The Way to Nairobi!

And there were 36 of us making our way to Kenya!

Ever since I was a teen – My heart has been focused on Africa. 

My Grannie and Grandpa John (Dad’s mom and step-dad) made a journey to Africa in the 1970s. Grannie LOVED photography, and was pretty good at it even with cameras before the computerized era – when technology dictated that you look for the right conditions, reset all the settings, set up the shot, take it – and cross your fingers until you could have the film developed never knowing if you caught what you hoped you caught.

Slides were the viewing of choice back then, and oh the evenings we spent with Grandpa John going into long winded stories with each and every frame – the click of advancing slides on the carousel interrupting his speech as he’d announce “Next!”

The giraffes.  Grannie loved the giraffes so much. And every time I see something with a giraffe, I think to myself how Grannie would love this one, or that one – or what would she think of her Bonnie Belle being here now?

14 hours in a white metal tube.

We arrived morning time in Nairobi, but most of us agreed – little sleep on the plane made it still feel like the middle of the night, and we pushed forward and onward like zombies.

My first view of Africa from my aisle seat – fresh with rain.

Luggage accounted for!

Well, except one.

One traveler’s bag was still somehow sitting in JFK.  It never made the flight.  It should arrive today – which meant there was nothing we could do to solve the situation except -

GO SHOPPING!

Town is so crazy busy that our big bus wouldn’t be able to find parking so we loaded up on to two small busses and tag teamed each other to the shopping district.  Destination?

Fabric!

And African garments, handmade and ready to wear.

Oh my stars – we are in NAIROBI!!

And the shops are so happy to see us!

Much of the fabric is sold in 6 meter lengths and you have to take the whole piece.  If you are lucky, you can find a couple of other quilters willing to jump in and split the big piece between you.  Prices?  For me it averaged out to about $8.00 a meter.

So many colors and patterns!

Quilters MUST pet the fabric!

My prize.

Hand painted batik – still crunchy with wax and smelling like crayons.  Not sure what I am going to do with it – but it embodies everything that I hoped I would find to bring home – an art piece that I can add to and make my own.

A few of the other goodies -

I don’t like to haggle.  Seriously.  It stresses me out.  So I could have, would have bought more IF – they would have been honest with a fair price and just told me what the best price was so both parties were happy.  But this is a haggling country.  And I left knot knowing whether I had been schnookered or not.  Were people doing the happy dance of joy because they pulled one over the very naïve American?

(I hate buying cars for this same reason – I hate the haggle!  Some love it, but not me.)

Last night’s welcome dinner!

last night’s night sounds:

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A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Oct 17, 2019 at 11:26am PDT

And MY biggest surprise of all – we were met at the hotel by Craftours owner, Jim West!  I had no idea he was joining us on this adventure . He had just finished a group tour in Uzbekistan, and I had NO idea he was planning on surprising our group.  So much exciting.  If we can only wrap our body clocks around this time zone thing.

For me- it’s 7 hours difference from the East Coast, but we’ve got folks from as far away as Alaska, so I can’t imagine how they are feeling it.

As it was last night I went to bed SO frustrated that I couldn’t get the new camera to connect to my phone so I could transfer the photos over for editing, uploading to Google Photos, etc.  NOTHING I tried seemed to work.

This morning I woke up at about 4:15. (I had been up a couple of other times as well…yeah, this day is going to require a nap!) and it hit me – It was the VPN on my phone keeping me from connecting.  I tried it – and sure enough. Bingo.  And I had wasted about 1 1/2 hours last night trying to get it to work before going to bed.  Sheesh.

This fun group of girls!!

This is a posse to be reckoned with – and so much fun to travel with as well!  A group of 8 – 7 from Iowa and one from Illinois!  I can hardly wait to see the shenanigans unfold.

Truly, the best part of this travel thing is having enough time to just spend the time together getting to know one another.  We are all in this together.  And it’s going to be a ball.

One more night here!

We are spending 2 nights at the Nairboi Serena Hotel before heading out to the Nanyuki region and our next adventure.

This morning breakfast is early – 6:30, which is in about 20 minutes so I better wrap this up and get a move on. 

our itinerary includes the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Nairobi Giraffe Center,  Kanen Bixen Musem (from out of Africa!) and the Kazuri Bead Factory.

I don’t think there is going to be much time for that nap after all!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

How determined are you? Today is the day to encourage yourself forward!

It’s Friday here – time to make it happen!