PWANI PART 7: Back in Mombasa

Back in Mombasa we would spend our morning in lectures, mostly from representatives of NGO's and Non-Profits based in Mombasa, such as FIDA (Women's Federation of Women Lawyers) and Action Aid Kenya. We also has a lecture on traditional medicine by the funny 78 year old Muslim woman who has us taste a bunch of herbs, most of which just tasted bitter and aweful.

Later on in the week we had several field trips. On Thursday we visited KEMRI (Kenyan Medical Research Institute) and heard about the research that they are doing in Kenya, including research on malaria and HIV. We also were able to visit their wards where they carry out most of their clinical trials. I was absolutely shocked that they took us through every single crowded ward, giving the patients (mostly children) and their mothers no privacy. They walked us through the children's ward and the malnourishment wing. After that they took us to the high priority ward where children who demanded more attention were kept. Our tour group just stood their as a woman helped her child who had just come out of a coma. The young girl had been unconscious for three days due to cerebral malaria an the researcher giving us the tour of the facility blunty stated that she would never fully recover and would suffer from social defects. They even took us to the room where they kept the premature babies. Despite being shocked by the complete lack of patient privacy, KEMRI has an amazing facilty, and they have high tech labs that help track CD4 and virus levels in all of their HIV/AIDS patients undergoing ARV treatment.

While in Mombasa, our classes and trips usually ended by lunch so that we could spend the afternoons exploring. But mostly we just hung around Old Town, especially on the roof of the hostel. Here are some pictures I took off of the roof:

On friday, we visted the a factory in Mombasa, run and owned almost entirely by the Akamba tribe. This factory was were almost all of the wood and soapstone carvings (animals, masks, bowls, etc, etc) sold in tourist shops in Kenya and Tanzania are made. This one tribe pretty much has a monopoly over the entire industry. We were able to walk around and talk to different crafts men, who seemed to carve out intricate animal figures and designs without the slightest effort or attention.

We also discovered that everyday at 5 pm, the old men (mzee) would have coffee and chai by the water. Some of the them would also drink some beer or chew on mirah (a grass plant that is a mild stimulant, somewhere between coffee and cocaine). So, one afternoon we decided to join them and chat and chat a little while drinking their delicious chai (the man in the specs below is the tea brewer). The man in the white hat in the picture below didn't speak any English, but the second time we came back for tea (after a failed attempt at swimming) he had decorated the whole area with flowers. The Mzees where definitely always a highlight of the evening.

Also, on Friday we took a little trip out to Pirates beach to go swimming and relax before we headed back to Nairobi. The water was clear blue and literally hot like bathwater. It was so shallow you could walk out for a good 10 minutes without having the water pass above your armpits. We met a beachboy named Marco Polo who got us some Tusker and several of the girls rode the camels up and down the beach.

Here are just a few more pictures from around Old Town Mombasa.