A Day in Nairobi

Dixon picked us up this morning after breakfast, in his comfy Toyota Hybrid. Our first stop was into the Nairobi National Park, where the Sheldrick elephant orphanage, the Nairobi Nursery, is located. We spent an hour enjoying one baby rhino and 20 baby elephants. First to come down to the ring of visitors around a waterhole was Raha, the 2-year-old black rhino currently being rehabilitated. She had been attacked by hyenas when they found her, her tail bitten off, starving and near death. She is doing fine now, and may be ready for release into the wild in 5 years or so, when she has reached a size where she can defend herself. While we listened to one of the keepers tell us all about her and the work Sheldrick’s does, the other keepers splashed water, mud, and dusty dirt on Raha’s back and head, to protect her from the sun and from insects. As Raha followed her keeper back to her quarters, the baby elephants arrived, first a group of the 9 youngest then a group a bit older. They came running, knowing that their keepers had milk bottles ready for them (which they guzzled down quickly). As the narrating keeper told us about each baby — their names, histories and interesting facts about them — the elephants frolicked in the dust and the water hole. They need milk for up to 5 years, and while it’s impossible to get elephant milk for them, they do well on a mixture of human infant formula with necessary supplements. When they reach an age where they can forage for their own food, they are taken to various reintegration locations in Kenya … where they are cared for until *they* decide to join a wild elephant herd in that area.

Hard as it was to leave those adorable babies, we had more places to go: a tour of the Karen Blixen museum, located in her former farmhouse “at the foot of the Ngong Hills.” Then a leisurely lunch a half mile down the road at the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden — with the most impressive buffet either of us has ever seen! At 3:00 Dixon drove us to the Giraffe Center, a sanctuary created to protect the endangered Rothschild’s giraffes. We were given little cups of giraffe-food pellets, then, walking along a raised platform, found ourselves eye-to-eye with several hungry giraffes. They reach out their long tongues to have pellets placed there, or lick them off your open palm, or reach for the cup if you’re not careful and take it all in one swoop — Jack’s first-hand experience! Dixon told us they used to “kiss” the giraffes by holding the pellets in their own lips and letting the giraffes take them from there — but that’s no longer allowed.

Our next stop was a ceramic bead and leather factory that is run as a women’s collective, empowering Maasai women. Our tour guide took us from a huge barrel of loose gray clay that comes from Mt. Kenya, to the tables of women who form the prepared clay into various bead (and animal) shapes, to the women who paint them by hand, using tiny brushes for the designs. The beads are then glazed, kiln-baked, and made into jewelry. They also sew tiny beads onto their leather belts, dog collars, and watch bands.

Last stop: Hemingways Nairobi, a really nice place to hang out both before and after we had dinner. Dixon picked us up at 9:30 for our midnight flight, and we received VIP treatment at the airport again: a young woman came with us through each step of the process, which involved *three* security screenings. Finally collapsing onto the plane, it didn’t take long for either of us to fall asleep.Read more