The one where we pretend to be socialites (for a good cause) (Kerry)

By now I hope that all of you have seen the news about the famine in the Horn of Africa.  If not, here is just one of the many sites about it.  I would like to say that Andy and I recently went to a benefit concert for the famine victims with purely altruistic motives, but the sad reality is that someone invited us and we had nothing else going on, so we went.  


The event was held in a ritzy hotel around here and our friend got there first and called to report that everyone was all dressed up and while it was too late to save herself, she urged us to not wear jeans (none of us had any idea what said "benefit concert" actually entailed before signing up).  So, we accessorized and headed over--40 minutes late but this is Africa and naturally, they were still setting up--and took our seats among the other diplomats and members of Kenya's high society while being feted with fancy hors d'oeuvres and alcoholic beverages.  

The event itself was much more amazing than we anticipated.  First they showed us a heartbreaking video of the Turkana, one of the Kenyan ethnic groups that is most affected by the drought, after which Andy and I privately vowed to do more, but more on that adventure in a later post.  Then a variety of Kenyan opera singers, a quartet, and a choir performed some amazing pieces for us.  The absolute pièce de résistance was the very last song, an encore that was a Kenyan song that the choir performed and I'm telling you, it brought goosebumps to my arms and tears to my eyes it was so breathtaking.  Everyone jumped to their feet when the song was over and there were few dry eyes after the performance.   Here is a youtube video of the choir we saw if you want to check them out.  


There was an intermission during the event and everyone was encouraged to participate in the silent auction they were having.  Andy and I were feeling guilty for not doing enough, buoyed by the upper crust crowd, and probably a little tipsy from all the alcohol, so we decided to have a look.  Somehow one of the lovely lady attendants convinced me to bid on a vacation to Kenya's coast.  The deal looked reasonable to me, three days and nights at a 5 star resort on the coast, all meals and the return flight included, and the starting bid was not outrageous.  So, I threw out a silent bid and at the end of the event, when they announced the winners, lo and behold, I won!  Obviously, I say that with excitement only for the starving Turkana who are the real beneficiaries here (but honestly, the vacation is exciting too).


And then we returned to normal life and started plotting our next adventure.  

The One Where We Rent A Friend (Andy)

So far, transportation here in the Horn for the two of us has been taxis, bumming rides, and walking. And while all of these are perfectly acceptable modes of transportation, especially admidst the Green Revolution back in the New World, here in Nairobi, we need a car of our own.  Most of our regular readers will know that we have been reliant on Jimmy and Peter as our primary chauffeurs around the city. But this past week we finally secured the release of our bought-on-the-internet-from-Japan-sight-unseen SUV, from the Port, and after correcting a few mechanical hiccups, we were mobile. But, one problem remained: we still didn't know our way around the city and needed a guide. 

We decided that Saturday would be a day of doing some shopping out in Karen, but honestly, it was just an excuse to drive around. We thought about trying to wing it, navigating the poorly signed and heavily congested roads with our not-to-scale Nairobi city map, but then thought the better of it.  So we called Peter and asked if we could hire him for the day to ride in our car and show us where to go. Naturally, he agreed and even called off of work that day to join us.  We inched our way through downtown and emerged in Karen at a roadside curio shop.  Not finding what we were looking for, (something a little more quality than your average africrap) we toured a nearby mall--teased mercilessly by the KFC sign put up to far in advance of opening day--and decided we would take a tour of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, better known as the Elephant Orphanage. For a place that is only open between 1100-1200, it's an hour well spent:

And we had a good time, too: 

Since the elephant orphanage didn't take that long, we decided we would make another attempt to visit the Karen Blixen museum, which many of you will remember fell through the last time we were in Karen. After a few wrong turns from our human GPS, we got to the house.

I won't go into detail about the history here, you can read that in the link in the name, but I will say that the house is beautiful even by today's standards, let alone British East Africa standards, and I'm glad that the government of Denmark gifted to the Kenyans and the Kenyans, in turn, gifted back to the country. It's a strange relationship nations can have with their colonial past and homes like these often times have fallen victim to post-colonial revenge. But Blixen did much for Kenya after she returned to Denmark that ensured her legacy, and her home, remained intact. 

After Karen, we came back and had a late lunch at a place near our home and tried to have our Japanese car stereo fixed (and by Japanese car stereo, I mean all the buttons are in Japanese).  Unsuccessful, we settled the bill with our hired friend and went home for a nap.

The End

The one with the gardening update (Kerry)

So I thought I would just update you all on the state of our garden.  Here is what it looked like when we moved in: 

It is small, but we saw potential and our gardener Eric was certainly ready for some major upheaval.  So we had him remove most of the plants so we can start fresh.  Here is what he was able to accomplish in one day:

And on a side note, that tree actually does have leaves and fruit on it, they are just too high up to fit into the photo.  I realize it looks kind of creepy here.  Our grand plans are to add a flower garden on one side, and a vegetable garden on the other side, some fruit on the third side, and more grass in the middle.  We also have a flower box in the front of the yard where we will plant herbs.  Finally, we will cover the fence with some flowering vines.  I did some shopping with with Eric and Peter this past week and we bought seedlings of onions, beets, spinach, butternut squash, bell peppers, raspberries, strawberries, roses, mint, basil, parsley, and several other flowers whose names I don't know, all for $40!    Here are some photos of our first plants:

And here is Eric in his brand new uniform and boots, working hard.  

