Starfish, Camels and 40 Thieves

A dow is a boat carved out of a tree that can seat five people - kind of like a row boat but not. Stability is questionable but it's pretty neat. Instead of oars, our guides used sticks to push us through the shallow waters full of sea urchins. It took about 20 minutes to reach the spot that the locals have deemed Starfish Village during low tide. Three mzungus hopped out and followed small Ali around. He picked up one, two, three starfish in a matter of minutes. They were bright red and blue and yellow and all different sizes. The underside of the starfish has hundreds of tentacles that automatically pull inside the shell when it is picked up - kind of like a turtle. We all went around and gathering about a hundred of mostly five legged creatures. We stacked them, wore them as hats, stuck them on our shoulders. We tried to write "Hi Mom" with starfish but they wandered off quicker than you would think. The locals have decided that they would leave the starfish in their natural habitat and share this with visitors rather than removing them and selling them as souvenirs. Oh- they also made makeshift necklaces with the critters for photos only. Very creative.

Our afternoon was spent at Diani Beach. We rode camels up and down the coast line. These animals are pretty huge and when they either go up or down, its quite a ride. They were very friendly and didn't smell as bad as I thought they would. I guess I was a little surprised that camels were hanging out at the ocean but eventually nothing is a big deal here and I just go with it.

Forty Thieves is a restaurant on the water that has the waves as its front porch with people body surfing right up to the picnic tables. The name comes from the story of Ali Barbour killing forty thieves single handedly as they were stealing from house after after. There is also a neighboring restaurant called Ali Barbour that's located in a cave with hundreds of candles and more of that fine dining, romantic eating kind of gig. We wanted simple. Forty Thieves was perfect. The World Cup was on and we got to see a bit of that.

There are a lot of Muslims on the coast so we saw quite a few women in full black burkas. Even though it is "winter" here it is warm and I wondered what material their outfits were made of. A lot of the African women wore amazingly colorful printed skirts and matching wraps. There were yellows and blues and reds and pinks and purples - every color of the rainbow walked down streets. They were strikingly beautiful against the rest of the streets which are dirt brown with garbage strewn along the sides. They carry bags of potatoes or jugs of water on their heads and stand tall and proud. I have no idea how they do the sacks of potatoes - they are so lumpy.

The overnight train headed back to Nairobi left four and a half hours late because the train ahead of us had a "capsizement". I don't know where this word comes from but it could be a cross between capsize and something else. It seems as though this is no big deal either since when we asked one of the kenyan travelers he said "no worries. 80-90 percent of the trains are good." So glad we didn't experience any of the fires, dead elephants or derailments that have happened in the past.

When we finally arrived back at Flying Kites, we were greeted by the kids with huge hugs and screams. I was thrilled to learn that Ruth had been staying here. She ran up to me and we rolled around on the ground and screamed together. We are both so happy she is here. I don't know for how long but for the time being she has a bed and a new school uniform. That feels so good.

Peace out...
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