Day 2

Hello friends, family, and newcomers. Welcome to or welcome back to my blog where I am documenting the process leading up to and during my first humanitarian mission to Eldoret, Kenya.

Today is Monday March 31st, and it is our second day in Nairobi, Kenya. We had a jam packed day filled with so much sight seeing, exploring, and getting to experience the culture of the capitol. There is going to be so much to update you on today along with so many photos.

We began our day by eating breakfast at the hotel, I had oatmeals with honey, peanut butter, and chia seeds, it was delicious. After breakfast we loaded into our safari cruiser with our tour guide and headed off to Nairobi National Park to see the wildlife. We learend so much during our four hour safari and I honestly wish that we could have stayed for longer. We learned that male giraffes have darker colored spots than females, that the women travel in pairs and will almost always have the children. We learned that the Impala males only run in packs if they are not yet strong enough to take on the alpha man, these packs are either called brother bands and are made up of brohters or the bachelor pad where many stay until they are ready to fight. The alpha Impala will always be seen with a pack of females, Impalas are polygamus and mate based on who the alpha male is. We learned that Ostriches vary in color, grey ostriches are female and black ostriches are male. Lastly, I am learning a few words here and there in Swahili and wouldn't you know the Swahili word for Lion is Simba (thank you Lion King). There was so much more but these are the ones that stood out to me most.

Following the completion of our safari we went to the elephant sanctuary and got to see 20 baby elephants that have been rescued from the wild for various reasons, brought to the sanctuary, and are being nursed back to health so that they can be released back into the wild when the time is right. This was a very neat experience, each elephant had a different personality, some flopping down, others stomping on their counterparts, others very vocal. We got to pet them and watch them be fed, they are given 3L bottles of milk that are made in such a way that they are able to hold them on their own. Something very very interesting that we learned about the type of milk that they are getting is that it is human baby formula. This is due to the fact that milk is far too hard to get from a mother elephant that is not directly feeding the child, and cows milk would cause them to have diarrhea that could kill them. I learned so many interesting things today and it made me so happy.

After the elephant sanctuary we got lunch at a local spot and perused the gift shop attached. Lunch was a self serve of local cuisine and was very good. I have been extremely pleased with the food that we have eaten on the trip so far, it is flavorful and tasty. We had rice, potatoes that are green (we think this is from spinach mash) with corn in it, some type of tortilla that was amazing, chicken, and veggies. We also ended up getting magnum ice cream after which you can never be disappointed in. From the gift shop I purchased my first souvenier, a canvas painting of two giraffes by a local artist. I sadly did not get pictures of this but I do look forward to putting it up in our home as a way to forever remember this trip.

Following lunch, we went to the Karen Blixen museum where we learned all about her contributions to Kenya, her coffee plantation, and we got to see the beautiful home in which she lived while she was in Kenya. Originally from Denmark, she returned there in the early 1930's. There was a movie made about her called Out of Africa that came out in the 1980's and the team that I am with is eager to make time to watch it as most of the movie was filmed at the house that we toured today. We even got to see some of the machinery that was used during that time and coffee plants! This was really cool - I did not know this but it can take 4-5 years for the beans to grow. We saw a few plants that had very early sproutings of beans and we also saw plants that were just planted.

We then got to go to the Giraffe Center where we got to feed the giraffes and learn a little bit of history about the center. This was fascinating and very entertaining. I got to feed four giraffes one male and three females. The last female that I got to feed was 24 years old, so she was up there in age as their expected life span is anywhere from 25-28 years. Giraffes are extremely interesting because they have a rather complex blood pressure regulation system. Their blood pressure runs very high and their heart beats two times that of a human having the ability to pump 76L of blood in one minute. That is a ton of blood. They also have thickened heart muscles that allow for their survival and interestingly enough human doctors are studying their hearts to better understand how to help individuals struggling with heart failure. Anyway, the 24 year is known for headbutting but we did not have any of that today. Last fact about giraffes is that is can take up to 10 acres just to feed one of them.

Finally, we ended the evening having dinner with the founder of GynoCare's wife and three daughters. This was such a great way to end an amazing day. We got to eat outside the hotel for the second time tody at Nairobi Club. I got some Indian food that was very good. We are now back at the hotel and getting ready for bed. Today was our last full day here is Nairobi. Tomorrow afternoon we meet the rest of the team back at the airport and head to Naivasha for our next adventure. Until tomorrow :)

All Love,

Meg