Our First Weekend

We had a busy weekend. Friday, Roland helped us to take the tuk-tuks (small 3 passenger transports usually carts at the back of motorcycles) to get to the matatus (15 passenger vehicles similar to old VW vans with very loud reggae music) to go to the mall to get a few groceries. The matatus are a really interesting system. You can get on and off pretty much anywhere, and the conductors bargain with you on the cost to get you where you want to go. Very different than our “public transportation”, but they seem to work really well in Kenya. I told a guard at ANU that we had ridden a matatu and told him that we don’t have them in the states. He was shocked, laughed, and asked me how people could get around without them. When I told him pretty much everyone has a car, he asked how that was possible and how the roads were not congested. Don’t think I’ll take city planning and infrastructure quite for granted anymore!

On Saturday we used the ANU transportation and went to the Kazuri bead factory.

The company was started in the early seventies by a British woman in order to help single disadvantaged mothers have employment. It still primarily employs single mothers (one of the many groups that needs help in Kenya). The women make the beads, fire them, paint them, fire them again, paint again to add extra details, and then fire again. Then they finally make them into a bracelet or necklace. Most of their beads are for special orders in other countries (US, UK, Netherlands, etc). We then went to the Nairobi National park where we visited the animal orphanage.

It is basically a zoo, but just with orphaned animals that have been found in various parts of Kenya. We got to watch them feed the monkeys and there were a few loose who would go steal the food while the others were being tended to. Maddy loved watching the monkeys, and we spent almost an hour just watching them and having the Kenyans watching us! Little kids really get a kick out of Maddy. Most of them just stare, but one at the zoo just laughed and laughed when she saw her. We told Maddy the little girl was just happy to see her.

Sunday we went to the university church. We enjoyed the service and Maddy enjoyed dancing around while we sang. Very energetic and loud by American standards. Sunday night Maddy made a friend. The chaplain’s daughter, Silka (3rd grade), lives behind us, and came over to play. The meeting was a bit awkward since she just showed up at the door by herself and stood there without saying a word. Sandy invited her in and the girls played, but Kenyan children are quite different than American children. They are very quiet and are well behaved. We have since learned from other Kenyans that the children typically only speak when asked a question, and are raised to be reserved. While Silka does not speak much at all, they had lots of fun and have now played together the last 3 evenings. I think that they both enjoy getting to play with another child even though their ages are different.