Shifting Horizons: "You're most welcome"

I love the anticipation of visiting a new country, although in the days before my departure to Kenya my excitement was tinged with a hint of anxiety. It's not everyday you head off to volunteer in a refugee camp after all...

Before arriving at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi at 3:30am I had been somewhat concerned about getting through the night without falling asleep (or without having my bags stolen!). But as it turns out I managed to sit next to the baggage carousel until 5:30am while reading several copies of Humo (thanks, Ilse!). When I finally made it to the arrivals terminal I was surprised by its small size, by the cool outside temperature, and by not being hassled by safari touts nearly as much as I had thought. In fact, everyone greeted me with a smile and a friendly Karibou or "You're Most welcome". One man even gave me his phone when my pick-up failed to show up after another three hours :-).

Later in the morning, on the drive to my homestay, I got a chance to take a sneak peek at Nairobi. At first glance it looked like an incredibly dynamic city, buzzing with roadside stalls, colourful matatus (minivans) and thousands of people walking to work. Not quite the urban badlands that people warned me about! My travel guide describes Nairobi as "one of the most vilified cities in Africa" and I realise now that its reputation as an incredibly dangerous place racked with violence is rather undeserved.

Having said that, our homestay host "Mama" Virginia lives in a gated compound with bars in front of the windows, so obviously being a middle class Kenyan does have its risks. Viriginia's home was flooded by GVN volunteers during my first night there but on day three only me and Nina (NZ nurse) were left.

All the more food for us, including the tasty breakfast of mandazi (type of donut) and the very addictive Kenyan chai (tea with LOTS of milk and sugar - yum!).

For some reason the local ngo I'm with deemed it important for us to be a tourist on day two of our orientation, so we set off to the Animal Orphanage, a park run by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

It was heaps of fun to be able to interact with cheeky monkeys and semi-tame cheetahs (see above), but I wouldn't have minded getting some more info about my volunteer placement instead. Seeing KWS in action really thrilled me though as I've just recently finished reading the excellent book Wildlife Wars by Richard Leakey, former director of KWS and famous paleontologist. Highly recommended if you're interested in Kenya or in wildlife conservation in general.

These kids were part of a visiting school group but were more interested in the mzungus ('white people') than the animals! This offered a first taste of how much children here LOVE having their photo taken.

On our fourth day in Kenya Nina and I were finally taken to our new home close to Pipeline IDP Camp in Nakuru. On our way there we were greeted by one of the most spectacular views in Africa, the Great Rift Valley, which apparently stretches all the way to Mozambique. Photos don't do this justice in the slightest because it's jaw-droppingly beautiful.