Kenya: the dazzling city of Nairobi

I just got back from an amazing 2 week trip to Kenya. It is beyond me to recount everything, so I am just going to share random stories in no particular order.

We spent the first two days in Nairobi. This place will never rank among my favorite cities, but it was a great chance to get caught up on sleep and ease into the transition. It was my first introduction to sleeping under a mosquito net.

Leaving the net up during the day allows you to try to trap as many mosquitos as possible in with you when you lower it at night. Sleeping with a mosquito net also forces you do to a lot of planning ahead when you go to sleep. For example: glasses on or off when you tuck in the net?

While in Nairobi, we stayed at the Rosa Mystica Spiritual Center. It is not affiliated with any church that I am aware of, but it is run by nuns and we were often woken by singing early in the morning. The furnishings were very modest but adequate, and felt like a palace after returning from Muhuru Bay (but more about that later).

Nairobi is not a terribly safe place to be. Fortunately, there is a huge mall located one and half blocks away from the Rosa Mystica (#1 on my list of things I never thought I would say). Even this walk, however, felt incredibly dangerous at times. We heard of another person staying at the Rosa Mystica who got held up at gunpoint walking to the mall. Going to a mall has never been so fun, seriously. Unless we hired a car, this was about the only place we could get to on our own. It was also a reliable source of food (read: does not lead to diarrhea). Henry commented that he has never spent so much time at a mall since high school. Being from rural Nebraska, however, I don't think I ever hung out as much at the Indian Creek Mall (shoutout Beatrice!) as I did at the mall in Nairobi. Highlights from the mall: a self serve yogurt store and a combo Japanese/Lebanese restaurant that also served burgers and pizza.

Because we had an extra day before traveling to Muhuru Bay, Henry and I went to a national park just outside of Nairobi. It is huge! We drove around it for about 5 hours, and weren't really in the same area very much. We saw zebras, multiple animals in the antelope family, ostriches, hippos, enormous birds, a warthog, and giraffes. It is pretty cool to see these animals in their natural habitat with the skyline of the city in the background.

A rare venture outside of the car in the park. We were not looking to get charged by a rhino.

A really cool resort on the egde of the park where tourists could stop for a rest, drink, and food.

Fluffing himself.

One zebra giving another the ol' butt shot.

A display of bones from many of the animals in the park.

Hello, Friend!

By the evening, other team members had arrived and we all went to the Carnivore. This is a restaurant in which they bring around spits of exotic meat (a la a brazillian steakhouse). I ate ostrich, but also lamb, chicken, beef, and pork. I also had my first tusker, an African beer (served cold, which becomes relevant later).

Bring on the meat sweats!

Up next: we place our lives in the hands of kenyan bus drivers. This includes profuse sweating, getting airborne between 5 and 10 times, and alternating between traditional music and backstreet boys all at the same incredibly loud volume.