Coastal Simplicities

We just arrived back form the coast this past week. I was unable to post while there due to the fact that the interenet was so intermittent. So here I am mulling over ideas in my head...which experience to write about and how much of my person do I share? There is not enough space here for me to peel of every surface of the onion but perhaps a glimps will reveal new beauty that suffices. for  Mull with me as I type as white space becomes lines and curves that will make literary beauty appear for the eyes to see and the mind's ear to hear...

After 10 weary hours of driving we arrived. The actual drive is about 6 hours long but getting out of Nairobi and into Mombasa are two hours each. The morning after the drive was sureal as I peered up into a tree of about a dozen monkeys looking at me as if I were a new species that seemed interesting to behold. We exchanged looks for a while, tiled our heads at each other in questionment, jilted in a split second thought of fear and then parted our separate ways. I threw a piece of passion fruit towards one of them. One monkey ran past carrying a smaller money. The locals said that the mother needed to wean it as it was almost as big as the mother. I thought about all of the theories to do with attachment and thought that this mother had just disproven all of them. I giggle to myself and then look about but there is no one around to share the joke with except for these peering creatures.

Later as I walk on the beach I miss the path for the guest house where we are staying. I walk and walk until I come to the end of the beach. There are Italians and Kenyans playing football together on the sand. Even a couple of Masai men dressed in their beautiful, traditional garb and adorned with lots of beautiful earings, and bracelets are playing. Such a site to see. I don't think I will ever get used to seeing the majestic look of a Massai person. At the market Quincy is being scolded by a woman selling her wares for not teaching his children to speak Kswahili; "You're a Kenyan and you don't bother to teach your children anything but English??"

Days later we are driving home, back to Nairobi. We stop for some goat foot and ugali and and continue on our way. While looking out the window watching for ostriches and babboons we notice 8 armoured trucks headed to the border. While we were running in the sand and looking at turtles Kenya had changed ever so slightly. I wondered how these experiences, simple yet unknowingly profound had changed me...only time would tell...

"When we go through profound experiences, they change us. We risk our relationships with friends and family. They may not like the direction we have taken or may feel threatened or judged by our decisions. They may wonder what happened to the person they thought they once knew." - Wangari Maathai