In and around Nairobi

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I arrived in Nairobi on Thursday early morning and then headed out to visit the Owens in Karen, a really lovely suburb a few miles out of the city centre and really quite in the country.  It was nice to be looked after and meet Alice and the two children.

On Friday I went to the Karen Blixen Museum (the lady who wrote 'Out of Africa') which is the house she lived in for a few years.  It was ok but a bit boring.  But...the Giraffe Centre I went to from there was brilliant.  Hand-feeding giraffes who are really gentle and graceful giants was amazing.  There were loads of small Kenyan kids there on a school visit who were immaculately behaved and quite a few were wearing woolly hats (it's like good British summer weather here, so cold for the Kenyans)!.

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The rest of the i-to-i volunteers have arrived and yesterday I went to the David Sheldrick wildlife place with an Oz couple Gerald and Debs (my sort of age).  We were met at the gates by an armed guard who greeted us really warmly.  Not quite the tourist welcome we were expecting.  The centre rescues elephants from the wild whose parents have been poached or who have got themselves into trouble.

It's a real eye-opener to see the difference in housing the Kenyans live in.  Some live in the most amazing places (like in Karen) while others live in shacks or tin tents.  But they nearly all seem happy and shout out "Jambo!" and wave at us, especially the kids (cute as anything!).

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We're all off to our placements tomorrow in Nakuru and start work on Tuesday (7 November).  Am v excited to get started and to meet the children who I'll be working with.  They're all from the slums in Nakuru and are aged between 4-8 years with a few older ones popping in for lunch.