Hi again from the
“Dark Continent,”
We had a very nice Hindu dinner last night at a great Hindu restaurant here in Mombasa. Our host was Sachell, our Indian printer who had produced all the measles banners, t-shirts, caps, etc for the measles program. Sachell is a 25 year old enterprising young Kenyan who has developed a very successful business and risen economically above the average African. He went to India for education, as did his sister in computer technology.
Generally speaking, the Indian people here in Africa over the years started out and became the best business people, many times utilizing the less educated and progressive African people as their poorly paid laborers. You see them as the ones many times driving the cars and living in the nicer homes. The women are beautifully dressed in brightly colored silk finery and jewelry and they walk with an elegant, beautiful dignity and pride.
Sachell is engaged, but said his marriage will not be the traditional one where his parents choose his bride and visa versa...like Joy and Simi's marriage in India, the couple whom Shelly and Doran taught and baptised in Kuwait. The meal wasn't as highly curried as we thought it would be, primarily because Sachell chose the dishes from the menu for us and I asked for as little spicy curriness as possible. It was exotic...I can't even describe the different dishes. It was very interesting that it was called “Bollywood” and there were large posters on the walls of Indian actors and actresses. I recognized several, especially the kids from “Slum Dog Millionaire.” 
Afterwards, we went for ice cream and while we were there Sachell smoked from a pipe along with other Indian men. It wasn't the usual pipe. Rather, it was a beautiful silver engraved pot contraption about 3 feet long sitting on the floor with silver tubes extending upward from it and a mouthpiece at the end that Sachell smoked from. Smoke was blowing everywhere and, similar to cigar smoke, smelled better than cigarette smoke. We see little smoking generally in Africa. The government outlaws it for children and few adults can afford it. A great blessing to them, compared to America!
Sachell's business is down a narrow street crowded with the usual small businesses of every kind. You would think of it as a very small poor building in an old broken down dirty building. But, here it is one of the more successful and fine.
He took us later one day to his Rotary Club meeting, which is the top business club in the city and elsewhere in the world. It was at the ancient old Mombasa Club, filled with history and tradition. It reminded me of the club in “”Out of Africa” that at first excluded Karen Blixen, but then saluted her when she finally left after conquering it. You could just visualize the stuffy, rich Brits in their finery inside smoking their pipes and lording it over everyone else, especially the local black Africans that they employed in their plantations and hunting lodges and later shipped to the West Indies and America as slaves.
Maybe this was the place or maybe it's in Nairobi where we go at the end of our trip. But, if it wasn't here, this was even more ancient, because Mombasa was the original port city and beginning of it all for the Europeans, Asians, Portuguese, etc...long before Nairobi. Even today, we saw few blacks in the club, except for the waiters. It's, of course, on the shore in the middle of the “Old City” with all it's old culture and history.
Later, we had a fascinating day touring ancient Old Town Mombasa, Fort Jesus, and a Hindu Temple. Joseph, the young African Returned Missionary who has become our good friend, was our tour guide. He was great, but it was interesting that, even though he is an African, he had never been to many of the places we saw. It was again an example of how poor local people in Africa never get to experience the nicer things of life. They simply cannot afford it, whether it be education, nice homes, good food, recreation, or, whatever. It was fun to watch his expressions and feelings as he saw things and learned more about his own country throughout the day. And, besides enjoying his great enthusiasm and sweet spirit, we benefited by feeling much safer with him leading the way.
Old Town Mombasa reminded me of Old Town Jerusalem in many ways...but, Mombasa is much older! Old Town Mombasa is one of the most conservative religious place in Africa and tourists have to be careful not to offend the locals there. Women have been stoned or driven out by local Muslim religious leaders just for wearing shorts or short sleeve shirts. Similar to elsewhere we've gone, calls to pray to Mecca were sounded out 5 times daily here by loudspeakers in the mosques and rams' horns blowing throughout the city. It's Ramadan time here when they fast for 40 days, eating only one meal a day.
As the prayer calls come, you see the Muslims turning to face faraway Mecca and to say their prayers. Similar to Catholics, they have beads they hold and use in their symbolic worship and prayers. Though we feared coming to Africa, especially to Mombasa, which has the highest concentration of Muslim Africans on earth, we have found the Muslim people, to the contrary, to be friendly, nice people. That's been especially true of the Muslims we have worked with on the measles campaign. There is also, to our surprise, a large population of African Christians, many the result of the many missionaries from Christian religions who have tried to bring the gospel of Christ to Africa, as well as to help prevent poverty and disease here.
