Last Days in Mombasa

Yesterday, we managed to finished all the work and still had time to have a good discussion about what each organisation could do in the near future as a result of what they have learned over the last week. There are so many gaps in their information that can be filled without requiring extensive amounts of funding and they made some good suggestions of where to start.

I said goodbye to all my friends at KMFRI and headed back to the hotel to drop off my things. I headed up to the Nakumatt store to buy coffee for a friend and some supplies for the next part of my trip, just some crackers and marshmallows (the essentials!). On returning to the hotel I settled down to read a book and  I could not put it down. I read non-stop and finished it at two thirty in the morning! A price has to be paid for this though.

Even though I went to sleep so late and I didn't have to wake up to go anywhere this morning I was still awake frustratingly early! I got up and went for breakfast before settling down to do some work quietly in my room. It was a relief that I did not have to go out to work and could just quietly do what I needed to do in the room. For one thing I could not face having to put my contact lenses in, I think someone tipped a bucket of sand into each of my eyes last night!

When my laundry was returned to me clean and ironed, I started packing my suitcase. The taxi driver is collecting me at 4am so I really don't want to hassle with packing too much so early in the morning.

Almost everything packed again

The schedule for tomorrow is a very early morning flight to Nairobi followed by a few hours wait before getting on the flight to the Comoros. The flight makes a stop along the way in Mayotte to let passengers off and on. It is the closest I get to being in France (Mayotte is French territory J). Mayotte is also the last place I will have any cell phone communication. After that I will be incommunicado for a week! I have been assured there will be an internet connection for our workshop from Monday so if that is the case I won't feel quite so isolated. But I do recall being promised the same thing last year and we barely had electricity never mind an internet connection. So what will be will be. If you hear nothing from me for a week you will know it is because I am cut off from the rest of the world J.

My first stop in the Comoros is on the biggest island, Grand Comoros, where I will spend only one night. Then it will be another early morning wake up to be back at the airport by six thirty for the flight to the second largest island, Anjouan. The workshop this year is on Anjouan and we will be there until Friday when I fly back to Grand Comoros. I will spend one night again on Grand Comoros and then fly back to South Africa via Nairobi.

Tomorrow, I will be met at Moroni's airport by one of the workshop participants who I met last year and have subsequently run into at various other meetings. His English is good so I will have a soft landing into my week of trying to drag French out of my brain to make myself understood. It is going to be a challenging week for sure but one I am looking forward to with excitement. The prospect of visiting a place I have never been to always makes me excited. I wonder if I will get to see any lemurs?

Today I am missing being with my little cat on her second birthday. She is now officially no longer a kitten but don't tell her that! I'm assured she will be having a celebratory dinner of chicken, maybe not at good as the birds she catches for herself but certainly a close second. So the last photo is one I took of her a week or so before I started on these travels.

Rose up in the tree waiting for an idiotic bird to land within striking range

Until next time, take care!