Painting, My New Rafiki and A Night Out - Saturday 10 July

We arrive at the school around 8:30 and are happy to see that some of old furniture has been cleared out, which has given us more room. As a team we get back to work on the painting with the goal finishing all the trim before the end of the day. The guys are tasked with painting the ceiling which ends up with some paint fights along the way. Doors are being made for the bathrooms and we have the school contractors begin to repair the beds – many of which need new slats made and the nails removed. We work through the afternoon finishing a little early as its Saturday night and we are going out for dinner tonight.

Right outside the school, I meet a new friend, the local vendor who sells water and biscuits. He loves what we are doing and has cold water awaiting when we run out at the school. He also helps me with my swahili which is not getting any better to say the least! I am looking forward to seeing him over the next several days while we are here.

We head towards Slip Way, which is on the peninsula and where a majority of the expats live. As we drive through to the restaurant, we shift from local shops, pubs and street vendors to very large houses, stores catering to expats and an area that has shops and some good restaurants. It overlooks the sea and is quite beautiful. Visiting the grocery store made me think back about Shanghai, eagerly awaiting a new shipment to come in with things you could not get ordinarily – skippy peanut butter, diet coke and cleaning products. Funny enough – we went wild stocking up on the cleaning products we needed – gloves, dust pans, daisy soap and bleach. One very large purchase of the evening in the group was baby bell cheese, which they paid £13 for!!! The most expensive cheese they will ever eat! Welcome to expat life.

We have a drink sitting outside – gorgeous, as you can still see hundreds of stars and head up to dinner at a restaurant called the Sea Cliff. The food is great and the atmosphere better, again looking over the sea and eating under the stars. A great evening, although a few of us said it was a bit surreal given we were surrounded by other tourists and expats, which we had not seen around town since tonight. Personally, I prefer eating at the local restaurants to get a true sense of life here and enjoy authentic African cuisine – which I have not had something that was not delicious.

Back to the hotel for a good night rest before a manic day ahead of us tomorrow to prepare for the return of the students from their holidays.