Kenya - Day 5 - National Museum of Kenya

Day 5: On our last day in Kenya, we started with a morning game drive through Masai Mara that ended at the airstrip to take us back to Nairobi - we boarded a plane, but it was more like an air taxi as we had 4 more stops to pick up other passengers before we flew back to the capital city. This meant we would fly pretty low over the Mara and get a bird's eye view of the lands we had crisscrossed for days - it was fun to even identify some river crossings and other trails we had bumped along in our safari days. As we approached Nairobi by air, we were able to see the sprawling skyline, but we also flew over the slums - that looked similar to the slums I had read about in South Africa, most recently in Trevor Noah's book Born a Crime. We observed the many different ways that Kenyans live - some deeply rooted in traditional ways of living and others more modern with a varying degree of wealth and opportunity in the big city. We did not get to the Kenyan coast, but there is strong sense of embracing the diversity of Kenya in Nairobi and we learned a little more about different areas of Kenya on our visit to the National Nairobi Museum later in the day.

Once we landed in Nairobi we were met again by a driver and guide from Gamewatchers Safaris - I highly recommend this company if you have been inspired to embark on a safari yourself https://www.porini.com/ - I worked with Rick and he was great to plan this part of our trip with! We talked with our guys and agreed that they would drive us around for the afternoon and evening so we could explore more of Nairobi and also meet with friends of friends who invited us to dinner. So, our first stop was the Nairobi National Museum....

This museum was in the heart of Nairobi, so we were able to see more of the big city life as we made our way to the museum. Once at the museum, we had a personal guide to take us through the many rooms of the museum (we definitely could have spent more time in this museum, so he did a quick tour and focused on things we were interested in learning more about). I was fascinated by the art and history the most, Jason enjoyed the bird room - filled with the thousands of bird species found in Kenya! After visiting the traditional Maasai community a few days earlier, it was neat to see the strong Maasai tradition that remained consistent throughout Kenya's history - you can even find the Maasai shield and spear on the Kenyan flag. You can also see in the collage a collection of gourds, and when I got back home my 1st grader had made a bird house out of a gourd which now hangs on the tree in front of the window near my desk - it's an unexpected connection to my African trip. After a quick break for tea (my first real iced tea on this trip!) and a snack, we headed up to the history - which was a timeline of sorts.

As a history teacher for over 20 years now, I had some prior knowledge of Kenya's history. However, it was amazing to view this timeline from the Kenyan perspective (I am aware that most of what I have learned previously about Kenyan and other African nations was from a western perspective). I do teach my students about the Scramble for Africa in the late 1800s - basically European powers carving up most of Africa into colonies (see cartoon) - and then later the decolonization efforts around the globe post world wars (including the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenys), but as I walked the timeline of Kenyan history, I was inspired to add in more personal stories and perspectives. For example, did you know there was a female field marshall?

Marshall Muthoni wa Kirima was the only woman to receive the rank of field marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army of the Mau Mau Uprising! She was known as the "weaver bird" for her brilliant strategies - do you remember I mentioned weaver birds a few days ago? While women were an integral part of the uprising, she was the only one to rise the ranks in the military. She remained an advocate for freedom in Kenya even after independence was achieved - here's a 2022 article about her https://thisisafrica.me/.../symbol-remains-tonsuring-of.../ I plan to add a spotlight box into the world history course I teach about Marshall Muthoni as part of my efforts to add in more minority voices in history.

One of the newer wings of the museum showcases bones and relics dating back to the Cradle of Human Kind - some of the oldest found on earth. The star of this wing is Turkana Boy - bones of a boy who lived 1.5 million years ago https://www.turkanabasin.org/turkanaboy/ ! As we hustled through the bird display and Jason enjoyed finding the various birds that we had seen on our game drives, the museum was closing and it was time to move on.

When we started planning for this trip several months ago, a few friends said - "oh, we have friends who work for the US State Dept in Nairobi, you should connect with them" - so I did. They provided a great list of must-dos in Nairobi and we ended up doing all of them

They also invited us to dinner at their house, so after the museum we gave their address to our driver and drove through more parts of Nairobi - eventually we found the house (yes, it did include a phone call and turning around a few times!)

It was wonderful to enjoy a Kenyan dinner with friends of friends in Nairobi - a testament to "it's a small world", the evening was full of stories and connections and fellowship. Perfect way to wrap up the Kenyan portion of our African adventure....we were happy to have our driver to get us back to the hotel at a decent hour because we had an early morning flight the next day....next stop: Burundi