Elephants, Ostriches, & Other Happenings.

Two weekends ago we visited an elephant orphanage. It was such a cool experience to see so many baby elephants in one place! I have only ever seen elephants in the zoo. Most of the baby elephants were orphaned from poaching and many were found abandoned in deep wells that they fell into.

feeding himself

seeing the baby elephants!

After going to the elephant orphanage, we went to Jeff's favorite Ethiopian restaurant  The food was amazing! It reminded me of the Indian cuisine that I ate on Devon Ave. in Chicago this past semester. The spices were delicious and I definitely ate way too much. The food consisted of a sour-dough bread called injera, topped with different meats and dips. After our meal we had popcorn and the strongest coffee I have ever tasted...even with 5 scoops of sugar. We also had gum arabic burning on the table for a great smell and ambiance. It was quite the amazing dining experience.

YUMMM!!!

To continue our wonderful day, we visited Nairobi's National Museum. Jeff has a project he is working on there and we were able to see part of it in progress. We saw an exhibit of every bird in East Africa, an art exhibit filled with psychedelic black light art, Turkana Boy as well as many more skulls, pictures of Rendille Dancers at a festival, and many African mammals. My favorite part was walking through the history of Kenya. We learn a lot about the Mau Mau (a rebel, resistance group) and how Kenya gained their independence.

entrance to the museum

To end our day, we went to a mall and got frozen yogurt. I had a scoop of tiramisu flavored yogurt on top of a waffle cone. It was TDF. To die for.

Mall in Nairobi

This past weekend we woke up in time to get our mandazi and sausage link at the d-hall for breakfast, loaded a bus, and took off for a hotel that doubles as an ostrich farm and restaurant. Talk about a themed hotel...There were ostriches everywhere! The lampshades were ostrich eggs, the chairs and menus were ostrich leather, there were paintings of ostriches, and ostrich skins on the walls. When you walk outside there is a pool, playground, and outside eating area where we spent the majority of our day feasting on amazing ostrich steak (a delicacy), ostrich burgers, and other dishes such as salads, potatoes, cream of vegetable soup, and rice. Ostrich meat is some of the best meat I have ever had. It is the perfect combination between beef and chicken. It looks like a steak with no fat and is very tender. It melts in your mouth. In between amazing meals, we played on the swing set and RODE AN OSTRICH! It was such a funny experience. I volunteered to go first and was a bit doubtful of this creatures abilities. He was very easy to ride though...which might have had a little to do with the fact that two Kenyan men ran along side me on the ostrich making sure I did not fall. We ran around the pen once and then everyone else got their turn. By the time everyone in our group rode him, the ostrich was a little tired and ornery. He made a pretty funny hissing noise. We are grateful for his services and I'm sure he is thankful that we keep him in service and off someone's plate. ;)

Just your typical college weekends in Africa- seeing cool animals, exhibits, and eating amazing food!