Gazi surprised us by the large number of schools and schoolchildren in different uniforms. Gazi Primary School is located in Coast province, Kwale district, Msambweni divison, Kinondo location and Msambweni Constituency. Although you can find only one public school in internet search, we clearly saw a Muslim School and a girls school in the area.
After an unsuccessful attempt to buy Coke zero Paul decided to “compensate” us by finding a local palm wine maker. This Palm Wine is called “mnazi”. We were twirling around small streets and finally found a lady who was busy simultaneously doing laundry, peeling corn and bearing no nonsense. Between all these activities, she poured a big plastic mug for us with whitish liquid in exchange for 70 shillings ($1.20). Paul took a sip and passed it around. Initially it tasted sort of soapy with a kvas tint. It had a bitter aftertaste. We were not terribly eager to consume an entire mug of mnazi, to Paul’s great pleasure. He finished the soupy substance gladly within 5 seconds. A local guy accompanied us asking questions and explaining different areas in the village. As I understood this territory was considered “presidential”, however you can just build and live there. He also explained that mnazi was banned at some point, but then it was allowed again as a cultural drink for the poor.
The houses in this village were quite elaborate- the skeleton was made of tree branches and filled with dirt and clay creating a solid structure. Roofes were made of palm tree leaves.There were many schools, even one with Muslim studies.There were actual streets and shops. I’ve noticed that many windows were plugged with clay and Paul explained that this happens when people cannot afford window frames, they just plug the window hole until they can afford to build a real window. There were clothes hung to dry, goats and chickens wandered in between houses. Main street had several shops and we attempted to buy Coke zero, unsuccessfully. We had an interesting stop at the marine research center, where young Muslim woman, the program director wearing a mask, improvised an introductory presentation for us. She explained what their research center does, importance of mangroves in the local ecosystem, their scholarships and other projects. There were some interns in the library. We were impressed.
