Safari Njema

Karibu Kenya #12: Routines, Giraffe kisses and Tundani.

I’ve quite enjoyed the ebb and flow of life these past few weeks. I wake up around 8:30 “ish”, grab a quick cup of coffee and meet grandma at her office/bedroom. She is always working on finances at her computer with remnants of her breakfast sitting on the desk: an empty bowl of beans and a half finished piece of toast. She has four desks pushed together which she considers just “one” desk and I always sit at the one to her left. It so happens to face the big window looking out towards the yard. There is a beautiful rosebush that has been in constant bloom since my arrival filling up the left side of the window. It seems to be a continual reminder of God’s attention to beauty and detail. I can’t forget to mention the picture that sits on the edge of the window sill of me in the 2^nd grade with my jean shirt and gap toothed smile. This has been my most recent blogging site, however, Grandpa is currently taking his afternoon nap on the bed right next to my desk. I am doing the very best I can to block out his train-like snoring by listening to music with my headphones on. It isn’t working…

Grandpa’s naps are just one of his daily rituals. I’ve come to find that Howard Crowl reminds me a great deal of Mr. Rogers. I just noticed this about him the last couple of days. After returning home from teaching Bible classes around 10am, he always heads to his closet. He then proceeds to take off his tie, his hat and his jacket, exchanging them for a more casual ensemble. It doesn’t stop there. He even takes off his socks and shoes and replaces them with others as well. I love my grandpa and find his rituals endearing.

In other news, we’ve been on the hunt for a new house for my grandparents and the Ahadi Boys. It has been difficult finding something affordable with all the requirements that they need in our current area. We have made several trips to Tigoni and Limuru, hoping to find a property that gives us more for our money. Property development is booming in Kenya and with that comes an inflated housing market and less and less acreage. It’s depressing to see all the beautiful vegetation cut down and replaced with 15 story condos that no one is able to afford. My grandparents current house, which I daresay, I’ve fallen in love with, is scheduled for development as well.

We did some house hunting in tea country early Saturday morning but only found one possibility. We have yet to hear from the landlord and don’t know if it’s the right fit for both the Ahadi boys and my grandparents. The area however is absolutely idyllic. I just might move to Tigoni myself. After our house hunt, Aimee, Mim and I headed back to the house to take Robbie out for his birthday lunch. He decided to bring Njeru along and we all piled in the Voxy and headed to Thika Road Mall. Hopeful that the sun might peek out, we decided to sit on the patio at Java House. The boys each ordered a plate of chicken with a side salad. I about choked on my sandwich when I saw Njeru pouring ketchup all over his salad. I asked him what he was doing and he responded in his usual serious tone, “eating”. He obviously didn’t find it that unusual.

The last couple of weeks, I’ve been training with Mim and Aimee. We’ve been running in Karura Forest which is a protected area of land near our house. It has several bike and walking trails that wind in and out of the trees. It’s also home to some smaller animal species such as the bush buck, the Colobus monkey and a variety of birds. After our lunch with the boys on Saturday, we decided to run one of the 6k routes. I am proud to announce that I was actually able to finish without stopping! Granted, I ran like a turtle but I did NOT stop. I’m hoping this continues when I get back to the States but we shall see. I finished the run in less than an hour, which is almost laughable for some of you cross-country stars but was probably one of my best times. The trails were also very muddy after the rain we had a couple of days before. Once I reached the end of my run and stopped breathing like a chain smoker, I found a stick lying nearby and scraped off the inches of mud from my shoes. Yesterday Mim whipped us into shape with kick boxing and today I’m doing a 5k tempo run at Windsor golf club. Here’s hoping I finish it. This just in, I did not.

On Sunday night we couldn’t help but head to Village with some of our boys to watch the World Cup Finale. The match didn’t start until 10pm which was super late for us grandmas. The food court was packed with people wearing Argentina and Germany garb. I have to say the majority of the crowd was cheering for Germany. Of course, I had to go for Argentina. I can’t leave my Spanish speaking gente hanging. We ordered coffees to help keep us awake and watched the intense game before us. I completely thought Argentina would win until that last minute of overtime when “Super Mario” came out and scored. Sad day South America but you put forth a good fight! And congrats to Germany for a game well played. We didn’t make it home til 1am, so you can imagine what it was like getting up in the morning.

