Country Lodge Nairobi

After a power shower at the gym, I hopped on the train to Schiphol feeling uber cool with my back pack and bag filled with our itineraries, online bookings, camera, battery packs…and a mini bottle of champagne.

Dropped off my luggage and had an outfit change into the t-shirt designed at 1am in honour of Echalotte's birthday. Rendez-vous at Schiphol, Echalotte loved the t-shirt (which had the desired effect with security at boarding and others realizing it was ...

... slum about 15 minutes outside of Nairobi. We met our host Margaret, who is a very friendly woman and is also a pastor in the community. We also met her house help Maggie and her son Carlos, who is quite possibly one of the cutest kids I have met.

We got settled into our room, and met Kilanzi, our program director at the Lenana Slum Orphans. He took us to this mall called the Nakumatt ...

... However we discovered the wonderful Java Coffee house 2 mins from our hotel and we had delicious coffees and brekkys there, a bit pricier but worth it. We also had all our clothes washed properly (but not as good as expected) by a laundry service shopfront nearby.

Thursday and Friday July 23rd and 24th as above. The hotel was good but very noisy outside with a pub one side and construction the other so sleep was not the best and of course the call to prayer at 4am topped it off.

... It somehow seems to be out of bounds (not restricted by pricing) of the typical corporate accounts although it does cater to the odd consultant, air worker and foreign embassy staff. Extremely friendly people at the hotel which is very efficiently run. It’s apparently been around since the 1920’s and has been run by the same family. Highly recommend it as a place of great value with fantastic service and great food. But not quite the kind of place if ...

... she and the others are still doing well, since I think about them often and wonder if they are still in school and staying on track. Grace and some of the others will be starting secondary school next year; in November they’ll take exams that determine which school they’ll be placed in, but most likely they’ll go away to boarding school. I’m so proud of all of them for being so excited to learn in an environment where any progress at all is a huge ...

... went to work getting out the placenta, while we wrapped the little guy up and tried to clean him off with the wads of cotton that were available. Orielle got to give the mother an injection to stop her from bleeding, and I got to tie off the baby’s umbilical cord. Rachel counted 10 fingers and 10 toes, and that was about the extent of the examination of the new baby!

As Rhoda was getting cleaned up, Orielle asked her if she had chosen a name for her son yet. She ...

... and kind. On the way to her home she taught us Swahili words and told us of her family. She had just returned from visiting Minnesota 3 days prior where she visited her son and saw her daughter, Christine, graduate. After a tour of their home and getting settled into our room we decided to skip a nap and instead took a ride to the city center with Rosemary to meet her husband, Titus at their place of work. Like Rosemary, Titus welcomed us with genuine kindness and ...