Week 7: Lots of work, but countless dik-diks in return

 I worked a lot this week--everyday in fact. Everyone in the office I worked in left (to go in the field) so I was by myself the last couple days. Since I wasn't even interacting with IMPACT employees, my plan was to work from home on Thursday, but I forgot my mouse at the office, so I had to go back. There is no way I can work in Canva without a mouse. I finished the brochure for Twala. I will share it on here. 

Let's just say that Chatgpt and I spent many long hours getting that to look right. Chat is quite an annoying perfectionist. I sent it off to the powers that be from IMPACT and to the person in charge at Twala. I got good feedback from IMPACT, but the person from Twala never said anything, so I'm not sure what she thinks. The director at IMPACT has sent me all this info to look over from their social enterprise (side business that helps to fund IMPACT) so that either means he was trying to find something more for me to do, or he thought I might have something useful to contribute.

I was also asked to write a generic concept note that they could adapt for all their agroecology projects. They said that this way, I could still help them design projects after I go back to Canada. This felt way out of my comfort zone! First of all, I never even knew what a concept note was until I came here and was asked to do one for Mathare. I had to google what is a concept note and how to write one. Second of all, who am I to design a project for them?! I just worked on a regenerative farm in a temperate rain forest. I don't know very much about gardening in arid and semi arid climates. So that was very hard for me. I wrote one for them to use for helping to legitimize pastoralists. Pastoralist are often blamed for degrading their rangelands while other concerns like renewable energy and conservation is given priority over their needs. But actually they use very careful practices to protect the rangelands so that it will be available to use over and over. They practice a lot of agroecology practices. It didn't really touch on my own knowledge and experience, but they seemed more interest in that sort of focus. 

I sent it off for the team to review and give me feedback...and it has been crickets. So I am not sure what to do about that. I have been thinking about it ever since and second guessing what I wrote it on. I plan to write another one more about growing food and better utilizing their kitchen garden spaces, so hopefully they will like that one better. 

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't even going to go in on Thursday. I spent the time working by myself in a vacant office, but the director arranged for the kids and I to have this amazing trip. When I met him, he commented that I hadn't really had any field experience and asked when I was leaving. He provided a driver and car to take us up to Samburu to go for a game drive there. So on Friday we were picked up  and driven 2 hours north to Archers, Samburu and driven around the park. Communication was not clear to me. I didn't know where we would be staying and even that we would go to the park that day. 

The game drive was so much fun. We saw so many different animals that we hadn't seen in Nairobi, like elephants, a rare species of zebra (grevy's zebra), oryx, gerenuks, kudus, gazelles, jackals, so many dik-diks and a different kind of giraffe. If you are like me, you don't even know what most of those animals are. I hope these pics help. 

Grevy's Zebra

Oryx

dik-dik-they are so small and camouflage well. They remind me of Ali and a bunny.

baby kudu

Gazelle

gerenuk

Jackal

another dik-dik--you can see this one's horns

After a hot day of driving around with no air conditioning--nobody seems to use it here--we drove to where we were staying. It was a mystery to us. Honestly, as we were driving, I had some thoughts like "please not there." All my fears were for naught. We stayed at a beautiful home owned by a French Canadian woman called the dik-dik lodge. It had a pool. The kids were happy. That night we were fed a fancy meal cooked by her chef. 

However, when it was time to go to bed, we started noticing the bugs. The kids room had an ant problem. There were so many ants that Malachi stomped on. Luckily my room didn't have that problem. BUT, when I was getting ready for bed, I saw a HUGE spider that moved super fast...so I went in and woke up Elizabeth. (They were told before we came to Kenya one of their jobs would be to deal with the creepy crawlies.) Everyone else was in bed. So she dutifully got up and brought Malachi's shoe. She looked thoroughly disgusted but moved forward to take care of it. And then it moved...it was so fast--like a cockroach! And it came right towards us, which sent us stifling screams into the hallway. That was the end of it. There was no making her deal with it at that point. And it was no longer in my room so we went to bed.

