Part 1 - Arrival at Last!

So here we are at last. Apologies for the delay in getting this set up and sorry for the confusion over the website. We had hoped to have http://www.outofitinafrica.com/ up and running by now but with barely managing to get 15 minutes per week of internet time on 1 computer shared between 25 people that hasn't really panned out.

So until that's up and running I've set up this blogspot for the time being so that we can at least stay in touch with news and some pictures.

So where do I begin. Well for those of you that haven't been to Africa before, it is an absolutely mental place. It is like nothing I've ever seen before. Even having been to South Africa 3 times didn't really prepare me for what Kenya was like. In particular it didn't prepare me for what Wasini Island and the far southern tip of Kenya would be like. I tell you, after 2 weeks in literally the end of nowhere, now I'm back in the centre of Mombassa it seems like an overwhelming urban centre. London seems like a very very very long way away believe me.

We have been here for 2 weeks already and it has flown by. We arrived on the Friday morning flight to Nairobi (charmingly nicknamed NightRobbery), but immediately bounced onto a domestic flight to Mombassa. We stayed at what seemed like a very cheap hotel by our standards which was lovely (only $40 per night), but already I've adjusted my standards and budget down and that now seems like a huge amount of cash to part with.

After staying one night in the Reef Hotel and meeting with some of our fellow volunteers in the bar that eveving, early the next day we had a brief breakfast and then set off in a matatu (like a cross between a minibus and a minivan) and hot-tailed it over the ferry (Mombassa is on an island) and headed out into the countryside for Shimoni. All in the journey from the hotel to Shimoni was about 2.5 hours and as I sat in the front seat of the van with my arm hanging out the window I managed to get truckers sunburn (just on my left arm) on my first day in Africa....DOH!

Shimoni is a small town in the south eastern corner of Kenya which overlooks the Wasini channel and in the distance can be seen the hills of Tanzania. Across the channel is the island of Wasini which we'll call home for the next 5 months. It measures about 7 ks long by about 1-3 ks wide. Mkwiro village of which our base is part has a population of about 1200 and about 2500 on the island in total. There are two other villages as well but we don't often get to them.

Our base is a self contained compound which has about 4 buildings made of wood and rafia type woven roofs. Our sleeping accomodation is the one brick building which holds an office and four dormitories...yes you read it right we are sleeping in dormitories. Our cramped little room (photo attached) holds 4 bunk beds but only 4 of us sleep in there. Kate and myself and Molly and Niki, although Niki has been on just a 2 week volunteer holiday and is heading back to London tonight. it's like an oven in there without any fresh air getting through the mosquito screens on the windows and what little that does then has to penetrate our mosquito nets around our beds. All in all very little and the humidity is very high at present as we're coming into the Long Rains season caused bythe southern Kuzi winds.

It's cosy in there to say the least and my bed is too short to stretch out on properly so not ideal! Sleeping has been a bit of a challenge but we're managing and with the busy days and early mornings there is no doubt we're both knackered by bedtime...which is generally around 9pm...oh how life changes!

Our days so far have started around 5.30, with breakfast at 6 and departure for the days activities at 6.30 We've done two weeks of marine which involves heading out on a small motor powered dhow with a team of 10 of us. We each take turns, 4 at a time, scanning 180 degrees from port to starboard watching for dolphins. Once spotted we pursue and try and get close enough to capture them on camera. From those photos, if good enough, we can identify them from a catalogue of photos....how can this be I hear you ask. Well we photo their dorsal fins which have different patterns of nicks and cuts and are as individual as fingerprints and much easier to spot. We also keep records of their positions via GPS and other data including group sizes, composition and their activity. We also keep records of all other boating activity in the area to record data on tourist activity and fishing activity. All this info is passed to the Kenya Wildlife Service. I was asked to write a blog for the GVI website which you can search for on Google ifg you'd like to read that as well. It has some picutres I took of a mother teaching her cafl how to catch fish by using a dead parrot fish that weas floating on the surface....an amazing thing to see.

Near the end of the day's surveying we do a turtle transect which is a 500m snorkel along a reeef edge to gather data about the turtles in the area. This is the best bit of the day. By 2.30 we are usually back at base and may be given 1/2 to 1 hour to relax before we do data entry of the info we've gathered that morning and then it's chores. Everything we use, consume and do is done by us. We wash and clean in salt water gathered in 20 litre containers from the sea every day. We drink and cook with fresh water, either brought by boat over from the mainland or from collected rain water so it is incredibly precious and very strictly preserved. Other chores inlcude scrubbing the toilets and bathroom area and sweeping out the house banda or kitchen banda. Also, emptying the rubbish; either compost, burnable (which includes plastic) or metal & glass which has to be shipped back over to the mainland. It really brings home how much waste we create in the Western world both with water and rubbish when you have to trim it down as far as we are currently doing.

The other chore is cooking which I normally love doing but here we have two small gas rings and 25 hungry mouths every meal time and with no fridge, meat only once a week and a whgole lot5 of beans and rice the challenge of keeping palates entertained is a tough one...the beans also add that extra little dimension to sharing dorms with 2 dozen other pe0ple and only having 2 squat toilets....belive me with may be trpical but it certainly ain't paradise!

In response to water conservation, I've been doing my bit by doing as little laundry as possible. Washing only when people start complaining about the smell. I haven't shaved since I got here, much to Kate's annoyance, and I had at least 2/3s of my head shaved....into a mohican! Hilarious. I bought myself a blue pinstripe sarong (or kikoi as they are known here) and have gone thoroughly native. Well as much as a muzungu can anyway...that's what the Kenyans call us whiteys. So a day at the office invovles wandering around in a manskirt as we call them with a punk shaved head :)

Today is Saturday and we're heading up to Tsavo National Park to do a week with the Kamba tribe in a village called Kidong. 8 of us will live with them for a week and help them set up a visitors centre for tourists. Their story is amazing. They were poachers for 50 years, hunting elephants, antelope and anything they could get their hands on really, until the late 90s when they and 2 other villages decided to stop because of the ethical problems. Since then they have struggled to survive and create income so the hope is that the visitor centre will encourage tourists and help bring in some badly needed money. I'll let you know how we get on next weekend.

We are throughly enjoying ourselves and are so glad we came. That said is is bloody hard work, we fell a long way fropm home and we miss all of you very much family and friends. I am going to try to configure this so that you can all leave messages if you want to and maybe post your own pics for us...but remember kids this is a family show :)

Until next week, take care and do me a favour....savour your cold beer and preserve your precious fresh water...I don't have enough of either.

Below are some pics of our base, as follows:-

The House Banda and our dormitory

The Kitchen Banda

Our 'bathroom' and showers...