Round the World Chelle: Nairobi Christmas

December 25, 2011

I didn’t know what to expect for Christmas in Nairobi. All the Kenyans I had asked about their plans had told me they were going from the city to their home villages to slaughter a goat for dinner and be with their family, so I assumed the city would be pretty abandoned. We had dropped Christina off in Nakuru on our way back to Nairobi, the Aussies flew to Paris Christmas Eve, and our new tour didn’t begin until 6:00 Christmas evening, so that left Ally and me on our own to explore for the day.

Celebration at the hotel. When I got back in the evening,
much of the house had been eaten!

There is a baby elephant orphanage in Nairobi that is open from 11:00-12:00 each day for elephant feedings, and I’d heard rave reviews about it. So, after a hotel breakfast, a trip to a souvenir shop, and an excellent bargaining job by Ali for a taxi to take us there, we arrived at the gate to the place behind several other vans and taxis. Unfortunately, Christmas Day is the one day of the year that the orphanage is closed, so we were all turned away. Up the road a little ways farther, however, is a giraffe center that is open on the 25^th. Ally had already been there, but she thought it was worth going back, so off we headed.

The center is home to about eight Rothschild giraffes. It was started by a couple in 1979 when they learned that the giraffes that stuck their heads in the breakfast room window each morning were endangered with fewer than 130 in Kenya. The center now houses two mating couples whose babies are taken to the wild once they’re old enough to survive there. The center has been quite successful with over 500 Rothschild giraffes alive today.

Rothschild giraffe

As it turns out, the giraffe center is a popular Christmas destination, and there were all sorts of families from both Kenya and around the world visiting the animals. Visitors are given a couple handfuls of feeding pellets when they enter, and the giraffes were having a Christmas feast. It was fun to watch the different reactions of the visitors, especially the children, to the coarse, but very gentle and precise giraffe tongue as it reached for the pellets offered. You could even get a giraffe kiss with if you held the pellet in your mouth for it to eat!

Christmas lunch

Did I really let a giraffe kiss me?

While I didn’t realize it until after we left the sanctuary, face painting is a popular Christmas tradition in Nairobi, and there was a Santa Claus painting faces in the sanctuary. While neither Ally nor I had any desire to have our faces painted, we did want to get a picture with Santa. When we asked him if we could, he obliged, but was confused as to why we’d want one. I guess taking photos with Santa is not the tradition here as it is in the States.

Thumbs up, Santa!

We decided to save money and have an authentic cultural experience by taking a matatu home. A matatu is a van/mini-bus that runs along a route that people take like a bus, but it can be a bit more intimate. While everyone was polite when we entered, it was clear that not many Westerners travel in this manner, and we were a bit of a novelty. All sorts of people entered and exited on the course of the trip: families with their little girls in their matching Christmas best, children with spiders and flowers painted on their faces, men in brightly colored sweaters, women with intricately beaded hair. The matatu stopped at the train station, and our initial impression of the safety of the place was confirmed when a bank security guard offered to walk us back to the main street, an offer we accepted.

Walking home we passed a large park where Christmas festivities in the form of camel riding, jumpy house wall climbing, and ice cream eating were taking place. People were hanging out everywhere—kids with plastic sunglasses, painted faces, and matching outfits walked with parents in church clothes. Every so often you would need to avoid a tot being pushed around in a toy car or a family on a horse or camel riding through the crowds of people. You never really knew when you’d run into something that could run you over because there were no set paths of these rides. What fun!

Girls in their Christmas clothes.

People at the park

We made it back to the hotel in the afternoon and had a little down time before our meeting with the new tour. My friend Sam from home arrived during this time, and it was nice to catch up.

Christmas night concluded with dinner at Carnivore, a restaurant that lives up to its name. Ally, Sam, and I were served all types of meat ranging from crocodile to lamb to ox balls (quoted from the menu). It’s an all you can eat place and servers keep coming by with different meats to try. You put a flag down on the table when you’re finished to signal the servers to stop and that it’s time for dessert.