Day 34 : It was now Monday morning and we were all pretty excited to get to Mombasa and see the beautiful view! We had our things packed and had gotten up early to go.We walked down the road to go catch a Mattatu and meet up with Ben at his house. We waited awhile in the hot sun and after a bit one came. We got on and from there headed to Voi.(Closest town where we would catch bus) On our way we picked up A LOT of people.. 32 I think in a 14 passenger van(mattatu)... wow.. "This would be SO illegal in Canada" I thought! The worst part about being here and driving everywhere is mattatu is the squishyness and tight spaces! Along with the bumpy so called, "roads". I'm also getting used to not using a seatbelt, because no one has them, uses them, or they don't even work. We drove for awhile on the beat up roads stopping to drop and pick up people. We dropped enough off to only have the seats filled because in the town the police will actually stop you. However, in the village there's no police even around. We soon arrived in Voi and got off the Mattatu. We looked around for the bus we were supposed to get on, but it turned out to be late... by a long time. We were so anxious just to get to Mombasa that we decided we would get on another Mattatu and drive on it instead, so we grabbed some water and loaded on. The drive there consisted of squeezing on and sharing a seat with Ben for a bit and hair whipping everywhere, but it seemed to go pretty fast. As we arrived in Mombasa my first thoughts were : " Wow... false advertisement much...." I thought this because well.. the place does not look like the pictures with all the palm trees and beautiful view and nice water , and clean streets..! It contains like, a whole dump on the side of the road, chickens digging in it, and maybe some people digging in it as well. Wow. We got off the Mattatu, ran across the road trying not to get hit by cars, and hopped on another Mattatu. We got off soon enough and I was thinking.."Where are they bringing us?!..." Because we were in the middle of the "Slums" as they call it. We were supposed to be taking a vacation, so I was more confused than ever.. because this did not seem like any vacation to me ;) . We kept on walking down the road and we heard someone calling "Kay-D!" (Ben) and we saw his cousin.(But we didn't know this until after). We kept walking and past some garbage all over the side of the road , where monkeys were randomly chillen on the road. (We weren't originally supposed to stay with Ben's cousins, but someone else, or a hotel) We passed the slums and soon got to the more safe area. We arrived at Ben's Cousins house and greeted them there. We ate and chatted with them for a bit and watched...TV? Weird.... they actually had tv! hahaha I was very surprised, and Ben was RIGHT into it! We did that for a bit then went for a walk around. We walked a bit then Ben's cousin wa taking us deeper into the slums, past the drug addicts, and the gangs, and poor children... wow what a sight. I walked past a huge area fulllllll of garbage, and a chicken chillen. We walked past it and saw a huge baobab tree. (SOOOO BIG) We were surprised with the hugeness and went to look, then kept walking. When we got back it was getting later, and we stayed inside for the night. Mom was now in pain, and stressed, and we were ready for sleep. We took our.. Showers(Buckets and cloths) and washed up. I headed into the room they had put my stuff in and Ben's cousin came in and said to me "Have a nice sleep, i'll join you later!" Me: " Okay! :) Thanks! "... Wait.... uh, join me later......?.. hahaha she came in later, in a towel and layed down in the bed.. I was unsure of where to sleep.. awkwardly I asked her if I should turn the lights out, she said yes and I layed at the edge of the bed all night. (Tiny bed too) A very nice woman yes, but an awkward night. Turns out there was actually a spare bed in my parents room... yay
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