In which I eat camel and ostrich and crocodile!

So! Wednesday . After the morning safari drive we had breakfast at the camp and piled back in the trucks to go back to the airstrip. Our plane was supposed to take off at 10:15 so we got there around 10…since there wasn’t exactly any security to go through…but the plane didn’t arrive until around 11. We had an uneventful 45-minute flight to Nairobi, then we had lunch out and took the busses to a conference center where we spent the afternoon hanging out and swimming in the rather cold pool. We had pizza for dinner again that night. It was not very good. But that’s ok because as soon as I get into NYC my Daddy is taking me to the best pizza in the cityyyyyyyyyy!

Thursday we split into 2 groups and one went to this very western shopping plaza while the other went first to this plaza in a very Indian area of Nairobi and got some Indian-style shirts at a store Chrissy likes, and found a jewelry store with a lot of gorgeous stuff for (according to American standards) crazily good prices. Then we joined the rest of the group at the other shopping center and spent the afternoon eating and doing more shopping there. There was a LOT of shopping done on this trip I tell you. After that shopping, we went back to the conference center, packed up our bags, and loaded them in the busses, then went to the same giraffe museum or whatever you want to call it, that we went to last time I was here. You climb up a staircase to a platform and they give you pellets and the giraffes come up and eat out of your hand or your mouth if you choose. I decided not to pay the $10 to go in since I’d already been there, so a bunch of us just sat around outside and listened to one of the bus drivers tell us a bunch of stuff we’d already learned on the safari…about the animals we saw on the safari. Oh well. :-P

Then we went to ANOTHER shop called Kazuri (“-zuri” meaning “beautiful” and “ka” being the prefix denoting small in an affectionate way) where they make clay beads and therefore lots of bracelets and necklaces, and some pottery. So we spent a while wandering around that shop, and then piled BACK in the busses to head for Carnivore!! What is Carnivore? It’s just the most brilliant idea ever. It used to be more brilliant than it currently is but the government has restricted a lot of stuff to make it less exciting but still awesome. It’s a restaurant that serves basically only meat. Waiters come around with giant chunks of meat on swords, put the sword tip in your plate, and ask you if you want crocodile or camel or whatever. You used to be able to eat all sort of bush meat like zebra and gazelle, but hunting and eating those animals isn’t allowed anymore. So we were given chicken breast, chicken wings, turkey, pork sausage, pork non-sausage, spare ribs, leg of lamb, lamb chops, spicy lamb sausage, beef, ox testicle, camel, ostrich meatballs, and crocodile.

The chicken was the best and most well-cooked chicken ever. The spicy lamb sausage tasted like the smell of cow so I didn’t eat much of that. The crocodile tasted like the smell of fish so I didn’t eat that either. The camel was REALLY good but a little tough. The ox testicle had no flavor and the texture of tofu. Gross.

You must understand…I had been waiting to go to Carnivore since I first heard about it the first time I came to Kenya in 2005. It was mentioned that some people wanted to go while we were there but on both trips there was either no time, not enough money left in the budget, or both, so it never happened. But it FINALLY happened! So this was quite the awesome experience for me. J I loved it.

After carnivore we took the team to the airport. We got there around 10..their flight left at like 2:15…so they were a bit early. When we got there someone was using what looked like a steam carpet cleaner to clean the sidewalk outside the entrance. Huh? The giant group of 36 people and their suitcases came up to the door, which has a x-ray machine for the luggage juuuust inside it, and a guy told them they couldn’t go in because they were cleaning. They would have to wait. Danny goes “there are 36 of them.” The guy goes “…oh. Ok. Well you have to stay over there” and points to a corner. Fine. So they one-by-one said goodbye to me and the Basses, it was like a receiving line at a wedding, and went inside. Then we went hooooome and went to bed.

Friday we slept in a little and Chrissy and I spent the entire afternoon sorting through all the medications that are sitting in a few different storage areas in the office building in the compound, and counting out thousands and thousands of multivitamins. That’s mostly it.

Saturday is today! We spent most of the day doing laundry and packing/preparing for tomorrow’s trip up to the middle of nowhere. I didn’t know this until yesterday but apparently the Australia team has been in Kenya for a week, working with some other people doing some other stuff…I don’t know what.
So we drove a half hour to the place they’ve been staying and met them and talked about logistics for a while. They are a group of 7. Two of them are 50s-60s-ish women, one is a pediatrician and the other is a retired nurse, The rest are all 20s-ish. Two of the girls have some medical experience, one doesn’t, and the two guys don’t. So we should have enough people to do everything we need to do…I was scared at first because someone said nobody on that team was medical at all and I was like ummmm HOW are we going to run this clinic with the 2 Kenyan doctors we’re bringing treating patients, Chrissy and me in the pharmacy, and nobody available to do triage or vitals or assist the doctors? But it’s all ok now.

So what’s going to happen is we are taking all our food and water with us. We have 2 land cruisers, a trailer, and a Toyota Prado, and 15 people (7 people on their team, Me, Danny, Chrissy, James, Jeff,2 drivers and a cook) We will be sleeping in tents (not anything like the last tent I slept in, which had a built in shower and toilet) and we will have a “bush toilet” which will be a tent with a seat in it, over a hole that will be dug just for the occasion. We will drive several hours to some place I don’t remember the name of, and pick up two armed guards with big guns. They will stick the ends of their guns out the windows of the cars so that anyone we drive by knows we have guns and won’t try to rob us. Then we’ll get to Laisamis and say hi to some people and go to an even more remote place called Logologo, or something. We will do one day of clinic there and then come back to Laisamis and do 3 more days of clinic, then come home.

At least that’s the plan. But this is Africa so anything could happen.
I will most likely NOT have any internet or phone until July 2^nd because there is no electricity with which to charge things and also no service out in the middle of nowhere.

Chrissy said Sombo was more westernized than this area. Clothing is considered optional among many of them. I asked Chrissy if we could wear shorts, since the locals don’t even wear clothes, and she said no, because the church people we’re working with are just as conservative as the rest of Kenya. Darnit.

So…I really have no idea what to expect…I guess you will find out about it when I get back! J