We have returned to Nakuru after a week's break. We visited friends, Chris and his mother, Illa. Illa was a former neighbor of Bosco's when he was living with his aunt and uncle in Nairobi as a teen. Bosco had not seen Chris since that time, so it was a really nice reunion. We had visited Illa when we first arrived.

The following day we went to Karen, which is south of Nairobi and is the area in which Karen Blixen of "Out of Africa" fame had lived. There was much to see and do in the area and it is a very pretty and green area of Kenya with a nice cool climate. While there we visited Karen Blixen's former home and had a couple of meals at another former residence from colonial times. We had the best meal there that we've had since coming to Kenya! A real treat!

We also visited Nyumbani Children's Home, which is an orphanage that we had considered volunteering at before we came here. It is a home for children with HIV/AIDS. It is a wonderful place and is very well funded. A model for other homes to strive towards.

We visited the Giraffe Center, where they are working to bring the Rothschild giraffe back from near extinction and are having much success. While there we were thrilled to feed the giraffes by hand - they lick the pellets out of your hand! We also got to hug them! It was so amazing!!

Bomas of Kenya is a place where they have representations of different tribal villages set up so you can see how they used to live, and in some remote areas they still do. The only thing is, that they all looked pretty much the same! So it wasn't as interesting as we had hoped. They did have a nice dance and music show that we enjoyed.

Bosco's parents are buried in Langata Cemetary, which is near Karen. We went to the cemetary with hopes of finding the gravesites. Upon our arrival, we went to the cemetary office where they keep all the records and they brought out a huge book for the year they were buried. Incredibly, we were able to decifer all the hand written entries and find their names. One of the workers lead us to the site, which had been completely overgrown with weeds and grass and soil. We used our hands, bottled water and a bandana we had in the backpack and cleared away the debris to reveal the gravestones. It was probably the first time in over 30 years anyone had been there. Bosco placed flowers on the graves and we took a few pictures.

We returned to Nakuru for a night and then left again to return to Njaaga Children's Home in Kirengero (www.njaagachildhope.or.ke). We had been there about 1 1/2 months ago and enjoyed ourselves so much that we wanted to go and spend more time there. We were there for New Years Eve and Day. We brought balloons of all sizes. The kids went wild for them! We also brought nail polish for the girls and they all had fun doing each other's nails - and mine! They sang and danced for us and just before midnight, we joined them at a church service that was being held in a temporary tent. The service was mostly singing, drumming, and dancing and seemed more like a tribal festival than a church service. It was entirely in the Kikuyu language with a translator translating intio Kiswahili. The tent was open on one side and the wind was blowing fiercely and the air was cold. After about an hour of festivities, we called it quits and were escorted back to the home by the resident Maasai watchman.
Happy New Year!!

The next day we were taken to visit the farm that is owned by the man who statred the home. He has a beautiful piece of property about 60 km from the home. It has a permanent lake and many springs, so he can farm year-round with irrigation, which he is just now completing. He currently is able to produce about 60% of the food needed by the children at the home. His goal is to supply everything, except maybe sugar and tea, from the farm, which has 14 acres. He has a safari business called Planet Safaris (www.planetkenyasafaris.com) that benefits the children's home. We are very impressed with this man and the love and care that he has for these kids. The area of Kirengero has been hit very hard by AIDS and he has nearly 250 mchildren on the waiting list for the home, which currently serves 74 orphans. He wants to find another home where he can provide care for more kids.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year!