Susan's Blog July 13th

Well Lilly and I are back in Meru, getting ready for the two-day weaver training, which starts tomorrow. We and our stuff made it in one piece from Mombasa on a trip that included an 8-hour all night bus ride, then a four hour matatu ride. Part of the problem was we were harassed some in Mombasa. It was harmless, but it made me feel like I didn't want to be a tourist. We spent three hours waiting for the bus, with the last half hour on the bus. A lot of the harassment was shop keepers trying to drag us into their shops in the old town and then I couldn't face all the do-ityourself "tour guides" approaching us. So I gave up on going to Fort Jesus, which is a shame. I think I could have done it, but all the time I was so conscious of the cameras and money I was carrying. The bus waiting area is weird; it's outdoors in the middle of an intersection with concrete benches. Kids came up to me and begged in a nasty sort of way and one older one who was sniffing glue kept asking me for 10 ksh. I told someone to tell him you're doing drugs and I'm not going to give you anything, and he went away. We had a bit of excitement when a thief tried to steal something from the market across the street and people started attacking him and throwing things at him and everyone was laughing. The scuffle didn't last long. We also heard two times what sounded like the Muslim call to prayer. I had worried about our bags, they were just locked on a stairway at the bus station that a lot of people seemed to have access to, but they assured me everything would be OK and it was. The bus said air conditioned, but it wasn't, although as the night went on and the bus got going we got a nice breeze. We were situated right behind the driver which was pretty uncomfortable. I asked to switch but the only other choice was the back of the bus. I read that you will get tossed around if you sit there so I gave up and we sat behind the driver, which is different than sitting behind the driver in the US. Luckily, a guy sat across the aisle from me who spoke pretty good English and he made sure the driver knew that I would need a matatu to Meru. The bus started at 9 pm and ended around 6 am with several stops. No one sleeps in Kenya. We didn't get off the bus. In the morning the guy who spoke good English hooked me up with a guy with a wheeled luggage cart who took our bags from the bus to the matatu for 50 ksh. (The bus was only 800 ksh ea). That worked really well as it was just a few minute walk, but we couldn't have handled the bags. The matatu was 500ksh ea, although when all these guys were vying for our business and trying to take our bags into their matatu, one guy showed me what looked like a nicer van, but in the end he put us in a van a few cars down that wasn't the same as that one. It was basically like all the other matatus we have ridden except they didn't cram people in. The matatu driver drove way too fast, and took many dangerous chances, but I have given up on being scared. This is the only way to get around, and I just have to do it. At the Meru matatu station, the guy would not budge from ksh 200 to take me to Cathy's I thought it was steep, but was not in a position to argue. I just wanted to get the bags to Cathy's in one piece so that we will have everything tomorrow that we need to videotape and photograph the weaving lessons. The lessons begin at 10 am tomorrow and I am hoping that the weaver I chose is the right guy.