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This was Paul and Nicola’s Wedding Anniversary. They got up
early  and went with
Alison and Julie to a luxury resort called The Driftwood Club, at the opposite end of
Malindi. The rest of us followed on later, walking along the beach, past the jetty and the
Vasco De Gama Pillar, which commemorated the arrival of the Portuguese fleet in 1498.Security guards, some dressed as Masai warriors, kept watch over the more
luxurious resorts. Day membership at the Driftwood Club was £2, enough to deter most
Kenyans. In fact, when Tom and I went to a restaurant where they were showing the Formula
One on a big screen, he was the only Kenyan who didn’t work there. The largely
Italian and German audience cheered Schumacher home, as Kenyan waiters served free pizza
on silver trays. This was a third side to Kenya. 
We had seen the busy capital city (business centre, suburbs and
slum), where whites were few and far between; and we had seen the remote, largely
undeveloped town of Garsen, and some of its outlying villages, where we were the only
whites; but we hadn’t seen the tourist side of Kenya, where smartly dressed Kenyans
serve skimpily dressed European tourists with free food, while begging children are kept
clear. Ethical tourism it wasn’t. |
Returning to the Driftwood, we all set off for
"I Love Pizza", where Paul and Nicola treated  us
to dinner. Some of us stayed up late, talking about reverse culture shock and life in
Garsen. It was clear that some of the team had found it hard in Garsen. Others found it
hard to adjust to life in Malindi.
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