19. – 23.02.2020
After a long but very pleasant flight with Qatar and, thus, a stopover in Doha, I arrived in Nairobi in the afternoon, took an Über to Ash, my Couchsurfing host here (couldn’t have asked for a better one), and felt immediately very welcome in this country. We talked a lot and had an awesome dinner! Thank you so much, Ash!
The next day, we went to an orphanage in one of the slum areas of Nairobi. I had brought some gifts for the children (Thanks again to the donators from Germany!) and oh, how happy were they when I handed them clothes, stuffed pets, and pencils for coloring – and that’s what we did after the shyness had been gotten over with.
After playtime was over, we went to the outskirts of the capital city in order to get a glimpse of the nature surrounding it. Thus, we strolled through tea and coffee fields, discovered beautiful flower gardens, and visited a nice little waterfall.
The next day, we decided to pay a visit to the elephant orphanage. There is just 1 hour per day (11am-noon) at which you can do so. That’s when the baby elephants are fed milk and are allowed to play in the mud. What a gorgeous sight! I was even able to stroke one of these beautiful creatures! 🙂 Afterwards, we decided to skip the giraffe center (way to commercial and overpriced) and instead drove around Karen with its impressive houses and gardens and visited the Kazuri Beads Center where we were explained and shown the processes in the factory.
The following two days I spent mostly with Dr. Richter from Germany who had just arrived here with a small group of people in order to take a look at the project he had founded to help the people in the slums. So we first were shown around Diguna (a mission founded and led by a very sweet German couple), had a delicious lunch there (thanks Elfriede), and then set off to Mathare – the poorest slum in this area – in order to talk to the leaders of different groups that had been formed. The following day, we went to the Nairobi Chapel where thousands of people go every Sunday in order to sing and worship to God (church here in Africa is very different to what we are used to in Europe and definitely worth the experience even if you’re not religious). Afterwards, we went to the Mathare soccer field to meet and greet the kids that are sponsored by the project – and, of course, I also had to kick some ball with them – what an unforgettable experience! 🙂
