A birthday
Afya njema na furaha
Afya njema na furaha
Afya njema na furaha mpendwa wetu Kieran
Afya njema na furaha mpendwa wetu Kieran
We met on his birthday, in Barcelona. Since then, every year, we buy each other birthday trips, not birthday gifts. This year might look a little different. So I’m thinking back on another birthday, during quite scary times.
We had been living in Kenya for almost two years. The threat of terrorism was high. It hadn’t been a great month. The weekend papers recalled what they labelled ’30 dark days in Kenya’. On April 23rd there had been a car explosion outside a police station in Eastleigh, Nairobi. On May 3rd there was a bus explosion in Mombasa. Then next day there had been two attacks on buses in the Thika road area in Nairobi. And then on Friday 10th May there were twin explosions in Gikomba market. Innocent people had been killed or injured, in all these pointless, barbaric attacks.
I read that Kenya declared war on Al Shabab in Somalia on October 15th, 2011. Thinking back to that day, we were sat in a restaurant at the Armani hotel in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower, celebrating my birthday. I knew little of this conflict at the time. And I wouldn’t have predicted then that a few years later, we would be living in Kenya with this conflict around us.
In the middle of all of this, we had made plans to travel to the coast, to celebrate another birthday. This time it was PKP’s and in the light of all the recent unrest, we wanted to get far out of the city of Nairobi. So we picked Diani, a quiet coastal town and booked a small hotel to retreat to. It was off season and apparently all was very quiet. The day before we travelled, the FCO updated their website with an advisory against all but essential travel to the coast, specifically Mombasa, Mombasa island and Tiwi beach. The warning did not list the area that we were travelling to but it was within the same district, about 15 kilometres away. Would that be o.k? Maybe not. We talked it through and decided to stick to plan.
The next morning, over coffee, we discussed it further. By now we were sitting in an aircraft hanger, a temporary departure lounge at Nairobi’s Wilson airport. It wasn’t too late to abort. Near the makeshift cafe, there was a large display poster of the Kenyan coast. I joked that we could just take a photo here and head home. The final decision was down to the birthday boy. This was his trip. We flew to Diani. Would you have gone too?
We arrived at Diani’s small airstrip. Within a couple of minutes we were in the arrivals cabin, our alien cards were checked and we walked through. There was no-one around. We taxied to our small hotel. The roads were abandoned. All the reception staff were standing around, with nothing to do. We received a warm welcome and were shown to our room. On our first night there, in light of the FCO advisory, a U.K tour company offered their customers the opportunity to cut their holiday short and return home. They chartered two planes. About 600 tourists flew out that night, including all the guests in our neighbouring resort hotel. We sat up in bed and looked at the balcony. It would be easy to climb up to the first floor balcony. We knew that in reality our suite offered no protection. We debated about whether or not terrorists would bother to attack a nine roomed hotel. Who knew? The next morning PKP told me he had dreamed of terrorists.
But fortunately our time passed uneventfully. The place was like a ghost town. At our hotel there were two other guests. We would greet each other at breakfast. Then they would return to their suite. We wouldn’t seem them again till the next morning. Honeymooners! When we walked to the beach, no-one was there. We had the whole place to ourselves. Even the beach boys, notorious for their banter and persuasion to buy this and that, had gone home. We enjoyed our time away.
Two highlights involved cake! The first was at lunch, when the hotel staff surprised us with a birthday cake. The whole staff came out to sing in the garden. It was a nice gesture, some beautiful Swahili singing. And in the evening we went out to Ali Barbour’s, a unique restaurant and bar in a coral cave on the Indian Ocean. More cake. More singing. Again there were only two other people there, an American couple. We talked tourism and politics. We all felt bad for Kenya. Pole. (sorry) It has amazing destinations on offer. How could these businesses survive in these times? All across the country, tourists were staying away. Everywhere businesses were losing money. And people who needed this income to survive were suffering.
Have you travelled somewhere during troubled times?
Where did you go? What did you find there?
©Maggie M / Mother City Time