On the road to Nairobi

Over a week ago, I decided to take a short break and do some traveling in Kenya. I left Eldoret on a Friday to take the North Rift Shuttle to Nairobi, which takes approximately 6 hrs. I ended up traveling with two other students living at IU House, Kareem & Phil. Then I stayed in Nairobi for the weekend with the Njoroge family, enjoying some of the sights of Nairobi. From there I left on Sunday afternoon to go to Mombasa on the coast. I again, took a bus with one of the Congress pastors to Mombasa, this time taking 8 or so hours. It was a long dusty ride but I greatly enjoyed seeing the countryside of Kenya. Today I have posted some of the pictures from the shuttle ride from Eldoret to Nairobi. We were traveling through a good portion of the Rift Valley and much of the landscape was very green & lush. We also encountered heavy rain here and there. At one point, closer to Nairobi, we saw zebras & baboons on the side of the road. I will be sure to post more pictures of the trip to Mombasa soon.

Myself & Kareem, sitting in the North Rift Shuttle before leaving Eldoret. Phil was standing outside, watching our bags in the trunk so that they would not disappear.

The view of the bustling town of Eldoret from inside the shuttle.

This is a common sight in the country - donkeys carrying something on their backs. Often you will also see donkeys pulling small carts. As well, you can see the beautiful Rift Valley in the background.

This is one of my favorite scenes - the fields of maize everywhere. I have come to enjoy the roasted maize that you can buy on the street vendors all over town.

This is also a common sight, especially in the area around Eldoret. This is a small village and in the middle is an IDP camp. IDP camps (Internally Displaced People) are all over the place since the post-election violence that this area encountered back in January. There are still so many people who don't have homes to go back to (there was a lot of rioting & burning of homes & businesses) or they don't feel safe to stay in their homes. So often, IDP camps are set up near their homes so that people can go back in the daytime to farm the land and at night they return to stay at the camp.

Another view of the IDP camp with the white tents.

This was taken close to Navasha, which is closer to Nairobi. I love the trees in this picture, acacia trees. But also, in the background are greenhouses. So many of the world's cut flowers are grown here in Kenya, especially roses. They have the most beautiful flowers. However, one of my colleagues went to visit the greenhouses & told us about the atrocious accomodations for greenhouse workers.

A grove of acacia trees, so beautiful.