Busy Visit

So I'm letting my parents take all the pictures, and I'll probably post some once they get home and email them to me (or we'll spend 2 full days looking all around Nairobi for the right cord to connect their camera to my computer... probably not). Here's what we've done so far:

Friday
Arrival, a long wait in a visa line, a mostly uneventful drive across town (cabbage-knife sellers and roundabouts and traffic notwithstanding). A long nap, an introductory visit to a craft market, and an early sleep.

Saturday
A late sleep, good breakfast, sitting around drinking coffee (tea for Mom), and a very social tour of campus- it took us 3 or 4 hours because we chatted with everyone we met. An especially fun time watching the Matlak boys play some soccer. A very successful dinner at DP (Diamond Plaza- think the El Parasol of Indian food- cheap and basic and awesome). Even Dad liked it.

Sunday
Church, of course, including prayer time beforehand and Tabasamu sale afterwards. Lots of socializing. A drive up to Brackenhurst (Baptist retreat center 1/2 hour out of town) to see the tea fields, some different neighborhoods, and some rural life. Beautiful misty day.

Monday
All day at Tabasamu, for Bible study and talking and listening and praying. Mellow evening, yummy chocolate gelato split 3 ways.

Tuesday
A busy day. Visit friends' new baby girl at the hospital (and thereby see where I was last December), buy maize and bananas to feed the monkeys, spend some time at the monkey park, meet my friends at the vegetable market and buy the week's produce, bring it home, head across town to have a meal with the Brents, figure out the details of them staying at 15559-41st in Los Alamos come October, get some cookbooks and African proverbs collections at the bookstore, collapse in total exhaustion at home.

Wednesday
Join the new staff bus trip around Nairobi, visiting Kamili designs (new pillow covers) and Kazuri beads (the ceramic engineer was pretty excited about the clay and kilns and glazes and...!). Delicious pasta at Mediteraneo in Junction, fight traffic all the way home, supper at Loewers, lots of time looking at maps in preparation for...

Thursday
A rainy day, so we give the traffic some time to die down before heading across town again for the Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Centre. Pictures sure to come soon- the giant purple tongue swabbing Dad's face is a winner. =) At the Elephant Orphanage, surprise of surprises, I ran into a family from my first year of teaching in Los Alamos. What are the odds!?! So we spend the day together, had lunch at the Carnivore, and drove home (with no police involvement- see previous posts...). Mom and Dad are resting this evening while I head to a friend's birthday dinner in a few minutes.

I sure hope we sleep in tomorrow.