13JAN2007 "Day 1 at The Bertram House (aka The Shack)"

Last night we watched the first episode of the TV show Sleeper Cell (Graham uploaded the first season onto our computer). We turned out all the lights and sat on the sofa with the computer in our lap so we could hear it over the ceiling fan. The light from the LCD screen was a bug magnet and grasshoppers would fly at the screen, land with a thwack and stay for a second or two. Nearly as often, they would miss and land on our heads, arms, legs. Once Wendy knew what they were, it didn’t bother her so much, but occasionally a non-cricket insect would land and start crawling. Finally we got a headlamp for bug-identification - whenever a really big one would land and shake the screen.

We also learned that we have a giant millipede living under our tub. I mean, HUGE, like a banana or maybe even a small plantain. (Patrick says it looks more like a kielbasa). I think we will name him McCallister:













I don’t know if it is because we are pretty isolated and at the end of the road, but Bertram house is a regular insect safari. We always sleep under the bednet and it has very little to do with the mosquitoes. Crickets, grasshoppers, praying mantis, huge flat spiders, gigantic millipedes, cockroaches that could knock you over and beetles living in the rag rug in the bathroom. It makes the mosquitoes seem boring. All over the walls are huge splatter marks of bug guts where Jurassic-park sized insects lost their lives. The geckos and bats are completely useless against them and so they roam without fear.












This morning we woke up to the sound of monkeys running across the tin roof. Suki was pretty interested, but they sounded a little bit bigger than squirrels. After a leisurely breakfast we called for a tuk-tuk to come pick us up and take us to town. Riding to town in a tuk-tuk makes your teeth chatter and wish you were wearing your sports bra, even if you are a guy. The roads are mostly dirt and very bad. The driver zigzags back and forth across the road in tight switchbacks, dodging potholes, doubling the total mileage of the trip. We did a little grocery shopping in Kilifi-town, stopped by KEMRI to check our email and had lunch. The tiny two-aisle grocery store has an array of soap and perfumes to rival any Wal-Mart, but no pasta sauce. We also saw crusty bottles of grenadine and ‘Christmas pudding’ in a can, also very old. There is also a pretty nice open-air vegetable market in town where we picked up:

¼ kg Passion fruit 20Ksh (~$0.30US)
1 Pineapple 80 Ksh (~$1.10US)
4 small tomatoes and garlic 40 Ksh (~$0.55)
4 Onions and 2 small green peppers 40 Ksh (~$0.55)
a bunch of finger bananas 35 Ksh (~$0.50)

I am going out on a limb and assuming the eggs are free-range and organic (‘pricey’ at 8 Ksh ea - ~$0.10 ea…eat your heart out Mary!), but we paid an arm and a leg for ~1 lb of organic Kenyan coffee (450 Ksh - $6.45)…go figure. There is also a local dairy plantation with a small store nearby so maybe we will check that out tomorrow.

The sleep/jet lag/equator temperature monsters hit us ~4PM and we were forced to nap, but got up in time for a sunset run along the beach. It is a tough life really. We had to walk almost 1/10th mile to the beach before we could start running, we had to carry a leash with us (just in case Suki scared any of the European vacationers at the fancy Mnarani Club), and we had to run slow enough so that we had breath enough to greet the many fisherman coming in for the day…we think we are going to like it here, and have promised ourselves to make the most of the outdoors. We ran for ~35 minutes and followed the Kilifi Creek out until it widened to meet the Indian Ocean – houses along the creek were incredible! There was one relatively new house, which was built on a cliff (held up only by two Baobab trees taunting the ocean) and was within 10 yds of the waters edge – not a bad ‘shore house.’

LATE BREAKING NEWS- we just saw our first centipede. He was about 7 inches long and much more menacing than the millipedes, with two pairs of pincers, one in the front and one in the back. Those fat daddies bite! Our mantra here just became “shuffle your feet when you walk.” Can you imagine stepping on one in your bare feet? I am very glad that we sleep under a mosquito net and it has nothing to do with the mosquitoes. On the other hand, the butterflies are quite stunning; we had a purple and orange one join us for breakfast this morning. We look forward to checking out the butterfly farm near Malindi.