Christmas at Happy Life - Day 3 - Local Community, Zen and Thunderstorms
Posted by Steve Emecz on
One of the highlights of visiting Happy Life is definitely the infant feeding but as Steve has a head cold whilst Sharon has the angelic babies, he has the challenging toddlers. Whatever clothes you wear to feed the toddlers (about fifteen) will end up in the washing pile. Try as he might Steve couldn't get Melissa to smile for the camera (she smiled plenty during feeding of course....).
Over Christmas there are lots of local families that come to donate food in particular and its wonderful to see how three generations of this family came long to visit Happy Life (grandmother took the picture).
The weather has finally turned into the thunderstorms that the weather app was promising. Rain plays havoc with the roads that haven’t been tarmacked making getting around a muddy affair.
So the visit to Karura forest was out but we jumped in an Uber and headed down with Leah for lunch at a place called the Zen Garden. You don't have to go far in Nairobi to find amazing trees.
New to us but one of the team had recommended it and it didn’t disappoint with very tranquil gardens in amongst the hustle and bustle of the Westlands area – not too far from Karura in fact. They have their own flower shop from the amazing range they have in the gardens - our personal favourite too 'Birds of Paradise'.
Leah had her second milkshake of the week and was very pleased that both our Uber drivers - James and Perez - had pink/black seat covers in the car matching her tracksuit she'd asked us to bring from the UK. Uber drivers are a huge font of knowledge of what's going on in the country and the thirty minutes each way to Zen Garden were a great chance to catch up on the latest news. One big subject was the $3bn railway project from Nairobi to Mombasa on the coast. Many government officials have been arrested over allegations they bought land along the route which they knew would receive large compensation - a story big enough for even the NY Times covered it.
More time with the babies and toddlers and then Leah’s choice of evening movie was Jumanji. Slightly surreal sitting in the children’s home with the kids watching ‘The Rock’ running around a mysterious island but the kids enjoyed it.
Sharon and Steve
Co-founders MX Publishing and proud ambassadors for Happy Life
(more info on Happy Life........Five Ways You Can Help Us Change Lives This Holiday Period)