Nairobi

We had to be subtle with the camera as we were driving around, but we wanted to present a slice of life here. All the pictures were taken through the windows of the car-we hope to get better photos.

Here is our front security gate and guard:

Our neighborhood fruit stand run by George:

Roadside stores where we buy milk and such:

Monkeys!: (these vervets are very used to people)

Kenyan Christmas

Here is our little Kenyan Christmas tree and us at Christmas dinner....




We had no electricity on Christmas! So we opened presents by candlelight!

Olorgesallie

Like most people in Nairobi we left town right after Christmas...but just for one night. We went out to Maasi territory in the Rift Valley to see some stone tools the Leakeys have found. We spent the night in a very charming little banda....but as evening came it began to pour and we found ourselves huddling in our little straw hut during a thunderstorm as water dripped in...oh well!



We went on a tour of a stone tool site where we found more stone tools than I ever saw in Greece. I also have a new field hat it is made from the bark of the baobab tree.

To further highlight how fossil rich this area is....we found an elephant bone!

A chunk of a long bone eroded out of the wall and I am standing next to the rest of it eroding out of the cliff side.

Animals!

We treked out to an animal orphanage with our neighbors. We saw many baby elephants whose mothers have been killed by poachers. The youngest have to wear coats because they are prone to pneumonia-they also wear sunscreen on their ears. School kids from all the local villages come to learn about the dangers of poaching. The older elephants just like to play in the mud.



We also went to a giraffe center where Brandon got to feed a large female.

Someday I would like to stay here:

Apartment Photos

Here are photos from our little flat! You can see our front door to the left. We are number 6 in the Avenue Flat complex in Nairobi Hills...off of Second Ngong for those with Google Earth.

This is our kitchen-we spend a lot of time here! We love our gas stove as it means we can cook even when the power goes out-which is often. We have to cook creatively here-Safeway is no longer down the street. But we have been creating many dishes with what we have. There is usually a huge pile of dishes-we cleaned up for the photo!

The dining room or "breakfast nook"

Emily has set up a little office by the balcony...from which there is a nice view! Check out the poinsettias that grow wild.

The bedroom with the requisite mosquito netting fashioned by Brandon...and the view from the bedroom.....