Abigail's visit

I’m on a flight to Mombasa right now and the flight attendant just served me an apple juice and cashews. She has drawn her eyebrows in such a way that she looks permanently surprised. I’m in no position to tell people how to wear make-up since I don’t know much about it but I tend to think that more often than not women get it wrong. Usually they use too much. Make-up is one of those things that women seem to do for other women, possibly hoping that somewhere along the way men like it too.

I need to play catch-up again on this blog. Serious time gap between my last post and right now. We’re nearly through September and I need to go back to June! Ugh.

So June. Early in the month our niece visited us from the US. She stayed for about three weeks and, given that it was her first time to Africa, we wanted to give her a good taste of what Kenya is like.

cousin's happy arrival

Though not a big fan of the great outdoors, she seemed to enjoy her stay.

One of the things we did was include her in the day to day routines. Priya and the girls took the lead on this since I was working most of the time. It’s always nice to share a slice of one’s life with family, particularly if our lives are radically different from theirs.

Brackenhurst 

We also went to a place call Brackenhurst, about 45 min. outside of Nairobi. I’d never been but Priya had been before for a ladies’ retreat. The rainy season was supposedly goes until early June so typically rain would be hit or miss this time of year. Personally, I love the rain so I would have been happy either way. The other thing that happens in June is that the weather begins to cool as the southern hemisphere winter begins to set in. Brackenhurst tends to be cooler than Nairobi. It’s a quite a bit higher at about 2,500 m. (8,200 ft.) compared to Nairobi which is around 1,800 m. (5,900 ft.).

In the end we had quite a bit of rain and it was quite cool. One often needed a layer, particularly when the sun wasn’t out. But it’s a great place to get away, hang out, enjoy a fire, go for a walk (or run), etc. regardless of the weather. And the food’s good.

We did a walk through the tea plantations. It’s nothing spectacular but the area is quite beautiful and it was just nice to get out of Nairobi for a while and enjoy the cooler (cleaner) air. The place apparently started out as a coffee farm in 1914. But during WW1 the British opted to use it as a holiday destination for war-weary soldiers. From that point it served as a hotel until 1964 when it was bought by the Baptist Mission of Kenya. While it still hosts a good many Christian groups, conferences, etc., it’s open to the general public.

Definitely a good weekend. Probably need to do that more often. 

Giraffe Centre

A common stop for visitors to Nairobi is the Giraffe Centre located on the southern boundary of the city of Nairobi. We’ve been a few times and it’s about a half hour from home (depending on traffic, of course). The kids like it since they can feed the giraffes.

feeding giraffes with the manor in the background

The centre, which was founded in 1979, was begun by a couple after discovering the sad plight of the Rothschild giraffe, a subspecies of the giraffe found only in the grasslands of East Africa. At the time, the animals had lost their habitat in Western Kenya with only 130 of them left. Thanks to the preservation efforts there are now over 300 Rothschild giraffes in various Kenyan national parks.

The centre sits adjacent to Giraffe Manor, an expensive hotel that also hosts these beautiful animals as they meander about the property. They’re known to stick their heads in the windows of the rooms (which are apparently pretty amazing). The manor, modeled on a Scottish hunting lodge, was built in 1932 and has apparently functioned as a hotel since 1983. We’ve never stayed there, of course, since we usually gravitate towards more modest accommodation. Maybe someday.