Good Snorkeling

Jumamosi 25 septemba

KiSwahili word of the day is "baharini". The ocean.

I drank too much last night and am now preparing myself for a day in the sun on a boat with Captain Happy.

3 other girls from my hotel also paid Omar Shariff the deposit for snorkeling, but counted their losses and are going with someone else. So my American friend and I decided we would ask Omar Shariff if he could go in place of the girls.

As soon as I get to the ferry port and ask Omar Shariff, he flips out. FLIPS OUT. He's yelling about all kinds of things. I said the girls said it was ok for the other American to go in their place so he drags me across the port looking for the girls and we find them as they are getting onto their boat.

I felt awful for them! Seeing this horrible angry stinking Omar Shariff coming at them yelling about how it was rude to promice this and asks if they said what I had told him.

One of the girls nervously looks at me and says, "yes"

"OK THEN IT IS FINE!" Omar Shariff yells and turns around and we walk back to the boat. Whew!

So there are 5 wazungu on the boat: Myself, my American friend, 2 German girls, and a photographer. And 2 sailors. The photographer was great. He is originally from Australia but has lived in Fiji and California (holla) and for the past 14 months has been driving around the continent of Africa taking pictures of tribes in their traditional clothing. He is is Lamu because he is waiting for his Ethiopian visa (which is really easy to get IF you fly into Addis on Ethiopian airline which is owned by the sultan... if not, it is damn near impossible to get).

So we pull up to this spot near another island that is brown with silt from mangrove trees and the captain says "I think here we make good snorkeling". I can't even see my hand under the water. So we are given "fishing poles" which are blocks of wood with fishing line tied around and a hook and weight on the end and sit for some minutes trying to catch fish. The water is so murky the fish probably can't even see the bait.

So we move to another location. Slightly better, but still the water is really murky. "Ok I think here we make for snorkeling".

The photographer inquires about a house boat in the distance. It is a hotel. Bar? Yes.

He immediately jumps ship and starts swimming.

Is he going to the bar?

Just a few meters before he reaches it, I jump in after him, swim to the house boat and he helps pull me up onto it.

Did you bring any money? He asks.

No, did you?

No.

Well, we tried. We hung out for a while and talked then swam back to the boat. The water was warm but part of me was completely panicked about sharks and crocodiles the whole time, especially because I couldn't see under the water.

We finally ended up at the beach across from Shela and played in the waves. I watched Omar, the captain's helper, prepare the food. Then we all got back onto the boat and the captain put up a sun shade for us.

"For you, not for me" he says.

"Well, you certainly have a lot of pigment. But supposedly we are all from Africa... I guess if you don't use it you lose it..." the photographer replies.

After eating we went back to Amu port. Even though I didn't snorkel, I really enjoyed the boat ride. We passed a house or shop near the water with all these 8x10 inch windows but every single one was broken. We asked about it, and the captain said these French people lived there who hated locals walking by their house (even though the house is on the main walkway) and are always giving the locals trouble about whatever issues so one night, a bunch of people came and broke all the windows a few weeks ago. So funny!