#kenyagram

 Baby elephants and Mt Kilimanjaro.

 Team Kenya on safari. 

 Racing a pack of hyenas. 

 Thumbs up for zebras! 

Oh hello there.

Rooftop sunsets at Watamu.

Our delightful holiday house, monkeys included.

Mojito hour.

Besties.

Making friends with warthogs.

--

 A little bit of insta-theft from Kate and Peter.

a merry little christmas dinner

 

Even though we were sick in bed on December 25, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to celebrate the most important birthday of the year (or of the history of the world, really!). So we loosely adopted the Ethiopian calendar, which celebrates Christmas in early January and hosted a cosy Christmas dinner with friends on January 5.

Our favourite memories from the night are probably the hilarious series of mishaps that almost made us cancel. First, some key ingredients for our Christmas menu were impossible to find at various shops, despite being on the shelves just a day earlier. And then our oven, which exploded a few months ago and was finally fixed the day before, actually turned out to still be broken. We only discovered it when I went to put a tray of brownies in, about an hour before we'd need it again to start the roast pork.

Long story short we got access to our neighbour's apartment and used their oven. Which also wasn't working perfectly, but managed to do the job. But not before we almost lost our pork roast and a tray of veggies when Will slipped on a huge unseen puddle of water and ended up flat on his back and dripping wet. Thanks to his super quick ninja skills the tray of food miraculously ended up on the counter and not all over the kitchen floor!

 

We decorated in red and gold and I diy'd some glittery safari animals - you can see more on my blog. The warm brie with honeyed raspberries and pistachios was a big hit and these paleo brownies (with santa hats) were rich and delicious. 

We had such a nice night - isn't good food and great company all you really need? It was a very merry belated Christmas indeed.

And this was what we woke to on 'Boxing Day'.

happiness is...

1. Having our travelers arrive safe and sound!
2. Yummy hot chicken soup for dinner (and breakfast too)
3. A suitcase of wonderful goodies from home - thank you family and friends!
4. The growing pile of Kenyan goodies ready to send home
5. Finding photos in our inbox of our beautiful niece and nephew loving their new Kenyan hoodies
6. A peaceful day as voters throughout the country voted in the primaries
7. The thrill of upcoming adventures - a safari and a beach trip are calling our names!

 xo

on the tennis court

To celebrate our friend Simon's birthday, and in honour of the Australian Open, we spent a lovely sunshiney Sunday afternoon out on the tennis court with friends. One thing we really miss from home is the abundance of wide open green spaces - it was so nice to have so much green grass to enjoy!

There was an elusive cardboard cup to win, so the stakes were, you know, really high. But the competition stayed friendly, with handshakes all round. In the end, we ran out of time to progress to round two, so we'll just have to find another nice Sunday to head back to the courts and enjoy this perfect Nairobi weather.

 

we have wheels!

We felt we were really 'putting down roots' last weekend when we finally bought a new food processor, after months of umming and ahhing. But then this past weekend we bought car and we feel like the whole world has opened up to us! 

Hello weekend adventures. Hello lazy Sunday afternoon drives in the country. Hello to going out at night and not having a huge taxi bill. Hello freedom! 

And just in time for a safari-style road trip with Kate and PC, who arrive in four sleeps!!

you do the hokey pokey...

..and you turn around, and that's what it's all about!

Along with the other Aussie volunteers here in Nairobi, I spent Thursday painting, sweeping, cleaning, colouring and hokey-pokeying in a local school. Well actually, I spent the whole time taking photos, but everyone else did a lot of hokey-pokeying :) The day was a little different to my usual desk job, but a whole lot of fun!

baby!

I don't think we ever shared this little darling on the blog - what a cutie!


 

On our third day in Kenya we visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an organisation that looks after elephants orphaned by poachers or accidents. Along with about a hundred other tourists, we got to see the elephants' feeding time, where they guzzled down bottles of milk at a lightening fast speed.

Some of the elephants were still so young and small that they had big blankets on their backs to keep them warm, and their keepers actually slept in their enclosures with them at night. They were pretty darn adorable!

the countdown

Less than two months now until these two travel half way around the world to have the best holiday of their lives. In Kenya! With us!



 We've been lucky to catch up with a handful of friends passing few Nairobi, mostly old work colleagues of Will's. It's been so great meeting people I've heard so much about, who shared a lot of good (and bad) times with Will in Sudan, and continue to stay good facebook/skype/twitter buddies. We also got to share a meal with a long-time Fraser family friend whose known me since I was a baby - that was very cool!

But Kate and PC will be our first real visitors and we're really looking forward to sharing our new home with them. We've got a growing list of places to go and things to do and I'm not ashamed to say that many of them revolve around our favourite restaurants :) The countdown is on!

a billion reasons

I've never been a huge fan of Coke, but oh this ad makes me smile! Despite what the stereotypes may lead us to believe, there are so many reasons to believe in this amazing, diverse and growing continent.

in the mist

 

Watching this beautiful flamingo in the mist, under the bright light of a full moon rising, is a memory from Crater Lake we won't soon forget. We've seen lions, giraffe and a whole host of other amazing wildlife here, but flamingos will always be my favourite.

