Week 2

The time seems to be flying… cannot believe that I have been here for over 2 weeks now… as you have probably seen from the photo links, my group of babies has expanded and its 10 of them now :) Little Freda was found in a bar and Obama (!) finally came back from the hospital. Michelle has been poorly most of the week but seems to be doing better now… on Wednesday we went to the clinic with older children again to get more “plumpy nut” and to check on the progress… there was little improvement… hopefully we will get better news this week...

Last Sunday I went on a little trip to Hell’s Gate National Park with 7 other volunteers. It was a very nice day, we drove around the park and saw many zebras and antelopes… we also went for a walk in the gorge. It took us over 2 hours and involved a lot of climbing… Yes, I think Kenya is having a positive effect on me – I am actually walking a lot these days ;)

I am more confident now taking the matatus, although I have ended up in Nairobi once instead of Doonholm where I am staying, as very often the driver changes the route and I did not recognise the place i needed to get off… luckily it was during the day so I arrived home after about 2 hours :) This weekend I also experienced a terrible journey to Nairobi, which took me over 2 hours instead of 20 min it was supposed to take… it was due to very heavy traffic, a matatu accident and also the bus (on which I was travelling) hitting a car on the roundabout…

I have already been to a dentist here (part of my tooth broke off on Thursday), which wasn’t bad at all actually… quite expensive though so I am glad I have the insurance…
I also visited the NCR office again after the visit to the dentist. Everyone is really nice and very welcoming. I should be going there again on Wednesday after my next dentist appointment :)

This weekend I went to visit the Giraffe Centre in Langata – it was a brilliant day out, we spent almost 5 hours there feeding and admiring the giraffes. Around 4.30pm I was joined by Jane (from NCR) and her niece and nephew. We travelled together to the David Sheldrick’s Wildlife Trust to visit the elephant orphanage – I have finally met my little Kimana :) It was so great to see him and to stroke him. We went there in the afternoon when the orphanage is closed to general public, only those that foster elephants are invited which meant that there was only a handful of people there… we also saw a 1 month old baby rhino – it was sooo tiny…
I spent the Saturday night at Jane’s as it is not very easy to get back to where I live from the orphanage… we had a great time with kids and went to church together on Sunday morning. Jane and her husband are really lovely and made me feel like I was at home… I am already looking forward to meeting them again :)