The next morning we got up early to continue our game drive. Unfortunately neither of the reds had a good sleep, so they were very tired and grumpy at the start. That made it a little awkward since we were being taken around by someone just trying to show us a good time. Thankfully when they pulled out the cold drinks and Elizabeth had a sprite she perked right up. It was like night and day. We spent a lot of time in the morning trying to find lions. We asked so many other safari tours, and the director made calls to the people who study them...but it is hard to find lions in that park. While we were searching, we saw 2 Somali ostriches--a male and a female. The male was doing his mating dance which was really cool to see, until it worked...and then it was a little "disturbing." Elizabeth said she didn't want to see that much of nature. haha.

Eventually we did find one lioness. We were able to drive up really close to her. So close that we had to roll up the windows. That was pretty awesome to just be able to observe her sitting in the shade. 

After finding the lioness we went for lunch at this amazing little safari resort at the other end of the park. It had a pool but the kids hadn't brought their suits. We had a buffet lunch where we were treated super well because the director knows everybody. One of the workers was his cousin. While we were eating, a troop of baboons came to the watering hole. Some of them were massive!

After lunch the kids swam (I had to buy Lizzie a bathing suit bottom from the gift shop and Malachi went in his clothes.) Strangely, most of us the people who used the pool were older people. There were only a couple other kids. 

We did more driving around and saw elephants and a family of Impalas and so many dik-diks.

Impalas

this is an anthill!

 It was super fun and memorable. This morning we drove back to Nanyuki and then back to Nairobi. It is nice to be back in our own space again. But I miss the more rural areas. The city is so big and crowded. Tomorrow I'm back at Mathare. I have so much left that I want to do and so little time. 2 months is just too short.

I couldn't resist this video of Malachi trying to get warm before jumping into the pool. He'll probably kill me for it. 

Week 6: We venture into the Kenyan hinterland

 On Monday I went to Impact (the organization I'm here to work with). There are other student interns staying in the same place as me that go there too, so I was told to go with them to be picked up at 7:30. I discovered in the morning that they weren't going because they were being picked up from here to go "in the field." The other students told me to just got wait at the end of the street and an Impact vehicle will see me and pick me up. They also said not to worry if I was passed because sometimes they are full and another will be by shortly. It turned out that no one had told the drivers about me, but luckily I have experience with being forgotten, so I didn't wait long to contact Impact and one of the vehicles had to turn around and come back and get me. And thus started a rather awkward day for me.

Since the person who oversees interns wasn't there, I think they really didn't know what to do with me. One lady took me around and introduced me to everybody--at least 30 people. I didn't remember most of their names. Then I was given a desk and left. I knew I was there to help with a grant application, so I just started reading about it. After about an hour, someone came and gave me a couple 40 page booklets with their strategic plan and 2024 report. Shortly after, everyone left the office and I could see them having a meeting outside. I knew I wouldn't understand anything anyways, so I just stayed and worked on reading the booklets and preparing the grant application. So yeah, my morning was awkward. Later I was talking with a staff member and found out that he was working on the same grant application only with McGill university, so then I was without a purpose.

In the afternoon I met with the head of operations and she assigned a girl to work with me. Soon they had a work plan for the week. They would have a driver take the kids and me to Twala, to stay for 3 days and another staff member that would be in the area would take around with him to all the things he was doing. On Tuesday afternoon a driver arrived in an outback style jeep. The kids were pretty excited, but that wore off really fast because the road was so bad. Shortly after we arrived in Twala, Lizzie was sick. I actually really enjoyed the drive but I wasn’t sitting in the back.

I think I mentioned earlier that Twala is a women's cooperative. It is a pretty amazing place. We got to stay in this place that provides an immersive Maasai experience. And I was assigned to help them improve their brochure. So that is what I have been working on. I'm no marketer, so it isn't an easy assignment, but I will do my best to help them. We were the only guests that were there at the time and were treated very well. The cooperative has helped these women to gain some financial independence and challenge a lot of harmful Maasai taboos. But they also honour their heritage. We participated in a song and dance with the ladies, were provided with a campfire every night, and ate more traditional foods. We didn't eat true Maasai style food--milk with cow's blood, but it was still different from what we had ever eaten. 

