Downtown/Elephant Orphanage/Giraffe Center

So this last weekend I got to go see some of the sights around the Nairobi area. We didn't have class Friday, so I was to go to the National Museum with some friends just outside of the city center, but unfortunately things got messed up, so I was in the city by myself.

I love cities, particularly the downtowns. Because I was by myself Friday, I got to do my own little tour of downtown Nairobi, which is growing on me. After wandering around one side of downtown, I made my way to the area around the Hilton Hotel, which is becoming one of my favorite areas of the city. Wanting to waste a few hours, I found a bookstore, bought "The Divinci Code" and went into a coffee shop and read for a while. This is one of my favorite things to do. Walk around a downtown area and people watch, find a nice coffee shop and escape for a while in the comfort of a book, chair and coffee. I went home after coffee and we still didn't have running water (for the third day in a row) and during a thunderstorm we lost power (a common occurrence).

Saturday, I woke up and made my way downtown again to head out to the Elephant Orphanage Center in Nairobi National Park. I don't get coffee at home, so I stopped at a Java downtown and got an iced coffee. Walking around the nice parts of downtown Nairobi with an iced coffee made me feel back at home.

I hopped on a matatu and made my way out to the Elephant Orphanage. I "alighted" at the center and met my friends Maggie and Sarah who are both from Madison and go to Blackhawk Church. We got up to the center by a nice worker who drove us up to the gate, and after a little waiting, we paid our 300 shillings ($4) we got in.

We stood by a thin rope, waiting for the baby elephants to come out. A little after 11 am (they're open to visitors every day from 11-12) the first group of elephants came out. The first group was the younger elephants the center has. There were 10 of them, and they walked up expecting their bottles of milk about four feet in front of me. After being fed, they played around with each other (including some soccer) and we got to pet them! They were really fun to watch. After 30 minutes, they left and the next group of nine came in. They are the older elephants at the orphanage.

We stayed for about the full hour and thoroughly enjoyed watching the elephants. Each had their own "attitude" and were fun to see. The Elephant Orphanage, formerly known as the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, is a very cool program, is cheap to visitors and a great way to save orphaned elephants survive after losing parents before returning them to the wild.

After the seeing the elephants, we made our way to the Karen Giraffe Center. Here, you can feed giraffes from your hand, or as I did, from your mouth! You walk in and the keepers either give you hay or pellets and you can walk right up to the fence and feed the giraffes. After hearing stories from friends, I decided to go ahead and go about the feeding with my mouth. I can now say that I've kissed a giraffe. Not the cleanest thing, but the pictures and story are now at least a conversation starter.

I hope you're doing well, and to hear from you soon.