Kenya mangrove project and school opening ceremony

Our stay in Camp Kaya ended with a local dance group's unexpected arrival at camp, who did a farewell dance for us and then invited us to join. That night we packed our things and headed to Makongeni, another new campsite on the coast.

On our first day we took a walk around the project site, a large plain of sand surrounded by beautiful mangroves stretching to the horizon. We worked on a half-built boardwalk leading into the swamp and as the tide rose thousands of crabs swarmed past us. The locals told us that eventually the boardwalk will lead to a restaurant in the middle of the mangroves which will attract tourists to the area. One thing we could all agree on was that crab would definitely be on the menu!

We spent the next few days digging out pools for fish farming, a major source of income for the local community, collecting and planting mangrove seeds, fishing and continuing the boardwalk. At around four in the afternoon we finished work and enjoyed a relaxing swim along winding paths through the breathtakingly beautiful mangrove forest.

On Wednesday night we went out to dinner with George, the owner of a local beach bar called Forty Thieves, at a restaurant he owns called Ali Baba's. The whole restaurant is built within a massive natural cave with a beautiful twenty meter blue gum tree rising from the center... and (more importantly) the food was amazing!

The following week we returned home to Muhaka where we greeted the staff like old friends. It felt great to return to our original projects at the Muhaka school and the vocational center, especially when the last week's torrential rain finally came to an end. The locals also seemed very relieved: some of the mud huts had lost whole sections of wall or ceiling. The kids at school were also very pleased to see us and came along to help us flatten the recycled bottles into meter by meter squares which form the roof of the vocational center.

On Thursday we finished the school, cementing in its brand new water tank, and held an opening ceremony with the teachers and elders. A real highlight for all of us was the kids presenting us with a thank-you plaque and necklaces of flowers.

Next week we head to Tsavo, and the lions!

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