Riding in a Matatu and Holding a Cheetah

Riding in a matatu and holding a cheetah were the two highlights of my day. Michael and I decided to venture out to Nairobi National Park where we had read that we could catch a bus only on Sundays that would take us around the park. And instead of taking a taxi, we decided today was the day we could try our luck on riding a matatu. But it's not just riding a matatu, it's figuring out how the matatu system works. There are no signs, just numbers and no guide books or schedules to explain where certain matatus go or what time you can catch them. You have to figure out what number you need to take and what direction you want to go.

We first hopped on a bus near our apartment that took us downtown. We arrived into town right around noon when church was letting out and there were people everywhere- way more than we have seen during the week. We got off the bus and started searching for matatu number 125 or 126. As we're looking around, matatu drivers are screaming at us in Swahili, banging boards against the top of the matatus and honking horns.

After walking several blocks, we found matatu 125. If you frequently suffer from car sickness, which I do, matatus will make your head spin and send your stomach for a rollercoaster ride. At one point I thought we were going to have a head-on collision because our driver passed 4 cars in front of us with oncoming traffic in sight but we were fine. Like I have said before, the driving is crazy here but at the same time the drivers know how to navigate in it. At one point during the trip, we stopped at a traffic light where it looked like a police officer was checking the buses and matatus to make sure they were following the fairly new regulations. Instantly everyone on board our matatu scrambled for their seat belt (requiring seat belts is one of the new regulations). We ended up not being checked but everyone had a good laugh about the situation.

We had been told that matatu 125 stopped directly in front of the park but after we had been driving for awhile out of the city centre, Michael asked the driver if we were getting close to the park. He replied "It's back there" pointing to the direction we had already passed. So we immediately got off and had to get back on another matatu going back towards the park because the one we were originally on couldn't turn around.


But finally we made it there to find out that the park's bus that only runs on Sunday wasn't running today because it had a "prior commitment". Not wanting to pay 6,000 Kenyan shillings to hire a driver to take us through the park, we settled with taking a tour of the Animal Orphanage, where park rangers bring animals whose parents have been eaten or died from another cause leaving their children in the wild alone. We got a tour guide named Steve who was very knowledgeable about the animals and national parks in Kenya. Steve hooked us up with a special treat while at the same time breaking the animal orphanage's rules. He took us back to the area where new arrivals are brought in. That's where Michael and I both got to hold a 2 week old cheetah. Michael embraced it, letting it crawl all over his back whereas I was a bit more timid about bringing it too close to me. In addition to the cheetah, we got up close and personal with a lion. The animal orphanage also had some very entertaining monkeys, warthogs, leopards and an ostrich that loved posing for the camera! And we also got to hold bones from an elephant and a giraffe's leg. And one other crazy thing- our tour guide Steve told us that a man once held his phone too close to the cage trying to take a picture of the ostrich (the one shown here on my blog) and the ostrich swallowed the phone whole and pooped it out a few days later!


The ride back to our apartment was more uneventful than our previous journey. We stayed on buses rather than taking matatus because they are a bit safer, more spacious and I've been told more reliable. But I was proud of us for going on a matatu and realizing that they are not as scary as they're made out to be.


Tomorrow is our first day at Nyumbani, which in Swahili means "home". It is a children's home for HIV positive children. The Nyumbani children's home sits on the outskirts of Nairobi in a suburb named Karen. Nyumbani was the first hospice center for HIV positive children in Kenya. It was started by a Jesuit priest named Father Angelo D'Agostino in 1992. Father D'Agostino died last year and Nyumbani is now in the hands of Sister Mary. Nyumbani is led by the Catholic Church and funded largely by the U.S. government and private U.S. donors. In addition to the children's home, Nyumbani has a program called Lea Toto, which works in the slums of Nairobi giving medical care and antiviral drugs to children. The center is also working on a third project in a town called Kitui where the hope is that elders and orphans can eventually sustain themselves. Michael and I hope to visit all of Nyumbani's projects.