"Untitled" by Artist

To Mail Me Anything: 

Benedictine Fathers

Amani Conference Centre

P.O. Box 32101-00600

Nairobi - Kenya

To Donate Anything: 

Southern Benedictine Society

100 belmont mount holly road

Belmont, NC 28012

(Write "BVC - Harris" in the comment section of the check)

I left you slightly over a week ago, and, when I left, I slept for 2 days. I slept and ate and watched videos on my computer and pressed repeat. I was SO tired from weeks of traveling. Of course, I'm not done or anything. I was just taking a break and well deserved one at that!

Monday I started my life again. I woke up early and went into town to send my money to Tanzania for our Mt. Kilimanjaro trip and secure our seats on the bus for Mombasa! I got to town and went down to the Modern Coast Bus Lines booking office. It was kind of in the ghetto, but the buses were really nice looking. Did that and then I walked to the other side of Nairobi to find a western union to transfer the funds. The company we are using for Kili told us the price in dollars. So I went to barclays bank and took out some money from the ATM. First problem. My bank account wouldn't let me take out enough to pay for Kate, Caitlin, and myself. So I went to the western union and changed the shillings I had over into dollars and then I went home and watched entourage.

Next day. Took my time in the morning and went back into town. Took out the rest of the money in shilling at the barclays. Went over to the western union and changed it into dollars. Then I found out that they couldn't transfer USD to Tanzania. I had to changed it all back into Kenyan Shillings and then change it into Tanzanian shillings. Huge hassle. I know I got screwed somewhere in there. THEN they said they were going to charge me an absurd amount just to make the transfer. aaaaand I didn't have enough money on me to cover the extra charge. So I walked out of the western union with far too much money in my pocket and no plan. I went to Barclays to see about opening an account because I could just use the bank to make the transfer but I had to have an account with them first. They made me jump through all sorts of hoops but the last one was I had to have a friend with a Barclays account fill out a form for me. Couldn't find one. So I talked to the girls and we put the extra money together.

Wednesday. Went to town ONE MORE TIME to figure out the mess. Went up to the lady at the counter, and she recalculated everything. Turns out the lady the previous day was going to charge me 10k extra shilling than she should have. Ugh. Whatever. I sent the money, and then I went and sat in a coffee shop for four hours while I waited for the girls to show up in downtown from Karen. We got there and then took a taxi back to Amani and chilled/ate dinner. Then we met the German girls from next door. They had ordered a cab, and so we jumped in there cab and left for the bus station around 8pm. We got to the bus station kind of early, so we stood around and waited for a bit while people walked by giving us creepy looks. People will stare at me, but no one really wants to mess with me. I have no idea why. Hah. We got on the bus and went forward to Mombasa!

Thursday

We arrived in Mombasa in the early morning. Not really sure what time. Got a taxi to take us to the hostel. We booked the hostel online and we weren't really sure what to expect. We drove into a little town just outside Mombasa called Mtwapa. It didn't look good for us. Pretty low class. Lots of matatus and motor bikes and people just sitting on the sides of the roads being loud and obnoxious. I sat back in my seat and put my hand on my forehead. We took a right and I knew that was the direction of the beach so I became at the least hopeful that we'd be close to the beach. We drove down a broken, sandy road path for at least 7 or 8 minutes. Then we came to the top of a small hill and drove down into a little parking lot where the road dead ended. We got out. We were there. I walked in the front gate, and right there was the beach! We were actually right on the beach! Also, it was really quiet. I immediately fell in love. We checked in and I went into my room for a small nap. Then I came out and ordered breakfast because the hostel has its own bar and restaurant and everything was reasonably priced. I ate my food and begged the girls to take it easy in the morning. Of course, when you're one guy with 4 girls, you will NEVER win a conversation. So we went to the public beach which meant leaving the hostel. ugh. Anyways, we got to the public beach, and that was pretty awesome. The ocean was at low tide and the beach stretch out for what seemed like miles, and even when we finally got up to the water, I could have walked another half mile into the water and only be around waist deep. Had to watch for sea urchins though. Those things were freakin' everywhere, but they're cool to look at. We drank beers and ate lunch on the beach. Went back to the hostel. I think Caitlin and I had a drink but the others just wanted water. My plan was to live it up and I stuck to it! Got dinner and hung out for a bit before finally hittin' the sack.

Friday

Best day ever. Haha I sent the 4 girls to go off snorkeling in the morning. I didn't go for two reasons. 1) I didn't want to pay and 2) I wanted to take it really easy. Vacation, right? I woke up around ten. Got a late breakfast, and went back to bed a for a little bit. Then I went and I sat looking out onto the beach drinking a beer. I met some of the other people staying there. A lot of germans. There were a few there after taking a medical elective, couple more just in from Germany on a vacation, and then there were two on a trip from Tanzania. Germans are all over East Africa. Two moved in right next to me(I had my own room with a double bed for a single price, hell ya). Their names were Tim and Benny, and they were awesome. They were both 29 and on a bro trip for the first time in 10 years. They'd been friends for most of their lives, but they hadn't gone out together for a sweet awesome trip since they'd gone to Spain when they were 17. Anways, everyone chilled the rest of Friday. What an awesomely chill day. I felt great. I even got to go on a late night walk right on the beach! Paradise was at my finger tips!

Saturday

Slept in a small amount. Got a late breakfast and then went back to the public beach. I sat in the restaurant/beach hut with all the girls stuff while they went into the water. I drank some beers and I think I got a plate of fries. It was just really beautiful. The girls got back and I took some pics of Caitlin and Kate on a camel. Yes. A camel. Kate was bracing for death the whole ride while Caitlin I think tried to do a backflip off. Interesting experience. Check Kate's fb pics for the details. Spent the day and most of the evening there. Then they kicked us out because they were hosting a bikini party. They begged us to stay actually, but the girls weren't having any of it. *sigh* Like I said, I never won on this trip. Well not quite never ;). I'm tricky. Anyways, we got back to the hostel and as it was our last night we all sat on the edge of the hostel overlooking the beach and got a few drinks. A little while later, Tim and Benny showed up and bought a round. Then our Tanzanian-German friends showed up, too. Basically, we had a big bash on our last night and we made some good friends. Hopefully, they'll find us on facebook or something. They were fun.

Sunday

Put ourselves together after the previous evening's festivities. Got in the cab and went back to the bus stop in Mombasa. At 1:30 we pulled out. We were making great time until we were roughly 50km outside of Nairobi and we were stopped on the highway. massive traffic jam. So bad that people just straight up got out of their cars and trucks and buses and walked around for bit. I must have seen 3 separate multi-car pile-ups. We arrived in Nairobi around 10:45pm. Immediately got a taxi to Karen. I took a short shower and passed the heck out.

Monday

Woke up at 9:30. checked my emails. Found out that the matatus are all on strike. So I have no plans to get back to Amani as of right now. A couple of the sisters might be driving that way tomorrow. So we'll see! I'm certainly not dropping 4k shilling to go back. I can tell you that right now. So I'm chillin' in Karen! All is well! Always looking for letters from friends and family. Just refer to the address above!

Fun Fact:

The power of the internet is ridiculous. I've had roughly 2500 blog views from these countries:

United States

Kenya

Russia

Germany

Canada

France

Nigeria

Spain

United Kingdom

Poland

Argentina

Switzerland

China

Ireland

Venezuela

Kinda weird, yea? If you're from one of these random countries, let me know who you are! Catch ya later!