Nairobi, Kasarani children centre and Kisarian school/farm

We have been at the orphanage now for a week and it has been quite interesting, both good and bad, wonderful and terrible at the same time. The place we are staying at is right on the edge of the kiberra slum. Behind our house is the entrance which is lined with shops, this means it is full of people and music pretty much all day, except for around 11pm- 5 am, if we are lucky. They are also very fond of playing the same song on repeat. We have to be pretty careful, we are in by 7 every night because it starts to get dark. So far we have had no problems, we get called "muzungo" a lot, which means white skin and they laugh when I look because I know what they're saying. We have two security guards at a gate to get into our row of houses, which is nice because a man was following us tonight, and once we got to the gate the guards were able to shoo him off. We are pretty far away from the orphanage we are working at. We take a bus or matatu to Nairobi and then another from there out to Kasarani, all together it takes us about two hours each way, which can be very exhausting. The buses sometimes have very awful music pumping or a lady preaching about God, you can get stuck beside some very smelly people as well. The matatu are like small vans that they cram about 20 people into, I'm not very fond of them because I get very claustrophobic but they can be quicker than the bus. The way both work is with one driver and then one man at the door to get people in the bus and then collect money. The money they charge depends on the time, the day, the weather, you never know how much you are going to pay. Usually it is between 30-50 shillings. This morning we had quite the experience on a matatu, where the people felt they were charged too much, 30 instead of 20. So there was yelling and arguing and of course I understood very little, but we were stuck right in the middle. There were police directing traffic and they noticed all the yelling, pulled over our matatu and made us all get out. They kicked the angry ones off and they got their ten shilling and we kept going. After this we were walking to our next bus and a teenage boy grabbed a handful of rotten garbage and shove it in my face, then he asked for ten shillings, I was not impressed and definitely not feeling charitable.
I have been working with the Occupational Therapist with the children they have at the orphanage and also with some that come from the community. The children at the orphanage are mostly Cerebral Palsy cases, which is caused by lack of oxygen at birth and for most of them would have been very preventable if the women had given birth at a hospital. These children usually end up with Malaria on top of the CP, which seems to complicate things further. All of the children I work with cannot walk or talk, most can barely sit up on their own. A few children are also HIV+. We work on exercising the joints, because they become very stiff and strengthening the trunk, to try and enable them to keep their head up. Working with children is very different from what I usually do. You do all the stretching and exercises for them, instead of telling them what to do. A lot more hands on and there is a lot more crying. My toughest moment so far was learning about how dangerous the slums are for girls that are mentally retarded, they are at high risk of being rapped and sexually abused and there are a few cases at the orphanage. It is so important for these ones especially to have a safe place to go, something I never thought of when I think about slums in Africa. We also had the chance to visit a slum, we were actually escorted by 3 men and were not allowed to take pictures, which was fair. We saw a school they had built , the rooms are half the size of my bedroom and they were able to squeeze 35 kids into a tiny little tin rooms. The main things they are working on in the slums is prostitution, moonshine brewers, drug dealers and working with the youth to take computer classes so they can get IT jobs. The slums was pretty much how I imagined dirty, smelly, full of activity, most kids running around because they cannot afford school. It made me pretty thankful that's for sure.
We also got the chance to spend the day with our cousins from England on Sunday, it was so lovely and had been about 15 years between visits. Jugsey had organized a car boot sale, to raise money for the street kids of Karen. They managed to raise enough for two kids for one year. Their house is amazing, coming from this to that was like night and day. They have two dogs and a fairly massive house, gorgeous gardens, a beautiful outdoor deck. I didn't want to leave.

I forgot to mention that in the Serengheti all the cooks and guides had cell phones, with perfect cell phone reception. It blew my mind.

