Brad and I decided to check out the Nairobi museums, particularly the Snake House. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE walks everywhere in Kenya. That’s probably a good thing because the traffic and driving and traffic circles are horrific enough without another 2 million cars.
We looked up the directions on Google, and set off with a handwritten list of road names and turns. This probably would have worked out great but we discovered that the roads rarely have road signs. Not to mention about 2 blocks from the Guest House the construction started. If there had been road signs they were now long gone. We asked several people for directions along the way (tipping them uselessly) and ended up getting not so much lost as turned around. We finally found the back gate of Arboretum and wandered through to the main gate where we discovered that it cost $10000 Ksh to take any photos! That’s over $12.00 for a couple of shots of a cactus. We said no way and walked right on out of that park.
Stopped at the State House to ask directions from yet another person with a big honking gun. Then ran into Kenyan Boy Scouts who were collecting donations to go to camp. They did their little scout creed. It was precious.
Finally hoofed it nearer to the museums but got accosted by a man with no arms begging for money. While I was curious to hear his story I refused to make eye-contact because I have some ingrained fear that they’ll see weakness and attack me for more money. The guy had lost his arms in a motor vehicle accident when he was a child. The doctors had (surprisingly) done a really cool thing and took the two bones of his left forearm and skin & muscle grafted them so that the two bones actually are separate, wrapped in skin, and act as a set of pincers. Creepy, yet cool at the same time. We gave him some money but he just kept following us.
Along the way we discovered some more mzungas from Seattle and chatted with them. They were also on a medical mission.
Brad and I headed into the Kenya National Museum. It was pretty nice. The exhibit on the bones found here in Kenya that helped piece together our evolution was really cool. I think they were the real bones, actually! There was another good exhibit discussing whether evolution is still occurring even though we are no longer permitting natural selection to occur. They cited some good examples such as disease resistance.
Nairobi also has a Snake Park so of course we had to go there. That’s when we discovered that the snake we’d seen in Ol Najura gorge in Hell’s Gate park was actually a BLACK MAMBA. How totally cool is that? The Snake Park is really quite shabby. Kris’s garage exhibition is nicer, I believe. But there is a central garden area where a variety of species were just living, wandering through rocks and little bushes and climbing trees.
Decided NOT to hoof it back up to the Methodist House so we got a cab. The cab driver and everyone we’ve told since were amazed that we walked to the museums. We figured everyone walks so what’s the big deal? However, I guess they don’t walk as far. Big difference.
Pumula was our restaurant of choice for the evening and it was totally delicious. Peter, our waiter, provided terrific service and we left quite satisfied.
No comments:
Post a Comment