Nairobi and Kimana!!

Journal Entries from Kenya.... 

7/28/25

Today has been a great day in Kenya.  We had a very late night last night.  Our flight landed just before midnight (Kenya time on Sunday, after having left our house at 11 am on Saturday- 6pm Kenya time), but then we had to go through customs and our supply suitcases had been flagged, so we had to wait awhile for Liz, Malcolm, and Matt N to negotiate a tax for all our extra supplies.  We waited with Lance Ferguson and a few drivers and it was sweet to watch a group of very young kids reunite with each other with squeals and hugs.  Then we piled into the vans to head to the Apple Tree apartments.  The Pettigrews are staying in one place, the Ferguson family in another, and the rest of us in another.  It's very nice, with 4 rooms and 4 bathrooms.  We finally went to bed about 2:45am and it was a little hard to fall asleep, but then I slept soundly until we had to get up.  We went to the Pettigrew apartment this morning and looked out their balcony at a family of rhinos (the apartments are right by Kenya National Park), then had a short time of prayer and headed to the giraffe center.  Our drive today was Joseph and he is very fun.  He is a Christian and likes singing praise songs- some English, some not.  He also tried to teach us a song that is very happy and says Hakuna Matata (later found the title- Jambo Bwana).  We kept singing this song as best we could for days afterward.  We had the twins and Ita Ferguson with us, who have become instant best friends and got very loud and silly.  I sat by Tiffany and enjoyed getting to know her.  We got to feed giraffes little pellets at the center and they would have eaten them nonstop all day I think.  We saw some lines of kids on a field trip, sorted by age and walking quietly with their hands behind their backs.  Somewhere on the ride, we saw a bunch of baboons on the side of the road.  We were surprised to find that things are so English in Nairobi- driving on the left side of the road (though the driving habits reminds me of China), all the billboards, menus, etc in English, and all the English-speaking people.  We ate lunch at a very nice restaurant called Tin Roof Cafe where they had the most delicious samosas and I also got a ginger turmeric hot drink called dawa that was good.  There were shops all around and we enjoyed looking and buying a few things.  Then we went to the Maasai market where everyone greeted us and said, "Karibu, sister", "You come in my shop", "I will show you everything", "Not much money", "Show me what you like", etc.  It was a bit overwhelming because there were so many and most had about the same stuff.  We were really tired on the ride back to the apartment.  We had pizza at the Pettigrews and went back to shower, repack, and sleep- though Matt and I ended up waking up for awhile in the night.  I was up from 12-4am, not yet adjusted to the time change.  

7/29/25

We had to get up at 5:15, quickly dress and pack our bags to load into the vans for the train station.  Many of us didn't sleep well and it was dark and chilly, so kind of a quiet ride.  Our vehicle got there first- me, Matt, Connor, Noah, Leo, and Ezra.  We had to go through a pat down security check (boys on the left, girls on the right) and while going through my bag, the lady found my TruBar and asked if it was chocolate.  I told her no, it's peanut butter and jelly flavor and she said, "I try?" so I gave her one.  Then we took our bags from security and had to put the in a line on a platform under this tin shed, while we stood against the wall and waited for dogs to sniff them.  It felt a little like a scene from a book.  Then we went in to the station and waited for our group.  We had yet another security checkpoint and then sat down to wait for the train.  Matt got some coffee for him and a dawa for me.  I enjoyed chatting with Selah while we waited.  We had a bit of a crisis, as we couldn't find one of our supply bags for camp and had no idea where it was left, as the bags were all mixed up between us, with us all taking whatever bag was in front of us.  Tiffany and Lance were trying ot call people and figure it out, but we had to go ahead and get on the train without it.  On the train were lots of school children and a big group of teens from Manchester doing mission work all over Kenya.  We rode along looking for wildlife and saw farm animals, babooms, ostriches, and gazelles.  It was a short 1 1/2 hr trip to Emali and the stop was only about 3 minutes so we had to grab all our stuff and be ready to get off quickly.  Then we met Paul, Tipaai, and one other driver and piled into Land Cruisers to ge tot Kimana.  We had Shelby and Liz in front of us and the twins and Ita behind us, who were very funny, talking about lions mating, singing together, and acting out pretend games.  At one point later in the day, Kelly told them she was asking for a report card form us for their behavior and they were much more subdued after that.  On our ride, we saw more wildlife like zebras out our window.  We stopped in a dusty field area and Tiffany set out a lunch of crackers, chips, cheese, and digs, and we feasted.  We also were so happy to hear that the missing bag was discovered back at the apartment.  We got lots of sand burrs in our clothes, threw rocks at a target in the field, had a "bush wee" as Shelby calls it, and loaded back up to go to the market.  In Kimana there is a market every Tuesday.  We first went to the goat and cattle market.  It was full of clusters of people with their goats and cows huddled (and roped) together, looking at us as we wove our way through.  We looked at a few things like Maasai clubs outside the animal area and then headed to the huge produce and clothing market.  Kate, Tiffany, and Kelly went by motorcycle taxi.  We spent the next hour or two wandering the market, which was very crowded and chaotic, with people called out "Mzungu" (white person) to us or coming up and trying to sell stuff to us.  We looked at the huge piles of "tire shoes" that the Maasai men often wear.  One lady came up to me and asked if I speak French, then asked if I follow the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy where he says a woman isn't to wear a man's clothes (I had on pants).  She also asked Kelly this and Lance told her she should also be following "no wearing mixed fabrics" if she's going to to all the law literally.  Everything moved slowly and we were often waiting on negotiations or who knows what.  Matt bought Maasai swords for the boys and I bought a shuka (the blanket that Maasai people wear).  A little boy came up to me and said, "Give me chocolate".  We got back to the vehicle and said goodbye to the Fergusons, who were going back to Shili Shili, and we went to the Kili Springs safari lodge, where we were greeted with juice and shown our beautiful room/hut.  We got a little settled and went out to have a snack and sit around a big table to talk while the gibbons climbed around in the trees behind us.  Such a magical place and far above our expectations.  We went to dinner ourside at a big table under a sprawling tree and first played UNO Flip with the Pettigrews, Shelby, and Novaks, which was fun.  Then we had a delicious dinner, served by Benjamin and 2 of his 13 sons, cooked by their mom: vegetables, beef in sauce, butternut squash soup, chapati with guacamole.  We did our calisthenics and went to bed.