Benin monkeys, beads and bomas oh my

We had an incredibly busy and great day exploring Nairobi today. The morning started at the Nairobi animal orphanage. Nairobi has a game park outside the city and part of the mission of the park is to provide varying levels of support to animals in need. The animal orphanage houses animals that are often unable to be returned to the wild and need significant support. Many of them, like the Benin monkey Coyle loved taking pictures of, were rescued from luggage as they were being trafficked. The orphanage was a little too zoo like for me but Coyle loved it.

Next we headed to another part of the park for a walking safari. These animals can live in more open enclosures but still need too much keeper support to live on the open range. This is a family friendly way to see animals close up and we walked the paths. Coyle loved “catching pictures” of the animals and was so excited to see his first zebra. This was not a place I was all that interested in visiting but I’m so glad we did.

After our morning animal encounters we headed to a few places that I was really looking forward to seeing. The first was the Kazuri bead factory. Kazuri, which means small and beautiful in Swahili, beads are exported all over the world. The mission of the factory is to “provide and sustain employment opportunities for disadvantaged members of Kenyan society, especially single mothers”. All of the beads are hand crafted and painted and are incredibly beautiful. They employ over 340 artists and provide not only jobs but medical care and other support to the workers and their families. We took a tour of the factory where Coyle had the chance to work with the clay. Then he proved himself a very savvy shopper and picked out lots of presents for people and a beautiful necklace for himself. Apparently I just come along to pay the bills! He did tell me “don’t worry mommy I’ll pick out a present for you too”.

Our last stop of the day was at the Bomas of Kenya. The word bomas means homes in Swahili and it 

is a place which celebrates the different tribal cultures found in Kenya. We went to a show where they performed dances, songs, music and acrobatics from all over the country. The show was phenomenal. Coyle danced and clapped through the whole first half but didn’t quite make it through the second act!  I loved it because western tourists were a really small part of the audience. Instead it was mostly Kenyan school groups. Many of the students we have met love yelling “hello” to Coyle and he has just as much fun waving back and yelling “Jambo” back! 

It was a full and great day in Nairobi. Tomorrow we head out to Amboseli for a few days for a safari. More adventures to come!