Love that African Hospitality

Last night Whitney and I saw “The Namesake” which is based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s book. It was very good and I recommend the book first and then the movie : )
Today Whitney and I went into Old Town in Mombasa. First we went to Fort Jesus, which is the fort that the Portuguese used when they occupied Mombasa, and then it was later used as a prison. Since we are considered residents of Kenya with our student ID’s, we got in for pretty cheap. The place was cool, really old and interesting Arabic architecture.
Afterwards we walked around town for a long time, through busy little streets. Old Town is really pretty because all the buildings are old…hence the name, so it has a lot more character than Nairobi. People are really nice too, and generally don’t harass you as you walk down the street. Mombasa is a majority Muslim town and it was really interesting to be in a place where Christianity is not the central religion, as I have never been anywhere like that before. We stopped on the side of the street and a man cut open a coconut for each of us and we drank the water inside, which didn’t taste very good to me, but it was an experience.
We walked around a lot more and finally came to this cute little shop where a man and his wife were sitting. We were told this place had great food and that the man was a really nice guy, and both proved to be true. We sat and talked with him for a couple hours while he served us samples of everything he made. He was a very wise old man (as cliché as that sounds). One of the things that stuck out in my mind was when we were talking about travelling he said “water that flows down from the mountain is clean and clear, but water that sits in a puddle gets dirty and stagnant, so it is better to always keep moving and travelling”. I thought that was really interesting and something I will always keep in my mind. He also told us that a lot of famous people had come into his shop, but when they came he hadn’t realized they were famous, like McJagger and a few movie actors. He also said that Nicholas Cage rented the place out in 1984 to make his movie “Short Cut”, which I definitely want to see now. It was really cool to meet this man and his wife and his food was absolutely amazing.
We then took a few matatus home, trying to get in the general direction of the house we are staying in and finally found a place we recognized and walked home. It was a lot of walking and Mombasa is HOT and very humid, much more so than Nairobi. It was a good day though. We also went for a walk on the beach with the family’s dogs and Lesley at around sunset, which was really nice.
This family is so nice and welcoming. Got to love that African hospitality. It has been so completely unreal being here, but so incredible at the same time. I feel so lucky to have been picked up by chance by these people. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!