Traveling from Dar Es Salaam to Nairobi

We left Dar on February 2 and took the Dar Express to Arusha, the bus cost about 20 each, because we splurged and went for the one with AC, thank god it was 41 Celsius. The bus ride was about 10 hours but the scenery was amazing and they even gave us complimentary sprite! The only bad part was the no bathroom on the bus, but we did get one pit stop. We arrived in the dark in Arusha, but a driver was waiting for us and took us to the Arusha tourist Inn, it was very nice the bedroom was three single beds pushed into one large bed with a tiny amount of walking room around the bed, the hot shower was well worth it though. there were many other European men waiting to go on safari and they were quite entertaining and sang songs till atleast 1 am. the guy at the front desk also let me use his Internet for free which was very nice and we chatted lots about cell phone. A cell phone is like 20$ here and the plan is about 5$ a month, so absolutely everyone has a cell phone here. We met Ben, the man that arranged our safari that night for a drink and he was also very nice and let us plan our own safari. The next morning we left early for our safari with our guide and cook. These guys were absolutely amazing, they were so honest, accommodating and just wonderful. We had the most amazing meals and way too much food, we actually had to ask him to make less. You think you feel guilty wasting food in Canada, try wasting food here. I feel twenty tins more guilty everytime. Our guide was very knowledgable and really made sure we had the best experience possible. The drive from Arusha to the Serengeti was about 8 hours on a majority of washboard roads but we saw the most amazing senery and so many animals, it was hard to care about the bumps and constant vibration. The Serengeti was nothing like I imagined- which was flat plains with maybe a few animals. It was actually full of animals and had lots of plains but was full of these things they call kopjes-islands of rocks and trees, they are absolutely amazing to see and randomly a watering hole would appear and then a line of palm trees which ran along the river that cut through. We were able to see the migration of wildebeest which are always accompanied by zebras. The zebra had just had all their babies and were absolutely adorable, the young zebra have brown stripes until the age if four, which I didn't know till now. We were able to see 2 brother cheetah walk along side our vehicle they walked infront, the one layed down infront of the vehicle and started rolling around like a house cat. They also posed on rocks about two meters from our vehicle and it was absolutely amazing. We got to see zebra fight, a lion get chased off by buffalo and a hyena tear apart a wildebeest. The campsite we stayed at was literally in the middle of the Serengeti with no running water, no electricity and just a tent separating you from the animals- no fence. The first night we were all tucked in our tent, literally all three of us in one double tent because the second tent they brought what a broken zipper and there was no way we were sleeping in a tent with no door. So we started to sleep when we were woken up by the sounds of hyena fighting over the garbage that the cooks had accidentally left out, this was about 10 meters from our tent and to boot we heard lion roars to accompany it just on a rock formation not far from where we were camping. It was one of the most exciting but scary experiences of my life. We did go out ti the bathroom once tge first night, even though they tell you not to, and we looked up into the sky and the stars were incredible, it was so dark and the stars stretched from one side to the other and it was just a mass of stars, you saw shooting stars abd it had that milky way look- like masses of stars stretched in streemers across the sky. It really is something you have to experience for yourself. The next night went better and after that we went to the Ngorongoro crater.The crater was amazing because we got much closer to the animals, we were able to see a black rino, there are only about 40 left in the crater because of heavy poaching for their horns after the second world war because in Asian culture it is considered a "viagara". We also got to see hippo, baby lions, lazy male lions sleeping only a few meters away, a leopard ands it's baby walk right infront if our of our jeep and a crocodile chased away by hippos. In the crater the Maasai have been mobs from the Serengeti to the crater where they still live mainly off the land, their little villages are fascinating and they have huge herds of goats, cows and donkeys. The herds are watched by children that cannot be older then 6 or 7 and are not much taller then the cows they are herding, they are absolutely adorable though, waving everytime you drive by. Camping on the outside of the crater was very enjoyable, water and electricity, lots of people, a camp fire and elephants that come in the morning that turn on the water tsp themselves and drink the water! We also watched the sun rise over the crater and the mist slowly rises, it was beautiful.

In Nairobi

In Nairobi I now realize I am very grateful for:
Clean air
Running water- especially hot showers
Recycling and garbage programs
Personal space and safety
Canada's health care system

Back to Dar Es Salaam

We are back in Dar Es Salaam, after 8 amazing days in Zanzibar. We leave tomorrow to catch the Dar Express to make our way to Arusha and then begin our 4 day Safari. It has been very hot here and internet is limited and power outages occur frequently. Staying in Stonetown, Zanzibar was an adventure, we got lost multiple times in the winding narrow streets, but it was wonderful and the charm of the city is amazing. There is call to prayer twice daily, over very loud speakers at 5 AM and 8 PM. People are mainly out at night, its very different, the markets and streets are booming after about 7 PM. We ate at Mercury's which is named after Freddy Mercury from Queen, as he lived in Zanzibar till the age of 8. It was right on the water and had cold beer, finally! We visited Prison Island while staying in Stone town, which was built to be a prison, but then because plagues started to occur they changed it to a quarantine station. The old building is still there and very interesting and they have also made it into a turtle sanctuary. Originally four turtles were brought over to the sultan as gifts, there is only one left and he is 185 years old!! We also fed them while we were there and scratched their heads like pets, they love it! We also went snorkling before, but we didn't see many fish. We did a spice tour the day before that as well, and learned a lot! Did you know the root of the ginger tree is one of the main ingredients in their version of our 'vicks vapour rub' and the ylang ylang tree is a main ingredient in channel number 5. They also drink coconut milk alot here and call it 'coconut-cola'