On the other hand, there are dangers in the area, of course. For example, just 1/2 mile from the resort we stayed in for a week on the Indian Ocean, is the Israeli resort which was bombed in 2002 by Muslim terrorists who killed around 20 people, including Americans. The American gov't. recommended not visiting here for awhile after that and tourism fell way off for about 5 years. I't a little spooky walking down the beach towards that resort and remembering what happened there. More recently, news reports talk about the Somalian pirates striking all the way down the coast along the Kenya side clear down to the Seychelles. And, of Kenya boys being kidnapped for armies and gold mines. And, genocide and wars still going on in other African countries, like in Uganda just next door.
No wonder, we see armed guards along the highway regularly, at the banks and ATM's, and even outside grocery stores! And, this is in Kenya, which is relatively safer than other African countries.
Africa is called the "Cradle of Civilization" by the world, because this is where the world believes life began. Ancient buildings, forts, and all kind of antiquities are everywhere. We walked through very narrow, rough stone streets, about the width of a car length, and lined with old buildings and shops with balconied, wrought iron windows and doors. The balconies above on the ancient Muslim side of the street had their wrought iron openings covered up, so people could not look up and see the ankles of the Muslim women below their long black coverings. Whereas, on the Portuguese side of the street, you could see into the balcony.
Mombasa has an ancient fascinating history dating back to the beginning of time. The Portuguese sea explorers were the first Europeans to settle there in 1500 and built Ft Jesus, a huge fort overlooking the bay and built of limestone in the shape of a cross. Then, the Arabs conquered the Portuguese and took over the fort and city. Then, over centuries it was conquered again by the Portuguese, then Spain, then by inland Africans, Arabs again, then the British who were invited by the Africans to help drive out the Arabs! The Indians became great business people in Africa. The Brits were the colonizers, the big game hunters, and the missionaries. The Arabs were the slavers, along with starting the ivory trade. All of the outsiders took great advantage of the mostly gentle, peaceful African tribes, with their limited education, technology, etc. Finally, around 1960, after the Mau Mau Revolution against the Brits, Kenya was finally given it's independence by England and Joseph Kenyatta was made the first President. He had fought against the Brits in the revolution and was imprisoned for 7 years before that.
I've seen lots of castles and forts around the world, many much more beautiful and ornate than Ft. Jesus, but it was especially fascinating because of it's history and crude and very inventive limestone construction. Coming up from the sea underneath is a hidden, long, and partially underground tunnel where the Arabs would drive the African slaves upward into the fort after dumping them off from a ship in the bay.
They would then store them in the fort's dungeons and then drive them back down the tunnel to load them into ships for slavery elsewhere or, at other times, sell them on the slave blocks near the docks or ship them off from there. About 50 large cannons face outward to the bay and inward to the land. Besides the usual warfare, the British sometimes used those cannons to bombard and sink ships in the bay who didn't pay their taxes. So, the bay contains many sunken ships and is great for diving.
We toured a great museum containing antiquities from century to century clear back to the beginning of time. Historical places abound in and around Mombasa. For example, the first RR (single gauge, of course), in Africa began here It's the one that crosses Kenya to Uganda. It's also the one where we saw many miles up the line at Maneater's Lodge and walked along the track where the maneating lions of Tsavo killed 143 railroad workers, as depicted in the movie, "Ghost and the Darkness." It was a bit disconcerting visiting the old station here in Mombasa and imagining the workers from India coming off the ships in the harbor and mixing with African workers to build the tracks out to the place where many were killed by the lions.
We also visited a beautiful Hindu Temple in Old
Town which contained many beautiful paintings and ornate decorations, many in gold. It was fascinating to learn about the religion, especially some of the similarities with Christianity and other religions. For example, they have 11, not 10, basic Commandments, like "Thou Shalt not Kill, Commit Adultery," etc. And, another commandment to respect other religious beliefs, similar to our Article of Faith. Other things were quite different, like 4-armed and snake-headed good Gods. Elaborate, large paintings lined the walls depicting good and evil and the consequences of each. The pictures about their bad Gods and Hell were terrible and gruesome, as they showed the suffering they feel sinners will suffer. If you were a Hindu, you'd probably think twice about sinning! We could not visit the inner chambers, but we did learn that marriages, washings, and anointing occur there.
We are so blessed to see and learn firsthand about fascinating places like these. It's just not the same reading about it in a book. And, being able to smell it, feel it, touch it, and mingle with the people makes it very real and enjoyable. We've been all over the world, but have found Africa to be the most memorable and fascinating of all. That has, of course, been much due to our measles work where we have helped the people and the country and felt their heartfelt gratitude. There is such a huge need here. It sometimes seems a little hopeless, almost like a bottomless pit of poverty and disease. But, if we can help just one, that is one of God's children, and one of our brothers or sisters, who has been helped.
Well, better close for now. It's around 6 AM and time to get dressed and going on the measles work.
We love you all. Have a great day...and, goodbye again from the "Cradle of Civilization,"
Dick and Lawana in Africa
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