First Full day in Nairobi

Wow very interesting country. After a short sleep (I think I was too excited and jet-lagged) I got up at around 7 am to get ready for the day. It being a holiday, Karim and Shahzad (my hosts) slept in a little bit longer than I, so I continued to read the Hunger Games until we had a communal breakfast. I then got to try eating jipati (similar to naan bread) and omelet with my hands like a civilised Kenyan, which is surprisingly difficult.

On our to-do list was: getting a sim card and internet stick, changing my flight to Kisumu to later in the day on Wednesday, getting some lunch, and trying to visit the giraffe centre. Unfortunately traffic was horrid, with all the construction going on, and it too us much longer to do all of that than expected. As a result I had to postpone my visit to the giraffe centre until Wednesday. I did however make it to a few malls along the way and get to see a lot of the city during our (at times off-road) adventure:

Some giraffes in the national park located by the airport

Got my first exposure to the Keibera Slums...amazing how vast they are, but at the same time how they are now just part of the landscape in many ways. It is much more real when you see it in person rather than just read about it in a book...

We visited a local market selling goods. They can fit so much stuff into very small stores. They do like to bargain there! Still getting the hang of that, and what a fair price is for things

After all of this, we decided to call it quits just as it started to rain. There had been some pretty threatening clouds building for a while and we were lucky to have just finished bargaining at the market when the first raindrops fell. It was amazing how much water proceeded to fall from the sky, so I was not surprised to see some of the roads a little flooded later in the day. After a brief nap back at Karim and Shahzad's place they headed to the mosque and dropped me off at the local gym (which was unfortunately closed, so I had to make due with watching some IPL cricket; rough life I know).

Anyways I am writing this after having just woken up on Wednesday, I am planning on heading to see a local museum of Kenyan history, and then go to the giraffe park on the way to the airport. Next stop Kisumu and finally Kanyawegi to meet up with Maurice, who is our employee in the village. I had to say goodbye to my time in Nairobi, but I did get to have some fun trying to get the housekeepers to work my camera before I left. Not bad for their first time using one:

Saying goodbye to Mrs. Karim (Shahzad) before she headed to work

Saying goodbye to Mr. Karim, Saqib's dad.