Marble Arch Hotel Nairobi

... and cooking for 26 people is way different than cooking for a much smaller group. We managed though.
While I was cooking dinner Den came out of the tent and accidentially left the rain cover open, meaning our sleeping bags and mattresses were covered in water. Not a great start. After dinner we went up to the campsite bar and had a drink, played some darts, and then Den and I called it a early night. Sleeping in the tent was not really that enjoyable ...

... getting the cake, we went over the nursery school to drop off some toys, books, and stationary that we had brought and divided among the 3 main places we were (LSO office, BJC, and the nursery). The teacher's were super excited and thankful for all the goodies. We stayed there for about 2 hours, went home for lunch, and then met up with Kilonzi around 2:30 to head off to see his son.
It took us 1.5 hours to get there, mostly because of traffic and it actually ...

... You will all just have to ride one yourselves! J

October 19

Monday October 19 was our first official day of volunteering! We woke up around 730, showered, and ate breakfast. Let me enlighten you as to what we typically eat for each meal… Breakfast: 2 pieces of bread with jam. Water to drink. Lunch: optional. Usually nothing. Dinner: Kenyan food. Usually looks like mush. Tastes decent sometimes. Other times… not so much. No drink. It makes me ...

... She does a lot of work in the slums....there are big
slums here....the divide between the rich and poor is massive and many
people were displaced during the 2007 post election violence and so the slums
are ever growing. I haven't visited one yet but will be going next
week....Anastasia herself used to live in the slums as a child until
her uncle put her in school and after working really hard to get her
degree she has worked her way up and out of ...

... in the Serengeti in Tanzania. Lions and hyenas were seen walking or sleeping nearby, but unfortunately they must have just eaten as they appeared content to watch. We spent about two hours at the infamous Mara River where National Geographic or Discovery make their documentaries about the migration, showing the footage of gigantic crocodiles grabbing and eating the unlucky ones. The river has constant guards who patrol the area and one guard ...

... also has one baby rhino which was also very cute, but due to their aggresive nature it wasn't brought too near the visitors.

We spent the afternoon relaxing at our campsite before heading to the airport and the final flight of my 5 month trip. I couldn't believe it had gone so fast, although I was looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone as well as not living out of a backpack anymore!

... the cleaner with his dust mop and the chair was awfully hard.

Monday 20th July. Soon enough light came and the people started streaming in for their flights. Off we trotted to freshen up at the toilets and brush our teeth. We had some breakfast bars we bought at Tescos and bought some coffee and had breakfast while waiting for our flight to Nairobi. We had that jetlagged feeling about us and were achy and weary from roughing it at the airport. . The flight to ...

... doing child checkups. Sadly, we didn't get to witness another birth, but I am so grateful for the one we did get to be there for. At Cana I saw some very healthy and happy babies, and I saw some that in the nursing world we would say "Failure to thrive". One baby, only 10 days old, had lost too much weight. The young, unmarried mother, said the baby didn't want to eat, and her milk was drying up. I asked how much she herself was eating, and she ...

... but also very patient when our trip (as usual) did not go as planned. On our drive back on Sunday, our van’s engine would stop whenever we hit really bumpy road (which is pretty much the entire 4-hour drive from Masai Mara to Nairobi). John would let it coast to a stop and then rev the engine a few times until it started up, and we would drive a few more miles before it died again. Finally he gave up and called a mechanic, who met us out on the ...

... Gutted. Sarah and Martin have a friends wedding to go to so they're sticking around Nairobi till the 6th then flying up to Ethiopia to meet the truck. We'll hopefully head out with them for a goodbye dinner before heading out to the airport to catch our flight. Will miss em heaps. Our WONDERFUL WONDERFUL friend Ben has managed to get us 40kg each on both legs of our flight home. Stoked!!! Will make things so much easier. Means we no longer ...