My Ethiopian friend is not with me anymore! she left for a 56 days adventure down to cape town overland. I t was really great to have someone to talk to and share stuff with and she was a great companion so far for the last two days. she made me feel like I have someone should the worst happen. But the truth is that she is gone now and am all alone with God here. Am not scared but feel like I left Ethiopia just now. It is time to be independent and explore the rest of Nairobi.

I started the day with a walk to the Nairobi National Museum. All I had on my hand was the Map of central NAirobi and my sense of "I will do It". On the way to the museum, I stopped at the central park which is dedicated to the late 2nd president of Kenya H.E Daniel Arap Moi.it is a small but interesting city park in the heart of the city located along the Uhuru Highway on the way to the University road. I saw a few locals walking around the park and thought I might join them as well. Except the monument erected for the president, there was nothing particularly interesting in the enclosure but it is an Ok place to sit and watch the world go by. I spent about half an hour going around taking some pictures but didn't have the time to sit and watch the world go by. I still have to get to the museum. Nairobi NAtional Museum was a really well organised place and worth the visit. From the stuffed huge mammals to the hundreds of bird species, from the contemporary art center to the beautiful paleoantology section and so much more, everything was beautiful that I spent at least two hours looking around and reading everything written below each display. I was impressed by the size of the stuffed elephant. It literaly is three times taller that a human being and it really is massive. When I had my picture taken next to it, I looked like an ant in perspective. The coolest of all in the museum was the scale. They have this scale where you hope on and see where in the mammal weight catagory you belong. When you stand on it the one screen shows you how much you weigh and the other shows you what animal you are with pictures and light. As you might have guessed already, I took my chance and weighed myself about 50kg( I guess around 110 Pounds). I was so annoyed with my feather weight untill I saw what animal I was. I was a LEOPARD!!!!!!! How exciting is to be a leopard and who cares how much I weigh after all!

The exploration continued and by now I am feeling like a citizen of Nairobi. Walking freely and confidently with no one disturbing or annoying me on the streets. Everyone mind their own business and no one took notice of me at all. I guess being black helps a lot while travelling in Africa! Anyway, I kept walking down the same highway untill I got to the city center where I decided to have lunch. I wasn't sure what I was gonna have for lunch but felt like something local. So I jumped into a local restaurant and ended up having "Ugali". For those of you who don't know what that is, it is made of Corn flour and made into a thick porrage like texture and is served with some cooked vegetables and beef stew. (For my Ethiopian readers, it is like eating porrage with ' alicha yebeg/yebere wot'). It was honestly quite a delicious meal except it was too big a portion that I ate only half of it.I t was so filling and I kept walking down Haile Selassie Street hoping to digest what was in my tummy on the way to the trains museum.

It definitely is not a very touristy place but was an interesting place to spend some time at.It houses different old stuff collected from the trains and the railway since the establishment of the railway station in 1977. Outside the museum were old and abondoned trains in different levels of disrepair. They are not in too bad a condition but obviously are not in use anymore. Probably the most famous train was the one the movie 'Out of Africa' was shot on. Out of Africa was written by a lady called Karen Blitzen and was starred by Robert Redford. I had the chance to visit Karen's house museum but elected not to! As I was making my way back to my hotel I bumped into a crowed of Kenyans flooding in force in to a city park again along the uhuru Highway. After a few minutes I realised that it was Sunday and people were going to spent the weekend at the Uhuru Park.So I joind them. "Uhuru" means, I was told "Freedom" or "Independence" and it was enclosed as a city park to remember the independence of the country from the English colonial rule. It was when I found myself in the middle of it that I realised that it was a real place to have your UHURU! People of all ages - young boys and girls, small children, lovers, parents with their kids, adults and some tourists -they were all enjoying real freedom here. Some were riding a horse while some were struggling to stay balanced on the only camel in the park. Lovers were enjoying their love while kids were pedaling their boats on the artificial lake that cuts across the park. I was observing as the rest were just relaxing and reading News Papers. I wished we had city parks like this where people can go to and enjoy themselves without paying a fortune to enter! I thought of life in Africa. It is always hard but basic and enjoyable. Life has a different meaning and pace in Africa. It is all about family and friend. It is all about sharing and community. The african clock ticks so slow but in an exiting way. This is the Africa we all Africans love!

I picked up a conversation with my 'Photographer' called Patrick Nganga( Nash). He was a nice guy and told me that the park was established when the country celebrated the 25th year of its independence and the city council of Nairobi owns it. But all the business activities inside were operated by individual business people who pay tax for the council. I thought it was a good concept. We've exchanged addresses and I left for my hotel to find out that my plan for tomorrow to go to the Massa Mara was impossible. This was because they needed at least three people to sign up for it and I was the only one so far, Unfortunate! Hope something will come up and will go to Mara tomorrow!

Asante Sana!