Sunday, February 21, 2010

History lessons and new rules to follow (??)

History
On Wednesday, when we went into Nairobi city, we visited some historic sites. The first was the Savora hotel. Originally built in 1902, it was the first 5-star hotel in Nairobi. It was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1905 on the site where it still stands. It started out as a little cafe built under an acacia tree - a meeting place for people at that time. Messages were left there tacked to the tree for friends/acquaintances passing by that area at a later date. The existing tree is actually a 3rd generation off-shoot of the original and the hotel has maintained this tradition of leaving notes and have set up message boards for people to post their messages. The hotel has also maintained the original revolving door and staircase. This hotel hosted Presidents (i.e. Winston Churchill) and famous writers (i.e. Ernest Hemingway). He actually introduced the word "safari" into the english language (it means "journey" in Swahili).
There was a picture of "Princess" Elizabeth (and the Duke of Edinburgh) taken 3 days prior to her coronation. The hotel boasts that when she visited the Treetop Cafe, she went up a princess, but came down a queen!

We also visited the memorial site of the terrorist bombings of 1998. Since that event and for security reasons, most of the foreign embassies have been moved outside of the city.







New rules to follow (??)
You know how we are always told, that in the case of a fire, we should stay calm and slowly exit the building? Well, here are the Kenyan fire rules we saw in a cyber cafe in downtown Nairobi.!!

Read the first rule and then the final statement in red.
 HA!HA! We had quite a chuckle!!


















If you recall, I had previously referenced how I believed my sister Louise had a horseshoe stuck up "somewhere". Well, ironically, the earring I had torn out of my ear this same day in the city was in fact shaped like a horseshoe.
So... on this note, I will end this post by sharing what I have learned... a new "Marcil Motto"...

"A horseshoe in your "rear" is luckier than a horseshoe in your "ear"!
:o)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love, love, love the fire rules! It sounds like your are doing great things! Keep it up and as always, I look forward to your posts!