48 hour guide to Nairobi

Although my time in Nairobi was so short, words cannot describe how incredible the experience was. In just 48 hours I saw giraffes (both wild and in a sanctuary); water buffalo; ostriches; zebras; and met the most amazing people. I would highly recommend spending more than just 48 hours in this incredible place, taking the time to see the animals on a safari but also getting to know the amazing people working to provide a better life to the children struggling to survive on their own in the slums.

Day 1:

We visited the giraffe centre, or as many people would recognise it: the giraffe manor frequented by influencers. We got to the centre around 10:30 am and it wasn’t too busy, although there were some really big groups of school children, they mostly stuck to the classrooms and came out as we were leaving.

When you first arrive at the centre before you, even pay to enter, everyone must wash their hands. This is so that when feeding the giraffes there’s no chance of you giving them anything that may harm them. After purchasing your ticket you’ll be given a small pot of pellets to feed to the giraffes. You only get a small amount so be sure to spread it around them all! 

Entry to the giraffe centre is around £11 and the transport cost KSh 3000 per car which is around £22.

I’d recommend buying any souvenirs at the centre itself rather than any of the drop offs your driver may take you to on the way there or back. These were just big tourist traps where the prices would be hiked up super high or not even marked at all and that’s anyone’s guess really! It felt like the drivers had some prearranged agreement to bring any passengers here and items that were in the centre would be twice if not three times the price or more in these roadside stops. 

Day 2:

We arranged to go to some schools run by Sister Mary, a lovely Irish lady who’s dedicated the last 46 years of her life to helping less fortunate children in Nairobi. 

We were picked up from our hotel by a really sweet man named Julius who drove us to the first school via a supermarket to buy donations for the children. Had we known, we would’ve brought more from home (this is something I’d recommend doing). However we were able to get plenty of foods, art supplies, toys and hygiene products in the supermarket. 

Unfortunately we didn’t have much time at the first school; a rather whistle stop tour. This was a vocational school where the students learn a trade to help them out in society to get a job and hopefully move away from the slums. There were hairdressing and salon classes, an IT suite, a music/DJ room and more, a lot of which had been donated by the airline I work for and the buildings had even been built by crew! Just before we left we could purchase some of the artwork from the students which I highly recommend as 80% goes to the artist and the rest goes towards more supplies.

The next school we went to was an orphanage for ‘the street boys’. This encounter was truly heartbreaking. The orphanage is located on the outskirts of Kenya’s second largest slum, from which many of the boys had been rescued from, hence the nickname.

The day school at the time had 68 boys, 63 of them stay in the orphanage dormitory (or at least they did when I visited), however we got talking to a lady who visits the boys often, and she said two weeks prior there were only 46 boys. 

It was heartbreaking listening to the boy’s stories, the youngest,only 6, had been found abandoned in the slum with no parents in sight when he was 5. Another boy was the eldest of 3 to a single mother who felt she had to surrender him as she could no longer cope now that he was being dragged into drugs and other dangerous activities. 

But I can’t even begin to describe how incredibly happy they all were. With infectious smiles and laughter it was hard to not join in, despite the welling tears. It’s hard to describe the feeling of you haven’t experienced it. 

After being with the boys for a while, we left to go and visit a special-needs school just down the road. In the heart of the slum. We unfortunately timed it and got there at school home time, however, we still got to meet a lot of the children and the teachers who do the incredible work to help improve their lives and integrate them into society. It really is worth adding this into your itinerary, especially since it’s a 2 minute drive from the boys orphanage. 

The school is split up into four levels: daycare, level one, level two, and level three. Daycare is where the children with non-verbal learning difficulties and severe physical disabilities spend their days, the majority of them have non-verbal Down Syndrome or wheel-chair bound Cerebral Palsy. Level one is where children with small levels of verbal communication come to learn. They spend a lot of time participating in music and dance or using computers to improve their communication in hopes that one day they may move up to level . Level two is where you’d find the students who are able to communicate fairly well and perform hands-on tasks with hope of eventually being integrated into the vocational school to learn trades to help them in the outside world. Level 3 is where you’d find the high-functioning children who learn simpler trades and more comprehensive learning start off before moving onto the vocational school where they’ll choose and refine their trade skills before heading out into society to earn their living. 

The thing I found most shocking, but it makes the most sense, about this school is that age is just a number. You are put into your classes based solely on your capabilities, age is completely disregarded. It does make for some pretty entertaining classroom arrangements however, when the 14/15 year olds are sitting next to the 6 year olds on tiny chairs. I couldn’t imagine that happening when I was at school!

The school has several specialised therapy rooms, one for physical therapy and rehabilitation, on the roof there are special bikes and play equipment to help less mobile children to exercise and finally, there’s a sensory room. This was my favourite! This room had lots of activities and equipment that the children would use in a specific routine. There was a textured stepping stone path, each one different to the next; a fancy pillow that when you hugged tightly heated up like a hot water bottle and vibrated…. It was a strange but oddly comforting toy, I guess that’s the point. In the room there were also several ‘infinity tunnels’.

This was followed by another sensory walkway, this time made up of small squishy panels filled with a small amount of coloured liquid. I bought my dog a cooling mat last summer that lives on the living room floor when it’s hot. The only way I can describe the feeling of stepping on these panels is that it’s like stepping on that cooling mat. Except you don’t slide around and nearly face plant the floor like I always do when I step on the cooling mat!! The last station was a music station with a twist. The lights would be turned off and a galaxy would be projected onto the ceiling and the students would sit on the ground under weighted blankets. That sounds like a very good way to spend a day at school if you ask me!

As we toured around the school, the magnitude of its location hit us more and more as we made our way up the 3 stories and then up to the roof. This incredible facility, probably rivalling some Western schools doing the same things, was right in the heart of Kenya’s second largest slum. From every angle, the heartbreaking sights could be seen expanding for miles, with the taunting skyscrapers just peeking over the horizon. The fact that the majority of these children had come from the community within these slums really made me grateful for the upbringing and education I had in the UK growing up.

This experience is something I would highly recommend. However, I would say do your research because as incredible as it was, I would not have felt safe enough to go had I not been with a group and had a tour guide. 

One great way to look into ways to volunteer with children in Africa is by going on ‘gap year’ volunteer abroad websites. Alternatively, Google Our Lady of Mercy Primary School, Kenya and see how you can get involved in the volunteer process.