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Mombasa Nyali

ErinRose Back In Kenya

My girlfriend is here for her second visit.  She arrived on Friday and we spent this weekend on the North Coast Mombasa, about twenty minutes from my house.  On Saturday we went to Haller Park, a nearby rock quarry-turned-mini-zoo/park where injured/abandoned animals are taken as a kind of safe haven.  Here are some pictures:

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I think this creature is actually from another planet:

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The deadliest animals in Kenya: hippos!

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It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this bird was gigantic!

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On Sunday we went to the also-nearby Mamba Crocodile Village, where crocodiles are raised for their skin and meat.

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Read the sign in this next picture:

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Here’s a video of the feeding:

After watching the feeding we went up to the restaurant, where we were seated at the “Lovers Table.”  We waited for the sun to set before we started dinner, since while she is here ErinRose is joining me in fasting for Ramadan.  I ate crocodile steak while I looked down at the crocodiles below, thinking “Now who’s on top of the food chain!”  Then I wondered how many people get eaten here every year.  The fences didn’t inspire much confidence.

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Starting yesterday, ErinRose has been helping with my classes, which have been going well.  The younger kids are painting and the older kids are mostly reviewing stuff from last term.  Having a helper in the classroom is great, because I can split the class into groups.  The kids have been teaching her many signs, and they gave her one of her own, very similar to my sign name.

Our weekends may be very touristy, but since she’s staying with me here at school during the week, the Culture Immersion (the good and the bad) is unavoidable.  More adventures to follow…

Categories
Mombasa

A Song is a Safari

Here are the official lyrics, typos and all, for the video of the poem that many of you asked about.

Journey by James Carter starts like so:

A poem is a journey
That starts off in your head
A word, a phrase, a thought you’ve had
Or something that you’ve read.

And this is where the video starts with the girls.  The boys and girls alternate every stanza:

    A poem is a journey
      Not by river, road or rail
    Or beaten track, or busy street
    Or lonely mountain trail.

A poem is a journey
To many other worlds
However far your travels are
They’re measured out in words

    A poem is a journey
    For which there is no map
    No signpost or directions-
    Who knows where you’ll end up ?

A poem is a journey
To loose and find yourself
To go somewhere, to stay right here
To be somebody else

    A poem is a journey
    To places far and strange
    There’s only one thing that’s for sure-
    You won’t come back the same.

Here’s the link to the video again if you want to open it in another window and try to follow along.  One of these days I’ll do a cool subtitled video for you all, but I’m too busy right now preparing English and Math exams for the woodshop students.  Please note that the poem is signed word-for-word, and this not how anyone here signs in conversation.  I believe its a requirement of the music festival they’re practicing for, due to some sort of bureaucratic requirement that the performance follow the English text perfectly.

Categories
Mombasa

More Video, You Say!

I also think it makes sense to start posting more videos.  As things become more routine for me, I feel less inclined to write updates, so videos can reveal what exactly this “routine” is.  Here are two to start with.

This is Class 3 Creative Arts.  We play Vocabulary Bingo about once a week.  I don’t actually do much since I’ve already taught them the rules, and the winner of each round runs the next round.  Another volunteer was visiting, however, so she managed to get some (brief) footage of me in one of the clips.

And this is me washing a sock.  This is designed to convey how much I hate laundry.  Don’t expect to be thrilled.