Here are some movies of our adventures in Nairobi. We visited the Giraffe House where Jennie and Christian both got to kiss Daisy the giraffe. Our kids warmed up gradually to feeding and petting the giraffe. We were able to hold a giraffe femur bone - it was unbelievably heavy. It gave me a new respect for these very tall and strong animals. Giraffes have long purple sticky tongues that secrete an antiseptic which helps them eat the sharp, hard spikes off of the Acacia Trees - which is their main diet.
Next we visited the Elephant Orphanage. This orphanage collects elephants from around Africa whose mothers have died, or have been killed by poachers. The elephants are taught to forage and develop as naturally as possible, while being cared for by the workers. The workers try to do what the mothers would do: keep them warm at night, spray water on them so they can get nice and muddy (which prevents them from being sunburned, and keeps insects from burrowing into their skin). It was so fun to see the different groups of elephants they brought out to us. This is the under-one-year-old group. They are raised in the orphanage for a few years until they are independent enough to be released into the wild at about 3-4 years of age.
Bomas of Kenya (which means villages of Kenya) is a cultural venue where you can see traditional music and dancing from the many ethnic groups. There are also examples of different types of villages found throughout Kenya. This dance and song is popular among the Masai people. The men jump as high as they can and in real life they wear shoes made of used tires. In Tanzania, we were able to visit a Masai village and we'll post more movies of our experience there.
We thought the variety of huts was quite amazing. This mud hut is considered one of the best kinds. It is made of sticks with a mixture of mud and manure smeared on top. It is the job of the women to re-apply this whenever the all-season weatherproofing wears off.
