Mombasa Luxury

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last post, we have mainly just been waiting to get our finances all sorted out. Luckily Louise was able to come up with the money for the additional work that needs to be done to the kitchen space AND money for the lab equipment, so we are finally good to go! Blake and I took a trip into Mombasa while we have been waiting for the money and stayed at a resort called the Serena Beach Hotel and Spa. Wow!! It was so great to have a big bed, five course meals, and especially a hot shower again! Since it's off season here at the resorts it was fairly quiet (and cheap!) so it was a great time to relax by the pool and soak up the sun. Not to mention that the staff were amazing!! They even packed us up a lunch before we left complete with a ketchup bottle for our fries so we wouldn't be hungry on the way home. This came in handy seeing as our 12 hour bus ride back turned into an 18 hour bus ride. I think another hour and I may have broke down in tears. I hope I never have to take a trip like that again, but considering the great couple days we had on the coast, it was worth it!

It was definitely nice to come back and get started on work again. Although the money Louise transferred still hadn't come through, Blake and I were able to front some of our project money so that the jobs at the kitchen space could get started. When we went up to the school yesterday they had already started putting in the foundation for the raised water tank which was amazing! They had also started painting, which we needed to put a hold on since we still have a bunch of work to do in the kitchen space and painting now would mean a huge touch up job after everything is done, but the painter agreed with us and said he could easily come back when we had finished our other jobs. We also arranged for a carpenter to come and partition the room for us with a half wall so that we could divide the kitchen area from the serving area. He is able to get started on that today, so things are well underway! As well, we were able to find a cheaper solution for the kitchen than putting in a full chimney, and are able to put in a type of vent that will work fine since we aren't using a fireplace. This means we ended up with extra money to pay the carpenter and are (so far) under budget! Our next task is to call the laboratory supplier in Nairobi and see about getting the equipment we need shipped here or to Kisumu, which we will have to do Monday. We also still need to go to Kisumu and sign up for putting the electricity in since that project will take the longest, and then once it's done we can start outfitting the kitchen!! It's so exciting to finally see things coming together and we are definitely hoping all the roadblocks are behind us! Hopefully by the end of June all work in the kitchen will be finished and our lab supplies and tables will be at least on their way.

Since this is a short post I thought I'd add some pictures of the resort, but the internet is really slow so you only get a few. I'll post more to facebook when it's working!

Hotel pool area, where I spent most of my time

In the Indian Ocean!