After over 24 hours of travelling we eventually arrived at the Nairobi Youth Hostel at 7 am! We collapsed in our rooms and then headed down into the city for something to eat. The first thing i that struck me about Nairobi is that it was freezing! I was expecting to be atleast as hot as England, even if it was at the end of their colder season! We got off the plane and we were literally shivering! Am told by the end of the month the hot season sets in and will get really hot! yay! Kisumu is also hotter anyway because it does not have such a high altitude as nairobi. My first impressions fo Africa are very mixed. I cant decide weather it is what i expected or not. One thing whihc is very obvious is the extreme contrast between the poor and the rich. There are high tower blocks with men and women walking around in suits...yet there are people begging with nothing but rags. The slums that we passed on the way to the hostel were shocking... I have also discovered what is meant by a 'developing country', it is literally still 'developing! You can never be very far from a buiding site! They are re-doing the main roads at the moment out towards the national park... it is chaos and the junctions are all controlled by the police who are armed with machine guns! (they dont seem to understand the rules of give way at islands, they just go!) Although according to the locals now there is more security now ther are more armed police... I have to say that i dont feel in any danger as some had said they did, aslong as you are not on your own and get taxis at night it is fine! Everyone is really friendly! Another thing whihc i didnt expect was the extent to which English is used... Swahili is the official language but people speak english all the time, even with each other. All the sign posts are evn in English...the youth seem to mix english with swahili to come up with some really cool phrases! Yeserday we decided to do a bit of sight seeing with Nairobi itself. First we went to the City Market... it wasnt as busy as i expected, in fact i think we were the only people in there! They had some beautiful things...everything from huge wood carvinngs to intraicate hand made jewellery... i think i must have had the word mug on my forhead because i was persuded to buy a pair of earrings in the first stall which meant everyone made a bee line for me! I ended buying this beutiful necklace...but...paid 1000/which is about 8 quid! Althoug i did haggel it down form 2000/! Oh well will learn for next time to be a bit tougher! We then went round the Catherderal...is very beutiful! and very well kept! They even have tv screens down the iles...dont have that here! Get the feeling people must give huge donations to the church here...i just hope they are not currupt as i have heard some awful stories. We magaed to bribel the gurards at the national conference centre (govt beuilding) to let us go to the top beauce it is the 2nd largest building in kenya and you have amazing views of the city. Had to que for ages becuase only one out of hour of the lifts were working and we didnt feel like walking 28 floors of stairs! Was amazing view- you could see all the way to the national game park and beyond...the city is just so big! Couldnt belive it! A girl who lves in our youth hostel runs a dance academy so we went to watch their show in the afternoon... was certainly an experien\ce! IT was a mixutre of loads of stuff but mainly hip hop...i think it is they pop music here! Today we wne to the elephant and giraffe sancturary which is towards Langatta. The baby elephants were so cute! We just saw them at feeding time...they had bottles! aw!!!! They are rescued from the wild and then raised by a 'human' mother at the orphanage and eventually realsed into the wild in Tsavo National Park...Mikeala Straken did a BBC doccumentry about it and named the new baby after her...i stroked it! theyre skin is reallly wierd...looks like it would be leathery but is actually really rough and stubbley! Then we went to the guraffe sanctury which was couple of miles down the road... they were soooooo cute! We fed them from a tree house...i kissed one was betty! Their eyes are sooooo big and gorgeous! Apparentky the Rotteschild type of Giraffe is very endangered and are only 350 left in Kenya... many of them were killed in the Ugandan war which affected west africa. The charity sponsor children form the slums who have never seent he wild life to go on school ecology trips and conservation enducation. It made me deel better about buy souverniers anyway! We are heading out to dinner in a in anyway... going tp a self indlugent up market italien! yay! Going to Kisumu tomorrow and will be camping for a week while we have our training so dont know when ill next get update it... i hope you all ok, love suz x x x