From Sand to Sand

We went to Mombasa (a city on the coast) for a week, with the supposed goal of learning about the places where European Christianity was first introduced into East and Central Africa (the Ethiopian Orthodox church was already around and had a strong following completely separate from any Western influence). We met our goal...but there was a lot of beach bumming involved too...of course.

It is crazy the number of very distinct cultures that can exist in this one, not so big, country. In theory, G-town and Mombasa are both predominantly Muslim cities, one containing a majority of Somali peoples and the other containing a majority of Swahili peoples, but the differences between the two are enormous.

In the one, camels roam through desert sand -- and the town -- with their long, gliding gait, herded by men and boys in kikoys, and the spinnerets of Mosques poke white and green heads up over the low, dry bush of the countryside. In the other, tourists and school children wander across the white sand of coral beaches, and the oldest church buildings in East and Central Africa still stand within ear shot of the Muslim call to prayer.

In one, Western females trying to respect the culture wear long skirts and t-shirts, and everyone -- including us -- is a little shocked to see a woman in jeans. In the other, the tourist culture (both foreigners and Kenyans from other parts of the country) is so ingrained that we wore shorts and ribbed tank tops -- or rolled up sleeves :D -- on the beach and found that we were still far more covered than many women in town.

In one, everyone knows who we are and tries to make us practice our Swahili. In the other, people are surprised when you try to steer the conversation away from English, and there are moments when it is hard to pick the team out of a crowd because there are so many wazungu faces floating around. (There was a family at Nakumatt with six SUPER blonde kids, and Becca and I both did a double take when the first one ran past us, because he was just so shockingly blonde. Lol.)