These birds are stunning in all their awkwardness, with their knobbly knees, large nose and big bum. They remind me of awkward teenage girls going through adolescence - limbs too long, pimpled faces, feeling ever so self conscious - not aware of how truly lovely they really are.

in the matatu

Here we are crammed into the back of a matatu, on route to church. These public transport vans are supposed to seat 14 passengers, but have been known to squeeze in over 20. Last week I was very almost sitting on the lap of a rather elderly gentleman - there is certainly more physical contact with your fellow passengers than any public transport back home.



The matatu fare is usually no more than the equivalent of 60-70 cents, but can be as little as 15 cents. For that low, low price you get a unique travel experience that, on any given day, can vary from booming ghetto beats to Lionel Ritchie, flashing fairy lights to multicoloured vinyl roofing to random stickers, the scent of hot sweaty passengers to the almost overpowering exhaust fumes from a vehicle in front.

And if you're really lucky, you'll get to experience that life-flashing-before-your-eyes kind of fear that accompanies speeding down a hill, on the wrong side of the road, into oncoming traffic, or the equally frightening 'oh-look-at-that-the-roads-are-jammed-let's-use-the-side-walk-as-a-super-highway' ordeal.

On another note, you wouldn't believe how much our prayer lives have improved.

home sweet home

1. Our Catholic priest neighbours playing a lively game of volleyball.  2. Snapshots from home that make here feel more homely.  3. Beautiful natural light that streams into our bedroom.  4. The best map ever - have you seen that West Wing episode?  5. Looking out our kitchen window to a nearby school. I've counted ten blossoming jacarandas from that window.  6. Our dear Green Bunny, alive and well and still staring down all of our visitors.

the higher, the better

We watch with amazement as these four inch heels navigate pot holes, gravel, mud and broken pavement.

life in the big city

When friends have asked what life is like in Nairobi, I almost feel strange trying to explain to them just how comfortably we can live here. I'm sure images of mud huts, dirty water and bad roads are flashing through their minds, and while they are certainly part of the picture in Kenya, there's a whole other side to Nairobi / Kenya / Africa that perhaps we aren't so aware of in the West.

Nairobi is a big city. There are skyscrapers (best viewed from here). There are big shopping centres. There are restaurants from almost every corner of the earth. In rush hour, the streets are teeming with smartly dressed Kenyans, off to their office, to do the shopping, or to get to university. It's not so different from home.

There are small businesses on every second corner, selling electric goods, furniture, video and editing services, groceries, vehicles and so on. In the matatus, I've sat next people with vocations as diverse as a university lecturer, an IT officer, an NGO's driver, a school teacher, a young mum, and a lumberjack (with his chainsaw sitting awkwardly across his lap).



There's a growing middle class in Kenya and Nairobi caters well for them. Within 15-20 minutes of our apartment, you can find not one, but two, cinemas, hospitals, dentists and chemists, a golf course, a casino, an Irish pub, a horse racing track, a war memorial, a great green grocer, a fish market, a wine bar (which we just had to check out, see above) and a microbrewery bar with salsa dancing every week.

We've already tried out the local Ethiopian, Italian, joint Japanese/Lebanese, Chinese, American, Mediterranean, Brazillian, Swiss and Kenyan restaurants, and we certainly can't complain about the food. I'd even go as far to say that sometimes, we're eating much better than at home.

Nairobi feels surprisingly like our hometown, albeit a little more mud and far fewer blondes. Even the trees feel 'homely' at the moment - there are jacarandas in bloom throughout the city and I can't help but think of all the uni students studying for their final exams.

So when you're thinking of poor W + L in 'deepest darkest Africa', please imagine us eating delicious fresh sushi, heading out to see the latest Bond flick, or catching up with friends for a drink at the bar, because that might be just what we're up to!

obama fever

Spotted while driving out of Nairobi the other week, but certainly not our first sighting of Obama in Kenya. Like in many parts of the world, the US election is being closely followed here.

We've discovered very quickly that Kenyans love their politics and are well versed on their MPs, presidential candidates and the nitty gritty of electoral processes. The front page news story is almost always a political one and I've never met so many people who have not only read, but seemingly memorised, their country's Constitution.

Everyone from the taxi drivers, to fellow colleagues, to the guy that shines shoes down the street can and will give us their insight into the latest political happenings. It's fascinating!

chasing giraffes

Sorry for the loooong blog silence, we've been very busy chasing giraffes, eating spare ribs on a floating restaurant and convincing a Chinese Hot Pot restauranteur to introduce chocolate fondue to the menu. It's all hard work and no fun here in Kenya.



Will has some amazing photos from our last weekend away in Crater Lake. He'll share as soon as we can get him a working card reader. I've got some other bits and pieces to put up over the week as well, so I promise there will be less blog static this week and some more tidbits from our life in the big N.