Day 2 -- or is it 3?

I am struggling to keep track of my days. I believe this is our second day here. Yesterday we went to the Nairobi Game Park and visited the animal orphanage, which conjures up images of visiting baby animals in a nursery setting and maybe even feeding a baby lion with a bottle. That's not exactly how it is here. The animal orphanage houses full-grown animals that were orphaned and, for various reasons, cannot be returned to the wild. In spite of the fact that we did not get to fulfill my vision of feeding a baby lion with a bottle, we were able to get quite close to the animals.

One activity is entering the pen of 3 or 4 cheetahs and petting them. Yes, petting them. There were a few keepers in the pen with us.

We walked in and were directed to the cheetah that would be the object of our affections. In the background, other keepers threw water on some of the cheetahs. I couldn't tell if this was to engage them or to cool them. It seemed to just annoy them. I with my videocamera (I am such a tourist) went in with Grace, Mom and Amanda. For some reason, everyone else was acting like it was no big deal to bend down to pet an animal that could rip your arm off or tear your jugular, so I did too. Grace petted the cheetah first, scratching behind the ears. The cheetah purred. Mom and Amanda took there turns and I took mine. We all had photos taken. I think my photo will reveal that I was dazed and more than a little unsure of the whole process.

We are staying at Amanda's cute three-bedroom, two-bath, semi-attached home. She has a little courtyard in front where she parks her car and her piki and a nice sized yard in the back. The bedrooms are all upstairs and there is a very large iron door that we shut and lock at the bottom of the stairs each night. Her house is in a gated community with a guard, so we feel very safe.

I confess that we have not suffered terribly on this trip so far. Amanda has a good amount of hot water and we had pizza delivered last night. We have also made two trips to the Nakumatt, the local version of Wal-Mart. I came to understand very quickly that Nakumatt makes life here very tolerable for ex-pats. It sells everything from HP sauce to appliances. The selection and quality of food is very good as well and the prices for most items were not outrageous.

Today we visited the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, where we watched baby elephants being fed by bottle and we even got to pet one! Then we went to the Giraffe Center, where we got to feed a giraffe. I was told that some (Amanda) put a piece of food in between their lips and giraffe would lick it out. I was also told that giraffe saliva is an antiseptic. I declined to let a giraffe lick food from my lips. I have limits.

Tomorrow we are headed to Nakuru to visit the clinic and school that our church supports and drop off the medical supplies that we brought with us. Friday, we're off to the Masai Mara, or mara, as its called here. We will be staying in a tented camp at Kichwa Tembo.

Happy New Year!