Origami with the Amani Art Club, Kawangware

We took a trip to the Amani Art Club (brother school to Precious Blood) in Kawangware to hang out with some new friends this month.

We started out with some ice breaker introduction games to get to know each other:

Then we did some origami:

The kids worked really well in small groups helping each other out:

Angela:

Alice checks on Sydney:

We all finished our beautiful and colourful origami cranes:

Then had some sandwiches, apples and juice:

Of course where there are apples, there is juggling!

The Amani group with prizes for the best origami folder and students with the best exam results:

A big thank you to Angela and Leo, volunteer organizers of the Art Club at Amani for hosting us and introducing us to our new friends!

Spotlight on Elim House Academy in Kawangware

A fundraising program for Elim House Academy in Kawangware by some young professionals in Nairobi has helped to meet urgent nutritional needs.  The sports day unveiled a larger "Adopt a Child" campaign and gave visitors a chance to interact one-on-one with the kids and create deeper engagement/commitment. Besides launching 'Adopt A Child', the group collected old clothes, shoes, text books, toys and monetary donations.

It was a fun day all round.

Stretching before the games:

The senior boys team thrashed the teachers and volunteers:

 Snacks and juice after the game:

Some of the visitors, volunteers and teachers

To learn more about the Elim House Project and how you can contribute, visit: The Facebook Group

Ngong Hills

In March we trekked across the Ngong Hills with Daniel Stringer, a PhD student visiting from Stanford.

We stopped to look at the windmills on the way and Dan did a great job of explaining how they work.

Ufortunately, Dan took all the pictures and is still fixing his camera.  As soon as he recovers the pictures, we'll post them! :-)

Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site

This month, a gang of 12 packed into a little minivan and headed into the heart of Masaai country: Olorgesailie.

Located along Magadi road, two hour's drive and 70kms away from Nairobi, Olorgesailie prehistoric site is world renown as the "factory of stone tools" and the place in the world with the largest number of excavated prehistoric hand tools. The prominence and accumulation of human tools represents actual camping places of early man and evidence that human species had a tropical origin. The site is in a lake basin that existed about 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Researchers Dr. and Mrs. Leakey, started investigations on the site in 1942 where they found important evidence that concerns the habits and activities of early prehistoric peoples of the Acheuleus or "Hand axe" culture. Olorgesailie has excellently preserved biological and cultural evidence about the evolution of man. If you'd like to visit, see more information on the National Museums of Kenya website.

We didn't expect to take so long to get there, so started our picnic in the van:

The views on the way there were gorgeous:

And the mud turned white...

We could see a few small dust storms in the distance:

But this HUGE dust/rain storm quickly gathered and arrived at Olorgesailie at exactly the same time as us:

Our guide Danson told us lots of interesting facts:

We played with some bones:

And some hand tools:

On our way out, we stopped at the Masaai curio shop to buy necklaces for the girls and bracelets for the boys. The artisans are local Masaai women:

One of the masaai necklaces:

Melody's beetle necklace:

Joy's blue heart:

Karura Forest

This year started with a trip to Karura Forest, a magical little gem in the suburbs of Nairobi. We learnt lots about the plant and animal life there as well as the brave conservationist, Wangari Mathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is thanks to her and other conservationists, that we have this beautiful urban forrest in Nairobi today. Today was definitely a day inspired by nature and the movie Avatar! The kids had so much fun running and swinging around the forrest.

We were joined today, by a Chinese friend from Washington DC, Danqing Zhu:

After a short walk in the forrest, you reach these beautiful waterfalls:

Gitau up on a tree above the waterfalls:

We stopped here for a picnic:

Melody swinging:

Also within the forrest are these big, beautiful caves, where the controversial Kenyan freedom fighters, the Mau Mau used to hide out:

Mungai on a vine swing:

Mungai and Gitau find a way to climb this one way up high:

Mungai swings from one end of the forrest to the other...

Eric swings from one end of the path to the other...

This isn't a great picture, but the kids in the valley below are surrounded by butterflies, that made them so happy!

Our big gang for the day - thank you Danqing for joining us, we had such a fun day and learnt so much from you about China and USA!