In Mombasa

I arrived in Mombasa last night after a long bus ride from Nairobi. There are 10 people in the volunteer group, plus a couple of staff people from the organization. We are from the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea. The road outside of Mombasa was terrible. It was dirt and filled with potholes, and it went on for about an hour on the outskirts of the city.
After arriving, we all piled into a minivan with all of our luggage and took a ferry across the Indian Ocean (not actually a long trip at this point) from Mombasa, which is an island, to the mainland. From there, it was another hour to the village where we are staying.
At a police check point, the police wanted a bribe because there were so many of us in the van, but the local volunteers told them no.
The welcome when we arrived was pretty amazing. After saying 'jambo' - hello - to everyone, the group of us work camp people schlepped our bags into the home where we are staying. A group of towns people followed us, singing, dancing, and playing music on a flat instrument that is kind of like a washboard, but it's filled with seeds. The women dancers gave us little choice but to jump into the mix and shake our shoulders and dance with them. It was quite an experience, and it was really welcoming.
Last night, it rained heavily through the opening in the roof through in the courtyard through which I had recently admired the palm trees. Fortunately, though, someone got up and put out some buckets to catch the leak in the drain pipe outside of the room where two other women and I are sleeping.
Kenya so far is very welcoming and beautiful. I didn't see the wildebeasts yesterday that some of my companions saw from the bus, probably because I was sleeping.
Locally, there is a big titanium deposit, which the government is haggling over with the landowners. Undoubtedly, the mining will destroy the land, and I wonder what other consequences it will have on the environment.
AIDS is a big problem. We visited a volunteer-run school today, and there are many orphans. I presume that many of them have lost their parents to AIDS. The news in Nairobi also carried a story the other day about a toddler being raped and killed, most likely because of the myth that started in South Africa that having sex with a virgin is a cure for AIDS.
Anyway, that's my update for the moment. More later.