Introduction to Kenya February 1,2 2004

The time had finally come to leave Europe (which we were all comfortable with) and move to Africa (which, just like the safari books say, was a big unknown. The first steps of this however were very standard. (a) Sit around and wait (after getting up very early to get through the check-in process) -- see picture to the right and (b) fly on a big plane -- see picture on the left. As you might notice, the weather wasn't beautiful, but we left on time.

Eight Hours of sitting later, we got to Nairobi. Security there is very camera shy, so we have no pictures of the airport. We bought our Visas right in the airport ($50 each), then bypassed the passport control (I guess the Visa process is considered a valid Passport check), met our hostess (Joanne LeClair, President of the Kenyan Children's Foundation) and 2 drivers.

Once we got our luggage, we went out to Resurrection Garden (a retreat center and training convent). We each had individual cottages (mine is shown on the left) complete with living room (see right) and kitchen. The entire complex is down the hill from the road (and that is down the hill from the Retreat Center) so quite isolated (and quite a walk, all uphill, to dinner).

Monday was intended to be a "light" day, allow people to get used to the altitude (Nairobi is like Denver, Karen, the suburb we lived in is closer to Colorado Summit levels), and get used to "this ain't Kansas is it Dorothy". So Marnie slept in while Doug, Betty and I went "touristing". First stop was a Butterfly museum which had a nice set of static exhibits, then an enclosed area with nearly 40 different species, all native to this portion of Africa.

There is a similar museum on the Mackinaw Island, but since all these species are local to Africa, it was fun to see and they had very intelligent docents there to help you understand what was going on and knowledgeable about the differences between the US and Africa.

Our next stop was the Giraffe Park. Now, if you're like me, you probably didn't know that there are three distinct varieties of Giraffe. What you see on the left is the Rothschild Giraffe, and the marking pattern to look for is the very crisp markings. These Giraffes are mostly extinct and this Park is one of the few places they can be seen alive. (Later, on Safari, we will see Maasai Giraffes in the wild.)

As you can see, they also had several families of Warthogs living with the Giraffes.

The next day we started off with a tour of the home of Karen Blixen. (Remember that we stayed in the town of Karen - there's a connection, the town is named for her.) To get the full story, get a copy of the movie "Out of Africa" (a Sydney Pollack film staring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep (1985)). Karen came from Denmark, her husband wastes her money, then leaves, she stays, tries to grow coffee (it's too high and never worked well) but she falls in love with the people and the land. She leaves the land to the people of the area (thus the naming of the village).

We wanted to visit the slum area where the Kirkley's worked 3 years ago and Joanne suggested we stop on the way to see a school that has been recently organized in another slum.

As background, 1/2 of Nairobi lives in slums. The slum of Kibera was originally established as a Sudanese refugee camp and intended to hold 300,000 people. It now holds somewhere between 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 people. Note that there's no running water, sewage, or electricity supplied to the houses in the slum. The picture to the left shows the "community porch", a shared entry way behind which is the school.

Our hostess was the school-mistress, Angelina Okuma and this is her office. Notice that the wall is mud (over a stick framework), so if the roof ever leaks, she may lose the wall. Most of the teachers are volunteer as there is no public funding for this school (that may change, but who knows).

As you can see, students range from pre-school to middle school. Note the jackets on the children, it was considered cool (only about 80) and they needed to stay warm.

The students on the right are very high risk. If they don't continue in school, they have a very short life expectancy as most of the area become chemically dependent on glue (to reduce hunger pangs, but it's very addictive and brain damaging).

In spite of the problems facing the slum, you can see the children are happy and outgoing. Note the pickup game of football being played just outside the front porch shown above.

We left Kibera and proceed north to Kawangware (the place Kirkley's had worked at before). This is another slum of Nairobi, but the school is sponsored by the Methodist church and some of the St. John's funds had helped to build it. The picture on the left is the preschool wing, and as you can see, the children are on break.

This is a private school, physically in the middle of the slum. Many of the children are on scholarship and from the slum, others come from outside the slum. As you can see, the facilities are much (much!) better than Kibera.