The weekend!

So first things before I forget: I've posted a few pictures on here, but I've posted most of them on my facebook. Here are a few links to check out if you don't have facebook/haven't seen them yet:

Chyulu Hills, Amboseli, and Aberdare game drives:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1938010686337.2061812.1124460020&type=3&l=e27a045240

Mombasa: 
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1942371275349.2061884.1124460020&type=3&l=d6c987b251

The elephant orphanage, giraffes, the The Bomas of Kenya:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1943698388526.2061900.1124460020&type=3&l=b76b6e6eb8

Hopefully those work! I'm sure someone will let me know if they don't.

Okay, so on to the real stuff! As you can probably tell from my last few posts, we haven't enjoyed ourselves quite as much as we probably anticipated, which has definitely been a let down, but we're still determined to at the very least entertain ourselves. But at the same time, we've made a nice to-do list to keep us entertained with Nairobi for our remaining two weeks. We had Good Friday off, so we took full advantage of this! We met our friend Carol in Mombasa, and she lives just a few kilometers away with some other volunteers here in Nairobi, so we tagged up with her and her friend Nadine for today's adventures. We first hit up the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, which rescues baby elephants orphaned via poaching. The foundation also sets to remove snares and prosecute poachers, removing over 93,000 snares and aiding in the arrest of over 900 poachers. Pretty impressive if you ask me! At the orphanage, we were able to see two different groups of baby elephants, one younger than the other. We caught the tail end of seeing the youngest elephants, but still caught a glimpse of the youngest of the group, not more than about 2 feet tall! The second group out was of slightly older elephants, but much more active. They were constantly playing with each other and also trying to see how far the workers would let them wander into the crowd. It was pretty awesome! Mostly because we got to PET a baby elephant! Their skin is really very tough with spiky hairs! I got some great pictures of them playing around, so be sure to check them out!

Then we headed over to Giraffe Manor, which is a hotel you can stay at and giraffes visit your windows, but being on our budget, we just toured the area. The site provides food pellets for you to feel the giraffes, and they are WELL trained to know who has food. The giraffes just wander back and forth looking for who has food, not just who is holding up their hands. We got to feed several giraffes and pet a few too. Those are all in the pictures too!

Then off to The Bomas of Kenya, which I thought was more of a heritage museum, but turned out to be a large outdoor exhibit of how the 42 tribes of Kenya live in their villages, plus an exhibition of traditional dances. It was pretty cool getting to explore the various types fo villages, some made purely out of grasses, others all of mud. It was neat to see the differences in priorities with wives too. Some villages had huge huts for the first wife and tiny huts for the husband, while others were reversed. Some villages had huts specifically for unwed sons and wed sons. It was definitely a good thing to see. Then there was a dance exhibition of some "traditional" dances. I use quotations because it was the same group of dancers for all the tribes' dances, and some dances included very western clothes, so we just took that with a grain of salt. Overall a great experience though!

We dropped Carol and Nadine off at the local shopping center then headed back to our hostel for dinner. All total we were exploring for about 6 hours today, which I say is a great day!

Tomorrow we're going to try to head out to the National Archives and Nairobi National Museum for a bit more culture! We're planning on walking most of it, as the weather is changing so things are much cooler, plus we'll get to see more of the city this way. I'll be sure to update you guys on those adventures as well!

Like I said before, be sure to check out those pictures! I definitely think I got some good ones.

The only other major thing now that's relatively new is the added stressed of getting ready for residency. I got an email from HR regarding pre-employment, and they suggest being in the NY area a month before I begin, which is July 1st. I can tell you now, I'm not moving up there a full month before I start. I planned on trying for a lease to start on June 1st since my current lease ends May 31st, but not moving until mid-June. I think I'll still be able to, seeing as my only major tasks for HR are my physical and some finger printing. But who knows. My start date of July 1st seemed SO far away when I was getting into this whole process, but considering I land in the States April 22nd and could potentially have to move the beginning of June, I have very little time left in Atlanta. The on top of that drama, I still have to take the 3 part board exam for NY, one of which requires me to be on site in NYC. But I'm just trying to be organized about everything and not worry too much about it. Hopefully everything will line up!

Thanks for reading!