Venturing Out

After two days of laying low in our tiny guest house flat, we decided to venture out yesterday and see some of the Nairobi sites.  We went fully armed with crackers, 7up, barf bags, tums, advil, and a change of clothes for the most likely candidates.  Thankfully, no one got sick and our instinct that we are through the tummy bug for now seems to be accurate.  We're thankful for the break, even if it's just momentary!

We really enjoyed all that we did  and with 258 pictures taken in just 6 hours, it's hard to choose just a few.  But, I'll try.  Our first stop was at the elephant orphanage where we oohed and aahed over the elephant babies.  These little guys have been rescued and are being cared for and prepared for reentry into the wild at 3-4 years of age.  Most of these babies were orphaned by poaching or they were found in water wells that they'd fallen into.  

Here they come.  Lizzy was humming the elephant march from Jungle Book because that's just what they looked like.

 This little guy was the youngest that we got to meet.  Here he is taking a bottle from his keeper.  We learned that they rotate keepers so that they don't get too accustomed to any one human.

 We really enjoyed watching them use their trunks for all sorts of things like drinking, eating, and even poking their keepers when they wanted more milk.

 This one was old enough to hold his own bottles.  He's even getting his tusks in.  Amazing!

 Our next stop was the giraffe center, where the kids got to feed the giraffes. 

 They felt rougher than we imagined, a lot like horses.

 Lily was the most persistent at getting their attention.  She would not give up until she'd gotten them to eat from her hand!

Our next stop was the Kazuri bead factory.  I loved this one!  This company was founded in 1975 as a way to provide employment for single moms in Kenya.  They started with 2 ladies and now employ over 300 women.  They export their beads and jewelry all over the world.

 We took a tour and learned how the beads go from this clay found near Mt. Kenya...

  

  to these beautiful beads.

 We met Elizabeth who has worked at Kazuri since 1975.  She made the kids some bird beads.  It was very neat to see all of the bead shapes that the women in this building were making.  

We also got to see where the beads are painted, 

  fired, 

and made into jewelry. 

 Of course, they had a well stocked gift shop, which we happily visited.  The finished products were really beautiful and the cost was about 1/5 of what I've found online.  And well, I'm never one to pass up a bargain!

We were starved by this time, and the kids really wanted to make one more trip to KFC.  Isaac just knew that he could stomach some of their mashed potatoes.  I guess 3 times in one week never hurt anybody, right?  At any rate, I have declared that this was our last trip for this trip and we're moving on to other things.  Though, I'll readily admit, my first taste of American style fast food in 10 months was yummy!