NEWSLETTER NOTES FROM 'FRIENDS OF FORT JESUS'

Coastweek - - The Swahili Attire exhibition Umeuacha Mbachao was opened on December 6th, 2005, later than previously announced, with an Opening Ceremony at the Old Law Courts on a perfect Mombasa night.

The exhibition explores Swahili culture through the development of people's clothing and is well laid out, with both photographs and actual examples of Swahili Dress.

The ground floor area of the Old Law Courts has been spruced up for the occasion; giving a fine backdrop to the exhibits, so do visit the exhibition if you can.

• On the 15th December, the Coelacanth Exhibit opens at Malindi Museum. 

This will be a permanent exhibit in the museum, with a fibreglass cast of Malindi's famous living fossil fish, so do drop in if you are in the area.

More good news from the Malindi Museum Society - NMK now has full control of the Old DC's office in Malindi, an historic building that has been a subject of concern for a long time.

A caretaker is there, and estimates are being obtained for the cost of renovation.  

The building can be visited if you stop by at Malindi Museum and get a pass from the Curator there.

We will try to arrange a guided visit to the building later next year.

• We have received a complaint about a guide at the Fort overcharging, but  unfortunately without a name.

It has prompted us, however, to let you all know that 20 guides from the community have formed the Mombasa Old Town Guides group, and these are the only guides now authorised to work in the Fort.

They wear a uniform of white shirt and black trousers, or  light blue shirt and khaki trousers.

They wear a gold name badge pinned to their shirts and carry an ID like a credit card on a tape around their neck.

This ID gives their name and carries a photo, and states that they are members of the Old Town Guides group.

They have no fixed charges, but we are told that 100/- to 200/- is the going rate for a tour of the Fort, depending on the number of people. A full tour of Old Town as well would be extra.

Please use these guides if you visit the Fort, and ask any visitors you know to do the same.

• Stephen J. North has published a Third (Revised and Extended) Edition of his popular book 'Europeans in British Administered East Africa'. 

This is a Biographic Listing of people who were working or travelling in East Africa between 1888 and 1905, and contains more than 4000 entries and over 800 portraits.

• Marlene Reid, our Ornitholo-gist, has conducted a survey of Lafarge Lands with Kelvin Mazera and Lafarge staff, trying to count migrant birds.

She reports that there were very sparse numbers over all, the exception being at Vipingo where they counted 1000 plus waders on the beach.

At high tide the waders flew up into the quarry where they were able to see them at very close quarters.

There were all the usual species but with a Kittlitzes Plover and several Little Ringed Plovers.

At least Marlene didn't see any dead birds and she prays that Bird Flu will keep away from us !

PAST EVENTS:

Saturday 19th November: Bird Walk to Huseini Dairy Land

A desire to see what migrants are about led us up to Nguu Tatu.

We were not disappointed.

Yellow Wagtail, hundreds of Barn Swallows, Red back Shrike (several), Spotted Flycatcher, Common Sandpiper plus some really exciting "local" birds.

Two Purple Herons at the pond, Fan Tail Widow Birds, Pangani's and Yellow Throated Longclaw plus two magnificent birds of prey which flew down low over our heads to make sure we got a good view. A Whalberg's Eagle and a Black Chested Snake Eagle.  Little Rush Warblers in the rushes (naturally), heard but not seen.

An exciting walk. (MR)

Tuesday 22nd November: Talk - Sarah de Mowbray: Aid in Africa - A relief worker's perspective.

Sarah has been working in Africa with Medicins sans Frontieres as a Water and Sanitation Engineer, and gave us a very interesting illustrated talk about life as a relief worker, right from the excellent briefings MSF gave her before she left Europe to details of latrine construction in Chad.

Sarah's first posting was in Chad as an engineer looking after the water and sanitation needs of a huge refugee camp, and she explained to us the difficulties of working in an alien environment with people from a different culture.

Sarah did manage to keep the water flowing and the latrines functioning - she feared disaster if the water ran out.

Her second posting was to Uganda, where she was sent to look at the water and sanitation needs of the local people who are moving to larger villages as a result of the civil war. 

