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Shelly Beach...the 3 days that made this trip...

The title pretty much says it.  The time at Shelly made my trip!  I think I have cemented in my mind, that my return to Kenya (Mombasa) will be a "when" and not an "if". 

The three days were spent much like I described the would.. and more.  The entire group bonded.  From the football and basketball girls, to the boxing guys, to Bokey and Liz and even the people giving the talks.  I need to describe in detail what was experienced because it was 3 full days of bonding.

We started early Thursday morning, and took the ferry off Mombasa island to the mainland. Shelly is located in Likoni District. We cramed nearly 40 people and stoves, and some mattresses, and bags in to 2 matatus (remember, they are only supposed to seat 13-14 and not very comfortably).  We got to the beach.. which was completed covered in coral (not alot of sand, but looked very cool). And the tides literally go out for a kilometer... and then you can see where there is a sharp dropoff, cause thats where the big waves start.  Its really interesting to watch.. you can literally walk out for a kilometer in waist to shoulder deep water, and then there is all of a sudden HUGE waves where the ocean hits the coral reef. 

The place was called the children's resort (but really just like little cabins.. not a resort) however it was perfectly fine.. it was incredibly peaceful and empty which was actually really nice.  The entire compound was filled with Coconut trees, and they was a soccer pitch and stone class room that with no roof that was converted to a net ball court (which we used to play basketball).    The girls all came dressed in their nicest street clothes.. which was nice to see cause they are usually wearing their school uniforms or sometimes the basketball "uniforms" (T-Shirts that say Coastal Queens for the few who have them). 

The main objective of the seminar they were in was Alternatives to Violent Practices (AVP) which is a program that started in the States (NY) in a prison.  That was the main subject matter for the talk along with respect for one self and those around you.  One of the presenters stayed over night and would do seperate talks on saying no to sex.  So that was the meat of the day.. but there was so much more that happened...in the afternoon, we would play different active games (Capture the Flag went over REALLY well, Canada vs Ireland, so it was my team vs Ciaran's team.. we played twice and each team won once... BUT my team chanted "Oh Canada" way louder and so I think we really won that one!!). Another day it was a Scavenger Hunt with questions like, how many coconut trees in the compound (hehehe.. that was a mean question.. but I counted them first and there were like 112!!). We also threw in questions like what are Ciaran and my last names and what cities (not Countries) are we from.  The teams that were first place got to go swimming right away.. the second and third place teams were punished..but the punishment was that they had to sing and dance to a silly song for us :)   

We spent the swimming days teaching the girls to float, blow bubbles, some even swam under water and did some front crawl.  Most have never swam before in their life, but lots of them learned to do something new.. I was swarmed in the water.. they all wanted to learn to float at the same time.. but they didn't want to do it alone cause they were scared.... Only bad thing about swimming was there were some sharp bits of coral that if you step on them they breakoff and leave splinters in your feet.. so of course, the first day I stepped on one.. and had 4 in my foot.  So... there was a show as 4 different people took turns to remove the splinters!! (Don't worry mom, they are all gone and it doesn't hurt any more!). I was quite a source of amusement for the girls.. first the splinters...then they all wanted to watch how I danced... on the second night, I went to go to bed, opened the door to the room I was sharing with 2 of the girls, and there were 3 HUGE cockroaches on the wall.. and I mean like the size of my fist!  I was like... I am not sleeping there... which was a bit silly, cause each room had gaps between the walls and the ceiling, so they could have EASILY followed me into the next room where I ended up sleeping... the next morning and the rest of the time.. the girls keep poking me and saying "cockroach" cause they were laughing at my being scared of em.  The girls figure.. they don't bite... why be scared!? 

The second day... we also ate tons of coconuts.. we got one of the boys in the area to climb one of the trees and  throw down a bunch of them.  We had fresh ones, and more ripened ones.. ones with softer flesh, ones with harder dryer flesh.. we drank the juice.. fashioned spoons from the parts we cut off.. I even made a bowl out of one of the coconut shells.. I have never taste such soft flesh from a coconut...i only ever thought it was hard and dry..

We got someone to take Ciaran, Buda (one of the boxers) and myself out on a motor boat to the edge of the coral reef to go through the waves.. and try a bit of fishing... that was one of the scariest yet funniest experiences of the weekend.. out engine gave out once we got out there (of course that would happen to us). Then a HUGE wave came and soaked us... Buda and I were yelling.. "lets go back NOW".. so we started paddling like mad...and then laughing, and another wave would come and get us paddling again.  The guys who took us out tried to get the engine working.. but couldn't so we paddled all the way back..hehehe.. it was fun and funny, but man I said at least once "I don't wanna die in this crappy boat!!!"

The evenings we had some other good activities too..I made a really good questionaire for the girls.. some got nearly all the questions, and they were tricky.  I also tried to teach them to make paper cranes.. but something got lost in translation... I learned a lot more Swahili this weekend too... so that surprised them!  Then the last thing we did everynight was turn the music on and DANCE!!!  And these kids can dance.. like they grind like they are in a club and most are 13-14!!! It was really funny to watch...they were teaching me a few things ;)

I'll write more later.. gotta run..   

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