January 2012
16 posts
6 tags
In Kenya
Today marks me being in Kenya for 1 year.
One year ago, I arrived in Kenya pretty terrified, but excited for the year to come. It has flown by, while Kitale has slowly become my home. It’s going to be really hard to leave, but I leave knowing that this has been the best year of my life, an amazing staff is sticking behind to take things on their own and I have much to come back for,...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 11, 12,...
Christmas Day! in Kenya
We didn’t quite finish the paint job the day before, so we made another trip to the ASH Wamuini Community Center on Christmas morning to finish.
Then, we took lunch at Dr. Lydia’s home, which was another amazing home-cooked Kenyan meal. Then, we finished off the home visits at Zach’s place. His wife couldn’t resist, and made us Kenyan style...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 10
Our first full day in good ‘ol Kitale began with an early start as the plans for the day were jam packed!
It all began with a visit to the ASH Wamuini Community Center, where I’ve spent my working days for the past year. My family got to meet most of our wonderful staff, including Mama Sarah. Mama Sarah is the one who donated the buildings and grounds to ASH, and has been an amazing...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 9
(sorry no pictures for today)
I was told by the shuttle company that I could just call to reserve a shuttle for my family back to Kitale. “Just call the day before. No problem”, she told me. WRONG. I called and she told me she can’t book in advance.. I have to go the morning of the departure at 5am to book. So I went.. at FIVE AM and they were sold out… at FIVE.A.M.!!
I...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 8
Last day on safari
On the first part out, our AWESOME driver (Adan) found another cheetah with his eagle eyes. Seriously. It was so far out, but he managed to spot it without binoculars!
And as if that wasn’t enough, Adan found a leopard up in a tree! It’s super rare find b/c they spend most of their time up in the leafy parts of trees. But of course Eagle Eye Adan found him!...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 7
More safari!
(for this post: promising less words, more pictures. HAPPY ria?!? rude)
Woke up early for a morning game drive… saw more animals
and more beautiful landscapes
Oh and we got stuck, again.. in this:
Went until 12 when we stopped for a visit to the Maasai tribe. The crazy hat is made from lion skin and is worn whenever someone kills a lion (next post has video of me...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 6
The safari begins!
We got picked up from our nice ash hotel by Pollman’s, the safari company. It was so fancy - they sent a rep to first explain the itinerary and welcome us, then the driver actually picked us up for the 3-4hr ride down to the masai mara. Along the way, we stopped at a viewpoint of the great rift valley and got stuck twice in these sandy/swampy areas.
But we eventually...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 5
My family and I were pretty ready to get out of Mombasa by the third day because of the intense heat and ridiculous humidity. So we did - flew back to Nairobi on Kenya’s main intra-national airline: Flight 540
They were pretty happy to get out of the humidity, as you can tell
Once we landed in Nairobi, wonderful Gina drove us to our hotel. Now, I’m a bit embarrassed to say this, but...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 4
*CLARIFICATION: I’m not currently on this vacation. My family came for the holiday’s and have sadly already left. This is just a recap of what we did…
I had heard glowing reviews of the Diani Beach area on the south coast of Mombasa. So we jumped into a taxi for a day in Diani.
We drove through the main part of town, as our hotel is in the north coast, and boarded the insanely...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 3
Even in the early morning, Mombasa was HOT and really humid.. 84%! So we decided to spend most of the early day juss chillin at the pool
After a relaxing late morning and lunch at the hotel, we checked out Haller Park. Did an 1.5 hr walking tour around the grounds where we saw a bunch of animals, tickled a tortoise, and fed giraffes!
Oh and btw, we forgot we made the hotel reservation with...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 2
Woke up early Friday morning, checked out of the wonderful Wildebeest Camp, and had wonderful Gina take me to the Jomo-Kenyatta International Airport to meet my family.
They arrived on time (after enduring through a screaming baby on both plane rides) and we took off for a quick trip into Nairobi before our flight to Mombasa.
We visited the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, where we watched and...
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Murakami's in Kenya, Family Vacation - Day 1
The vacation teeechnically began with me travelling from Kitale to Nairobi, so I could meet my family early at the airport the next morning.
So, I took a typical shuttle that took about 6 hours travel time.
I slept for practically the entire ride, as I got only 3 hours of sleep two nights before (prepping for staff holiday party) and 2 hours the night before (packing for family vacation). I...
Blog ! Ambassadors for Sustained Health: One Week... →
weareash:
If you had one week to explore your neighborhood and make it count towards ASH, would you?
Sounds really simple, but now you can.
Between January 4-11, you can go to www.charitubl.com and look for something that you might already do every day. For example, you need food every day. Simply…