dancing with the ladies

traditional Maasai hut

This was where we waited for 3 hours before the meeting started

The area had these cool rocky outcrops

Twala provided us with traditional blankets for campfire

the ladies that performed for us

Magdaline, our guide

I was taken around to Impact's meetings with Indigenous groups in the area. The first meeting was with the leaders of 3 communities in the area to discuss water sharing. All the meetings were in Maa, so I didn't understand much ( I managed to catch a few words that chatgpt  interpreted for me.) The water meeting had some pretty outspoken participants, but in the end, they all came to an agreement. They also took me to a school that Impact is supporting. They teach trades like plumbing, carpentry, masonry and hairdressing for the Indigenous youth in the area. The courses are only 3 months and they come out certified in the end. I was given a tour and in every class someone had to speak to me about what they were doing. The school is very new--they 2nd cohort is just finishing up their programs, but so far it is looking beneficial. It is affordable--only 5000 Kenyan shillings and many of the kids found jobs rather quickly. They also learn computer skills and about running their own business.

 The next day I was taken to a meeting where they met to discuss what they had done with the funding they had received from Impact and what they would like to do for the next phase. The meeting was supposed to start at 9--we didn't start until 12. Even then, they didn't have enough for a full quorum, but eventually it filled right up. Once again the meeting was in Maa, so I couldn't understand much, but it was just fascinating for me to look at the people. Most of them showed up with at least some form of traditional Maasai clothing--especially the women. They were very striking. Most of the men showed up with sticks or clubs. Apparently it is a status thing. It didn't take them too long to agree on what they wanted to do with their funding. They all wanted to use it for land restoration.

On our last day at Twala, many women came and displayed their beadwork for us. There were so many of them, it took us over an hour to look at all of them. And then I felt bad that I couldn't buy something  from every one of them. We got some fun little souvenirs. Malachi got a Maasai club known as a rungu. He plans to use it for his fantasy games. Of course, he was drawn to all the weapons. They had knives and a bow with arrows. Lizzie loved all the jewelry.  

We got back Friday afternoon. In all my driving around, I saw zebras, giraffes, baboons, dik diks and lots of camels. Oh and we saw hartebeests fighting. People keep camels in that area for their milk. They don't eat the grass, and are well-adapted for the increasing droughts they have. Another example of how climate change hurts the most vulnerable and marginalized the hardest. Water didn't use to be a contentious issue among the Maasai people, but they have had such long droughts and the area (I'm told) is not as green as it once was. 

I didn't see them, but that area has a lot of elephants. When driving around, we passed through special gates meant to keep elephants out. At Twala, if they get in, they will destroy the Aloe plants and use their tusks to break into the greenhouse. (Green houses here are not plastic, but more like a mesh, meant to keep it cooler and to keep out pests). Our guide at Twala told me that she would occasionally encounter elephants on her way to and from school. When that happened they had to carefully stay down wind of them--sometimes walking way around them. If the elephant smelt them, they would be in big trouble.

Week 5: We Returned to the North...kind of

This week we took the trek out to Naivasha to visit Elsamere. Naivasha is about 85 km from Nairobi in the Rift valley (a valley that runs from Cairo to South Africa). We had super heavy fog for most of the drive so going was very slow. It took us over 2 hours to get there and I didn't even get to see the Kenyan countryside. The city of Naivasha is on the shore of Naivasha lake. Elsamere is named for the lion Elsa. She was famous because the couple that raised her after she was orphaned helped to train her to hunt and then set her back in the wild. If you have ever heard of the book Born Free, or the movie Born Free, or even the song Born Free, it is about this lion. The couple that trained and released her made lots of money off the books and left it all for a conservation trust along with their land. That is what we visited. We paid for lunch and a boat ride. While we waited for the boat ride we were taken to a little room and shown the documentary about the couple and the large cats they rehabilitated. In the middle of the documentary, they came in and paused it and told us it was time for our boat ride. I assumed the boat ride would take us to Crescent island--another park with no predators so you can walk around the island and see the wildlife up close--but that wasn't the case. We just went around a small portion of the lake. The boat wasn't much bigger than a large canoe with an engine. This made the reds quite nervous because there are hippos in the lake. The driver of the boat pointed out luxurious property after luxurious property--all owned by non-Kenyans. Malachi got to drive the boat.

