Journal Entry 3: Central Girls Primary School, Mombasa - July 16th '07

The weekend off was really good. I felt great this morning, totally refreshed for a hard enough week ahead. This week we'll be working every day and travelling quite a bit too, so I am a little wary of that but looking forward to the challenge.

On Saturday night we headed out to the cinema and managed to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Totally didn't think we'd get to see it here, I am very content. We also found out the bookshop in the almighty Nakumatt will sell the new book on Saturday so that's me and Maria set for the next week. Can't wait.

We spent yesterday (Sunday) at the Reef Hotel overlooking the Ocean here in Mombasa. We took advantage of the hotel's large outdoor swimming pool and indoor table tennis and pool tables. The food was good afterwards although sadly the strawberry mousse was not the same as it was in the Grand Hotel on my first Holy Communion so my taking half a cake full before actually tasting it was probably a bad idea. I managed to off load most of it onto the others. June said it tasted like the lining of a sofa. She was right.

The day was really great though. We topped it off with a game of poker. We're all still learning and Charlie wasn't around so it was a little dodgy with Kevin's ever changing rules and Eileen wanting to show everyone her cards but after about ten games I feel we're really beginning to grasp it.

Today I'm back with Charlie and Maria and we're teaching in Central Girls Primary School in Mombasa. The people here are lovely, the children are the coolest, but sadly the computer room isn't great. Severe lack of sockets, ventilation and it's a really small and cramped room. The computer lab went down after lunch. We got back to the classroom after our break to find the power gone. Although we were used to long power cuts in Lamu it hasn't really happened as much here in Mombasa. And anytime it has done, it hasn't lasted more than twenty minutes. Anyway, we figured we'd do the assessment and then hopefully get onto writer once the power came back. The assessment went on for about a half an hour - still no power. About ten minutes after that we'd almost given up when the lights came back on. We told everyone to turn on their computers to find they still wouldn't start.


Not really sure what the problem was but I presume it was something to do with the surge protector that was only put in this morning. We couldn't fix the problem so had to cut the day short. Really disappointing and frustrating.

Jawambe 20:37

Playing cards now back in Jawambe. Had food in our new favourite place, the Nakumatt, hah. No chicken though so I wasn't happy about that. And I think them having Buffalo Wings on the menu is false advertising and is mean.

Tom and June show just how much they love the Nakumatt.

Tomorrow Maria and Tom are filming so I'll be teaching with Charlie and Craig. Hopefully that'll go alright. On Wednesday we'll be heading to Boru which is four hours away and fairly remote. It sounds really interesting and is meant to be nice so I'm really looking forward to that. I think it's great that we're getting to see so much of Kenya while here. The city, by the sea and the countryside - it's so interesting. Hopefully we'll also get to catch a safari while there.

On Thursday I've the day off although we'll be travelling back to Mombasa in the afternoon. On Friday I'm hoping to sit in on Maria and Tom filming in Ganjoni Primary School which is across the way from Jawambe. They'll be getting the children there to teach them what they know on the computers which should be fun. So that's pretty much the week ahead. Then on Saturday we've the MEWA ceremony, where we'll be handing out the certificates to all the teacher's we've taught so far so really looking forward to that and to seeing everyone again. Then we'll spend our last week in Malindi and hopefully get the train to Nairobi before heading home.

It's so strange to think that we'll be home in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to the initial shock and strangeness of being back but god, I'm really going to miss this place. Everything still feels surreal. Sort of like I've been dreaming it all. Even Lamu seems so far away now, let alone Ireland. I can't wait to like, think about all of this properly. It's hard to get alone time now without feeling like I'm missing something.