Red dust and chalk: A fun weekend

Edit: I started writing this on Tuesday (now it's Saturday evening and Jon has returned home) but then my computer died and it's not coming back to life, plus we've had several lengthy power cuts :-( I'm using a borrowed laptop now and it's slow but I'll try to catch up on my posts!

I wrote:

Jon has been here for 11 days now and his holiday is shortly coming to an end (here's where I try to steal his passport so he can't go home!) We've had a great time together and done lots so there's been little time to blog it, but we're having a quieter couple of days so I'm going to start catching up!

He arrived on Friday evening, all went very smoothly and we were back from the airport just before 11pm. The next day we'd half-arranged to meet up with some church friends and have a picnic in Uhuru Park which is near the centre of Nairobi - depending whether Jon felt up to it. He did, and bravely ventured into town on his first day here, something that took me months to do! At least we travelled on buses which are slightly more civilised than matatus. We met up with people on the way and bought food, then set up our picnic in the shade once we'd arrived:

L-R: Jennifer, Jon, Deb and Florence

While we were eating we were approached by a couple of children asking for food, including this boy who, from what we could gather, was 12, an orphan and living in the park. He was very polite, sitting near and not asking us for anything while we were eating, and he let me take his photo. He had such a lovely smile:

There were also several people selling different things, from sandals to ice creams, and offering various services - including cleaning your glasses!! Deb had told us about a man called Francis who did nail painting and was really good... and then she spotted him! She called him over and Jennifer and I had our fingernails done - he did designs on them too and only charged 150 shillings!

The finished design

Francis at work

I was impressed! Next, Jennifer and Florence went on a ride - I thought it looked a bit much, especially just after lunch!

We then decided to go on the pedal boats on the lake - I'd never been on one before and I 'let' Jon steer but it was actually great fun! The views were great too.