I promise there is a hippo in this pic

And yes, we saw hippos--lots of them. (apparently at night they come right up to Elsamere to graze) but we didn't get super close. We could hear them. They sound kind of like large pigs. The boat driver also fed fish to a couple of fish eagles while we were out on the lake. It was pretty spectacular.

Since 2020, the lake has risen 3 meters. It was pretty amazing to see how much land was lost. There used to be a much smaller lake next to Naivasha lake. In fact, if you look it up on a map, it will probably still show that, but now the lakes have joined. There are a bunch of dead acacia trees in the water.

In other areas there are half submerged sheds. Fun fact: although countries like Kenya contribute very little to greenhouse gases and other environmental damage, the effects hit much harder here. Okay, that wasn't a very fun fact. When we got back we finished the documentary and sat outside watching columbo monkeys in the trees around us. They are fascinating to us, but they are pests to the people that have to deal with them. Columbo monkeys remind me of skunks.

We were given a nature tour of the property before we left. We warthogs grazing, the poo of various animals--from zebras to hippos to dik-diks, (dik-diks are tiny antelopes that are only 30-40 centimeters  tall). We also got to hold a tortoise. It was surprisingly heavy. They are very dense.

The other big thing of note is that we left Nairobi for a couple weeks and have come to Nanyuki. And to do this we crossed the equator--barely.

The city is pretty much right on the equator. But it isn't hot here. In fact it is a little cool. In Nanyuki we are staying at a house. There is a lady here that has a little compound and she rents little cabins out to interns. However, the kids and I are in the main house with her. It is a little awkward, but it is also a pretty cool experience. There are some students here from the Netherlands who are also interning at the same place I will be working. The house is super old, but we are comfortable. There is a girl who cooks and cleans, so we have been eating more authentic Kenyan food. There is a tiny kitty here who just always wants to be held and 4 or 5 dogs. Those things make the reds happy. They are always cuddling the kitty. Except now they are worried it has fleas because Lizzie has a bunch of bites on her legs and ankles.

Here I'll be working with an Indigenous organization, helping them to apply for a grant with the Canadian government in partnership with a Canadian Indigenous group. My first big task is to figure out who the partner will be. I think it will probably be the  Stolo people because that is what is near UFV. The leader of the organization here saw my CV and saw that I have experience in agroecology and also wants me to work with Twala, a women's cooperative north of here that grows aloe vera. I hope I get to see them. I don't know how much help I'll be as all my experience is in a growing in a temperate rainforest, but it sounds very cool. I just finished talking to the person who oversees interns. She wanted me to go "in the field" with her. Which means travelling around going to more remote areas for a week and meeting with different Indigenous groups. As I can't go off and leave the kids alone here for a week, they will arrange for us to go to more local groups. I'm excited.

Week 4 Lions and snakes and blue monkey balls...and so much more

 It has been an eventful week. On Monday I went to Mathare. I was supposed to work with a couple girls to write a concept note for an event UN-Habitat asked them to host. So Mathare Roots will be hosting a big event for International Youth Day. If you know what a concept note, you know more than I did when I was assigned this task. According to google, a concept note is basically a proposal for an event where you outline the objectives, the activities at the event, how you will evaluate it and the proposed budget. It is to secure funding from other organizations. Of course, the girls I was supposed to meet with were both more than an hour late, (I feel your pain Packer). it wasn't too bad waiting because I had my laptop and could work on my report. There were a lot of young people around talking about the demonstrations and the government. The sentiment was not in favour of the government. Eventually the 2 girls came and they told me all their ideas, we went over the budget, and I left with the assignment to write it all up. 

My professor wanted me to have the next draft of my report done for Monday night. That didn't happen, but I did feel accomplished that I got the concept note done. The kids and I went to Karura forest for a walk and smoothies. The forest is right in the middle of Nairobi--1000 hectares in size. (At one point a corrupt government tried to give away the land to its friends for development, but they were stopped by Wangari Maathai, an amazing environmentalist who showed up to plant trees while they were bulldozing trees down. Her actions raised awareness to the general public and eventually toppled that government.) I am an admirer of her, but I digress. We went a a cafe in the park and got smoothies. I expected more creative and tropical options. I got a mango one and the reds both got one a pineapple, mango, banana one. (I guess that is pretty tropical). It was a cool space--a covered area with tall pillars wrapped in twinkle lights and the forest right there all around us. After eating, we went for a little walk. 

