Naivasha, Hell's Gate, and Nairobi

Sorry for the gap in posts..John and I just returned from our weekend trip to Lake Naivasha, Hell’s Gate National Park, and Nairobi on Tuesday. We had a really good time, but are happy to be back at the orphanage. We left on Saturday after helping with the sponsored kids event here at the orphanage. For this, kids from around the area that are in the sponsors program came to write cards for their sponsors (in the States, UK, Australia, etc.). It was interesting to meet some of the other kids – many who of course don’t have as much exposure to the organization. We each helped a couple kids craft their letters in English (many of whom didn’t understand English at all).

Then, that afternoon we took a matatu to Thika (larger city nearby) and then transferred to Naivasha. The Thika matatu area was absolutely crazy. Right when we got off the matatu, we were harassed by random vendors and matatu drivers. Finally we pushed off to Naivasha. The ride was actually pretty pleasant, besides the normal couple close calls when our matatu would pass other cars in the other lane going around turns in what became a more and more mountainous terrain. John was in the front seat with our friend David and the driver. He thought this added to the excitement (don’t worry, Mom, I made him put on his seatbelt). I was in the middle seat with Amanda and had the joy of listening to Doug (rounding out the 5 in our group) talk to a veterinarian from Thika that was traveling home to his family in Naivasha. Over the 2 hour ride, they spoke of random subjects like eating meat, alcohol, farming, tea vs. coffee, and others. Doug’s a pretty fun loving guy so by the end of our ride we were buddy buddy with the people on the bus. We were offered pineapples and corn from our neighbors. At one point the matatu stopped and we were offered pineapples from about 20 women who surrounded the car. This area is more mountainous and the main crops are pineapple and tea leaves (some of the best in the world). The terrain was beautiful.

Soon we arrived in Naivasha town, where we were duped into thinking there wasn’t a matatu that would take us to the lake. So, we took a cab and arrived at Fisherman’s Camp on the lake. A British couple started this resort/campground on the lake about 20 years ago and it is now a local landmark. We arrived in time to take a sunset boat ride around the lake. There we came across a whole herd (I think they’re herds) of hippos. The things were enormous and we saw a few yawns from the hungry group. Hippos come out of the lake to graze at night and we caught a couple that had come out early for some food. Our guide also bought a fish from a local fisherman who were fishing with big sweeping nets (fishing is actually banned in the lake because fish are low but who’s going to stop a poor fisherman). He then used those to get a fish eagle to swoop by to grab the bait.

That night, we enjoyed the camp. There was a restaurant with western fare (pizzas, burgers, etc.) and a full bar. Our accommodations were really nice too. We had a cabin for the 5 of us…with showers and hot water! Also, while we were eating dinner out on the porch of the restaurant, hippos came up to graze in the grass around us. There are electric fences around the camp to keep a safe distance from the big guys, but we were able to get within 15 feet from a couple of them.

The next morning we rented bikes from the camp and headed to Hell’s Gate National Park. This is one of the few parks in Kenya where they allow you to go in without a vehicle. Apparently, there are lions and leopards there, which we fortunately didn’t come across. We biked for about 20 miles through the park and saw zebras, water buffalo, gazelles, warthogs, and ostrich. It’s funny how boring a zebra gets when you’re surrounded by them for a few hours. Deep in the park is a gorge that formed from two tectonic plates pulling apart – the same ones that form the split of the Middle East from Africa. John and I hiked down into the gorge with a guide who turned out to be a Maasai warrior (the famed tribe in Africa that must kill a lion before becoming a man and wearing the colorful outfits). At the bottom of the gorge are some awesome hot springs that we got to experience. Evidently, Tomb Raider II was also filmed there (woo).

We then went on to Nairobi for the next 2 nights. Though we enjoyed the few western inspired restaurants and hot showers, Nairobi sucks big time. In a sentence, it’s a dirtier, less safe Harlem where you get singled out for being a mizungu (white person) without fail. However, as the veteran Kenyas we are now, we get along pretty well (it’s been fun to say we “work here” in Makuyu and see the reactions and corresponding leverage for bartering). So, we spent most of our time during the day outside Nairobi. There’s actually a National Park that was created around the outskirts of the city – originally to keep wild animals out of the city center. There they have an elephant and rhino orphanage that we went to one day. Really sweet. The zookeepers brought out about 20 elephants for feeding and to play around. They’d come right up to you and we got some good pictures (for a later post). Then the one baby rhino came out. It was like a puppy, prancing around and playing with a ball they had out there. To top it off, a few giraffe from the park (the orphanage is part of the larger park) came over to see what was going on.

After leaving Nairobi, we headed back to Makuyu. It has been good to be back and see the kids (and how happy they were to see us again). We’ve been busy making arrangements for our swingset and working on other things around the orphanage. We had a bit of a mix up with the welder, but today we made a deposit and we’re expecting him to be here tomorrow to start the work on the structure. Also, yesterday we had our first teaching session at the Don Bosco school. To our surprise, “tutoring” ended up being 20 kids that have been struggling in Math (or “Maths” here) for our help. We split them up and we both held a little class for 10 students. We both really enjoyed it. The kids were very well behaved and we hope benefited from the extra help. We will go back there tomorrow and Friday (in between our swingset).

That is all for now. We’ll have another update soon – with pictures. We miss you all, but are still really enjoying our experiences here.