No Mo' Scorpions

I love it here. I was trying to come up with a list yesterday of things that I’ll like about leaving Msambweni and returning home to Nairobi/America. I thought it would help me feel less devastated that I have to leave this place in less than a week. I started out my list easily.

• 1. I won’t have to check my shoes for scorpions in the mornings anymore!

But then I started to struggle. It turns out a lot of the things I thought I’d be glad to change have become some of the little reasons I love Msambweni.

• 2. I’ll get cold water whenever I want. But wait—trips with my little cousins Faiz and Abee to the butcher to put my warm water bottles into his meat freezer are great bonding times, and I’m so accustomed to my water bottles smelling faintly of raw mbuzi (goat) that I barely even notice it anymore.

• 3. Hot showers. This one is off the list too. It’s so hot in Msambweni that cold showers are lifesavers. I actually get disappointed when the water in the tank has been heated up by the sun and I have to take a warm shower.

• 4. I’ll be able to buy junk food without driving an hour to the nearest big town. Yeah, having chocolate will be amazing, but it doesn’t compare to my daily breakfasts of chapatti and beans and tea that I’m so in love with or the coconut rice and freshly caught fish we often get for dinner.

• 5. I’ll be with my family again. But I’ll be leaving family, too.

Cooking one of my favorite Kenyan foods, mandazi, with Muntaz and Mrashi

It's going to be impossible to leave my cousins