Baby Elephants and DUNG BEETLES!!

If you're like me, you often wake up in the middle of the night after dreaming about rolling around in the mud with baby elephants with dung beetles nearby. You may find yourself thinking, "That could never happen in real life..I"ll never get to see and play with tiny little baby elephants and see a dung beetle at the same time". Well my friends, in Nairobi, that dream can be your reality.

Introducing the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage.  I've blogged about it before because I go there whenever we have visitors in Nairobi - But there is no fulfillment threshold for baby elephants.You just want more and more and more! When my brother came to visit a couple of weeks ago, a stop at the elephant orphanage was on the agenda for the first day of activities. 

Me getting ready to pick them up at the airport - oh boy was I excited. And I had my little airport pick up sign ready to go! It says NEAT not TAEN.  It's a mirror people!

 On to the elephants!

awww...they're so cute. I love the littlest ones that have to wear a blanky

awww...they're so cute. I love the littlest ones that have to wear a blanky

Most of the babies are little orphans because of horrible evil poachers that killed the moms

Oh this little guy was TINY

Oh this little guy was TINY

PHOTO SPOILER! I was about to take a nice couple shot of David and Ali and then some woman decided to walk right in front of me all incognito with her scarf on her head. It's like KONY 2012..i'm gonna make her infamous for spoiling this PHOTO!

Let's try that again. Such a lovely couple ;-)

Let's try that again. Such a lovely couple ;-)

  Another highlight of the elephant orphanage was when David spotted the DUNG BEETLE!! He was so busy rolling dung. He traveled like 40 feet in 15 minutes. 

Interesting enough - they sort of walk on their front legs and push the dung with their bag legs

Interesting enough - they sort of walk on their front legs and push the dung with their bag legs

These guys are pretty small - the dung ball was larger than he was! Dung Ball. lol.

These guys are pretty small - the dung ball was larger than he was! Dung Ball. lol.

 

After the elephants, we went to lunch at one of my favorite spots. Talisman Restaurant in Karen. I ordered WRONG.

I ordered fish...this may be the most unappetizing food photography EVER. I'm good at these. Somehow my fish had lips and teeth....it looks like a gross body part.  It tasted okay - But a little too much work for my taste. Lots of bones and skin and teeth and lips to dig through. It felt like a game of Operation to eat the thing! lol.

And a zoomed out unappetizing food photo of the fish

And a zoomed out unappetizing food photo of the fish

And top view of the fish. Under all the tomato stuff, the actual fish was pretty good.

And top view of the fish. Under all the tomato stuff, the actual fish was pretty good.

 

 Do not let this be a testament to the entire menu at Talisman. They have really good food. The feta and coriander samosas could easily be a healthy substitute for heroin.

Okay, that's it for me. Next post I will do a thorough sarcastic but serious review of  the Insanity work out and anything else that comes to mind.

DVD reviews for yous

Salutations!
So, I was supposed to be doing my work out DVD review each day but things got away from me when I went to the beach - but I'm back. Yesterday I did the work out of the day on Body Rock.tv and the Jackie Warner personal training DVD. 

• Body Rock, per their usual, kicks my arse. That 15 minutes is like a train wreck. 5 out of 5. Even if the instructor lady just got a boob job and new lips and hair regardless of how she tells us everyday on those videos to love yourself and work hard for your results.  She is now dating the camera man/guy who started the site  - he used to be married to the old body rock video girl who also had fake boobs so maybe it's a thing for him.  Why do I know so much about this workout website? I've been an avid follower for a solid 2.5 years and was there during the drama/divorce. It was tough on me. There was like 4 days without new workouts during the transition!!!

New Hair, Lips, Boobs, But She is still awesome. I feel a closeness. We have so many physical characteristics in common too - we both have a bellybutton and a couple of kneecaps.

• I also have to give the Jackie Warner DVD 4 out of 5 stars.  If you use heavy enough weights, it will kick your rump. I like that it's just weights - so there is no bouncing around and all the rest of the nonsense.  Her voice doesn't make me want to choke myself off and when she says you are "half way through", you really are.  It's really quick too - each body part gets like 5 minutes of attention and then you move on. Certain of your parts will be aching in the morning and other parts won't feel a thing. I think she could have been harder on the legs portion -she kills it on the arms and abs. 

  So, you're telling me that all I've been missing this whole time are a few "tips" from Jackie Warner? That's whats been keeping me from a hollywood body? Probably something as small as, "thumbs out when holding your hand weights".  It would have solved all my weight issues! FOILED AGAIN!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenyan Pinterest Part 2

More stuff I LOVE that I either wish I could buy or I already posses - Just for for kicks and tickles.  Also, I'm getting all sentimental about leaving soonish and I'm really really really going to miss the creativity here and the uniqueness of things and the hand made quality. At home anything handmade is out of control expensive. I've really enjoyed being somewhere where people take time and make things with their hands and it's accessible for purchase. Okay some stuff was still out of my reach but I'm obsessed with the styles of Africa in general..All of it. East, West, South. I love it.

These purses and bags are made out of old Dhow Sails in Lamu! How cool is that? They are $$$ though so I will adore from afar.

