well. today ends another chapter of my 5 month east african adventure. I'm almost all packed up and ready to head back to nairobi tonight. almost being the key word. I'm leaving Mombasa with some bittersweet feelings. Yesterday didn't exactly go the way I had hoped...

I spent the day saying goodbye to the boys at Hope Maintainers. We made crafts all morning and danced and sang reggae. Needless to say we had sooo much fun. I took them all out to lunch as a thank you. Then we got some local brew (mnazi aka palm wine) and spent the afternoon out on the porch listening to music, talking and drinking. They kept apologizing for not being able to give me anything...and I kept saying it was OK...although it would have been nice to get a card or something (boys will be boys I suppose). It is just unfortunate that at the end of such a great day instead of just thanking me for what I had done for them all day, they asked me where the money I was going to give them was (I'm not giving money to individual groups...I'm giving it to my supervisor to distribute to the groups as needed). I'm sure I am taking it more personally than I should, but its just really frustrating that at the end of the day, thats how it ended. It just makes me feel like no matter what I had done for them for hte past 6 weeks, none was more important than me giving them money. regardless, the guys are great and I'm happy to have worked with them. I'm going to miss them alot...I just hope they feel the same way about me.

I came home yesterday and apparently my little brother yunnus had misbehaved and was in BIG trouble. Lets just say, I saw child abuse first hand and could do nothing about it, because here beating a child with a whip (I'm serious, its like what the colonizers used to beat slaves with) isn't considered child abuse. I have never seen a kid so scared before, he just looked at me like "oh my god this is going to be bad". once he started to scream I immediatly left the room in total discust. thank god damian called so i was distracted for a little while. when i came back out they apologized to me. I had nothing to say. dinner was pretty silent and I went to bed pretty abruptly.

So today is going to be different. today is going to end the way I want to remember mombasa. I walked into town this morning instead of taking a matatu. it was still cool so walk was nice and relaxing after a stressful day yesterday. I came to the cyber to check my mail (and blog obviously)...next I'm going to naukumat (sweet grcery store with everything you could ever need) to pick up things for icecream sundays for the family this afternoon. then lunch with the family. then meeting up with my advisor amina at blue room (this totally americanized restaurant I go to a couple days a week for coffe and to read the newspaper) to give her my donations and say goodbye. then I'm done. and I go back to nairobi.

overall, i'm so glad that my internship brought me to mombasa. i have grown and learned so much while being here. I know that even know at times it was really hard, it was definitly worth it.

The next week is going to be crazy! I have so much to get finished...but on May 3rd...it is going to feel so good to be done and have no responsibility other than to have fun for another 2 months!!!