Mombasa RAHA (pleasure and leisure)

June 6, 2011

Mombasa

Our first day in Mombasa.  It's really humid here but it's also really gorgeous.  It's the hottest I have ever been since in Kenya. The hotel provided breakfast and then we proceeded to the tent outdoors for our lecture of the day.  We would be learning about the Swahili culture and people since we were now officially in SwahiliLand.  Our lecturer, Alawy Abzein, works for the museum of Kenya so he described the historical context behind alot of the cultural practice.  The culture of Mombasa or the Swahili people seems to draw alot from other cultures simply because they are on the coast so they interact with other through import and export. The original name for the Swahili people were Wanglizi.  Their culture is like a fusion of Middle East, Africa, Europe and India.  The men wear white robes and a hat with a tassel while the women wear black robes and cover their faces. Their music called the tarap has the mixture of all those countries described.  It was a very informative lecture and it was nice again to see the difference in cultures that one country can possess, all the diversity.  

Following our blog we went to see Old Town Mombasa.  It was the most beautiful city.  The construction iof the building were semblance of Portugual.  It definitely had European influence.  We went on a tour of Fort Jesus.  Fort Jesus has an interesting hsitory behind it beacsue it has been used for any purposes bcy many groups of people.  It was built by the Portugueses as a naval base, then it was taken over by the Oman Arabs, later the Bristish had claim to it and lastly it was a prison.  Through the fort their were little windows and the view of the ocean was amazing through them.  They even have an actual body display under the tree it was found.  We then had a walk through tour of Old Town.  While on the tour I bought a coconut and a mango.  Both were yummy and filling. 

Last stop on our list was for the day was a private hospital.  The name of the hospital is the Aga Khan Hospital which is apart of Aga Khan Health Services.  This facility was comparable to facilities in the United States.  It was a drastic change from the other hospitals and clinics that we have visited.  One could see the clear difference in services for the wealthy and the poor.  We met with Dr. Amyn Lakhani who works in the Health Services section of the Aga Khan Network.  He has had experiences in medical and health sectors in many places around the world.  He discussed health workers and I knew he would be a great source for my paper.  

At the end of the day we went back to our hotel.  We hung out in the pool for the rest of the day playing a bunch of games.