and everyone (there were a lot of people at home and some who just dropped by) made me feel like I was a part of the family. It was great! Thousands of miles away from home, in a foreign city, and I felt like I had just met a bunch of cousins I never knew existed. And my absolute favourite part was re-connecting with Zena, who I hadn't seen in 17 years! She lives in B.C. but we had to come half-way around the world to see each other, hilarious.

 

Me and Zena

 

After quite a hectic day, Baba drove us across the city to our beach-front hotel.

Lovely hotel

Tad bit windy but who cares?!

Tide coming in

 

Lounge chairs by the pool and sea

 

The view from our room before we got upgraded to beachfront

 

Ligia and I enjoying the sun

Ahhhhh, it was so quiet and peaceful there. Amazing to be by the sea! Let the vacation begin! :)