Tired and refreshed!

Cont. from previous blog….
So on Sunday, Wycliff, who is Mercy’s husband, picked us up at our hotel and we walked to their church - Anglican - a massive and ancient stone building with beautiful stained glass windows. After church more touring of the city, then hopped on a matatu again and went to Mercy’s for lunch.
Monday we boarded the train for Mombasa at 7:00 P.M. The trip was about 15 - 16 hrs. long; the cabins weren’t posh, but all we needed: beds, sink, etc. The farther away from Nairobi we went, the hotter it got. Mombasa’s weather is much like Burundi’s - hot, hot, and hot!!! Thank goodness for my trusty umbrella to shade me from the sun combined with my 70 SPF sun block.
Mombasa was fabulous!!!!  A large part of the city is on an island, accessible by bridges, but we also opted to check out the ferry. That was really beautiful. We went to this absolutely amazing park that had baobab trees galore. The trunks are incredibly thick, kind of like the Redwoods of California. Colton and I both have this thing for trees - Colton loves to climb them, and I just love the look of trees; and leaves. So Colton scrambled from tree to tree, climbing like a monkey. Things that wouldn’t necessarily garner much attention in the western world are much cause for locals to stop and take in the sight as a mzungu goes about his business, including tree climbing.
We visited Fort Jesus - google it for a bit of East African history, followed by a scrumptious  Chinese lunch on the ocean. After this we headed to the Indian Ocean. Wow!!!! God sure knew what He was doing when He spoke this into existence! Breath taking powder white beach that goes on mile after endless mile. We could go out into the water over half a km. and the water was only up to our chest.
The camel ride that we had on the beach was awesome. It walked very slowly, clodding along just like the camel on the Veggie Tales movie, Jonah.
The three of us really enjoy shell collecting on the beach, and this was even more fun than on Lake Tanganyika, the 600 km. long lake that we can see from our house.
Thursday we spent more time at the beach. Considering that I’m not a beach bum, nor can I go in the sun, it was fantastic. And the fact that I wore a sport shirt with short sleeves and shorts for once was not cause for people to stare, as anything goes on the beach in Africa.
At 7:00 P.M. we boarded the train back to Nairobi. It was all-inclusive, so dinner and breakfast are served in the dining cars. The animals had us glued to the windows for hours; we saw many herds of zebra, antelopes of varying kinds, wildebeest, ostriches, other large land birds,  etc.
Saturday we went to this huge Maasai market; the colors, the Maasai body piercing, the haggling, the loud banter, the ‘smell’ of Africa, it truly is a place where the senses are engaged!!
Afterwards while walking around, just taking in more of this busy city, we stumbled on this fantastic little coffee house that served real, brewed coffee!! Super, super strong stuff. It’s my new favorite coffee house in the world; no joke - move over Second Cup and Starbucks. We bought three mugs there and I got a t-shirt with the logo on it - “Nairobi Java House”. If time and finances allow, book a flight to Nairobi Java House, and since you’re in the city anyway, make sure you check out the rest of the city as well.
For supper we wanted to have things from the supermarket that we miss from Canada and enjoy them back at the hotel. So after careful deliberation and having to make choices from the overwhelmingly many aisles of food, we decided on yogurt (Colton and I each polished off a one litre no problem), Ritz crackers (imitation, though the label was the Ritz label), apples, which we don’t buy in Burundi ‘cause they’re a dollar a piece, and tiny and not fresh at all; a very large bag of delicious potatoe chips, Pepsi!!! (yaaayyyy!! For devoted Pepsi drinkers like us; though I must say that the Coke in Burundi is good - must be due to the fact that it comes in glass bottles), and imitation Oreo’s. Oh… the little pleasures of  our Canadian home!!! Yikes, maybe I should check how many food groups we covered before I print this…..
On Sunday morning we went back for another great coffee at the above, chilled, than headed to the airport to catch our flight back home. We had a short layover in Tanzania, and came home feeling tired, refreshed and rejuvenated; a contradiction in terms, I know, but a vacation is probably the only time when “tired and refreshed" makes sense.
We thank God very much for our time away; we really needed it. We know we are where the Father wants us, but that doesn’t make it easy.
I came back with a new fire and excitement for this coming year. I like that.