More dhow sail bags

These are paintings done on old sails. LOVE IT! "I want the sun to shine bright and the rainbow to colour the sky and my heart to soar".  Beautiful.

Their showroom. I didn't go there - just a pic from their website. Alilamu.com. He makes all this stuff out of old sails.

My Ethiopian table from scott. LOVE.

My birthday purse from Byu - Bacuba style.

I loved this paining I saw in a gallery here. So cool. The neck beads just stuck out so bright. I wanted it.

Like Kenya meets Van Gogh

This bar table and these chairs were amazing in person. So hand crafted and solid..but unfinished.

I love these recycled bead bracelets. Love the colors

My favorite painting - bought this baby at a giant market in Angola. It kept looking at me - It chose me.

I love my framed bacubas but I think I want to put some white matting behind it. The glass effect didn't turn out how I thought it would.

My mom bought me this painting from Jordan. Then we used a frame we had made here in Kenya and made it fit.

Another painting I bought in Jordan and had framed here. I got two of them. I love the colors. If you couldn't tell, I like bright colorful things.

My first artistic purchase in Kenya. I bought it right from the artist. She had some amazing stuff.

Love this rug scott brought us from Ethiopia

And this Amazing carpet my friend Elizabeth got us from Afghanistan. LOVE IT. She is the sweetest person you could meet...regardless of the rug. But the rug is awesome...AND I just noticed the photo book she made from her time in Afghanistan is on the table. That thing is amazing. Everyone that sees it asks me who made it.

Love this ethiopian art Scott brought us.

And Serg doesn't like the face on this mirror, but I LOVE IT. So cool and everything is so hand crafted. You have to appreciate that.

And our long horn from uganda! We have two that sort of pushed it over to the tacky side..but I'll just display them one at a time. They are also good for getting things down from high places!

I LOVE my rice bag purse/bag Sergio got me for Xmas. So cool.

And our Nairobi sign we had painted on the side of the road for like $5. It's one of my faves.

I bought some cool glass art from Senegal. This is my West African Queen.

And lastly, my very very very favorite thing from Kenya - Our wooden bench. The guy that makes these is so humble and works like in the woods with no workshop. Sort of incredible. He's so talented.

Hope you enjoyed! I sure did.

What's a matter Navin? feeling different again?

For those of you that have been around me for extended periods of time, you know that my favorite movie of all times is The Jerk - old movie with Steve Martin and a million other people.  And if you've seen the movie, then you understand the title of my post.

My brother was here for a week with his girlfriend and they left on Saturday and I'm saaaad and I feel all goofy.  They had the best time EVER - and I had an awesome time with them - and they bought more stuff than I have bought in my full 2 years! I hope they go home and talk so much about their trip that other people decide to come visit. This country is just amazing.  After my birthday party in Nairobi - David and Ali went on safari to Amboseli and saw a million elephants and some cheetahs, which is awesome. Then, they came back to Nairobi for one night and then we took off for the coast at like 5am the next day (Thursday). I basically laid around on the beach the entire 2.5 days.  They did scuba diving, which is way more stressful than what I'm about. (I tried scuba and it wasn't for me...something about claustrophobia.I wrote about my experience here). At the coast here, a fresh scuba learner can basically do pool work in the morning and then have a first dive in the afternoon - it's a crash course.

Here's a photo recap:

Nerd Alert! David and Ali being funny - But I did give them a hard time about using their neck pillows on a 45 minute flight to the beach. 

I took the shopaholics to the Acamba wood carving co-op when we arrived in Mombasa. Most people go to the gift shop where all the items are dusted off and displayed all nice - But two years ago, one of my taxi drivers told me about the manufacturers warehouse. Same stuff for sale except WAY more of it and it just needs a good dusting. Its like half the price. It's where people come to buy stuff to pedal.

No one better be smoking in this joint.

I was sweating my cajones off.  David and Ali bought a forest worth of stuff there. They bought 2 large duffel bags to get their stuff back to Nairobi! Love those two - They appreciate the hand crafted stuff and they did their part in supporting the local economy ;-)

We went to dinner one night at Forty Theives beach bar and grill

I showed them the Ali Barbours Cave Restaurant. I've never eaten there - it's a little on the fancy side for me and at the beach I'd rather be by the ocean not underground. But it is cool if you have never seen it.  This is a view of the bar from the street level entrance. It's a restaurant that is actually built in a natural cavern.

Here you can see the restaurant. That opening at the top is the street level.

I took them to Sails restaurant - The best ever.

Perfection

Lovebirds

David did a couple of dives and Ali spent the morning in the pool learning scuba with Pedro and then got to actually do a dive in the ocean! Here they are walking out for their dive.

We bought some kikoys and kangas

Ali found a way to continue her shopping on the beach. (just giving you a hard time Ali - I know I started it)

I bought this awesome kikoy with a towel attached. Never saw these before.

This was the only thing I bought at Akamba. I have way too many masks but this one was cheap and I liked it.

 Then we flew back to Nairobi and David and Ali caught their next flight to Dubai (and then onto Dallas) and I caught my taxi home ;-(. We had an awesome time. AND YOU COULD TOO! If you visited Kenya ;-)