Yesterday was technically my day off. The Minister and Mama Faith traveled to their homestead and I spent the day with some of my closest Kenyan friends. We had a fantastic adventure that began at Safari Walk. It was kind of like a zoo and was fun to spend time with my people. Unfortunately, many of the animals were hiding so we missed out on the giraffes and a few other animals. Luckily, I did get to see the leopard and the rhino so I can officially say I saw all of the Big 5 while I was in Africa.
After the Safari Walk, we traveled down the road to Bomas which is basically a center dedicated to preserving Kenya's history. We watched traditional dances and listened to music from 5 Kenyan tribes (including the Kikuyus).
The music was loud and exciting for all involved. Traditional drums and singers provided the accompaniment for the dancers. Some tourists were picked out of the crowd and encouraged to dance as part of the show. Fortunately (for everyone), I was not one of them.
The picture below is one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip :) I sure do love that sweet family! Plus, it's one of the only photos all day where both girls were actually smiling!
See.... trying to get a picture where everyone was attentive and happy for pictures was quite a struggle. Most of the pictures ended up looking something like this...
After the dancing, we went to an exhibit of traditional tribal homes in another part of the Bomas center. We had fun learning about why each tribe built the houses the way they did. Plus, we were allowed to go inside them to explore even further. Many of them had wooden beds and some carefully constructed wooden walls to divide up the home.
We particularly enjoyed the Kikuyu homestead (not pictured) because everyone but me is Kikuyu. We took some awesome panorama shots but for some reason I can't get them to upload to this site.
After our grand adventure, we all went to Simon and Kate's house for some avocado, pancakes, and tea. It was a perfect way to end our adventure. Kate makes a special tea (it's my favorite!) that has Marsala chai and mixed berry tea mixed together. I'll definitely be taking both kinds home so I can recreate it in the US.
After our dinner, I went with Kate to praise team practice. I showed up accidentally last week and rediscovered my love for singing with a group. I've been on a bit of a hiatus since I was in the Furman Singers, but singing with the praise team definitely reminded me why I love worship in the first place. I feel pretty connected to them and they of course mentioned that I'm leaving in a week. They prayed for me and the goodbyes continued. It's going to be tough to say temporary goodbyes for real this weekend.
~ Nell in Nairobi