Beachhouse Madness

Nothing in Africa ever turns out like you expect. Well... at least, the way I expect. If I went into each experience expecting things to take a turn toward the adventurous, maybe I'd be less amazed by the way that simple things turn into tremendous tasks. :-)

Yesterday, Jess, her friend Jo, Laura, Cathleen, and I began our trek from our house to a beach called South Beach which is an 1-1.5 hours away from our house. We packed a BBQ dinner, our swimsuits and sunscreen, and sleeping gear for a night at a beachhouse owned by one of Jess' student's families. On the way there, we stopped to meet up with a friend of Laura's and her dog, Inca. Thus far the trip seemed normal. :-) We made our way to the ferry, enjoying the putrid smell of the fish market and The Citizen newspaper as we waited for the next boat. After boarding the ferry and observing the pirate-like boats and the boat-making area, we followed the paved road a ways until it suddenly dropped off to a half gravel, half sand trail. :-) Here is where the adventure began! Things were good for awhile despite the crazy bumps and characteristically African road. When we reached close proximity to the beach house, the Massai guards of the neighborhood told us that the main road was closed for construction so we were going to need to drive through this open field area as a detour. Well, we started out doing this, but we reached this very large and steep hill and it seemed as though the road came to a dead end. As we sat there and discussed this problem with Cheryl, one of the Massai guards came running up to tell us to just go down the hill. Yeah, right! Cheryl started to walk down the hill and the incline was so steep that within 10 seconds, we lost sight of her! Well, after telling our guard friend that there was no way we were going to go down this hill, he proceeded to tell us that there was another way. Cheryl invited him to get into her car, but he was terrified of the dog so he declined. Instead, he jumped into our car of 4 women and directed us on this ridiculous detour that took us about 15 minutes out of the way. Once we reached the base of the detour, another challenge awaited us- a road made of nothing but loose sand. :-) After getting stuck and the Massai laughing as he got out and prepared to push, we figured out how to put the car in 4-wheel drive and away we went. Cheryl was a bit less fortunate. Her 4-wheel drive setting required some type of adjustment to the tire which resulted in the Massai and another random man beating on her tire to try and turn or move some screw as she dug her wheels in deeper and deeper into the sand. Eventually, however, it was achieved and we speeded off to the beachhouse, only to encounter the construction that the road was closed for- two small baricades that could be driven right through the center of.

Upon arriving at the house, we met a resident bat upstairs and found that the electricity, the gas, and the water were all out. After opening all the windows to allow the bat a way out and placing a number of phone calls to the master of the house, we were promised a tank of petrol later that afternoon that would at least run the generator. With this information in tow, we headed down for an afternoon at the beach. It was a beautiful, very non-touristy beach filled with gorgeous shells and only two other women- both of whom were walking around topless- a man sleeping by a tree, and a Massai who was observing the small crowd of wazungu. Cathleen and I chose to sit on the beach and enjoy the view for awhile while our friends, including the dog, went swimming in the ocean. After hearing a report of numerous small jellyfish, we both decided not to go in at all. It seemed quite enough entertainment to collect shells and watch Inca chase crabs. After awhile, we headed back to the house to check on the status of the power and water. Though someone had brought petrol and the generator was able to work, there was still no water or electricity or gas for the stove. It was at this point (in combination with noticing the large amounts of men wondering around to investigate the fact that all these white people were hanging around), that we decided to head back with Cheryl rather than stay for the night. Neither Cathleen or I had peace about staying and it just seemed like the best plan to avoid risks like that when they have no purpose other than pleasure.