Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A walk in the woods
















Lots to write, but we had a wonderful dinner at a friend's house and watched Born to be Wild - the movie about elephant and orangutan orphans (so cute!) - so, it's time for bed.

Thought since we haven't had very many shots of the two of us on the blog that I'd post one today.  This is what David and I will look like when we have a dog of our own (notice I said "when" and not "if"!)  This was taken on our lovely hike through the Karura forest.  It was a bit muddy in spots, but still worth the trek. 
















Karura Forest was the site of a great deal of controversy for a number of years, with environmentalists and other local groups--including Nobel laureate Waangari Matthai--leading protests against development and land grabs.  It also used to be plagued by bandits from a particular part of Nairobi, and when I was last here, it was off limits to American staff. 

Apparently, one of the Embassies partnered with businesses and other nature lovers to remake the forest into a place where people could safely walk, run, or bike.  Someone got the idea of hiring people from the part of Nairobi all the bandits were from as security guards and paying them incentives for how long the park went without a security incident.  They also knew all of the bandits and were able to identify them/scare them away.  Along with the funding for fencing and patrols, this enabled the forest to be a lovely oasis of nature in the big, traffic-filled, exhaust fume-laden city.  I thought that sounded like a pretty smart way to turn things around. 

We had a lovely time walking and talking, but there was a lot more of the forest that we didn't have time to explore.  Maybe another weekend.  In the meantime, take a look at this muddy waterfall (and Travis's muddy boots).

 

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