What An Unbelievable Day!

Get ready for a long post for today. It was full of a lot of fun, but also a lot of seriousness. It started when our driver, Peter, arrived at 10 to pick us up from the hotel. I think the most important part of the day was the conversations we had with Peter.

Just in the normal talk of the morning, Peter asked how long we would be in Kenya and what we were going to be doing. Once we told him, he said that we had much in common and it took off from there. Peter is from the Kisumu area which is a bit south from Bungoma. It sits right on Lake Victoria. He is the only boy in the family and has six sisters. Five of the sisters are HIV+. One sister and two brothers-in-law have already died. Another sister is currently very ill. Peter, through some support from a group of people in Montpelier, Vermont has set up an organization that supports microenterprise programs for women, an agricultural program, and a scholarship program for AIDS orphans. He said that Western Kenya is, by far, the worst area for infection. He gave us lots of encouragement throughout the day. He said that stigma is still such a problem but is slowly improving. People are finally talking about it and some are getting tested. It really puts the US statistics into proportion to what Africa is facing.

I should have a better sigue (is that how you spell it) to the fun stuff, but I don't. Our next stop was the Karen Blixen House. It was interesting to see the house and grounds. They have been able to buy some of the original furnishings back, but the rest are props from the Out of Africa film.

We then went to a bead factory that was originally created to support widows. It has been around for quite a while. The beads were beautiful and Geri went to town buying so her friend Celia could create some necklaces. It was an amazing process to watch the women work on them.

We went to the Giraffe Center. It is a place for giraffe orphans. You get to go up on a platform and feed them little pellets. Their tongues are incredibly long and sand papery. If you put a little pellet in your mouth they will give you a kiss to get the pellet. Lord knows what germs I picked up there. Actually, it was probably okay. Apparently their saliva is very antiseptic because they cut their tongues when they are eating leaves from some of the thorned trees.

Next it was shopping and lunch at an African Heritage complex. It is a group of stores that was originally founded by Sir Richard Leakey for the purpose of helping to support local people. I could have spent hours shopping there. I did buy a safari vest that will be good for when I'm in Western Kenya. Geri did her usual round of shopping. She bought a beautiful carved giraffe.

The final, and best, treat was left for last. We had a private visit to the Sheldrick Elephant Trust (http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/). It has been featured on Sixty Minutes. It was spectacular. We got to meet with the handlers and visit with the elephants. They have a total of 12 elephants now. Eight of them are between 9 months and 21 months. The other four are 1 month, 2 months, and two are 3 months. It was so much fun to be able to touch and play with them. I got sprayed with mud but it was so worth it. They were so gentle. Although the littlest one can push you pretty good. She still had one ear that was very sunburned. They will be raised there until they are 2 years old and then are released into one of the National Parks. The handlers are with them 24 hours a day and walk them around in the Nairobi National Park. They are bottle fed every 3 hours. At about 5:30 each night, they are put to sleep in stalls. Each animal has his/her own little mattress and a handler sleeps on a mattress in the stall with them.

Tomorrow we will be going on a small safari in the Nairobi Naitonal Park and then off to Bungoma on Monday morning.