Day 3 - Treehouse, Acrobats, and to Fishermans

The morning was spent at a place called the Treehouse, a multi-purpose and mutli-discipline art center in another of Nairobi's slums. The Treehouse provides a place for artists and musicians of all kinds to practice their craft, but it apparently also has a program for bringing in street children and training them as artists, musicians, and acrobats both to get the off the street and out of trouble and so that they have a way to support themselves in their lives.

While we were there, however, there was no sign of any street kids. Anyway, the girls spent some time making beaded bracelets while the boys, Q and me included, walked through the Gikomba second hand market with a few of the artists. The market is one of those sprawling places, with individual stalls selling anything and everything taking up acres and acres of space. Much of the market was second hand clothes and shoes sent no doubt from the US, cleaned and "reconditioned" right there in Nairobi, and then sold for cheap in the market. Zack got pickpocketed while walking through, which was a bummer. We returned to the Treehouse for an impromptu African Drum Circle, in which all of the guys managed to stay somewhat on beat. Monie got to play the part of amateur rock star, and Marino played guitar along with us.

In the late morning, we drove to a juggling workshop that was put on by ---- for Kenyan acrobats, all of whom are amazing at their Cirque de Soleil style show, bt have no idea how to juggle. So we did some juggling (some of us better than others) but the highlight was the acrobat show and then talking with some of the performers afterwards. These are guys who learned their trade by practicing in the massive garbage piles that line the streets outside of the slum. Hoping Marino will post the video he got of the show because it was terrific.

From there, we drove to Fisherman's Camp on the shores of Lave Naivasha. The drive is beautiful, especially as you look out over the Rift Valley, before dropping down into the great scar that runs from Malawi to Jordan.

We had our first purchases of the trip en route, as a few of the kids ignored our advice and bought spears and other stuff from the roadside market. Fisherman's is a beautiful spot, with amazing Aacia trees everywhere, with the Black and White Colubus monkeys overhead, and the lake shores right there ... better even than I remembered from 6 years ago when Q, Kate, Marty S. and I stayed there. An evening of great food (brick over pizza!) preceded my best night sleep of the trp to date (the absence of the Nairobi guard dogs helped). Oh, and I got this amazing picture of a bug (or two bugs?) on Monie's bag during dinner.

Naturally, the girls had better accomadations than the boys, but the boys were great about it. And the hippos kindly came up on shore to graze in the evening, so we got to see them with the use of the security guard's flashlight. I love hippos ... my favorite animal by far. Fat and lazy, but strong enough that no other animals mess with them.