June and July (Part 1) Catch Up!

June heated up as far as outings and social events, prepping me for a very busy July. Lots of fun times in Nairobi, small dinner parties, and some touristy trips to places close at hand.

Lovely night out at Gipsy with two Nairobi faves.
Eliza, Theresa and I

Izzi made dinner for us, and afterwards we were playing some poker. Punishment for losing a game was consumption of a piece of ULTRA raw mango that Clayton had misguidedly purchased and cut up.

It was so sour that it immediately made your jaw clench. Izzi regretted losing this hand of poker.

Early in June, one of Eliza's good friends came to visit. "Cheese," as everyone insisted I call her, was here for about a week and she and Eliza frolicked off to the Mara and the Coast, but she had one free day in Nairobi. We took advantage of the day to go and do some rather touristy stuff out in Karen.

We started the morning at David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Elephant Orphanage. I'll keep the photos to a minimum as I've probably completely overwhelmed you with baby elephants in the past, but you should know that I adopted the most precious and twee baby elephant, named Ajabu, and you should read all about her here. 

LOOK AT HER! She's wearing a tiny cape to stay warm! Can you even handle it?!

So teensy!

Ele love.

Modelin and bottlein.

It was a pretty dreary day, but that didn't stop a ton of people from coming out.

It just doesn't get old.

I love the orphanage more every time I go!

After the Elephant Orphanage we headed over to Talisman, where we had a delicious, relaxing lunch. It felt especially awesome because they gave us all lovely Maasai blankets that kept us toasty warm. Once we finished with our leisurely lunch, we went to the Kazuri Bead Factory. "Kazuri" means "small and beautiful" in Kiswahili, and they make beautiful ceramic beads and other small items. The company started in 1975 employing only two women. They almost exclusively hire single mothers, and now employ a huge workforce of women crafting all shapes, sizes, and colours of beads. Though we arrived after tour hours, one of the workers agreed to walk us around the factory and show us where the different steps of the process take place. I also walked away with a pair of earrings and two gorgeous necklaces, which was a nice bonus!

Heading over to the factory.

Pretty signs.

Work stations where they shape the clay.

Beads waiting to be fired.

The kilns where the ceramic beads are fired.

They produce a ton of beads, so they have a lot of these kilns all lined up.

Our lovely tour guide wrapping things up.

After the bead factory we relaxed for a bit at Galleria, including shopping at the permanent Maasai Market there, and then we went to Carnivore Restaurant. Carnivore is an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant, where they have the traditional meats as well as a few gamier things like ostrich, crocodile, etc. Game meat is illegal in Kenya, so their choices are more limited than they used to be, but Carnivore is definitely an experience. It comes with a hefty price tag (roughly $50 a person) so its basically a one-off kind of thing, but I'm glad I got to experience it.

When you have that flag up, it means "MORE MEAT!" When you take it down, you've conceded defeat.

Oh god. Bring on the meat sweats.
Eliza and Cheese

Overall it was jut a lovely day. A few days later, Theresa and I took Clayton out on his first school visit. We got to spend some time talking to the teachers and school administrator about how some of the new stuff we've implemented has been going, and played with the kids for a bit as per usual.

Remember when I mentioned a while ago that I was going to be on a poster. Well, its out there, haha.

Class 5.

This is a pretty small group at this school. Usually our classes are a lot bigger.

There's that tell-tale green!

A chain of Baby students heading to the loo.

Clayton getting his learning on.

My little ones...and some chickens.

Making friends?

They love their outdoor games.

So special. 

The kids thought he was hilarious.

Then July rolled around. We had to do July 4th in style, representing our American pride. We ended up getting a group together at Gipsy, decked out in red, white, and blue of course. It was a pretty hilarious night overall.

Before going out to the bar we had the obligatory viewing of Independence Day. I don't think its possible to NOT get ultra patriotic when listening to the President's speech. Their reactions were totally unplanned....it just came over them, haha.

I love. I made T's headband and Clay's bowtie. You impressed?
Me, Sanya, Chris, Theresa, Clayton

Some of my very favourite people here.
Me, Chris, Elaine, Clayton, Theresa

All smiles at the end of the night.

The weekend after the Fourth of July, a group of us went out to Brown's Cheese Farm, in Limuru. Brown's basically produces all the delicious cheese in Kenya, haha. They started as a small farm, and now supply almost every major restaurant in Nairobi, as well as all the big grocery store brands. I pretty much exclusively buy Brown's, so I was excited to go the place where the magic happens. After getting horribly, repeatedly lost (their website has THE WORST directions ever), we finally arrived and enjoyed a full afternoon, complete with a tour, cheese making demonstration, cheese tasting, and lunch. SO much cheese. Delicious, delicious cheese.

Eliza on the beautiful grounds.

Cheesemaking is a SCIENCE, ok. We had to look the part.

Little cheese making demonstration from our tour guide.

Probably one of the classiest people I know. Probably.

Stirrin' up that cheese.

One of the main production areas. The guys in the back are shaping mozzarella.

Cheese as far as the eye can see.

Different types of cheddar. Each day their rind is cleaned and oiled. That is a shit ton of work.

I love this picture with ever fibre of my being.
Clayton, Eliza, Kalpana, Chris

Just grabbing one and eating it is frowned upon.

One of the giant aging refrigerators.

Cheese tasting. So pretty. They went from the mildest (L) to the most pungent (R). The flower was also edible, haha.

After lunch we headed out to see the farm, including this cow named Tiramasu, which I find hilarious.

Sunday we headed over to Blankets and Wine for an afternoon of relaxation, music, and watching wazungu play "Fair Pong" to win Fairtrade prizes at Eliza's tent (I won a mug). It was much colder than last time, but equally as much fun people watching, so I'm not complaining. Super super sadly, the following Wednesday, Eliza went home to the UK. In the three months she was seconded (British term meaning lent to another office, pronounced se-COND-ed) here she made the leap from Facebook Random to True Friend, and I miss her a lot. She lived with me for the last five weeks and I could always count on her for a late night viewings of god awful Swahili movies or just making stupid faces/voices that make me laugh. There were tearful goodbyes in the parking lot as we sent her off to the airport, and thankfully Theresa let me crash at her apartment that night, where we chatted and watched movies to take my mind off her departure. We miss you Liza!

Goodbye dinner at About Thyme.
Clayton, Ben, Jess (who cannot physically keep her eyes open for goodbye picures), me, Izzi, Eliza, Theresa

Next entry will cover the rest of July. Look forward to a coast trip, camping, and much more!