Projects and people ...

We visited some projects that are run to help people who are very poor, mainly those looking after children whose parents have died or abandoned them - many (most) grandmothers - one lady was 70 and had to take a 2 hour old baby - she actually was able to lactate and breast feed the baby - amazing what they can do when there is nothing else to feed the child. These people are very poor and the program are training them how to garden more effectively and give them help in paying school fees and buying uniforms for children for school as well as maybe starting a little business like selling veges or what they can produce. A couple of these also deal with educating the girls against female circumcision which although is illegal, is still practiced in many areas. Got a great T-shirt from one group - Girls - education not circumcision - written on the back! Great projects and wonderful people running them. I will let you know soon what can be done to help where Joy and I see the most need - there is so many needs and we will sit down and discuss where we feel the best help can be given.

Oh yeah I got to go to an orphanage for the night - I am friends with the lady who runs it.Have included some general photos of people and my travels too ...



Isn't she gorgeous - a little orphan now lovingly looked after - she saw me and just came up with her arms up for a hug. Am looking forward to going to the 2 orphanages after my "safari" next week - but one has about 29 disabled children and 140 children altogether, so will be a challenge.

This is Moses - only a month old - abandoned at the hospital. Maybe I will make a great grandmother one day!

And I got to feed him - didn't take him long to gulp down the whole bottle.

This is Peter - he was about 3 months old - just gorgeous - was left on the street with a bag of clothes beside him.



The sad side of the orphanage - this little girls has shingles - have never seen them so bad on anyone. She is HIV positive so is very vulnerable to this sort of thing when she is "down".

YARD project where they help people who are looking after children - school fees, etc and also how to garden more effectively. They also had a great library as well.

Learning beadwork on table mats. They have programs to help the youth sew so they can have opportunity to work.



80 year old lady having to look after grandchildren

The houses are made of mud and sticks with dirt floors and very little "comforts"

The garden they are proud of - but there is very little water so it is hard work to get anything to grow

Their toilet - glad didn't have to use this one!

This lady has 7 children to look after - from her sons - one son and his wife died, the other son and his wife just decided to go to Nairobi and leave the children for her to take care of with no money and very little opportunity for growing food

We got stuck - I pushed this out - Joy took a photo but don't have it yet!

Singing for us to say farewell

 

At G-BIACK had to plant a mango tree - scooped the dirt and mud up with my hands and all. A tradition for all visitors to the program site.

Gardens where they train the people in how to grow better gardens and more sustainable ones

They teach the youth how to sew - this young man is using a tredle machine

The ladies are also taught basic hairdressing as all the ladies here wear wigs or have their hair braided and hair pieces braided in. Will I get some done before I come home  mmmm - will think on that one



Girls and women have to carry heavy loads, this is a container of water - very heavy - you see many carrying HUGE bundles of sticks on their backs as well



Boy having to carry baby brother while he collected sticks

Another photo opportunity - flamingo lakes - it is great they take the school children to these parks

Some school children at the lake where the flamingos were

Donkeys and carts are EVERYWHERE all over the road, and donkeys then let wander in the streets.

Barb and the wildlife ...

Well the last week has been amazing and have seen and done so much - from camping in game parks (yes in a tent) to visting some of the poorest areas of the country and also some of the most beautiful. The drive home Wednesday night was nothing short of a nightmare - left Thika at 6.15 - arrived in home just beyond Nairobi at 9.15 - less than 100km - 3 hours. They are building a new road, no signs, little tracks and holes and humps everywhere, no lights - part of it dirt - with traffic just going everywhere - got gridlocked at one stage - had to get a motorbike and other people get out of cars to try to stop traffic from just continuing to jam into it trying to push through - never seen anything like it in my life! Very harrowing and Joy did a great job driving through it all - then driving around through Nairobi trying to find out way through and around - no signs anywhere but we made it without any scratches to the car - just very tired from a week of adventure. I will tell it most easily in pictures - enjoy. This is but a sample of what I saw - many other antelope and scenery.

14 Falls - near Thika - charged us KS 300 (about $3) each plus $3 for the car to go into see these when it was almost dark and we were only going in for 5 minutes - then wanted to charge us for taking photos! Were beautiful but you could see the water was not clean - probably sewage from the local town

 

Yes was on the equator - crossed it a few times

The most beautiful bird in Kenya - can't see it too clearly but was lilac and the most beautiful colours - next thing to save for - a really good camera with a zoom lense, before I come back again!

Gotta keep in good with the Boat driver when you are driving on the lake where there are crocodiles and hippos!

Lady of leisure - ready to face the crocs and hippos

 

Fisherman we bought some fish from - from his muscles you could sure see he paddled all day! mmm

Really????

A nice croc having a sunbake just beside our boat








The most amazing sight I saw - hippos grazing just in front of us at night - our tents were just through the fence and they came in there as well.

Watching a fish eagle take a fish we threw out for it - magnificent - got a video too but too big to put on here!

Goliath Crane - just awesome to see. I can't describe the beauty of the birds in this place - so many we saw when we were out on the lake - bright yellows, irridescent kingfishers, and sunbirds that have the brightest glowing black, purple, green and red on them. Shame my camera isn't big enough to take really good zoom shots!

Water Buck - heaps of them around - they are just beautiful



Look at those horns - they are  not nice creatures!



Was very close to us - Joy was a little nervous as they are quite dangerous but I just found a good photo opportunity

Staring us down to tell us he was in charge!

Relaxing by the camp site - watching to see where the baboons were and making sure they weren't going to get into the car or steal our food. Was a little travel weary, dusty and only brown water to wash in - hair felt the same before and after!

Camp site - the tree line at the back was the creek and the lions were roaring just over the other side ALL night - must have killed something

 

Oh the dust - cleaning some off the car before we started to get things out - reminded me so much of being at Bourke!

A little bit of luxury one night - no electricity - heated the water outside for us - lanterns and a fire in the hearth - lucky we stayed here as it was freezing - right on top of the mountain - was just like the snowy mountains - just gorgeous



Mother and baby right beside us - just goregous

This is a wild one - who decided it liked chips!

Flamingos - this was something else to see and the colours were magnificent

Ostrich with flamingos in the background

 

I just love the weavers nests - they are everywhere - flamingos in the background

The most graceful and magnificant animal I have seen - and was very close as well

 

Hornbill near its nest - a small hole in the tree only its beak fits into to feed the female

Water soak with buffalo, antelope and lots of wart hogs

Mt Kenya - the clouds lift by about 9.00 am and you can't see it after that most days

This monkey decided it wanted breakfast with us - and it sat up the tree and proceded to show me its "man hood" - not sure why - was rather disgusting really - but being bright blue and red - couldn't miss it

If you have to stop someone is there to sell you something - this is honey - we bought some - just hope it is pure and they haven't put anything in it!