Jambo, habari gani?

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Jambo everyone. I am now home safe and sound from my incredible adventures in Kenya. I do however want to share my thoughts on my experiences so I am going to post my blog now because I did not have access to a computer while I was away. So these are my journalled thoughts... hope you will get a sense of how important and life changing this experience has been for me.

love you all

August 3-4, 2008

Jambo, habari gani? (hello and how are you?) What an incredible whirlwind these past few days have been. I am writing this journal entry as I sit in the top bunk of my tent beneath the mosquito net that surrounds my head. We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday morning at 630a.m. after an okay Air Canada flight and a fantastic Kenyan airways flight. We entertained ourselves by learning swahili from the dictionary and selecting words and phrases that would and would not be totally appropriate--this provided a lot of laughter. As we landed and walked out on to the tarmac we took a few photographs of our feet on African soil; with the aircraft in the background and while heading to the terminal. We had a fairly long wait at immigration because the immigration officer had to check all our documents, take our photos and fill in visa forms all by hand as well as issue a receipt--this took over an hour and a half for all 24 of us! Fortunately all our bags arrived and we were free to head out to meet our other two facilitators for the trip, Adam (who is originally from Brisbane, Australia) and Santai, who is Kenyan. They greeted us with welcomed hugs.

Before getting on the lorry, we had to visit the facilities. I didn't hear my friend John's comment about not taking photos in the airport and so I took a photograph of a sign. That was not the right thing to do as I was called over by the airport security guards and forced to delete it in front of them. I didn't think it was a huge deal, but obviously they did. I guess you just live and learn. I did as they requested and moved on.

We then headed out to the lorry which was formerly a British military vehicle-green in colour, that seats about 20 passengers and the luggage goes on the roof. 5 people also rode in the landrover with our super drivers Nderoge and Wangee.

As we headed out of the airport we drove right past the city park and through the centre of Nairobi. There appears to be a fair amount of pollution as most of the cars run on diesel. We arrived right in the middle of rush hour traffic so there were lots of buses, people on bicycles and people scurrying around as they made their way to work. We waved and shouted Jambo to all the people we could see and received huge smiles and replies of Jambo Sana (which means, huge hellos/welcome). After about an hour's drive we arrived at Rosslyn, the Free the Children Centre which is an estate property with about 8 hours on it. The FTC house is located right next to the home of the Canadian high commissioner. We were greeted by 3 rambunctious dogs and some of the FTC staff that I knew from Toronto-some of them didn't know I was coming on this trip so it was exciting to exchange hugs with them. We were introduced to our Kenyan chefs-David and Jane and others and were given a wonderful breakfast complete with local fruits, eggs and toast and of course chai tea--which we would come to enjoy every day--black tea with milk and masala spices.

After breakfast we got our bags and headed out to the Giraffe Centre in Karen. This land, where the centre is located, was owned by Karen Blixen who inspired the movie Out of Africa. We met 4 beautiful Rothschild giraffes named Laura, Kelly, Betty and Frank, the baby. We fed them handfuls of food and got some long neck hugs and even got kisses as we fed them food from our mouths (between our lips) and then stuck out their tongues to give us kisses and grab the food.


We got a little information session to learn about these twiga (swahili for giraffe)--they have huge hearts, white spotted legs and can live up to 30 years. Their gestation period is weather influenced and takes 15 months. I loved Laura the best--her geometrical shaped spots were beautiful and she stood nice and tall. They are such beautiful creatures these giraffes.

After the giraffe centre we headed to the mall to change our dollars into shillings and do a bit of browsing. Back at the centre we had a fantastic dinner and I taught our group a song I wrote called You say Jambo, we say hello. Everyone liked it as it contains many of the phrases that we need to know to communicate. Everyone joined in and even added a few harmonies too.

Then off to bed, after a long time being awake. I am so excited to be in Kenya finally and so far this has been an outstanding start to the experience. I am still pinching myself that I am actually hear and having very much enjoyed love from the giraffes, I now end this first blog.

Kwa herini rafikis (goodbye friends)

love Katy

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