Monday was packed with fun and adventure as me and my two amigas headed out to Karen again to see the baby elephants at Sheldrick’s. We watched them roll around in the mud after they finished their bottles. You would never think so, but elephants are some of the most hyper and cheeky animals I’ve ever seen. Kithaka, one of the older babies, rolled in the muddy watering hole and then ran directly toward the rope fence and rubbed his body against a bunch of people,knocking most of them over. One of the moms in the crowd was holding her baby who got covered in mud after Kithaka came gallivanting over. Another baby elephant was throwing dust on people. Can you believe the elephants wrestled each other too? You can’t keep from laughing when you watch them.

There were several people from different countries in the crowd and my ear was quick to pick up the Spanish speakers. I heard a Spanish speaking family talking about how they couldn’t see to take a picture. Thank goodness that when I turned around to talk to them that Spanish came out instead of Swahili. They looked a bit surprised when I told them they could come up to where I was standing. Later on while in line at the bathroom, I met a woman from Valencia who was visiting her children who lived and worked in Kenya. It felt refreshing being able to speak Spanish again and I couldn’t wait to tell my students about this experience. It is so hard getting kids to see how useful another language can be no matter where you are in the world. My mission is to prove them wrong. I spoke Spanish in Japan last summer and can now add speaking Spanish in Kenya to my list. All the more reason to learn a language because you can use it EVERYWHERE!

After seeing the elephants, we headed to grab a bite to eat at the Galleria mall. I had my usual paneer masala with naan and we got some coffee from Art Caffé on our way out. Our next stop was at the Giraffe Center. My family used to run a guest house about ½ a kilometer up from the center and boarded our horses in the same field with the giraffes. I remember hearing how one of the guests took a picture of our horse touching noses with one of the giraffes. As we walked up the stairs to the house on stilts, a sense of nostalgia overcame me. I always had such good memories of coming to visit these strange, long-necked creatures. Once we reached the top, one of the workers gave us two handfuls of pellets to feed to the giraffes. Their slimy, purple tongues were rough and scratchy as they wrapped around what seemed to be your entire arm when they grabbed pellet. I remember seeing other people put the pellet between their lips and the giraffe would grab it from their mouth. I was always so scared to do this when I was little because the giraffe would practically knock me over with its huge head. This time I couldn’t resist—it was probably one of the grossest and most fun things I’ve ever done. Now I can officially say I’ve been kissed in Kenya.

After hiking the nature trail at the giraffe center we headed back to Sheldrick’s around 4:30 to adopt one of the elephants. When we first got there they took us to see the two black rhinos. One’s name was Maxwell, who was abandoned by his mother because he was genetically blind—he will never be able to return to the wild. The other female rhino, Solio, was being cared for until she was ready to be released back into the wild. After meeting the rhinos, we went and stood by the path and waited for the baby elephants to run in for their afternoon feeding. It was comical to see them run in a straight line as fast as they could. They each headed for their own stall where they were met by their caretaker who had two bottles of milk for them to drink. Each caretaker has a bed built into the stall so they can stay with the elephants overnight. I walked around in ankle deep mud looking into each stall trying to decide which baby to adopt. I finally landed at Tundani’s stall. He was twirling a branch around and munching on the leaves. He stood out because he was quieter than all the other babies. He also didn’t come up at and let you pet him, like some of the other elephants were doing. I think that’s why I chose him. Each of the adoptees got a packet of information on their elephant telling you where they were from. The elephants are named after the places they were found and rescued. Tundani was found walking alone alongside a river. They didn’t know the exact reason for his abandonment or where his mother was but fortunately he was rescued before any harm came to him. It was a great afternoon watching the babies. I decided to make Tundani my classroom elephant and am looking forward to telling my students Tundani’s story and the stories of the other baby ellies.

The hour drive back to the house was enjoyable as I snacked on mapruni (tree tomatoes) and sim sims (sesame seed bars) that we picked up along the way. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.