More Adventures...

This was a busy (and good!) week featuring a two-day getaway for all of us on Thursday and Friday. ISK has two-day trips at the beginning of the year for each high school class; the idea is to help each class gel at the beginning of the year, and activities are geared around team-building and relationship-building. It is a great idea, and both Hannah and Cora had a fabulous time with their classes. Cora went off to climb Mount Longonot and hike in Hell's Gate National Park; Hannah went to a wilderness camp south of the city to go rock climbing; and Brian and I went with the grade 10 class to Sagana, a wilderness area north of the city, where we did some white water kayaking (the group photo, above, shows the teaching team that accompanied the grade 10 group). Saturday saw a return to Karen to visit the kitties at the KSPCA, take a tour of the Kazuri Bead Factory (and of course another visit to the shop) and then to engage in a search to order bookshelves and desks from roadside furniture builders on the Ngong Road. It is such a colourful stretch of road! Handpainted signs, vendors and the sound of hammers and welding torches blend with free range goats and busy traffic. The bird sighting of the weekend involved a small flock of cinnamon-chested bee eaters just outside our apartment building. They are extremely beautiful.

Wildlife around Lake Naivasha...

Last weekend, August 27 and 28, we spent two exploring the Great Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha. It was absolutely stunning! We spent Friday with the Wilders driving into the valley and exploring Crescent Island, an island made from the rim of a volcanic caldera that was teeming with non-carnivorous life. Zebras, wildebeest, hart beast, gazelles, impalas, giraffes, hippos and spectacular birds were abundant and we were able to stroll among the animals. It was so beautiful. We spent the night at a lovely quiet lodge on the edge of Crater Lake (aptly named because it is in the crater of an extinct volcano), where the only sounds were the crickets, frogs and - in the middle of the night - rowdy colubus monkeys on the roof of our cabin! We walked with a troop of about 20 giraffe through the woods at sunset and then, the next morning, enjoyed three hours of walking among the animals. It was a magical place. (More photos on Facebook - here are some highlights.)

A day in nearby Karen...

On Saturday (August 21st), we drove to Karen, a village on the outskirts of Nairobi where Karen Blixen (who wrote Out of Africa) lived on her coffee plantation not so long ago. The area is beautiful and we spent the entire day out there. Our morning was spent at the KSPCA (Kenya Society for the Protection of Animals) where we cuddled cats and kittens. Cora and Hannah picked out two 3-day old kittens who will join our family in about 8 weeks, and they're already looking forward to visiting the kittens in a few weeks to see how they are doing. We then enjoyed a leisurely two-hour lunch at the Karen Blixen Restaurant (on part of the old estate), sitting at a table on the lawn and enjoying fabulous panini sandwiches, salads and fresh juices (it was quite divine). We topped off our afternoon with a visit to the Kazuri Bead factory, a company that employs over 350 women (mostly single moms) in producing gorgeous clay bead jewelery and pottery. Needless to say, our visa card got a workout. It was so nice to spend a day exploring and getting to know a new area. Also, on Sunday we picked up some handmade furniture we had custom-ordered for our apartment from a carpenter who works nearby on the roadside, and we are the proud new owners of a lovely side table for the hall entrance and a very cool custom TV stand (designed by Brian) made of rustic wood. The carpenter told Brian that the shape of the piece would be determined by the wood he had on hand, because God made the trees in a certain way and the shape had to be honoured in making the table. He definitely honoured the tree and made a beautiful TV stand for us. We feel like we're getting to know some local vendors and we're building relationships... the settling in continues.

We're settling into life in Nairobi, Kenya!

After an incredibly busy summer in Hawaii and at home in Ontario, followed by two very busy weeks settling into life at the International School of Kenya, we are finally getting a post onto the family blog! We have been very delinquent and promise to post more soon.

Our first impressions of Kenya:
* driving is chaotic! (you drive on the "wrong" side of the road and battle pedestrians and matatus - small vans that serve as buses along narrow roads in most parts of the city we've been in so far)
* life is colourful: fabrics and carvings and houses are colourful and lively. Nairobi is abuzz with activity all the time. Also, there is green everywhere! Plants, trees and foliage are lush and we've heard things get even greener after the rainy season.
* the capital city is very diverse: people from all corners of the globe live here. When you go the grocery store you see an incredible array of people (rivaled only by the multicultural nature of Toronto!).
* ISK classes are also incredibly diverse: the discussions we have had in our classrooms so far have been rich and full of many perspectives. Wow.
* smiles abound here: everyone has a broad smile and a greeting ready, and it is easy to converse with people and enjoy pleasant conversation.
* it's so easy to operate in English! After four years in Korea, it seems very easy to read everything in English and to be able to ask for directions to various items in the grocery store.
* the dirt is red (like PEI!).
* birds are beautiful: we have black kites that soar outside our balcony window all the time, and we've seen some gorgeous African pied wagtails all over campus.
* the David Sheldrick Wildlife Centre (Elephant and Rhino Rescue Centre/Orphanage) is an incredible place where babies are given a chance to survive and then be re-integrated into the wild. Very cool.
* warthogs are bigger than we thought they might be. :)

These photos are from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (Elephant Orphanage), the ISK campus, our apartment and a few scenes of life in Nairobi.


More thoughts to follow soon!