We didn't walk far before we saw monkeys! There were so many of them all around us, some crossing the path in front of us, others in the bushes and trees near us. We saw some jumping and swinging from branch to branch. We saw mommies with their babies, smaller grey monkeys and bigger darker ones that looked more like baboons, but they didn't have blue bums. We watched them for quite awhile. It was enthralling. We found a playground and picnic area just beyond the monkey place.  It had a fun wood play area. We entertained ourselves taking panoramic pictures. 

I love the purple flowers on top of the trees

The next day I needed to get a lot of work done on the report, but the cleaning lady was coming and we could not be in the apartment, so we went to the church. They kids practiced piano and read while I wrote. I ordered uber eats that was supposed to take only 20 minutes, but took an hour longer than that. The kids kept bugging me about when was the food going to come. They were much better once they had some food. The true story of this day is that on the way home from the church, in super heavy rush hour traffic our uber ran out of gas. Luckily we were going down a long hill, but because of traffic we couldn't just coast down the hill. We had to keep stopping and then the driver had to get out and push to get some momentum again. When we got to the bottom, he pulled over onto a little dirt platform and walked around the corner to the gas station. I expected him to come back with a small jerry can, but no--he came back with a couple attendants from the gas station to push us. But then he couldn't get his car out of park. One of the attendants left and came back with a trickle charger. Luckily that worked--he put it in neutral and we got pushed to the gas station. After putting some gas in his car, they pushed us to the side because it still wouldn't start. So I had to order another uber. Normally it takes 3 minutes at the longest for an uber to arrive. This time it said it would be nine minutes, but then the driver went a different way and it said 20 minutes. Traffic was so bad there that it seemed inevitable. Finally he got pretty close, but wasn't moving, so our previous driver called him and he said to order a different uber. The next uber driver asked me to cross the road because traffic was so heavy and he was over there. I did NOT want to leave the safety of the gas station, but could see no other way of getting home. Crossing that busy road terrified me. There were no traffic lights; just merging traffic and we would have to cross 6 lanes. Since I am writing this you know we survived. The trick was to follow right behind another person that seemed to know what she was doing.

This is where we had to cross.

But when I got to the other side I couldn't see the uber. There was no sidewalk on that side, but there was considerable foot traffic. One woman warned me to watch my phone because someone would snatch it. But I had to contact the uber driver. I turned my back to the road and people and had the kids stand as a bit of a barrier. The kids were really nervous too. They told me that men walking by slowed as they passed me and looked over my shoulder at my phone. The driver told me to walk to the end of some wall and he was there. I had no idea what wall he was talking about, but there was a temporary metal wall that was up for construction, so we started walking along it. It was scary and I was scared. Eventually we came to a break in the wall, where there were some construction workers there that helped me call another uber and explain where we were. I was so relieved to get in the uber. We left the church at 4:30. If there is no traffic it is an under 15 minute drive. It is only 7km. That day it was after 7 by the time we got back to our apartment. After all that, the cleaning lady didn't even come!

Wednesday I finished writing the report and my professor said it is almost ready, so that was great news. I took the kids and we went to Village Market, a place that my professor had recommended. Village Market is a mall but it has an outdoor indoor space it is pleasant and safe. One of the places the kids were so excited to find was a Miniso. They didn't know there is one in Abby. We explored the mall until it had sucked all the energy out of us and then got shwarmas. That cheered them up enough to get us through a little bit of grocery shopping before we went home. Our uber driver was very encouraging about my Swahili. All I said was thank you and then asked a question  about the difference between mwema and njema. They both mean good and you use it when you want to wish someone a good day or evening or night or whatever. One person told me that one is used in the daytime and one is used at night. Another person said one is plural and one is singular (depending on the amount of people that you are talking to), but I always get some wrong on duolingo. I can't figure it out. But he told me it  didn't matter--they would still understand.

