Time Out

This year for our Virgo birthdays, we decided to go away for a weekend of rejuvenation.  Jonathan has been working so hard and he's also still trying to come to terms with his sister's death.  So with that, we decided to go to a place that had little to no distractions so that he could get a lot of rest.  My job was to find a place that we could enjoy solitude and be still for a moment.  I did my research and found the ultimate destination and knew that he would be really psyched at the choice of lodge/camp I picked.  I sent him off to make the payment the day prior to our departure and guess what?  The tour agent had mistakenly booked us in for the weekend after! I was livid and told Jonathan to do whatever he could to get us in there but unfortunately the camp was fully booked.  The tour agent told us about this other place and said that we would have just as much fun and seclusion there so we decided to go with her recommendation - Mbweha Camp.

Matatu Shenanigans

Image via Wikipedia

I live in Nairobi and work in Thika, which is 26 miles away (43km).  It doesn't seem like a long journey but this is Kenya and the infrastructure hasn't been developed until recently so that sends commute times through the roof!  However, the highway from Nairobi to Thika is currently under construction by the Chinese (thank you Jesus!) so the long and tedious commutes will be a thing of the past! Until then, I am one of the millions of Kenyans that take public transport every day and that usually means boarding a "matatu".  A matatu is a van that carries between 10-15 passengers and picks up and drops off passengers at bus stops that are simply known as "stage" or by a landmark feature in the area (i.e Shell gas station!) .  The origins of the word matatu are attributed to the Swahili word for three: "tatu" and also the 30 cents fare that was paid when matatus first appeared in the 60s.