Friday, March 7, 2014

Visiting Kenya: Blixen Museum, Kazuri Beads and Carnivoire

After visiting the elephant orphanage and giraffe center, we ended our first day on the tour by stopping at the Blixen Museum, the Kazuri Bead Workshop, and, finally dinner at the Carnivoire Restaurant.


 
The bead center employs single women, who otherwise have a difficult time making it in that society.  If they get married, they can still work there, however. 
 
 
They literally start with clay, bake it and continue on through the entire process of bead making
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
The beads are sold in the U.S. through the "10,000 Villages Shops," of which there is at least one in Cleveland.
 
 
Their work is excellent and I bought a couple items as gifts.
 
 
Before going on the tour, I was asked a couple times why I was going to Africa.  I responded that I was going to look for Meryl Streep.  And if she wasn't there, she was "Out of Africa."  OK, bad joke, but it's my sense of humor.  In any case, I hadn't realized that the Karen Blixen Museum was on our tour, and Blixen was the author of Out of Africa.  And so, of course I asked the guide in the house if Meryl Streep had ever been there and, yes, she had visited it when making the film. 


 
We couldn't take photos inside the house (marvelous period piece from the days of colonial coffee plantations), but the grounds were lovely.
 
 
Our dinner at day's end was at Carnivoire Restaurant.  And, as the name implies, it's not for vegetarians, though the deep-fried beets were delicious and the sorbets (passion fruit) a perfect ending.  In between it was all meet, served as in Brazilian steakhouses.  The menu follows with a sample of photos from the open-air kitchen, the serving, and the food.
 
 
Yes, ox balls and ostrich meat balls are exactly what they sound like.
  


 
We passed the kitchen enroute to our table.
 
 
The "side" dishes.
 


 
....being served....
 
 
....until we raised the flag of surrender...

 
....one of my plates...
 

 
...and the finishing touch.
 
 
Of course, there was room for Kenya's Tusker beer too.
 
 
I suppose I could have ordered a drink from the "cocktail tree."
 
 
 
 
 

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