Thursday was a Mathare day. Cheryl had mentioned something about me doing a workshop on how to write a CV, but I wasn't sure if it was happening. I thought Thursdays were days where we visit the schools and something about collecting recycling and their buy-back centre. Of course when I got there, she was not there, but I was able to set up in an office space to try to get prepared for a possible workshop. I had no idea what kind of technology I would have at my disposal, but I assumed I wouldn't have much. My report is all about a course on a digital learning platform that the researchers designed for urban South Sudanese refugee youth. There is a section about writing CVs and the difference between CVs and resumes, so best case scenario, I could get them onto the learning platform and they could look at it on their phones. But it isn't a simple process and I hadn't figured it out since I was up super late finishing the report. If the group was small enough I could just show them on my laptop...which would have worked really well...except that unbeknownst to me, I brought a glitchy computer. I can't tell you how frustrating it has been. 

We have 2 laptops at home. The family one, which basically became mine when I went back to school and the one we bought for Brent to use when he designs septics. My laptop keeps running out of room and gets bogged down and really slow until I get Brent to clear up some space for me, so we decided it would be better for me to take Brent's laptop. It wasn't until I got here that I discovered that sometimes it will just drop the wifi signal and then when I try to reconnect, there is no visible wifi icon. It is gone. I have to shut everything down and restart and then it is there again. Sometimes I can go days without this being a problem, and then other times it will happen mulitiple times while I am working. This time, when I was doing a presentation, it wouldn't connect at all even after turning it on and off. So I had to go off the top of my head a lot. And it's not like I have a lot of experience writing CVs. I've made one once. For this internship. Luckily I had printed an example to show them and I showed them mine on my phone. There weren't many people there and none of them seemed particularly inclined to actually write one. I think they were only there because the Mathare Roots leader wanted them to learn. None of them wanted to apply for a job anywhere. They did get a bit more interested when I showed them how to make one on Canva (the laptop finally cooperated) and Word.

Friday was our big adventure. We woke up early and met our guide outside at 6:30. He took us to the Nairobi National Park. It is right outside of the city. In some of our pictures you can see the city skyline in the background. I wasn't sure what to expect. Actually, to be honest, I was afraid I was being scammed when I booked the tour, but I did a lot of research and this company had really high reviews. So we went on a half day safari. I thought that maybe you see the animals way off in the distance and we would need binoculars to see them and a really good camera to take good pictures. Once we got in the game park, our guide opened the top up so we could stand and look around.

He also had a radio so he could hear the chatter about what people had found. He asked if we wanted to go see a lion. Of course we did so off we went. It wasn't a very long drive before we came to a road that was super congested with safari vehicles all parked to see the lion. Maneuvering around in there was just like the roads of Nairobi! I couldn't believe it. We weren't in a safari jeep--we had a large 9 seater van. It was a  good time to scope out some of the other safari tour companies and I think I made a pretty good choice. Some safari vans were smaller than ours and stuffed full of people. As some vehicles left, our driver managed to get us right in front of where the lion was. It took a minute to find the lioness with her 2 cubs because I was looking way farther out. It turned out she was much closer, but lying in the grass, so it was hard to see. We were so excited when she temporarily sat up and we could see her better.

can you spot the lion?

Later we saw a  young male lion as he strode between vehicles.

And after that we followed 3 lionesses with a bunch of cubs down the road. We literally drove right beside them on the road!

The cubs were spotted and so so adorable. When they ran to catch up to the rest of the group, their bodies swayed from side to side--it looked like they were dancing. We also saw a few herds of zebras and impalas--they were almost always together, we found a few rhinos right on the side of the road. We saw plenty of ostriches and giraffes and a few hartebeests.

Malachi really wanted to see hippos so our guide took us to the hippo pools. I had read that you can get out and walk along a trail to see hippos and crocodiles. It didn't seem that safe to me, but when we got there, we were escorted by a man with a rifle. He showed us where there were crocodiles and a python, but we didn't see any hippos there.

Can you find the crocodile?

