It's f-ing hot here, but at least there's a large body of water

The end of our homestay in Riruta was quite nice. I gave my family gifts and they gave me girfts too, including recipes, which was nice. Saturday all the families came together for lunch. I played with some young adorable cousins, threatened to steal one.

Then it was back to the Methodist Guest House, where I wrote an essay and attempted to buy tickets for my trip to Europe. Only successful part of planning: booking a hostel in Dublin. So I may not be able to get there, but if I do, I've got a place to stay.

Stayed up late Saturday since we had a long (8ish hours) bus ride on Sunday. We saw zebras, giraffes, gazelles and elephants! In real life! Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful bus ride. The road was only bumpy for a little while, so most of the time I was able to read, write, or sleep.

Mombasa is nice. The first night we went to a festival for the breaking of the fast at the end of Ramadhan. It was more a sketchy carnival than a religious experience, but it was very fun. Claire and I rode a swing ride (only got seats because the manager saved some for us--when Claire tried to get her own, a 20-something Muslim woman literally beat her out of the way!)

Also, Mombasa means WATER! So obviously I love it.

Yesterday began with shopping--I don't knwo the word for male Muslim clothing, but the guys bought that. Most of the girls bought buibuis (the Swahili version of a burkah). They are ground length black robes with scarves for your hair. The change in reception was amazing: walking around in American clothes, whatever, students, okay. Walking around in Muslim clothes, so many people told us we looked beautiful and welcome to Mombasa. Some of the girls think needing to wear them is dumb; but if you can so easily make so many people so happy, why wouldn't you? They're not as hot as you would think--or, more correctly, it's so hot here you think you might die regardless of what you wear. I haven't perfected the tying of the scarf yet, but I found a safety pin, so it stays for about an hour before I've moved to much and have to redo it.

Afterward we went to a press conference like event outside the Mayor's office. It was in Swahili so we didn't understand much, but they mentioned us! They recognized Professor Akmed Shake's (obviously not how you spell it, but it's how you pronounce it so whatever) students from America nad the girls got our picture for the newspaper! Well, they claimed it was for the newspaper anyway, and took down where we were from and what we were doing and all. We haven't found it in a paper but it might be in one published weekly, not daily. We'll see. A guy's already been selling calendars with the picture on it. Ridiculous.

This morning we visited the Swahili Institute, where they teach young boys and girls traditional Swahili crafts. Akmed taught us about Swahili poetry, and according to D Sperling, Akmed is currently the best Swahili poet in the world, so that was cool. Later we walked around Fort Jesus and no we have the rest of the day free!

Pemba tomorrow, Zanzibar Sundayish, then 8 days on the mainland coast, then safari! It's amazing how fast everything goes!