Kiambethu Tea Farm

Today we 'played ladies' and visited a tea farm!! Was so much fun relaxing in the sun! Had tea and a talk about the process of making tea. Then a tour of the tea plantation and through some forest then we had lunch provided. Was such a nice relaxing day.

On our way back to the city we visited a waterfall... Was nice!

Has been so nice to spend some more time with Lizelle again. Have had so much fun with her and she's been so good to us!! Here's some photos of our adventures today..

Cha and Lu xx

With Lizelle on the tea farm tour. 

Look how neat all the bright colors are!

:)

Say cheese!!

Tea pickers hard at work. Those sacks will hold about 15kg of loosely picked tea. On average each picker will pick between 50-70kg of tea per day (7am-3:30pm). They then have to sort it and pick out any stalks that are too long and then it gets taken off to the factory that same afternoon. Within 24 hours that it was picked it will be ready for your teapot.  They get paid for each kg they pick... Paid between 7-10 shillings her kg, that's 10cents NZ per kg! Not sure how much the farm owner gets paid per kg from the factory! Was so interesting. 

Looking back towards Nairobi... We were up 2000 feet higher than the city

Tea plantations, such perfect rows!

Just casually... A Kenyan 'furniture truck'. 

At niagara falls! :) 

One week left in Kenya

We are back in Nairobi. Today we went to the famous Masai Market. After a hour of "sister sister I have cheap cheap" we decided we had finished looking at wooden animals, paintings, blankets, bags, jewelry and key rings. One guy came up to us and said "It's me, I'm the man you have been looking for, here is my stand". Haha no no we didn't buy anything from him!!!
So now we have a few days before we go on safari. We have a meeting on Sunday and a dinner before Tim leaves for South Africa.

We took out our Rastafarian braids yesterday... Took a grand total of 3 hours each to take them out (It took 2 ladies two hours to put them in). We are now experiencing Afro hairstyles...

Here are a few more pics...

Char and Lu (Afro African ladies) xx

Devota, Heidi McChesney (from Canada) and Lucia

The 'Rasta' twins... 

The 'Afro' twins...

Devota cooking us a banana curry (delicious!)

How on earth do they know that we are twins?!?

Our African mother 'Katherine Kibatta' making chapattti bread. 

Having ugali, stew and  spinach (ate with our hands)

Selling spics on the side of the road

Kilimanjaro

Here is a small taste of Africa. We are on a 8 hour bus trip back to Kenya, we have just had four days Tanzania - great time to update the blog!

Everyone meet Mount Kilimanjaro... And the white girls in a bus full of nuns!

Here's a little taste - more to come.

Char & lu x

Tanzania!

Monday morning at the crack of dawn we got on a bus to Tanzania... Another stamp for our passport! Was such a long trip to Moshi (right at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro), took us 8 hours but was such an awesome trip, was through such nice desert with surrounding mountains... Course we only took one or two photos :)

Anyhow finally got to Moshi where we spent 3 nights with Heidi and Devota. Was nice to spend a few more days with them.

We had African dresses made... We wanted dresses that we may be able to wear at home, so we drew the dressmaker a picture, and 24 hours later we have MATCHING African dresses!!!! The total cost for each of was bout $32!

Again, at the crack of dawn we are back on the bus, back to Nairobi, this time more impressive tho, as Mount Kilimanjaro is clear!! Is so beautiful!!!

So here we are.. 2 hours into our trip.. Only a few hours to go!

Till next time...

Love Cha and Lu xx

PS. Feel like your carrying so much money In Africa... 1,000 Kenyan shillings is about $15 NZ, as is 17,000 Tanzanian shillings!

"Eat as much as you can in Africa, no one is counting, and you never know when your next meal might be."

Where did we go?

Well it's been a little while since our last blog post... We spent the last weekend in Nairobi with Lizelle, she is from South Africa and lives in Nairobi working as an accountant for a massive oil company. She lives in a really nice place so was good to get back to civilization (running water, tiled floors, no dusty roads, hot showers) and to feel safe,( she has two gates into her house with 2 guards).

We went and visited a glass blowing factory which was way out in the 'wop-wops', along the dustiest bumpiest road you've ever seen!!! Was quite a mission to get there but was so worth it, was a massive indoor/outdoor garden, shop, cafe, workshop and factory! Would have been cool to buy something... But we still have 8 weeks of backpacking ahead of us!

We had a fellowship and gospel meeting on Sunday morning and then visited the giraffe centre which was quite neat. We spent the evening with Gihon and Onshoo and their two kids, a Korean family, who are living in Nairobi, and have only been there a few months so far. Gihon is the Korean Ambassador.

Hello Hair braids!!

So it was suggested we get our hair braided. Sure!! Little did we know it takes 2 hours each as turns out our hair is twice as thick and long......hello Kenya! Let's just say we feel a little out of our comfort zone! These may not stay in for the three weeks they suggest.Haha.
Here is the before and after pictures!!
Today is our last day in the orphanage, we have purchased a weed sprayer for the gardener. We have been told if we give money it all gets lost in the system somewhere. So a weed sprayer will be put to good use.
Tomorrow we are off to Nairobi with Tim.
Lu & char x