Sorry it has been a while since I have written. I warned you once we turned in the mutatu and got our CRV we would be hitting the roads. AND Seth has been out of town quite a bit this month, leaving me a single mom. While the baby is beyond wonderful, it is exhausting. A big shout out to all of you who have done this alone. Wow! Anyways, I digress. We have gone on a few small trips around Nairobi...nothing big, just getting our feet wet. But you know I will be sure to bore you in great detail about those trips.
A friend and I went to the Kazuri Bead Factory a few weeks back. It is located in Karen. For any of you who are familiar with the movie, "Out of Africa," Karen is where the author, Karen Blixen lived. It is an upper class neighborhood about 30 minutes from where we live. A British woman started the factory to give jobs to
single mothers who had no means of income. Today there are over 300 women employed by Kazuri, women who have fair wages, good working conditions, and a medical clinic that provides free health care for employees and their families. The tour was fantastic and we got to watch the process--from the preparing of the clay, to the making and painting of the beads.
You could even design your own necklace and they would make it for you. The rooms where the ladies worked were filled with women humming, singing, chatting, and laughing. It seemed as if this place was a little piece of heaven for these women--a place where they were safe and were given means to provide for their families. Amazing. Made me feel the need to buy several necklaces instead of just one...must support the cause, you know.
The following Saturday Seth, Claire, and I woke up at the crack of dawn and made our way to Nairobi National Park. It is about 4 miles outside of Nairobi. It is amazing...right in the
middle of the city is a preserve filled with wild animals--lions, rhino, giraffes, zebra, gazelles,warthogs, and so on As we pulled into the parking lot we saw two warthogs hanging out near the picnic tables hoping for a little snack. Seth told me to quick grab the camera and as I was getting it out they ran away. Apparently, their nickname here amongst safari goers is "Fed Ex" because of how fast they are. Once in the park we saw tons of zebra (there were so many that about 10 minutes in we stopped pointing them out), gazelle, and other animals. We were a bit too late too see the lions. They come out early, make their kill, and sleep the day away. I was thrilled, however, when we turned the corner and a giraffe was walking down the road towards us. He stopped for a snack at a nearby tree and then walked right past our car, popping in to say hello. For a brief moment as he walked by, dwarfing our CRV, I worried about giraffe attacks. Seth asked me how many people I knew who were mauled by giraffes. I told him none, but perhaps that's because they never survived to tell their tale. Apparently unconvinced, he kept the window down.
We could have reached out and pet him. We spent about 4 hours in the park--Claire loving every second of it, although she was more interested in her teething ring than the wildlife around her. Seth's chest was puffed with pride when we arrived home, our car coated in red dirt because the neighbors commented on how dirty the car was and how we had finally broken the new car in. All in all a great day.
The following weekend Seth was off for President's Day so we headed to the Giraffe Center, an orphanage created to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe. The Rothschild is found only in the grasslands of Africa. Setting my fears of giraffe attack aside, we climbed the platform to feed and meet the giraffes. I know this sounds silly, but I am continually amazed at how TALL these creatures are! And they have these huge, gorgeous brown eyes with eyelashes mascara would kill to go on. Seth and Claire fed Daisy. I remember, as I took the picture of my baby girl with a giraffe breathing on her, thinking what an amazing experience this was for her...only to realize that Ms. Claire had no interest in this 19 foot beauty hovering over her. Kids these days. Oh well...it was one Seth and I won't forget!
That is about all this currently single mom has time for right now. Life is an adventure for the Sonnonstine clan and I never know what tomorrow will bring here in Africa. Time to rest up. Night, y'all.
Many of you have asked how Walter is doing. The dog loves Africa. He loves it from the tip of his furry tail all the way to his wet nose. It's like he wakes up every morning, stretches and shouts out, "I love Africa." At least that's what Seth and I think Walt is saying. And why wouldn't he? Our town home is right next to the tennis courts and no less than 3 tennis balls wind up in our yard on a daily basis. Our gardener, Bonifis, takes him on a hour long walk, ending with a visit to the dog park where he plays with Dixie the hound and Munga the shepard. He lays on a bed of mint leaves and gnaws on his dog treats. He sleeps on a sheepskin rug Seth bought on the side of the road for 1200 Kenyan shillings. Walter loves Africa.
Our car arrived last week. We are beyond excited. It is a beautiful, shiny, silver Honda CRV. For the past few months we have been driving around in a mini van rental while we waited for our car to arrive from Japan. Here in Kenya there is a rather ubiquitous form of public transportation called the "matatu." Picture a minivan from 1984 with decals of Brittany Spears or other American pop icons all over and you will get a general idea of what they look like. From what I understand, as we diplomats are forbidden to ride them, they are designed to fit perhaps 10 - 12 people. However, I don't believe that I have ever seen a matatu with less than 25 people on it. Yesterday I saw a mother on one with 3, yes 3, children in her lap. You may even see chickens and goats strapped to the top of the matatu. There are generally 2 people operating the bus--one to drive and another to collect the small fee to ride. The second person also seems to have the job of hanging halfway out the window to wave traffic out of their way as they do not stop and are not concerned with accidents or passenger demise. It is not uncommon to see a matatu in the ditch or turned over on the side of the road. I tell you this because Seth and I's rental van resembled a matatu so much that we even had the Kenyans fooled. The first few days we were here I kept thinking Kenyans were so friendly as we were out driving the pot hole ravaged roads. They would wave and I would smile back. How welcoming Kenyans were! It was only after mentioning this to Seth that I realized that they weren't waving at us to say "Hello." They were waving us down for a ride. We could have charged prime rates and made some serious dough. Heck, we could have strapped Claire to the roof with the chickens and sheep to make even more money with additional passengers. Live and learn.
Needless to say, you can expect my blog to get more interesting as Seth, C, and I now have means to get out and explore our African surroundings. And if we pick up a Kenyan and a few chickens on the way, so be it.
