Small and beautiful

I decided to ditch work again on Monday and go and do something fun. During my break in class I called Harriette and asked her what plans she and Ros had for the day. She said she was planning on going to the Safari Walk which sounded fun and it is something right here in Nairobi that I haven't done yet. So I called up Rebecca and asked/told her I wasn't going in and made sure, to be polite, that I didn't have anything that I needed to do in the office. I then went right over to Harriette's after class. When I got there she wasn't even home and Ros wasn't ready. We didnt even end up leaving for and hour and a half and then when we did finally leave Jakobi fell asleep in the car and Ros had forgotton the stroller. So we had to turn back drop Jakobi back at the house and by the time that all happened it was to hot and no one (except me) wanted to go anymore.

So they decided to not waste the afteernoon and go to Kazuri Beads, a bead factory. Kazuri means small and beautiful in Swahili. The factory is only about fifteen minutes away in Karen and to tour the factory is free. When we got there someone lead us right to our tour guide who jumped right into our tour. First, he showed us a plaque with there mission statement on it. At the factory they employ 350 single mothers and half of all the sales goes to providing them and their immediate families with medical care. He then showed us where these big machines which make the clay. The machines were bought from England and when they broke they had to send for someone all the way over there to come and fix it. The machine has to be cranked by hand which seems fairly impossible because they are so huge I have no idea how they manage that. We then were able to walk through where they form the shapes for the beads, paint it, the machines for heating them up, and how they put the jewelry together. They say you can take pictures during the tour and then when we were in the factory there was two other people taking a different tour and the girl was in someone's face completely, super close, leaning in, with zoom, to take a picture. I was thinking I hope I don't look like that and tried to be more conscious of what I was doing. At the factory they not only make beads but they have pottery too, pitchers, cups, plates. After the tour we went to the shop they had and looked around. I really liked what they had even though the jewelry reminded me of something a middle aged hippie intellectual professor would wear but it was to expensive so I didn't end up buying anything but Ros did. I think I will come back before I leave and get something. Even though the day did not turn out the way I had hoped I do have to say it beats staring at a computer screen all day.