Getting Our Bearings - Bomas of Kenya

This is our guest cottage. There are two floors and two sides. We are on the bottom left side and there are four dorm type rooms with 2 extra large single beds, two small desks and storage space. There are two bathrooms with small shower. The four of us are the only ones in this section so it's plenty spacey and private.
This is the view from our front porch toward the conference area. The grounds are very well kept with beautiful plantings and lots of birds.

One of several gardeners weeding.

We saw these two as yet unidentified birds in our morning wanderings.

This is the dining hall. All meals are served buffet style with very generous amounts. So far the food has been very good. The soups and breads have been particularly outstanding! We've had more white rice in the last several days than we have most of the year. We asked about why white rice rather than brown and brown rice is the food of the lower class and prisoners.

We met with Joy and Bob, our hosts for the safari, this morning and got some $$ changed into shillings and did some planning. Joy arranged for a driver so we could go to the Bomas of Kenya this afternoon. John and I did a little wandering around the grounds before lunch while Nick and Laura got in a little snooze time. Their first day started much earlier than ours did!

After we ate lunch we met our driver, Job. He was a delight young man and we had a fun afternoon with him. We got in the car and drove through one of the market areas on our way to the Bomas.



Just before we got to the Bomas, we drove around the Animal Park and saw these baboons.

The word "Bomas" is derived from "Boma" - a Swahili word for enclosed homestead. The place we were visiting had small enclosures typical of many of the traditional villages of the various ethnic groups living in Kenya. Our adventure here began with the traditional dance program. There were hundreds of school children there for the program also, all in their school uniforms. The Nairobi area of Kenya is a mixture of many different groups so it was fun to watch different schools dancing along in their seats. You could almost tell which group they were from by their response to the individual dances.

These programs always have a little audience participation so you will recognize this one dancer on the floor...John.

Our jet lag was beginning to set in watching the dancers and we were pushing to stay awake and the the acrobats appeared! No sleeping through that act!

A little limbo...he got down to where he was going through on his back!

They were incredible! They were also the last act so we headed outside to see the different Bomas. There were 24 different villages represented. We had an excellent guide through the different villages who explained alot of the customs etc.

Our driver, Job standing by his tribes village...Luo.

Job's grandmother grew up in a hut like this. The family still keeps it up.

Meru Village

Ceiling in the Meru house.

These Sypes Monkeys were jumping in the trees near the Meru house.

last village...a great experience!

We headed back to the car and piled in and started up.....opps. Dead battery. Lots of help...

After quite a long time a guy came and replaced the battery and we headed home....another Africa adventure! The flashlight was John's cell phone. You never know when they are going to come in handy. A great day!