All things tall and graceful

There is a saying that helps to explain this continent which we have heard from time to time as follows, 'this is Africa', and we are now starting to understand the full import of this phrase.  But in the meantime, this was the week that was:

The week followed the usual pattern, pottering around the compound during the day, and playing with the May family children (only three! of them usually) in the evenings, before retiring exhausted to our supper (yum) and scrabble (which Jo wins).

This weekend, we went to the giraffe centre, which is only a few kilometers from us. Once again we learnt the amazing kindness of the Kenyan people (our taxi driver (a Masai called Samuel) took us back home via an unscheduled stop at the Karen Blixen museum and chatted up the security guards whilst we were looking around. The guards then took us for a short walk through the woods to show us a hyrax which was hiding inside a tree.  Random, but this is Africa).

Anyway, back to the giraffes. The giraffe centre is essentially a 5 meter high tower in a field, where the giraffes come to say hi, and one can feed them treats whilst warthogs frollick playfully in the sun. For example, a pellet placed between the lips results in a slobbery giraffe kiss, although we were too chicken and just fed them by hand, which was slobbery enough for us. (If any of you are curious, they do nip a little when the feel that they are not fed quickly enough).  Giraffes are around 4.5 to 5.5 metres tall, extremely graceful and very gentle. Dispite all this, they can kill a lion with a kick (apparently the 'spine shatters to the brain', thank goodness it is only lions...) They are also intellegent (they stick out their tongue so that you can throw the food to them, and will turn thier heads so that three people can do this concurrently). All in all, we came away thoroughly enamoured, and then went for a walk in a 'dry upland forest'.

On Sunday we went to see the Nairobi Orchestra with the Simojokis (Marja and most of her children has been a members for many years). This seemingly innocuous experience bordered on the surreal due to the fact that both Joanna and I have been roped in to the Christmas concert in three weeks time. Again, this is Africa. All we need now are instruments...

We have also managed to get ourselves hooked on 24, having managed to avoid it for years in the UK, so it is likely to be a sleepless night...