We also bought a small lemon tree for the front of our house, so I'll close with a photo of it and hopefully post another progress report on the garden soon.

The One Where We Travel to Hell's Gate (Part II) (Andy)

Recapping the last post, Kerry and I went for a day to trip into the Rift Valley to go hiking in Hell's Gate National Park. We saw numerous wildlife and completed our first successful rock climb.  Now we were headed to the main event, the Hell's Gate Gorge Trail.

As I mentioned in the last post, neither of us had done much research on this place, relying instead on vague word-of-mouth recommendations from colleagues. We knew there was a big hiking trail in the park but had no idea its length, it's difficulty, or most importantly, where in the park it was located. Jimmy said he had been there the week before, so we relied on him to at least get us to the trail head. The entrance to the trail had a nice rest area, complete with picnic area and washrooms. We had to pay another entrance, which, to our surprise, included the use of one of the park's guides--a young Masai tribesmen--to walk with us for the duration and answer any questions we might have. The trail led us mostly through a dry river bed at the bottom of gorge.  The scenery was spectacular.

Despite the intermittent rain, there were a lot of people out on the trail. Kerry noted that there were quite a few local Kenyans out hiking and that the park was not overrun exclusive with Western and Asian tourists, as is the case with many parks not just in Kenya, but throughout the continent.  While we debated the rise of the Kenyan middle class we heard in the distance the sound of running water and of footsteps hurriedly coming toward us. Rounding a bend in the river bed we encountered three people running from the direction we were headed and shouting, "the water is coming!" These are definitely the words any hiker walking a dry river bed encased by 75-foot walls fears. Our Masai tribesman bravely ran on ahead and came running back to inform us that we still had time to view the waterfall if we hurried.  And thus, the river of death that our fellow hikers had convinced us was bearing down on us turned out to be a false alarm.

But all the same, we backtracked and head down the second fork in the gorge that would take us to the end of the trail. Our guide early in the walk told us that the gorge contained numerous hot springs--in fact, the nearby town of Maji Moto means hot spring in Swahili--and we finally found one jetting through a crack in the wall. He also told us the filmed part of Laura Croft, Tomb Raider there, too.

The hike, inevitably, concluded with a steep ascent out of the gorge onto high ground that meet up with a road that would lead back to the trail head. Along the road were four Masai tribesmen selling necklaces, rungas (Masai clubs), spears, and Masai blankets. We passed on the souvenirs and walked back to the car and began our next quest, which was looking for lunch. Jimmy said he knew a place in the nearest town of Naivasha, which was on the way back to Nairobi but right by Lake Naivasha, famous for being home to Hippos and a lot of flamingos. We sat down at yet another British colonial-era club, this one called the Labelle Inn, and ate a well-earned lunch.

We didn't feel much like sitting on a boat trolling Lake Naivasha for Hippos following our meal,besides, it looked like it was going to rain--and it poured on our drive back--so we called it a day and headed back to Nairobi. Definitely a great day trip and one that we can't wait to go back and do it again.

The one where we travel to Hell's Gate (Andy)

I didn't start the day off feeling well. The weather outside was overcast and there was rain lightly sputtering on the ground. There wasn't much food in the house.  And someone did not hydrate enough at the party on Friday night. (Kerry's commentary:) All of these conditions made going hiking in a place called Hell's Gate all all the more appropriate. 

Earlier in the week we had heard about this place called Hell's Gate National Park in the Rift Valley that had great hiking. It sounded like our kind of place, so we had Peter's brother Jimmy take us there on Saturday because we still don't have our car.  

For a little background, the Rift Valley--sometimes called the Great Rift Valley--is located in Western Kenya and is part of a larger fault line that runs from Syria to Mozambique and contains some of the land that historically has belonged to Kenya's famous nomadic tribe, the Masai. I was always under the impression from looking at a map that the RV was further outside of Nairobi. But after only 30 mins of driving, we entered into it:

Once we arrived at the park, we really didn't know what to expect or where to go, as evidenced by the next series of events. We start driving through the park and immediately see warthogs, zebras, a couple giraffes, and numerous springbok and antelope. I wasn't even aware there were going to be animals in the park. 

We also encountered numerous people on mountain bikes riding around, another thing we didn't know would be there. Once we established that the park allowed the peaceful mingling of animals and mountain bikes, we both agreed that touring the park on a bike was a must for our next visit.  Bumping along the gravel road we came upon a big rock spire set up with rock climbing gear and two Kenyans smoking cigarettes on a picnic bench.

