Today was our first day in Kenya after two days of hectic travel. As many of you might know from my mom’s previous blog there was a lot of craziness. Last night after waiting in the airport all day we boarded our overnight nine hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. Just to be clear the Virgin Atlantic Lounge at Heathrow airport is not a half bad way to spend the day. We arrived at Jomo Kenyatta, the airport in Nairobi at 8:00 this morning. We were kindly greeted by Susan Ouko, her husband and her aunt. Susan is the daughter of the former foreign minister of Kenya and a member of the family my mom stayed with 20 years ago in Kenya. We will be staying with them later on in the trip. After we got to our hotel we ate some food and took a shower. Eating food other than airplane food felt really good.
After our shower we took a trip to a bead making factory called Kazuri which means small and beautiful in Swahili. This factory was started in 1975 by a woman named Susan Wood who was the wife of the founder of flying doctors. Her mission was to help single women find work and support their families. Today there are women and men working hard at the factory molding, designing and hand painting each bead sold in the shop. Not only do the beads possess beautiful and intricate designs, but I like the fact that when I buy this jewelry I know that someone put time and effort into creating something beautiful for someone else and that by buying the jewelry I am helping these workers.
After the bead factory we drove straight to a restaurant called the Carnivore where we met up with the rest of the Ouko family. The Carnivore serves the most unusual meats I have ever eaten let alone seen in my entire life. At this restaurant there is no menu. The waiters and waitresses come around with every type of meat you could imagine. You can decide if you want to try the meat or not. They had chicken, steak, lamb chops, turkey and many other meats but the most unusual meats were ostrich meatballs, chicken gizzard, crocodile and OX BALLS!!! Yes that’s right ox testicles! I ate the ostrich meatballs and the crocodile and they were surprisingly delicious but I wimped out on the chicken gizzard and ox testicles. All of the meats were cooked in a big fire pit with the meat on spears hanging over the fire. Dinner was definitely one of the most interesting experiences I have ever had!
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P.S Tomorrow we are on our way to the village to help the kids!
Peace out,