Nairobi

 
Last night we did not sleep well because there was a large group of young people staying there and they were very loud. We had breakfast with Poly at a java hut and headed over to the Nairobi National Museum. Since Blacklaw had business in the morning, he was going to meet us in the afternoon. He arranged to send his sister Sally instead on his behalf. She was a bit late so the 3 of us went through the museum. There were a lot of stuffed African animals, and early skulls, and display case after display case of stuffed birds. We looked especially for Polykens' onjure bird. It turned out to be a superb starling.

Sally arrived just as we finished the museum, and she had her 4 year old daughter Melusine (nicknamed Melicah which means angel) and her 6 year old nephew Mark along. We went through the snake park with a guide, there were crocodiles and fish as well. The kids were remarkably well behaved the whole day long, and Melicah was wearing the outfit I had brought for her.

After lunch the 6 of us piled into Poly's car and we headed across town to the Nairobi Game Park to the Animal Orphanage. It is a place of refuge for orphaned or injured or confiscated animals. There were lions, cheetahs, leapards, an ostrich, monkeys, etc. They had the CUTEST little lion cubs. Blacklaw was supposed to meet us there. We went through with a guide and then watched some of the animals being fed. Watching the ostrich eat was the most fascinating. Every once in a while he would have to stretch his neck real high to let the food slide down.

Blacklaw met us just as we finished, and the 7 of us piled into Poly's car (don't ask!) and went to Diguna. After much discussion, it was finally decided that we would sleep at Sally's house tonight, and Poly could sleep on the couch. So we grabbed our luggage and off the 7 of us went to Sally's house. It was a very long squished two and a half hour drive to the other side of Nairobi. There are no bypasses around town, and inadequately sized roads for all the traffic. There are very few stoplights, but lots of roundabouts and lots of merging traffic. It is very harrowing, even to Polykens who was driving. They stopped along a market road (stalls) to buy meat and potatoes for dinner. People and cars everywhere.

When we finally reached Sally's house, Blacklaw and Mark left to go to their own homes, and we helped Sally prepare dinner. Anton peeled potatoes with a knife while Frankie sliced tomatoes and cleaned the rice. You have to go through the rice manually and make sure there are no bugs or stones. We didn't eat until 10:00 pm.  We now know why it takes 2 hours to prepare a meal. She has no stove and no fridge. She cooks on a single kerosene lamp, so she has to cook one food at a time. First the rice, then the potatoes, then the meat. She also has no water because the road construction crew cut through the pipes and people stole them. She will have to wait until September for them to be repaired. For now she keeps a huge water barrel in her kitchen.