Life in and around Nairobi.

My special place to write

We didn't go on game drives every day, occasionally I stayed at the apartment, keeping an eye on Zoe, or sitting out in the little gazebo writing my journal and just enjoying being there. Although I had never lived in Nairobi, I felt very much at home and very comfortable. I missed my cello of course, but if it had been during the school year I would have been playing in the Nairobi Symphony and teaching.

One day out was to visit the Nairobi Waldorf School. As I teach at a Waldorf School, I wanted to visit them, and I knew my fellow teachers at home would be very interested in my visit and seeing photos. I was warmly invited to visit when I phoned the school. It is out in Karen on the Miotoni Road. As it was holiday time, there were no children but some of the teachers were cleaning up and getting ready for the next term. I was shown around by Irene who was one of the  kindergarten teachers.  Dan and Zoe were joined by the 6 year-old daughter of one of the teachers, and was so friendly to Zoe. They had a wonderful time on all the play equipment while I went around the campus. It is small, with wooden buildings, but has great open areas, a nature walk, bike paths and playground. They also had a small garden patch for the kindergarden where the children learn to plant and grow vegetables. Surrrounding  the buildings are flower beds, beauiful colorings and plants. The school goes to 8th grade, and there are separate buildings for each grade. In addition there is a large eurythmy room with an attached music room, which doubles as an instrument storage room after class. There is no string program, but if a child wants individual lessons, a private teacher comes to the school after classes end. The staff I met were so friendly, I think it must be a very happy school. The Waldorf atmosphere is very evident. I hope that my school can develop a friendship with them.

Crossing the wobbly bridge

After visiting the school, we went to the Karen Blixen House featured in the film "Out of Africa". It is clearly recognisable from the movie, even though the actual esate is much diminished what with the coffee barn burning down and then later the sale of land around the house. One can tell how much the house meant to Karen Blixen, and can almost feel her love of the view to the Ngong Hills. The sunsets must be spectacular,I would have loved to have been there one evening. The lawns were immaculate and the trees stunning, with of course, bouganvillia.  The house is now a museum and most of the items were bought back to furnish it. (Before she left to go back to Denmark, there was an auction of everything, an agonizing part of the film.) There are the costumes Meryl Streep wore in the film, and even Robert Redford's jodhpurs! Oh, the memories of my beating heart! The little museum shop had some lovely jewellery, I bought a pair of "trade" earrings, made of traded beads from other countries for Kenya goods. The little triangles are made from bone.



The Ngong Hills



The Karen Blixen house

We went for lunch to the nearby Utamaduni Crafts Centre, a cooperative of local artists and craftspeople. As it was getting late, we thought we would eat first, then look around the centre. We sat under an ivy-covered trellis enjoying the beautiful plants beside the slate paths, and the stone pond. The place was not very crowded, but the service was very slow, and it took us some time to realise that they wanted us to look around the centre BEFORE  having  lunch. We did manage to get our waiter instead to bring us lunch right away, and it was delicious. I had a fish soup "Zanzibar" with all sorts of exotic spices, but fortunately not hot. Zoe had her fish fingers (fresh fish is served everywhere, not those horrible frozen things) and Dan had fish as well. The Centre was in a former house, and each room had a different craft, all beautifully presented. Beaded work is very popular, and I bought several  items for gifts. There were hand-designed fabrics made into tablecloths, aprons and other household items. I bought Elisa a beautiful cotton dressing gown for Christmas. She travels a lot and she didn't have one.

By the time we got into the car, we were pretty exhausted with our day out, and were glad to get home after the ride along the dusty and noisy Ngong Road. Traffic in Nairobi is an quite an experience.