So it’s taken about 2 days to get onto the +9 hour time zone difference, yesterday we were up early (4 a.m.) then by noon everyone was struggling to make meaningful words come out of their mouth, so quick nap and we were better. Basically didn’t do much of anything yesterday, our apartment/hotel is connected to a mall and we went to a Chinese place for food…

Today on the other hand Cindy had setup a drive to take us through the city to explore a women’s facility that makes beads, the Karen Blixen museum (Out of Africa), and the Giraffe center – breeding and education. The traffic was brutal in Nairobi, and I wouldn’t drive here if I had to – wrong side of the road, no signs really and just a game of chicken at about every turn. Even driving in Peru doesn’t compare.

Kazuka

The first stop today was the women’s bead factory: Kazuka. This place was founded in 1975 to help single women with children earn an income and have a safe haven for work. Today it employs 340 women to create, paint, assemble, and ship beads around the world. It’s a pretty impressive thing to see, especially the 23 kilns they have for roasting purposes.

“Out of Africa”

Next stop was the Karen Blixen museum -with the house from the movie Out of Africa, which was their house when here in the 1920’s. They had about 5000 acres of land, growing coffee and generally telling her life story as in the movie… Now a museum and 25 acres in size.

Lunch with Cats…

And of course we get taken to a place that has Cats… It made Cindy so excited, so we sat, had lunch and of course were entertained by them. Lunch was of course an Ostrich Hamburger for me, interesting, but not much to write home about. Cindy had a typical beef hamburger, which was of the same category of writing home about. Hayden and Gavin chose better. All in all it was a beautiful place to sit outside and have lunch, and of course feed the cats from the table…

Giraffe Fun!

The last stop of the day was the Giraffe rescue center, where they have mostly female Giraffes, ranging from 19 years to 3 months old. A great experience, as they come right up to you for a treat. Cindy did the “kiss the giraffe” thing which was fun – slimy though. Pretty amazing animals, I didn’t know they could run 40 MPH.