Christmas Vacation

I’m back to Oyugis from a nice vacation with Alex. First, I went to a wedding in Nairobi for one of his aunts on the 18th. We left early in the morning but the bus was delayed so after we got in all dusty and sweaty we went to a friend of Alex’s shop and changed/ cleaned up, got lost finding the church, and finally made it to the church just as the ceremony ended. Alex says I didn’t miss anything, that the reception is what a wedding’s all about, but it would have been interesting to see.

The reception was at the Panafric, a fancy shmancy hotel. They had closed off the pool area just for the reception and it was all decorated with a bridge built over the pool. I went around with Alex meeting all the relatives. I was being introduced as a cousin/family member since everyone assumed Alex and I are married. His grandmother asked why we left our kids at home. Yes, not only did people think we were married, they also thought we had kids (plural, not just one).

After the bridal party took pictures they cut the cake, which to me was interesting since we’re used to that being at the end. Of course there was tea served also. After awhile we moved downstairs into a huge conference room, which was actually 3 rooms but the walls had been removed to make it one big room. There were about 400 people there. They had a huge buffet of every food and pastry/cake you could think of. After the dinner and gifts were given, there was a live band and dancing. Afterwards came the after-party where they had a DJ and nyama choma (barbecued meat) served. It was really fun, especially when one of Alex’s little cousins was breaking it down on the dance floor. The only sad part was how expensive the drinks were: 250KSH for a beer! (to you people who use dollars, that’s about $3, but when I’m used to paying 100KSH or 150KSH max for a beer, it’s a big jump in prices)

The next day I went back to Oyugis and then a few days later went to the coast with Alex to spend a few days with one side of his family then a few days with another side. We were really lucky to get bus tickets since tons of Kenyans travel to the coast for Christmas. We tried the night before and every bus was booked. The day we wanted to travel we left the house really early and lucked out because two people hadn’t shown up for their bus so the company sold us their tickets. You snooze you lose I guess.

We got to Mombasa before the rest of the family so we decided to hang out at Nakumatt and meet them there when they got in. We went to Nakumatt Likoni, near the Mombasa ferry, but as soon as we got there, Alex’s uncle called and said to meet at Nakumatt Nyali. Nyali is a nice section just outside the city center of Mombasa. So after two matatu rides we were told by the driver to get off at Nakumatt Nyali Cinemax that it’s the same thing. Meanwhile, Alex is trying to call his uncle to ask if there’s a difference between Nakumatt Nyali and Nakumatt Nyali Cinemax. Apparently Nyali has 2 Nakumatts and he told us to go to Nakumatt Nyali. So, we take another matatu and the guy told us he was going to Nakumatt Nyali but he ended up dropping us off far away so we had to walk to rest of the way with all our stuff. We finally got to Nakumatt Nyali and sat at a little food place to waste time until we could be picked up. The place had the best sandwich I’ve had in Kenya. I got a ham and cheese sandwich and it was real deli ham. It was so good I got a second one. We waited for 3 hours for the uncle and he told us we were actually meant to go to Nakumatt Nyali Cinemax. Seriously??? Nakumatt needs more original names for their branches to avoid confusion. It’s like in Kisumu there’s Nakumatt Mega City and Nakumatt Mega Plaza, if it’s your first time in the place, how are you supposed to know they are different??

After all the confusion we got to the house where everyone was staying. It was GORGEOUS. It was what I’ll call a mansion. It had a pool, a large yard, a kitchen, a balcony, air conditioning, and 5 bedrooms with bathrooms, bathtubs, and showers. The house also came with a chef who cooked all our meals. Since there were more than 5 bedrooms-worth of people, the family had also gotten an apartment nearby for the extra people to stay. Alex and I, along with a few cousins and an uncle stayed there and then came to the big house for the days.

We spent most of the days swimming in the pool and sitting under the umbrellas/lounge chairs outside since it was so hot. There was also a beach within walking distance. On Christmas, we swam in the pool and had a huge “lunch” (around 5pm) with every food you could think of. Alex and I walked on the beach for the sunset and then the family did some gift-giving later. They gave me a leso (a fabric to wrap around like a skirt), which was really nice since I wasn’t expecting anything. After that we all went swimming in the pool at night, even Alex’s grandma. They made late-night nyama choma too.

When that side of the family left we met up with the other side of the family. We met them at Nakumatt where apparently they had been waiting for hours for the guy who booked our place. The guy had sent us an email of where we had booked and it was a really nice apartment with lots of bedrooms and air conditioning. The guy finally showed up around 6pm and took us to a run-down apartment with no air conditioning and only 3 bedrooms. We had 15 people, there’s no way we would have fit and besides it definitely wasn’t worth the amount of money we paid.

The family was so angry at the man, they demanded our money back or we’d go to the police. The man freaked out and started arranging for us to get our money back. We sat around that apartment waiting for him to fix things and Alex and his brother kept watch over him every time he stepped into one of the rooms because they didn’t want him escaping over the balcony. It took him about 3 hours to get us the money and meanwhile everyone was calling friends of friends of relatives to find a new place to stay. One of the aunts’ cousins hooked us up with a nice place and we got there around 10pm. It wasn’t super fancy but it was clean and there were enough beds for everyone to have their own. The widow who owns it is still fixing it up so it’ll be really nice once it’s finished.

It was fun hanging out playing cards and watching movies with that side of the family. One of the days Alex and I went to Diani Beach (which is on the south coast about an hour or so away). We wanted to go to this place, 40 Thieves, where other volunteers usually hang out but apparently there had been a homicide there a few days before and it was closed. Alex’s friend’s sister (Edna) works at a resort called Pinewood, which is all the way at the end of the beach. We went to visit and the place was really nice and fancy. We got lunch, I got a great seafood pizza with tuna, crab, and shrimp on it and then Alex and I went swimming while Edna went back to work. We learned the place must have been really fancy considering they charged 420Euros to kite surf and 260KSH for a beer. We hung out with Edna at a bar and I taught Alex how to play pool.

The next day we went bowling with the family and had a grand ole time. I was embarrassed since it was most of their first time and even the kids were beating me. The day after we had a “ladies day” so all the women left the kids with the men and we went out shopping and got lunch and ice cream. I bought a bunch of lesos to make into skirts.

For New Years Alex and I went to a resort that had fireworks and bonfires on the beach. We came back the next day and had a little adventure on our bus ride to Nairobi. All of a sudden our bus slammed on its breaks and swerved off the road and I saw a tractor trailer smashed into the back of another tractor trailer. I thought we were just avoiding the accident but apparently our bus was trying to pass a vehicle and was on the wrong side of the road and caused that accident. We dropped off a guy from the bus company to deal with it and kept going on our way. About a half-hour down the road we were stopped at a police checkpoint because they had been informed about the accident. I was worried we’d be there all day, but we got going after only a half hour. The bus ride was long (about 8 hours) but I had brought my travel scrabble and we had brought snack so it was a good way to pass the time.

During the trip I had a coworker taking care of Minnie (the cat) and the kittens. He called me to tell me she had eaten both of them. I was really sad because I was going to give them to people once I got back. They were too big to be eaten; usually cats eat kittens just after birth if they are sick or deformed but these kittens were 2 months old. Otherwise, though, I’m happy to be back.