Tropical Garden Diani

... throw away my Swahili book because everyon speaks Maasai. I am learning to speak a little from my host mom and host sister Mary who speaks very good English. Betty does not speak the greatest so she is teaching me while I am teaching her English. Mary is 9 years old and has been wonderful, taking me around the village and giving me gifts of Maasai jewelry. Then there is Suruni, the 3 year old boy who is FULL of energy ...

... get back to sleep. Instead I sat and stewed thinking about work. On Saturday we went to the mall. Did a little shopping and bought another book - I've already read one and a half and I'm afraid I will run out. We went into downtown Nairobi so the girls could buy soveniers. (Just forgive my spelling b/c the keyboards are a mess here and I can't spell anyway). Then we went to a market - I'm not buying a lot b/c I have a long trip ahead of me. We ate at a nice cafe and then went back ...

... my flight wasn't till 2pm, incase there were queues for the ferry - there were none. I was at the aiport by 10 so had a 4 hour wait! After arriving at Nairobi I got a taxi to the Hotel Boulevard which was brilliant after a month in camp! Hot showers, people to carry your bags in - amazing! I needed to get some money out to cover the local payment for my trip to Kilimanjaro and was told there was an ATM up the road and did I want a taxi? I decided to walk since it was so close and ...

... harrassed a lot by the beachboys (people who walk up and down the beach trying to sell you things.) The only exciting bit of the weekend was when we found a baboon spider in our hut just before bed, and a pool cue was taken to it, smashing it into little bits! The whole of the following week we spent at Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, which is sponsered by Camp Kenya. Maluganje is a safe passage between Sarvo (where we will be going on safari) and the Shimba Hills ...

... foundations for a new room using hoes, spades, pick-axes and machetes. We used string to make the outline using a 3" 4" 5" square to get the right angles. Due to the heat we had a break and went to play with the children. They sang songs to us and we played lots of games with them. None of them are shy - they run up to you to say Jambo (hi) and want to hold your hand and be picked up. They love the attention! In the afternoon we continued to dig the ...

... who is the director of the organization and he and his team had made a huge impression on me. Their focus is on water and sanitation in the Kibera...and especially working through community empowerment. The World Bank has recently decided to use them as their main funnel of funds for water development in Nairobi. Anyway, I made sure to sit at his table for lunch and we had a good chat about internship possibilities after the program, and somehow I convinced him to ...

... to see it. In all 6 of the pride got involved in the stealthy operation. Two went up the middle, two went wide right and two wide left. The front two came within 10-15 feet and froze. The two on the right came closer while the one of the two on the left broke out and came in from the rear. It was truly amazing to watch. All 6 lioness came with 15 feet of the warthog. The one at the rear pounced and pushed the warthog towards the two in the ...

... Buffalo. We also seen Giraffes, Gazelles, Impalas, Water Bucks, Silver back Jackals, Hyaenas, Baboons, Star Swallows. We then came back to the camp site and pitched our tents in the park. There was no electricity or running water!! A lot of the girls had reservations about doing this due to the noise and the closeness of the animals. At one point there was water ...

... auch gleich aufgemacht, um die einheimische Seite Dianis zu **kunden. Nachteil des Ganzen war die konstante Begleitung von Locals, die einem frueh** od** spaet** irgendwelchen Souvenir-Schrott aufschwatzen wollen. Einzige Ausnahme war John, (angeblich) d** Ga**tn** uns**es Hotels, d** heute frei hat und darueb** hinaus schon einmal in Deutschland war, da sein Brud** seit 1997 in Hamburg lebt. Dementsprechend auch seine bestechenden Deutsch-Kenntnisse. Dafu** sollten wir am ...

... door as they were leaving. I guess they thought that if Kirsty and I were travelling alone, we would have had to look after ourselves, and that rightly we didn't need babysitting, but it was only the beginning of the trip. I had imagined us as a team, looking out for each other and sticking together. Stuart set me straight later - apparently he has done 'loads' of travelling on his own, and hates being tied down by other people. To him we "are all big boys and girls" and ...