We could see a bunch of monkeys across the river. Along the river was the only area that I saw that had trees. The rest was grasslands and shrubs. It was really beautiful. Our guide took us to a different spot where we could see their hippo noses poking out above the water and once one opened his mouth so we saw the top of a head briefly, but that was it for hippos. I didn't see it, but Malachi and Elizabeth saw a monkey with "blue balls."

2 crocodiles

Our tour ended with a trip to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust or elephant orphanage. It is the only place around Nairobi where you can see elephants. The place is all about rehabilitating elephants so they limit the public exposure. The elephants come out for one hour. In order to go I had to send an email requesting certain dates and then wait 2 days for a response. I had heard that it takes about a month to be able to go, so I was really surprised to find out on Tuesday that we were confirmed for Friday. I had to find a tour in really short notice, but it all worked out. At Sheldrick there was a large area with a rope fence that we all gathered around. We were way on the side so I worried we may not see very well, but when they brought the baby elephants in, they used the bottles of milk to lure them all close to the fence so everyone got a good view. They were so cute and greedy for their bottles which they held in place themselves with their trunks. Some of the older babies were taller than us or close to our height, but the youngest one--only a few months old was the size of a large dog--not as tall as Apollo though. The baby was cute and still quite fluffy, but was more growly than any of the other elephants. One of the older elephants stayed close to it--mothering it. Very cute. Malachi just really wanted to touch one, but for the longest time, none of them came close enough to where we were. Eventually one of the workers got one to come close and we all got to touch it. It was hairier than we expected--kind of bristly.  Later they played in the mud pool and people that were close to that got splashed by one of the elephants. I thought, 'yeah that's what happens to people in the closest seats,' kind of smugly. But after a little bit the muddiest of the elephants came over where we were and reached for some leaves in the tree near us and I got flicked with mud. Then it came right over to us and got the rope in front of us all muddy. Another elephant pushed against the fence further down from us and flicked the fence. Both Elizabeth and I got splattered with mud in our faces.

some mud may have gotten on the pink bag 😉😬

Saturday we had to be out of the house for the cleaner but Mathare cancelled on me and it was cold and rainy so we went to the museum. Malachi had really wanted to go since he had never been to a museum before. When we got there there were so many kids outside waiting to go in. There must've been kids from at least 4 different schools there. It was so noisy when we first went in and once again the girls treated Malachi like a celebrity, which he hates. It makes me laugh. Our first strategy for seeing the museum was to go places where there weren't any other  kids. That was a hard thing to do. Malachi soon got bored and kept asking to go home. 😠There were displays showing skeletons and skulls of humans that are dated to over a million years ago. Apparently our brains have gotten smaller. There were lots of cool displays of animals that are in Kenya. There was whole section with birds. We discovered the bird that wakes me up most mornings is an ibis. They are very loud and every where in Nairobi. While were were looking at the bird display a little girl came and asked if she could get a photo with me. Why me, I don't know. There were lots of other foreigners there. So her whole class gathered around for a photo op with me. Then the reds came around the corner and so she got another one--this time sans classmates and with the reds. We saw lots of cool artifacts from precolonial Kenya, and then colonial Kenya up to modern times. They had such different musical instruments.

Right next to the museum is a snake park so we went there too. Finally Malachi stopped bugging me to go home. When you first walk into the snake park, there was a little display with a high wall around it. There was a sign that said "trespassers will poisoned." We had a guide for the snake park and he pointed out all the venomous snakes in that little display. There were so many boomslangs in the trees which are some of the most feared snakes. We saw various scary snakes--vipers and spitting cobras and mambos that all live in Kenya (these ones were in cages behind glass. Many of them live right right here in Nairobi, and the ones that aren't in Nairobi are in more northern parts--like Nanyuki, where we are going on Friday. He assured me that it is rare to see most of these snakes, and a lot of them give you a warning. I am not reassured. The park didn't have only snakes, there were also tortoises, turtles, crocodiles and an American alligator and a small aquarium with fresh water fish. They had a whole tank of cichlids--they are from lake Victoria. Our tour concluded with us all having a turn holding a small python. Elizabeth really liked it. Malachi was more tentative.

This python is over 4 meters long

It was an adventurous eventful week.