someone told me always say what’s on your mind

using this blog feels a bit funny this time over as I’m not so much traveling alone – which in itself is weird for me!! but I am lucky enough to have my mum experience kenya with me for 3 weeks; her first time, my third time. 

finishing night shift thursday morning then flying thursday night was a bit of a challenge. I know I’m a beast of a grumpy, impatient, intolerant human the day my nights finish so I honestly thought I’d be murdered by mum by the time it came to board our flight. yet I live to tell the tale; thanks mum 😘

saturday came along and I desperately wanted to get out and walk along all the old roads I used to walk every day – and to show them to mum. my family have lived in kenya vicariously through me all the weeks I’ve lived here and yet to show it to her in person is something else. from walking along naivasha road to ‘deliverance stage’ (stage is what they call informal bus stops) where all the matatu’s (small vans) congregate and the drivers yell out the window for you to get in “kibera, kibera, kibera, 30bob”, to walking up the dirt road to get to ‘green gates’ (our old host family’s home) passing by all the little shantys and stalls selling anything from shoes to electronic wires to bananas, to then cross the insanely busy ‘congo stage’ to walk to school. as much as you can explain a place to someone, you can’t ever imagine what it’s like until you see for yourself. I walked mum up to where little ray of hope is, but being a saturday no one was around. and then the best thing was being reunited with my amazing friend anna, over two years since I last saw her here in kenya and so so much has happened in those two years. so much happiness and such sadness. i’m so lucky to have her in my life and also to be at little ray much more often than I get to be. we went out for delicious ethiopian at habesha restaurant – I think we’ll be back a few more times before we leave!

sunday was super busy! between the david sheldrick elephant orphanage and the giraffe center which are both in karen (a wealthy suburb on the edge of the nairobi national park) then crossing town to check out two rivers, a new shopping mall which is apparently the largest in east africa, to heading home and collapsing into a delicious 500ml bottle of tusker beer!

how close we were to the babies when they left after being fed. one of these guys got confused and walked into the rope leading to me being pushed and covered in mud 😂

hunnay, dat your neck, it do like dat

 

it’s actually fun being a tourist here with mum; I have never really acted like one, I’ve acted like I lived here – because I did. it’s fun being moderately stampeded by a baby elephant who got stuck on the barrier rope and then wearing red mud for the rest of the day. it’s fun being in a city you know so much but yet your taxi driver sits and patiently explains so much about politics and poverty and generosity and different tribes. 

I don’t want to speak for mum but she has mentioned that the biggest shock is the blatant and obvious difference between those who suffer from poverty and those who don’t, and the small distance of less than a kilometre that separates them. alongside that, she’s surprised kenyans take such pride in their appearance and yet the streets/gutters are strewn with plastic bags, rubbish, food scraps etc. and I guess too, the surprise of a herd of cattle meandering the roads grazing or random goats bleating amongst the shops as there is little grass on the farms due to the current drought.

anyway, that’s just a bit of our first 2 days before we got to school. the next one will be all about our kids and our first days at little ray of hope. x