On Monday, July 12 we had one of our last GSE meetings with Jackie to go through all of the ground work for the marketing plan. Then we headed to Yul’s Restaurant on the beach where I proceeded to have a GIANT Texas Burger (in honor of my favorite Texan Mia Tucker); I was full for 24 hours. I guess I was really craving American food, and it was one of the best meals I have had in Kenya. I must say though that overall I am sick of Italian and American food which I never expected to say here. In fact I ate a bunch of typical US food before I left for my travels for fear of missing it; I guess that was a mistake.
Anyway, we worked more on Tuesday and then walked through every beach hotel in Nyali (5 of them I think) looking for a dinner spot and just taking pictures. Most of them were built in the 70s, but a couple of them have been nicely updated, although one of the hotels is often deserted and looks like the scene of a murder mystery or horror film (I could imagine Hitchcock’s silhouette coming into the scene).
Wednesday was another GSE work session in the morning, so we could head to a fantastic lunch at Tamarind. This is known as the best restaurant in Mombasa and for fish and seafood lovers (not me); the menu was jam packed with Sebastians (think Little Mermaid) and fish to eat. Maki ditched us to have lunch with Kenyan Mitsubishi employees, but Liz and I dined two tables over anyway. I had an amazing Ostrich steak with some saffron mashed potatoes and a red wine and wild berry sauce (shown below). Liz had a red snapper and prawns dish with a creamy Moroccan spiced sauce. We followed that up with a trio of sorbets: banana, passion fruit, and the popular tree tomato fruit (delightfully different). This restaurant is right on the water, manages dhow boat cruises (huge old wooden sail boats - shown below), and Mombasa can be seen across the harbor. It was a nice celebration of our hard work and offered a new perspective of Mombasa.
Later that afternoon we went to Akamba Market which is a HUGE area outside where rows and rows and rows of men work under little shacks carving wooden goods to be sold (1 work area od thousands shown below). Their work was amazing and there was a store selling their goods (masks, Masai warrior statues, tables, spoons, safari animals etc). We were able to walk through their work area and talk to them, but it was a bit tough for me to see so many mass produced carvings and the tough work environment. Maki bought even more Masai warriors for gifts and then it was time to go work a ton that night (yea powerpoint slides!).
I stayed up until 2AM for a couple of reasons. First, I was being productive and there was work to be done. Second, and more importantly there was GOOD USA TV on! That’s right for a couple of hours straight I got to see US news, music videos including goodies from Kelly Clarkson and Nickelback (high quality), and (wait for it) an AMAZING episode of American Gladiators!
Okay many of you are now like really Sarah, that’s your good TV and you are wasting my time writing about it?!?! My siblings, Danny, and I watched TONS if it growing up (I sadly remembered this episode even and they would too). It featured Laser, Gemini, Tower, Zap, Siren, and Elektra (steroid ridden gladiators) as well as Assault, The Wall, Hang Tough (rings), Super Powerball, Atlasphere, and of course the Eliminator (ridiculous competitions). Okay sorry, but that was the only substantial non- Tyra, Dr. Phil, WWF Wrestling US TV I have seen here. Anyway, we had our last major work cramming session all day Thursday as we finished up our work for GSE and presented it to Jackie that evening. Then we all went to our favorite Italian spot Roberto’s which has the added bonus of free wi-fi internet. I got an email from my good Kellogg friend Neha Ajmani announcing her engagement to Shimon. HUGE congrats to them both!! I decided this was plenty for this posting lest you die of boredom and I lose readers. Until next time…Sarah.
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