New Meanings and New Adventures

I have just spent my first day in Kenya where I will be living for most of the year. I wanted to keep a blog of my travels and thought that I should just go ahead and continue the one I started for a technology and learning class I took with my advisor. At first, my reasoning was mostly keeping things simple (a.k.a. laziness), but after some reflection this blog title seems quite relevant. My goals here in Kenya are to work with Engineers Without Borders introducing new technologies for distributing and storing water and to help educate the community to use and sustain these technologies. So, in this blog I will keep you posted on my progress with these goals and my journey along the way.

Today, I toured around Nairobi's animal centers. I saw baby orphaned elephants being bottle fed baby formula and got to pet them. One was only 3 months old. They will be taken care of until they are about 3 or 4 years old then be reintroduced into the wild. While I haven't been obnoxiously begged for food by my horse Stetson in a few days, I thought of him when I fed two giraffes. The first giraffe was giving lots of kisses too. The giraffes are part of a breeding program to build up the population. I also got to hold a baby crocodile and a giant 50 year old tortoise. Both surprisingly seemed to like the attention, but I'm glad the crocodile was not as old as the tortoise or we might not have gotten along as well. There is also a cute golden retriever who lives at the hotel and enjoys belly rubs and seems rather wild when she plays. And there are monkeys, baboons, and camels that I've seen on the side of the road while driving by. I love the animals here and I'm sure I could enjoy other parts of Nairobi, but I leave early tomorrow morning for Kisumu. Bye for now!