"i'd just as soon play tennis with the net down"

after a great week of teaching kids how to make kites and origami, losing my voice so entirely that i couldn't talk above a whisper (and subsequently having to bang on the roof of the matatu to get it to let me off)and making paper bags in the slums while listening to a famous peter bakke mix--i played tourist a little.
on friday night i went to an art center called "go down" in a warehouse downtown and saw a south-african dance group called umthombi perform a story of a boy coming of age. but the opening act--a group of teenage kenyan boys called kunja--was the real highlight. please can someone find them on youtube (i unfortunately didn't have my camera). they did the most ridiculous set of acrobatics i have ever witnessed. it was kenyan cirque du soleil.
saturday i went down to karen which is just south west of the city next to nairobi national park. i went to an elephant orphanage. they adopt orphaned elephants, feed them, protect them, put sunscreen on their tender ears (who knew?) and then let them back into the wild when they're old enough.
then i visited a giraffe center, run by the african fund of endangered wildlife, and fed, and got head-butted by giraffes. i ended my very touristy day with a trip to bomas of kenya where i saw replicas of the huts and villages of different tribes and watched a performance of tribal dances. i tried to join in and show them my moves, but they were like, "those are west african dances margaret, get out of here"