Today we had a very early start as we had to catch a plane back from North Country to go back to Nairobi. After landing, we jumped in the cars to head to Camp Carnelley where we would the night. On the way, we drove along the lookout over Rift Valley, a well known valley in Kenya. We passed by a few shops on the side of the road, prompting Matt to convince Mike to pull over so he could add to his funky hat collection. This was a pit stop where it was good that the team was mostly men, as the restroom was a hole in the ground that led down the cliff into the valley. It was definitely an interesting experience.
From there, we continued on until we got to Ubuntu Cafe. We were told it was a cool coffee place where we would get lunch and do a little shopping, and that they had an interesting story, but we had no clue how cool it really was going to be. We walked into the peaceful compound and decided to look around before we got food. Once we went into the shop, we saw a lot of handmade items for sale and were told the story of Ubuntu. This is when we found out how large the operation is. Ubuntu was started as a facility to help give care for 9 children with special needs. Special needs children in Africa tend to be hidden and cared for full time by their mothers. So the founders, who had a heart for these kids, wanted to start a facility that would help bring care to them. Then the mothers had some extra time because they wouldn't need to care for their kids full time and the founders helped them learn some crafting vocational skills so that they could help fund the care center and give the families some extra money, and Ubuntu was born. Now they employ over 150 people doing handmade crafts that they sell all over the world, even having some bulk orders from companies such as Disney and Whole Foods. They also have a larger care facility where they offer care for children with special needs such as epilepsy, autism, and more. We got a chance to tour the care facility and it was amazing how holistic their care is for the children. They offer counseling, neurological doctors on site, a pharmacy on site, occupational therapy, and vocational training on their campus. It was pretty incredible and we were all so impressed by the vision and strategy that they have toward moving to self sustainability for the facilities. Damon felt a little bit at home as they had some on site screen printing for some of their products as well. Before hitting the road again we ate lunch at the cafe made some purchases in the store.
We finished off the day by checking into our lodging for the night at Camp Carnelleys. The weather was good so we moved our trip to Crescent Island that we were supposed to do tomorrow to do it today. It was a 20 minute motor boat ride to the island, and we got a chance to see a few hippos on the way. Crescent Island is in the shape of a crescent moon and has a lot of animals wandering around on it. So basically we got to do a guided walking safari on the island. We saw some zebra, ostrich, and giraffes. It was cool to be so close to the animals. After getting drenched on the motor boat ride back to camp, we had dinner at the cafe at the camp and went to bed.
