Workshop Week - Part One

This has been a whirlwind of a week, and the fact that I'm just now getting it down means there will be many missed details.

Sunday Morning Dorothy and her daughter Pendo picked me up to share in her church service at the Mombasa Pentecostal Church. Alex, Dorothy's husband, joined us later. It's a large, very enthusiastic congregation. Nearly an hour of singing in English, kiswahili, Luo and Kikuyu, with the words presented on screens at the front, followed by announcements and a thought-provoking sermon delivered by the pastor's wife. Congregants were asked to get out their notebooks and write down ideas they might want to consider in greater depth throughout the week.

After church, Alex hailed a tuk-tuk, a partially enclosed 3-wheeled, 3-passenger mini-jeep taxi. The area in front of the church was jammed with tuk-tuks, matatus (9-passenger minvans outfitted to hold 15), and regular taxis, and our driver got completely hemmed in. When he tried to get out, a matutu pulled in so close that the two vehicles became stuck. Much yelling and assigning blame followed. We got out and several men picked up the tuk-tuk to disengage it from the matatu. Another tuk-tuk was hailed and we were off to Dorothy's for the midday meal, more visiting from an assortment of relatives and friends, rest, dinner, and then a walk back to the Poly. Tom, from the International Guest House in Nairobi called to say he had delivered my 2 larger bags to the Coast Bus office for the night bus to Mombasa, and had wrapped them to prevent loss of contents. Then, several hours on the computer at various times throughout the night, refining my presentations.

Monday morning I caught a tuk-tuk to Coast Bus to collect my bags, now disguised as large feed sacks. Opening the sacks was a bit of a challenge as my scissors were packed inside, and the sisal stitching that secured the tops was knotted tightly. There was so much corn dust that I decided to complete the process in the shower area so I could wash it most of the dirt away. Everything inside was intact, although smelling of grain.

My classy suitcases

After a few hours of working on my presentation, I set off  to find a tuk-tuk to take me to a cyber cafe  for copying some handouts and for printing out my notes. Although the tuk-tuk driver had  vigorously nodded his understanding of  my verbal and pantomimed "cyber cafe" and "computer," he obviously had no idea where such a thing was located. I finally caught sight of one that advertised printing and copying services, had him stop to let me out, but refused to pay the extra he wanted for the "long trip" since he hadn't really known where he was going.

The printing process was slow. The sweet girl helping me applied all the skills she had learned in her secretarial course to my files, insisting on checking and correcting my margins, tabs, and bullets, and trying a number of different functions before finally selecting Print. I was eventually able to convince her that I liked the settings I had chosen. She looked wistfully at each new document she opened, hoping I would change my mind and allow her to make things right. The ink cartridge on the printer ran out and had to be changed, and the copy machine gave new meaning to the word 'molasses.' When all was done, she walked me to the nearest supermarket (I had some shopping to do) and we exchanged phone numbers in case I would need more printing or copying done. She called later that evening to make sure I had arrived home safely after my dinner with Dorothy.

More time on my netbook, working on presentations, chatting with family and trying desperately to catch up on my blogging. The Safaricom modem has been a life saver.