Nairobi & Harare (tales of two cities)

I last wrote 8 days ago from Nairobi. I was very glad we had built in the extra time before and after our tour to spend in this city. At least we saw a little of urban life to balance out  the somewhat insular view of the country that our tour gave. I mentioned in my first email that we had done a walking tour of the CBD when we first arrived. The city didn't seem nearly as scary as I had expected and on that occasion we had been dropped off by taxi but had chosen to walk back to our hotel. We were cautious and never felt threatened. Apparently the crime rate has dropped drastically from say 10 years ago, thanks to Police having "shoot to kill" orders for anyone caught in the act.  However after dark it's another story. As part of our walking tour we had a guided look through the Stanley Sarova Hotel which is a grand old colonial style hotel similar perhaps to the Raffles hotel in Singapore if you've seen that one. Do any of you remember the movie "Out Of Africa"? Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. I had bought the DVD and watched before coming! That was set in Kenya and there was a bit of Karen Blixen memorabilia at the hotel including the gramophone used in the movie! On our day in Nairobi after our safari we also went to the Karen Blixen museum in the original house. I really enjoyed seeing the place and relating to the movie! We also went on a second tour with the charity group who had run the CBD tour. This one was to one of the slum areas Mathare. The organisation has it's offices close by. We had to take a local bus to get there (an experience itself) then walk through streets and alleys (all with a guide of course) Wow what a place! 800,000 people living there in terrible conditions. Most dwellings are made from corrugated iron No plumbing Open drainage in the alleys which wind their way through this seemingly unending collection of lean-to's decorated with the days laundry hanging in whatever space was to be found. I'm not sure how much I really took in as I had to concentrate on where to place my feet on the very uneven tracks  watching for dogs and chickens and children as well as taking care to not bump my head on protruding beams or roof edging and of course dodging the laundry! So sad that so many are in this situation. And what's even sadder is that there is another slum area in Nairobi housing over 2 million people! However organisations such as MCF (Mathare Children's Fund) do their best to make a difference providing education healthcare and training to those it can with limited resources and funding. We also visited a clinic run by German-Doctors for Developing Countries. Another admirable organisation providing an amazing service in a desperate community. That evening on our return to our hotel we encountered a "little problem" - David's passport was missing!!! Eeek!!! And we were flying out the next day! So the next couple of hours were stressful to say the least. Numerous phone calls and messages checking everywhere we had been including the drivers we had used. David was quite convinced of the most likely moment it had happened (when we were rearranging cash after an ATM withdrawal) and that was when we were waiting to join our tour. So despite calling the CBD hotel where our tour had started, and them saying no it wasn't there, we ended up going back to look for ourselves and found it immediately in the armchair David had been sitting in - it had fallen down the side of the cushion. What a relief!!! The thought of having to try to obtain an emergency replacement passport was daunting to say the least! So with no visit to the Australian Embassy needed, we fitted in one final piece of tourism in Kenya before our departure.  We visited the National Museum and snake pit. Both were excellent exhibits - we were really impressed by the quality of displays etc. Thankfully the trip to the airport only took a quarter of the time of our trip the other way, and we headed South. After an overnight transit in Johannesburg we flew to Harare, capital of Zimbabwe. Their arrival process had not improved since our last visit 5 years ago, with a wait of about an hour (here you still have to queue up first to pay for a visa) but finally emerged to the welcoming arms of cousin Loretta & William. Driving through Harare things didn't look much different from last time - the roads are probably worse - I think they've completely given up on repairs! As a consequence the cars are also in disrepair. Shops are well stocked and prices seem reasonable by our standards but expensive for the locals. We had some lovely family time catching up with a few rellies and enjoyed a great church service Sunday morning before heading off to Chinhoyi - about 120km North. We've been here a few days but rather than start on this next chapter of our journey I'll sign off and tell you all about that next installment. By the way someone asked about weather - Kenya & Tanzania were lovely and warm (not hot) with mild nights except for when we were up on top of the crater and it was pretty COLD. Here in Zim it's warmer than expected around 30 in the day. No rain to date anywhere we have been. Jenny and David - currently staying put & not travelling.