Most people would agree that electricity and the internet are both great inventions. So, as I had my laptop plugged into some funny looking plug in a nasty, but expensive hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, I went to my favorite search engine - Google. It was Thanksgiving Day, and I was more than a little down at the time, being away from family in a city that we didn't feel comfortable in. To be honest, I wanted to be sitting at a table at my parents house in Hammond, Wisconsin wolfing down turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh baked buns, corn, stuffing, broccoli/cauliflower casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, sugar cookies, pumpkin pie, and apple pie with Ready Whip. Yes, my mother makes all of this every year. Instead, I thought I was looking forward to a dinner with more rice, more stale bread, and more chicken, goat or lamb parts.
I made one last attempt on Google with the following search, "Nairobi Turkey". One of the results returned from the search engine was a review of a restaurant called Carnivores in Nairobi. They had turkey in Nairobi! I didn't care where it was, what it cost, or what it cost to get there. We tracked down a taxi and then we were off to find the turkey in Nairobi. The restaurant did not have all the fixings, but they did have one of the best turkeys that we have ever had, along with beef, crocodile, lamb, pork, and ostrich, among other things. We definitely missed our families on Thanksgiving, but finding a restaurant that served a wonderful turkey sure helped.
I realize that due to my fascination to describing our Kenya turkey, I jumped ahead to Thanksgiving after last reporting on our Mt. Kilimanjaro climb. After Kilimanjaro, we took a van transfer to Arusha, Tanzania where we spent 4 days and 3 nights trying to get healthy. After climbing Kilimanjaro, we needed a Mother (for Jim and Jennifer) and Grandmother (for Noah) to nurse us back to health. We ended up staying at the Safariland Cottages owned and run by a Hungarian woman name Chila. She brought Jennifer to the pharmacy for cough medicine, washed all of our dirty mountain climbing clothes, and took great care of us as we recovered from our climb. Sometimes people are sent into our lives precisely at the time that we need them.
We did not do much in Arusha beyond sleeping, eating, and wandering aimlessly around the city. The dust and smog didn't do much for the upper respiratory infections that we were dealing with, but the rest was just what we needed. We realize that only spending 3 days in Kenya is not really giving it a fair chance, but due to the current political climate in Nairobi and our physical and mental state at the time, 3 days was enough.To view our slide show of Nairobi, Kenya, click on the following link ==> Nairobi, Kenya Slide Show.
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