My hands are cold, and I'm wearing a fleece as it's early morning in Nairobi. Keith and I are here, slightly south of the equator, and more than a mile high at 1700 m. Our new home is a house in a gated compound in Runda, a leafy green suburb north of Nairobi's city centre.
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| The road in the compound in front of our gate, which is barely visible on the right, past the guardhouse. |
After you enter our gate, you will see the house:
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| Home for the next couple of years. |
We are camping out in the empty house with hardly any furniture, as our shipment won't arrive for 2-4 months, assuming Somali pirates don't get it...
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Empty living room. |
But the weather is beautiful every day and we are enjoying the garden.
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| View from dining room. |
July and August are winter months, the mornings and evenings are chilly (12-15oC) and light sweaters have come in handy. During the day, it's 20-24oC. Even during the summer months, it's temperate; the daytime high is usually in the mid-20s, and a record high temperature would be 31oC.
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| Bird of paradise in the back yard. |
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| Bottlebrush tree by the driveway. |
We haven't been on safari yet, but I've already spotted some wildlife lurking in our garden:
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| An endangered black rhino, Clayus pottus ssp. planterius, whose horn has been stolen for nefarious (medicinal?) purposes. |
The past week has been a non-stop round of banking, insurance and other move-related errands, but I did manage to take an afternoon off to go for a walk in the nearby Karura Forest with my friend MK. We heard lots of strange bird noises, saw a thick, writhing ant trail across our path, and visited some lovely waterfalls. Karura was recently revitalized as a safe place to go for nature walks. Apparently though, some people (personnel of a certain embassy) are not allowed to walk there for security reasons. I can sense my mother getting anxious already...don't worry, I'm careful! It seemed perfectly safe to me, although it was a bit disconcerting that the only other people we encountered was a group of nature lovers hiking around accompanied by two armed guards, menacing looking guys toting AK-47s and decked out in full camouflage gear.
