Apologies for the missed week, the first half of this week
was all powercuts and duff internet, by the time it had got any better it made
sense to just do it as one double entry, so here we go.
Day to day work’s definitely fallen into a routine now, lots
of artemia hatching and tank cleaning, combined with getting food for the
adults and checking that work on the building’s coming along ok. The stuff that’s
happened out of this routine in the last couple of weeks was:
·
Moving a pair of H. capensis into their own tank, hopefully this will encourage the
making of lots of new babies!
·
Having a nearly complete floor in the room where
the tanks are going to go
·
Having to deal with the aftermath of the work
lorry (which we have because the company also hires out builders and trucks
building supplies around) being tipped on a building site. It was a nightmare
day, dealing with people on the take, jobsworth security guards and officious
(but surprisingly incorrupt) policemen. Luckily no one was badly hurt in the
crash and once we got it upright the thing was just about driveable, so it
could have been a lot worse!
·
We’ve started trying some delicious new food for
some of the fish that have been in the warehouse for quite a while, a smoothie
made from liver and spinach and then frozen, so far they’re taking it quite
well, maybe kidney and broccoli might
work for the fussy ones!
Outside of work I now have the shortest hair I’ve had since
I was about 12, the shaggy mop was all getting a bit much in the Kenyan heat. I
ventured into the alleys of Mombasa to find a barber who’d been recommended, it
was all going fine until I asked for a shave, at which point things got rather
messy. I must have an odd shaped chin or something!
Last Thursday I got invited over to my new neighbours for a
few drinks, they seem like a pretty nice bunch, it was cool to spend an evening
with some new people and get to know them a bit. I picked up a fair few useful
tips on the neighbourhood as well.
Last weekend I met up with Chris, a friend from the rugby team
I used to play with at uni who’s been out in Uganda working for a while. He was
spending his last few days out here exploring bits of the Kenyan coast, I met
up with him in Diani, a
resort on the South Coast (confusingly called as it’s not actually a southern
coast, just the coast to the south of Mombasa) that’s pretty famous for its
beach. We had a pretty awesome night at a bar called 40 Thieves, which is apparently
the 17th best bar in the world! We ate at a place with some tame ish
bush babies that very much enjoyed the bananas laid out for them!
The next day we headed a bit further south in search of a place
the Chris had heard of called the Gazi
Women’s Mangrove Boardwalk, a locally run ecotourism set up where people
are shown round a mangrove swamp by women from the village round the corner. We
managed to spot the turn off from the main road OK, but it was a bit tricky to
find the actual boardwalk. At first we drove right through the village and couldn’t
spot the place, we asked around and got pointed towards the rubbish dump! As it
turned out you had to drive through it to get to the shore, at this point we
thought we’d spotted the boardwalk as there was a building with the logo on. This
was actually the toilets, but we figured we couldn’t be far away so left the
car and had a wander around. After 20 or so minutes and no joy we came across a
fishermen who turned us around and marched us backwards, we’d parked about 50
yards from the boardwalk and walked in the wrong direction! Once we found it it
was a really nice place, and the guide really knew her stuff – for about 5
minutes I remember the Swahili words for about 5 species of mangrove…
This week’s been pretty quiet really. Last night I went to
cinema to see the new Avengers film, the film was awesome but going to the
cinema at half 6 on a Saturday definitely results in far too many noisy kids in
the place! This morning I went with some friends on a bike ride around some
local nature trails. Nearly running into a Kudu
on a bike is an interesting experience!
I think that’s the lot for this entry, sorry for the delay,
the new flat has much less reliable power and internet than my aunt’s place!
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