Her third posting was as a supply co-ordinator for a team of medical staff who were finding and feeding malnourished children in Niger.

Sarah has enjoyed her time with MSF, and we very much enjoyed hearing about it, and the unpublished side of relief work.

Saturday 26th November: Outing - Visit to Kinuni Swahili Ruins at Vipingo     

Eight members set off to visit Kinuni, to see the ruins and the slave caves.

We were armed with copies of James Kirkman's 1957 article about the site that he called 'An Arab Manor on the Coast of Kenya'.

On arrival we decided to visit first the caves, or grottos, in the coral hill covered with coastal forest behind the beach.

The first cave is a shrine for Giriama, Digo and Muslim people, and the Giriama visit weekly to leave sticks with cloth attached, to petition their deity. 

We had been warned that this cave was also home to a swarm of bees, which were known to chase away strangers, so we merely viewed from a safe distance and continued on to the next cave.

Three of us climbed down into this one, the floor was very wet from a freshwater spring, and it was full of bats, which didn't take kindly to our intrusion.

Two of us braved the third cave, supposedly a Slave Cave, which was a more difficult descent, but rewarded by a dry floor, and what we were told was a bench carved out of the sidewall for the slaves to sit on.

Although there were no bats visible in this cave, we were shown a 'chimney', disappearing up into the coral, which was full of bats that came swooping down over our heads. 

The walk to these caves was worth a trip on its own, through magnificent forest, with ancient baobabs and a fish eagle's nest.

We then took our picnic down to the beach and the ruins, which consist of a mosque with only the anteroom surviving and several unusual pillar tombs.

With the aid of Kirkman's article, we were able to see how much the ruins had deteriorated since 1957.

One of the tomb pillars has fallen, as has a doorjamb of the mosque, and the whole area is very much more overgrown than shown in the 1957 photos.

The current owners are hoping to encourage NMK to help stabilise the ruins, so that they do not deteriorate any further.

We sat above the tide line for the picnic, at low tide, and watched the waders on the reef, and the sea eagle obliged by swooping down out of the forest behind and off acrossthe reef in search of food.

A most enjoyable afternoon.

Tuesday 6th December: Video - The Blue Planet: Coasts

This was the last of our Blue Planet videos, and this time the emphasis was on the marine animals and the birds that live off them, and vice versa, strictly on the sea coasts.

There was a look at the sea turtles that come on the beaches to lay eggs, and a type of fish that also washes up the beaches in a synchronised shoal to lay eggs, which are fertilised on the sands.

The most amazing was the predator-thwarting exercise whereby millions of sea turtles at a time swarm up the beach to lay eggs, and the hatchlings in millions totter back to the sea to confuse the predators waiting in the wings (or on the wing) and in the shallows.

A wonderful story is of sea birds like puffins who do the same at night to evade predators and the struggles of the penguins and the walruses for survival on the far southern Antarctic coasts, where the seas are some of the roughest in the world.

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FUTURE PROGRAMME

Tuesday 10th January: Talk - Rear-Admiral Roy Clare: Trafalgar 200.

Rear-Admiral Roy Clare has had a distinguished career in the British Royal Navy, including command of many ships and of Royal Naval College Dartmouth.

He is now the Director of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in London, and during this year has been involved in many of the British commemo-rations of their victory in the Naval Battle of Trafalgar 200 years ago.

Rear-Admiral Clare will give an illustrated talk about the commemoration events.

Saturday 21st January: Bird Walk with Marlene Reid

Meet at Ratna Square at 4 p.m. for the January ornithological outing.

Saturday 28th January: Outing - Chale Island

Join us for a trip to Chale Island, to view birds and perhaps whale sharks, including a Beach Barbeque lunch, swimming and a canoe trip up the estuary to Bird Island.

We hope to visit Kaya Kinondo on the way, but they have not yet confirmed their opening days for next year.

It will be an all day trip, and it is intended to make it by private vehicle, driving down through Diani to Chale.

The cost of the trip will be not more than 2,000/- with car passengers also expected to make a contribution to the travel.

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