This is our second day off and everyone seems to need it. It rained hard in the early morning hours and I awoke to find a centipede the size of Rhode Island on my towel. Bernard hastily disposed of it: the look on my face must have told him that he’d have an apoplectic artistic director on his hands if he didn’t get to it! Some in our group have ventured into Lamutown but most everyone is happy to stay around to read, write, and just relax in the sunshine, or in the waves.
After a lunch of homemade Shrimp Burgers (so much for the hope I’d lose weight in Africa), a few us took a small boat across the bay to Shela Beach, where many ex-pats have their homes (it’s kind of a ‘suburb’ of Lamu Town). The famed Peponi Hotel is here, where many tourists relax after their ‘rigorous five star safaris’ on the mainland. We were searching for a gallery whose owner sells some amazing local photography. Christopher and I wandered through the narrow alleyways, with donkeys passing us here and there (no people, just donkeys), and got to the gallery, ONE EYE, to find that it was closed. Perhaps next week.
As I write this, a torrent of rain commences seemingly out of nowhere. Wasn’t the sun hot and shining just moments ago? It’s a deluge and one is reminded that we are smack dab on the equator, with these tropical bursts just one aspect of the exotic clime.
Sunday night was our first formal Kiswahili lesson with our house’s caretaker, Bernard. Roberta and Christopher (who have studied before) and I sat around the table and Bernard had prepared a first lesson. I was the dunce of the class, and my Swahili sounds a lot like Yiddish at times, but I do try my best. I am determined to learn a few key phrases that will help me. The most useful seems to be "Ua mbo" (Kill the mosquito).