It's important to point at that neither Kerry nor I have ever done any type of rock climbing before, ever; the closest has been at the top of Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah, but as most of you reading this know, that doesn't really count. So why we decided that our first time scale some rocks would be in the middle of nowhere Kenya is beyond me, but before we knew it, we were suiting up and heading for the top.

Heart rate still elevated from the climb, we got back into the car and pressed on to the trail head….

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion to The One Where We Travel to Hell's Gate in the next post.

The one about hiring people (Kerry)

So, we do not have our car yet.  And if you know us well, you know that we are not the type to just sit around.  Although I am tempted to relive my hitchhiking/matatu-ET-combi-riding days of yore, Andy frowns on that kind of risk taking at this stage of our lives so we are relying on taxis to get around.  I think I take a taxi about four times a day.  We take them to the Embassy, to the gym, to the shops, etc.  We have befriended one of the drivers named Peter and he has become our go-to person for all of our transportation needs.  Whenever I give Peter a ring and tell him I need a ride, either he shows up immediately, or his brother, or his cousin, or some friend of his and he is quick to call me and make sure said person picked me up on time.  Currently, Peter is also in the process of procuring me a dry-erase board and a lemon tree, he is a man of many talents.  Although we will be happy when our car arrives, we will miss his shortcuts through the city and old timey gospel hymns on the radio.  

We have also hired a gardener.  We were not expecting to hire a gardener and frankly, we made fun of folks who did, because like most people in our neighborhood, we live in a townhouse, and our yard is the size of a postage stamp and we felt confident that we could handle whatever "gardening" was necessary.  Then Eric-the-gardener (ETG) randomly showed up at my door.  I was not in the mood to talk to him but I took his name and number and listened to his schpeel about how great a worker he was.  Several days passed and Andy and I developed grand plans for our little yard that involved replanting the grass, pulling up several large bushes and plants, building a stone wall and planting a vegetable garden and with all that work, the idea of a gardener became more appealing.  So I called ETG and he literally came running to our door for an interview.  The whole thing was quite endearing to us as we have never actually employed anyone in our home before.  ETG was amazed that we asked him to enter the front door of our house and had him sit at our table for an interview--which, to us, is a relatively normal way to conduct an interview.  Anyway, he promised us up and down that he could meet all of our gardening needs and more and so we hired him for two days a week to fix our yard and help with the dog (when we get one).  As we were talking about how much we would pay him I threw out that we would like to pay for medical insurance for him, you would have thought that the kid just won the lottery; he could barely contain his huge grin and the thought of real, official, medical insurance.  So we shook on it and bid him farewell and we will fill out the paperwork this week.  Regardless of his actual gardening skills we are both happy to have ETG on board as part of our Kenya experience, he seems like a good fit with us.  

(Our yard, before)

The one with the giraffes (Andy)

Week number two has sailed along quickly with little more accomplished than the administrative work that goes along with settling into a new city and into a new job. Both of us have gotten over the jet lag and appear adjusted to the altitude, but the endless amounts of paper work and random trips to the store has left little time or motivation for any real African adventures. We did manage to have dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse (random, I'll admit) and have drinks at an outside bar that even by Miami standards would have been seedy, but by Nairobi standards it seemed pretty happening.

One of the issues that also has contributed to the malaise is that we have been living out of our suitcases since we arrived and it started to feel like we have been squatting in someone else's house. That all changed Saturday with the arrival of one of our household shipments, so now we finally have more things to fill up the empty shelves and dampen the echoes of our steps on the wooden floors.  

Saturday started with our first tennis lesson--well, the first for either of us since we'd been in elementary school--at the court near our house. We faired pretty well, all things considered. Our workout complete, boxes delivered, and possibly a gardener hired (more on that in future posts), we hopped in a cab for the hour-long drive to the Karen area of Nairobi, namesake of Karen Blixen, the Dutch baroness who's life story was made famous by Meryl Streep in the 1985 Oscar winner Out of Africa. The purpose of the day's adventure was to drive to Karen, visit the Blixen house and museum in the Ngong Hills, and pop over to the Giraffe Center to get our first taste of Kenyan wildlife. However, the delivery of our stuff moved our timeline to the right so we chose to have lunch upon arriving in Karen at a place called the Talisman, a splendid restaurant built in the 1920s that is definitely worth the trip, no matter how many Brits just returning from Safari are sitting next to you.

Having both finished great Indian dishes and sharing a dessert, we hopped back into the cab and were off to find Karen Blixen's house (note: Kenya appears to have no indigenous cuisine. Kenyans seem to have adopted Indian food as the native dish despite the fact that it was the English that brought the Indians over during colonial expansion; the only English dish you can find here is fish and chips, but I guess that's really the only one you can find anywhere, even in London). 

Only the house closes at noon and it was now 3pm. So, we recharted and headed toward the Giraffe Center. Truth be told, the Giraffe Center is a tourist trap, but its a must-visit tourist trap because the bait is feeding a group of Giraffe's, a rare but fantastic opportunity as evidenced in the below: 

Our hands empty and the Giraffe's appetite satiated, we hopped back into the cab and headed for home.