Welcome to Nyeri Town and the Nyeri Club

 

Our arrival in Nyeri Town coincided with the arrival of an exchange group from the Westminster School in Atlanta, GA. Every year, high school students from Westminster along with 3 teachers visit Mt. Kenya Academy Senior School for 8-10 days in January. In turn, students and 1 staff member from MKA visit Westminster for 8-10 days in April.

Consequently, we were hosted at the Nyeri Club in Nyeri Town by the founding director of MKA for the first week of our visit, which was quite a treat. The top 2 floors are rooms for overnight stays. The lower floor has a gym, locker rooms & showers, and a reception.


It didn't take long for Chris to get into the pool after nearly 2 weeks with only 1 swim, in the White Nile River. The pool manager was a very nice young man, Eric. He and Chris swam a workout together and I believe Eric was quite humbled. Swim workout standards in the US and Kenya are quite different.

The Nyeri Club pool is only a sidelight to its primary and founding purpose: GOLF. The course is 9 holes which draws members from the immediate community as well as others within an hour's drive. 
The clubhouse included a pro-shop, restaurant, and bar. Our stay included breakfast and dinner so we spent quite a bit of time on the terrace enjoying very good meals.

The grounds are beautiful and well cared for.


On the other side of this fence was a sign for a Driving Range. It looked like a big, empty parking lot so we knew it wasn't for golfing practice.

The room was simple and very comfortable.
This is probably the largest and best-built shower we've seen in our African travels. The floor tiles in the shower actually sloped toward the drain!
This is Githeri, a central Kenyan staple. In its simplest form it is made with dried corn and either beans or peas. I ordered Githeri with other vegetables, more interesting than the standard variety and very tasty.



Starch is a big part of every meal. With the githeri, I chose chapati, a fried dough similar to a tortilla but slightly thicker and buttery. We think chapati goes well with everything!


This is a standard Kenyan restaurant breakfast plate, including eggs, bread, sausage, fruits or vegetables, and often sweet potato and arrow root. It was difficult for us to finish everything so we wrapped the leftovers up and gave them to our friend Peter who takes care of the pool at MKA.
One of the benefits of staying at the Nyeri Club was walking out the club gates and into Nyeri Town. We had time one weekend to explore parts of town new to us. After walking quite a distance to a museum (only to find out it was closed on weekends!!), we stopped to rest and Chris got a haircut and shave.

We enjoyed a late lunch one day with our friends Mary and Eddie.

Nyama Choma (grilled goat meat) with chapati, ugali, and kachembari with avocadoes

Mary and Eddie live 2 miles down the street from the Nyeri Club. We visited them at their house. Mary's younger sister, Blessing, is sitting next to her on the couch wearing green. Adrian and Ariana are Mary & Eddie's wonderful kids.
The central part of Nyeri Town is the business district. There is a central market with street vendors spreading out for blocks and blocks from the market. Although this looks like a pedestrian only street, motorcycles, cars, and vans filled with travelers (matatus) share the street as well.
These twin brothers are locksmiths with a small shop on one of the main streets. We had keys copied. It's all done by hand in a vice with files and calipers.
We've never tried this cafe, but the sign caught our eyes.
We did eat Nyama choma at this place with amazing samosas as an appetizer. Notice the big sides of beef hanging in the window. Butcheries sell most of the meat in Kenya, generally beef, goat, chicken, and in some places pork.

Now that we're living in our flat at the school, we go into town once every weekend to walk around, have a meal and wonderful Kenyan tea, and do our grocery shopping for the week.

This is the flour section, with the majority corn flour, aka maize meal, a Kenyan staple.






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