Tall Horses

Yesterday we went to the Giraffe Centre on the outskirts of Nairobi. Keith's favourite animal is the giraffe so when faced with a number of options of what to do on our first day off in Nairobi seeing the girrafes was at the top of the list. The Centre is a breeding sanctuary for a more endangered subset of giraffes - they keep a few adults of "good breeding" and when the babies get to be about 2 years old they release them out into the wild. The program is quite successful and they also have a school program where school children in Nairobi come to learn about giraffes. They have an area where you can feed the giraffes at eye level and they are stunningly beautiful animals up close. I've always been particularly fond of giraffes but to stand close enough to see them swallow was amazing. I thought Cian would be a bit more afraid of them because they are so big but he couldn't get enough he just smiled away at them and even touched "Kelly's" nose when I fed her. It was pretty incredible. If you want to learn more here's the website http://www.giraffecenter.org/
After the giraffe centre we went to Village Mall which was voted #1 on the top 20 things to do in Nairobi by TripAdvisor. I think that TripAdvisor contributors and I have different ideas because the mall was really nice but it was a mall and there are lots of cool things in Nairobi that don't remind me of home (giraffes spring to mind ;P) As malls go however it was very cool - mostly outdoors with stone ramps and fountains and an international food court with various restuarants. AND I finally got my cappuccino which was much appreciated since I didn't even get coffee that morning due to a faulty machine and bad milk (so I was pretty happy). We had tapas under this canopied restaurant and it was very decadent (it was Keith's first time having tapas!). They have a movie theatre there and maybe if we can find a babysitter we'll go there for a break. The cooler part of the Village Mall was that Francis took us the long way to get there and we went past all the embassies. Wow they were opulent - we can be proud though because even though the Canadian embassy was large it was not a fortress like the American one. It was ridiculous. It was especially funny to me because when we were going through the US passport control office in Winnipeg the guy at the Department of Homeland Security said that "Canadians were crazy and he wouldn't go to any of these places without the full force of the US Army". He would have been ok because it seems like they have a pretty substantial presence at the embassy. Of note, those more socialist among you will be proud of Cian that day because he kicked the sign of Department of Homeland Security as we went through. Mommy was so proud :P.