Hooligans and Rhinoceros
As uneventful as yesterday was finishing up the system at Neema House, that’s as eventful as today was. It is now 10:30 PM and we are safely at the orphanage in Nairobi. The children have eaten and remarkably bedded down without a peep. This is after we did our best to wind them up with songs and a game of Simon Says.
But let me start at the beginning; we had about an 8 hour drive from Eldoret to Nairobi and were able to leave shortly after 9 giving us a small window to put on our tourists hats and do a little sight-seeing on the way down. After spending a few minutes at 0 degrees longitude (the equator for those map-challenged), we hit Nakumu lake and nature park. It is home to the largest flamingo population in the world most of the year. Over a million strong. That would not be THIS time of year, however. We saw exactly 3 greater flamingos.
We were treated to some amazing wildlife though. We saw monkeys and baboons, zebras and gazelles, giant storks, a hippopotamus and even a herd of rhinos. Spectacular stuff. We felt like we were truly on safari and got some amazing pictures. God’s creativity was truly on display!
We were nearly accosted at the vendors stands while we were looking for souvenirs and I thought I was being told I needed to go on a serious diet plan as they kept yelling “Jumbo, Jumbo” to me. I finally learned that means, “Welcome” in Kiswahili.
I was relieved, but I might still need to lose some weight.
It was time to head out and we still had 3 + hours to Nairobi. As we hit town apparently the 4 million people who were headed out on Friday as we left were headed back today. We hit some horrible traffic, including a stretch that was under construction where we were four wide in an area meant for not more than two, where Tom and Jared said we needed to close are windows and be very cautious. They started pointing out all of these young men they were calling hooligans; our equivalent of gang members at their worst. We were thankful for our guides and their caution and we finally cleared the traffic and made it back to the orphanage.
It’s a shame when you are more afraid of the people than the wild animals.
Tomorrow we will get to do another installation and be able to wrap the week up by midday on Thursday.
Please continue your prayers, we are feeling them and have for sure been protected thus far!
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