Weekend in Mombasa: Welcome!

Mombasa Mafia w/ Love:

Eight of us (5 ICTR interns) spent the weekend in Mombasa, which is a beautiful city on Kenya's coast. The weekend was AMAZING. I will certainly return and HIGHLY recommend this house to anyone who stays in Mombasa.

The group was fantastic together. We had a British couple who was a bit older and had worked for corporate law before deciding to follow their heart into international human rights law. AX found a job in Ghana and EX, her fiance, found a job there for a few months and then AX did the same in Arusha when EX got the internship here. There was JH, who planned everything and is a superstar law student who has decided to postpone her graduation from a top 3 law school to continue working on her case here (and for a boy). There was AS who is a frat boy who has sailed all over the world and knows everything. There's NK who will probably be one of the people I actually keep in contact with when we get back to the states. He's done a lot of work (Peace Corp, NGO) in China and traveled all over Asia.On the drive, we saw a herd of elephants (including a baby!) and some camels. While the road was awful, the view was beautiful. Especially when we got closer to Kenya, the dirt became quite red. The coloring reminded me of Red Rock back home. I find it quite amazing how I can find such different environment so beautiful - from Tanzania's luscious green mountains to Kenya's flat red desert.

When we got into Mombasa, we met GG at Serena, a really expensive hotel right on the beach. Walking out of the hotel and seeing the pool, trees, beach and Indian Ocean in all its glory was breathtaking. It was chilly but I didn't care; this was bee-yoo-tiful. We had a beer while taking in the ocean breeze and getting to know GG. He is amazing - he's 25 and already working for the UNHCR/Mapendo with Somali refugees. Just a genuinely nice guy who's doing a lot to make a difference.

We decided to go to the grocery store to get food/supplies for the weekend before attempting to find the house we rented. We also met JY there, an intern at Mapendo.'s Nairobi office After spending quite a bit of money on food/booze, we set off to find the house. For two hours. In the dark. While our travel agent, Fiona, ignored our call while she took a bath. WTF. Haha. Honestly, I wasn't even upset. We had cracked open some Tuskers while Alex, our driver, tried to follow Fiona's map and get directions from Masai guards in the area. Finally, we found Jackson on the side of the road and asked him if he knew Sett Cliff. He directed this cracked out woman and her adorable child (who looked like the girl in Little Miss Sunshine) to where they were going, he hopped in our van and directed us to our house. We NEVER would have found it. Jackson got a very large tip + beers that night.

When we arrived, the staff (Steven, our cook and a maid) greeted and welcomed us to Sett Cliff. I remember screaming out of excitement for finally finding this little piece of paradise (and yes, I know I keep referring to all these places as heaven/paradise, but if you come and see for yourself, you'll understand why). The house was better than we could have hoped. It was two buildings. The one on the right had two bedrooms and a shower on the bottom and a master bedroom upstairs. The building on the left had two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. A covered veranda was attached to the building on the left, overlooking the Indian Ocean and beach. There was a pool right outside the right building and stairs by the veranda and the pool leading down to our personal beach and to a dock.



After Steven graciously offered to let us squish in and watch the Ghana game in his bedroom out back, we went for a late night dip in the pool and then the ocean. Somehow the ocean water was SO much warmer than the pool. The moon was out. It was wonderful. After an hour or so, we moved to the veranda and just hung out / chatted / got to know each other. One of my favorite stories from that night is AX talking about going to Blue Heron (mzungu restaurant in Arusha) without EX. She emailed him to taunt him because she knew he was stuck at work. He wrote her back (and read in a British accent): "You treacherous little slut." LOL.

I am so jealous of pretty much everyone who was there that night. They all took time off before law school or have done really amazing things in school. They've traveled all over, earned degrees in foreign countries, worked for amazing organizations and really made a difference in someone's life. I hope that my life will start to be that amazing soon and that TZ is not just the beginning of the end of amazing-ness for me.

More on what actually happened that weekend later!