“It will never be the same again…”

3 February 2012 

What an amazing experience to go on 2 Matatus across to the other side of town. I loved the music, the way the driver and conducter work together, being with African people, the sights, the smells… so much I love about this place.  We spent a gorgeous and relaxing day off in a beautiful hotel resort on the north coast.  So good to have fun in the pool, eat a delicious meal and I could gaze out at the coconut trees and ocean for hours.  It struck me that for many holiday makers the hotel resort is the sum of their experience of Mombasa.  A 2 week package holiday to enjoy sun and relaxation and go home and say they have been to Mombasa.  Yet many will not really venture outside of the hotel.  They won’t see the true Mombasa.  They won’t spend time getting to know incredible local people and see their different way of life.  They won’t know the story behind the ladies who make their beds every day in a town where so many people don’t have beds.  They won’t realise the water they use so freely is a commodity people here have to work so hard to acquire.  Don’t get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the resort and did not want to leave.  But would I trade it for life in Tumaini?  no way. If I stayed there I would have missed out on conversations with local mamas who work so hard to feed the many local children and then go home struggling to maintain feeding their own.  At the resort I would never hear of the mama who washes peoples clothes as much as she can but can barely afford to clothe her own children.  I could not trade a week at a hotel for seeing the faces of the many children being fed a meal and coming to school for a much craved education.

So as I go home on the Matatu and read the slogan “It will never be the same again” I realise how true those words are.  

Lynda