GHAFLA EXPLORES: Old Thirsty Tourists Soliciting For Sex, Young Girls Selling Their Bodies For A Few Dollars And Beach Boys Doing Dirty Deals……These Are The Shocking Things I Saw In Malindi This Past Weekend

Malindi is a tropical paradise and inglourious hell blended into one. While at the small coastal town you get the most wondrous of experiences but also witness the most shocking of things There are two kinds of deals that are mostly conducted there. Business deals and ‘pussyness’ deals. The latter is self-explanatory I presume..

I spent my weekend in Malindi attending some conference that was of great significance but which I am not allowed to mention here since such a move might be considered native advertising. The town is like a small Italian colony. Most of the tourists come from Sicily, Rome, Napoli, Florence and Milan. For a moment I thought I might bump into a descendant of Albert Anastasia, one of the most ruthless mafia hitmen of all time. Or maybe the great great great grandson of Gaius Julius Ceasar, Roman emperor of the medieval ages. But that wasn’t to be. Fate had more shocking things lined up

My adventure starts on Saturday morning……………

I am in a claw-foot bathtub in my hotel room just one or two miles from the beach,. Part of me feels like I could easily drift off to sleep again. The other part of me wants to soak up in the slice of heaven that surrounds. The roar of the ocean’s rapids is indeed loud and thunderous

Peace and serenity rules the air before a husky voice thunders “questo è molto dolce” from the next hotel room. I know Italian and I can easily tell that those words mean “This is very sweet.”. What’s very sweet I wonder? The statement is followed by what seems like cries of pain from a girl. Being a concerned citizen, i leave the bathroom and try to call the reception to alert them of the situation. No one answers, so I leave my room to go alert the hotel authorities of a potential rape situation.

I take a few steps before bumping into a butler. I frantically explain to him what’s happening but he doesn’t seem bothered. He pulls me aside and explains.

“That’s one of our Italian customers. He’s with one of the local girls. You know how they love white men you know You know….you know….you know.”

“No I don’t know”…I reply. I have no idea why he keeps saying ‘you know’. Seeing that I am not impressed, he continues to expound.

“I can see you haven’t been to Malindi before. Here it’s business. It’s not really rape or molestation. The girls both young and mature, easily give themselves to white men and the men pay handsomely for the services. The guy inside that room is a millionaire. He can’t even be arrested because he’ll easily pay off the policemen.”.

I request him to tell me more.

“This is what happens. The girls work with the beach boys to find male tourists. When the boys get a client, a deal is struck, say for $70 per night. The money is split afterwards. Other tourists even pay girls for the whole week and have sex with them daily. You see…even this hotel that you are in is owned by an Italian man so we basically can’t do anything about these things. Italians own most of the exotic property in this town”

Touching stuff. I ask the butler for his name and contacts but he declines, so I order breakfast instead. As I am heading back to my room, the Italian millionaire opens his door and releases the girl. His hair is shaggy like that of a witch from a Harry Porter movie and his veins are almost popping out. The effects of Viagra I suppose. An estimation of his age? Around 70 I suppose. I look at the girls and I am almost in tears. She looks 16, maybe 17 at most. Exhausted in her mini dress and shy. She doesn’t even look up as she walks away. The grandpa gives me the ‘rat on me and I will cut off of your finger’ look, before slamming the door.

Quietly, I walk on. I relax in my room, pondering over what I have just seen and heard. This society is in turmoil. I can’t be a superman here. The best I can do is to tell the story and create awareness. Meanwhile the butler shows up with well-prepared breakfast to calm my spirits. Seared tilapia topped with lemongrass and ginger, as well as ravioli stuffed with potato, roasted red onion and rhyme. Awesome. I eat up before heading to the conference.

As expected, I find it hard to even concentrate, The early morning experience just won’t vanish from my mind. To push time i chat with one of the businessmen at the conference. Luckily, he’s a native. He’s been living in the coastal town for the past 15 years so he knows everything that goes on.

“.The police in Malindi are aware of the sex trade but they haven’t been able to tackle it. They just don’t have enough power to do so. Since some hotels and establishments do not condone the activities, the trade is being to driven underground where it’s even harder to curb.”, he says

“How is this?” I ask.

“Well. the young girls are going to private villas and the mansion of the tourists. Most of them have built incredible homes here. The prostitution profession is well paying so many children drop out of school to have a piece of the pizza. Some even end up getting married to the Italian men. ”

After persevering through five hours of speeches and handclasp, I head to the beach for some playtime. It’s afternoon, the sun is illuminating the sand and I soon realize that it’s not only the men who are looking to have fun. The older white women are in the game too. They are busy playing with the beach boys. Some are being carried around like babies and smiling like the Joker. Others are being taught how to swim while being groped all over by the enthusiastic boys. They are loving this.

Curious, I speak to a beach boy called Juma, who sheds more light onto what’s going on.

“These women are rich. Most of us see them as our ticket out of poverty. If we treat them well, they spoil us and keep us like pets. Many boys have gone on to marry the old women knowing that they will dies sometime soon and leave all the wealth behind. But don’t just look at the negative side. Malindi has lots of positives to offer.”

I am amazed at how fluent his English is. I partially agree with his sentiments. Malindi has a dark side, but under the sun, it’s fun too. Maybe next time, when I am not here for business, I will explore it a bit more.

Arrivederci!!!!!

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