Day 59 - March 8

Today was a rest day in Nairobi.  There was a mall, a real mall, near where we stayed.  It was populated by ex pats.  The mall on our standards was pretty small but on the standards I was used to in Africa, it was palatial!

They even had a food court!  A food court!  You can't believe how exciting that can be after two months in the bush. :)   Oh well,  it is those simple things that excite nowadays.  I had KFC, can you believe it...  Kentucky Fried Chicken.  

They had a large full service supermarket in the mall.  Had to stock up on ...  Potatoe chips (crisps in the local vernacular), sun screen, Mars bars, Coke and Baby Wipes.  Baby wipes are the shower alternative when you are camping in the bush.  It is amazing how good you feel taking a baby wipe "shower" after several days of no real shower facilities.  I think I am now becoming familiar with the early pioneers ability to only take a shower once a week (or once a month) and being ok with that.  Showers are highly overrated. ;)

A really neat thing was we, the tour company, had a donation ceremony.  Part of the cost of the tour goes to providing a bike to local charities that are in need.  The tour company donated 52 bikes to two charities.  One of the charities was a group working with the youth in the slums of Nairobi.  The one slum has over 600,000 people living in it. We saw it as we rode in.  It was a huge area of ramshackle small huts collected together.  It looked rather depressing.  The youth group had one of the kids who received a bike last year speak as to how it changed his life.  It was moving...  He said having the bike enabled him to get to school and hold down a job.  It made him feel special, feel rich, feel successful and gave him hope.  Isn't it strange to think that something as simple as a bike can deliver something so powerful?

It also opens up career opportunities for bike repair machanics and even shops.

The other group that received bikes was a doctors group.  They modify the bikes to allow them to carry supplies such as IVs and medicine for shots.  The bikes allow the doctors access to areas that are difficult to get to due to roads not there or in conditions which are difficult.  It also allows the doctors quicker movement through the city due to grid lock of traffic.  Again, something as simple as a bike is delivering something so powerful.  

We are very lucky in all that we have.

:)