Three days in Nairobi

I arrived only late on Wednesday, after a long, dry and hot ride from Moshi, TZ. I had a big supper and tried my best to settle into bed. Then it hit. I've been away from home for about a week and a half, and had the highs of meeting such a great group as the S. Afrikaans and I think that distracted from how much I missed Val. Cuz once I got here, it all felt pretty lonely. Thankfully, I have a journal for such times. I did some "tub" laundry, and hung out everything to dry and fell asleep with my iPod on.

I awoke Thursday eager to check out my Nairobi highlights. Had breakfast, showered and got ready to pound the pavement....Ok, I didn't go far, I walked around the corner to the National Museum. There must've been 1000 school kids there, and I swear they weren't nearly as interested in Lions, Elephants, the earliest discovered human remains of 1,000,000 years ago. They were interested in me, it appeared to be a contest who could come up to me and say "hi" and go off giggling to their friends. It was cute. So I spent a couple hours looking at early rock art from all over the continent, checked out the different tribal presentations and actually ate some Street food. For 100Ksh, or 70c US I ate some Irio- Potatoes, mashed with onion, corn and peas....It was an authentic Kenyan food display, only the corn and peas were more like rocks....but hey, it was cheap! After that I came back to the hotel for some Tusker, and then sought out a "private car hire" or Hotel Taxi for a city tour. David from Kisumu drove me around for the next 2 hours in the craziest streets, traffic and pedestrian traffic ever. They have these Matatu's cheap buses where people are literally hanging out the windows weaving in/out of traffic. The city buses looked like mobile refugee camps, so I was thankful for my cozy shotgun seat. We checked out the Nairobi UN bombing site, Kenyatta avenue (parliament) and the railway museum. There I absorbed all I could about the Tsavo Lions, and the railway buildings....Sure the guide wanted to show me what kind of teapots and stuff but I wanted the real mccoy, train 12, British Railway line, Ghost and the Darkness kind of stuff. And it didn't dissapoint. That night I got home, showered went to Carnivore restaurant (with David as Driver) and feasted on all sorts of roasted meats, only I was slightly dissapointed that they stopped serving Antelope and some other game meats, I filled up on Goat and Ostrich :)

Then I got to talk to Val, well I called her for a minute (560 Ksh, or close to 8$) and had her call me back at the hotel. Hearing her voice helped build back up my strength as it's still pretty early to be so lonely, I'm sure (as of today, Saturday) that once I get out on Safari my mind won't wonder so much! Talking to Val put everything back in order.

Friday I went to the David Sheldrick trust, it's an Elephant and Rhino orphanage. Most of the rescues are from Drought area's and/or orphaned by Poachers. The babies were the best,1 mos old and coming up to your waist level. They get coconut oil baths on Fridays and so were pretty slimy but it was awesome to play with them, pet them and get real up close. The 6 mos and 2 year olds were quite large and vocal, it's feeding time and they don't waste precious seconds. They feed 5pints in about 2 mins. There were again about 1000 kids from schools there, and it was cute at one point there was a huge commotion over where the kids were. They were screaming and carrying on, only to have a 50-70lb wild boar run through the crowd. The boars, you could tell get jealous of the attention the elephants receive and the display is literally out in the open in the Nairobi National Park. Saw some baboons, and giraffe on the drive in. After that we had some lunch and I returned to the hotel for a nap. I awoke to a Nairobi rainstorm, very heavy and I enjoyed my African Supper under the covered patio listening to the rain.

Today, I'm organizing my things and heading out for safari tomorrow. We meet the group tonight.....So I just got back from the pool, and will probably sit around, read or watch the movie network in my room.

Hope all are well, it'll be awhile but the next update I'll load a couple photo's. Thank you for all the positive energy and comments!

George