Wednesday: Kazuri beads and the New Life Home in Nyeri

Wednesday’s plan was for our group to split up after lunch – Mary Mac and Rachel to a safari on the Masai Mara, and Jane, Mary Anne, Ginny and I to the New Life Home in Nyeri.  But there were more beads to be bought and lunch to be had before we went our separate ways.

Our return trip to the Kazuri Bead Factory probably needs some explanation.  Amani has had a unique relationship with Kazuri since 2004, when Jane and our cousin Rene Barnard dropped by for some casual shopping one day just before closing.  Two hours later, they had fleshed out the “beads for the babies” concept that plays a major role in Amani fundraising today. 

Kazuri employs 340 Nairobi-area women -- most of
them single mothers -- in a fair-trade business.

The concept goes something like this:  Amani buys beads and jewelry at Kazuri and takes them back to the States to beading groups in Winston-Salem, Indy, Culver, Cleveland, Harrisburg and other pockets of Amani friends across the county.  The beaders make and re-make Amani jewelry, which is then sold through a number of different informal networks – through private parties, church functions, art fairs, and through the Amani Market in Winston-Salem  and the Indy Amani office in Indianapolis – with every penny going back to Kenya to support New Life Homes.

It wasn’t always that simple.  Kazuri co-owner and general manager Raymond Goez recalls that he had to “reverse-negotiate” with Jane that first night just to get her out of the store.  Jane would say, “I’ll give you a $100 for this packet of beads.”  Raymond would say, “I’ll take $50,” and so it went, Raymond taking half of what Jane was offering, each round of upside-down haggling getting him a step closer to closing time.  A “win-win-win” business relationship and friendship evolved, all to the benefit of the babies of New Life Homes and the 340 women employed by Kazuri, all single mothers earning a solid income in a respected fair-trade business.

Jane and co-owner & general manager
Raymond Goez chat outside Kazuri

Kazuri workers rotate jobs periodically
to stay fresh and involved in their work.

After our Kazuri tour and another round of shopping for beads – our fourth by my count – we had a quick lunch at the Tamambo restaurant, adjacent to Kazuri, on the Karen Blixen Estate.  The food was different but simple and very good – I had Kuku Kikapu, an unfortunately named but very tasty chicken dish – and the setting made me feel as if “I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”


The drive approaches Mount Kenya,
 the 2nd-highest peak in Africa.

After lunch our group split up, and Jane, Mary Anne, Ginny and I started the the 60-mile drive  from Nairobi to Nyeri, with Francis’s partner Joseph doing the driving while Francis was on another job.  It’s a beautiful drive, like the one to Nakuru, but maybe even more stunning in terms of its views.  The route steadily gains elevation as it runs through small farms with terraced hillsides and eventually approaches the lower slopes of Mount Kenya. 



About 12 miles short of Nyeri, just outside a city called Karatina, our van broke down.  It was too hot and the highway too narrow for us to sit there while Joseph called Francis for advice and started working on the van, so we all bailed out and started walking.  Of course we would make it safely to Nyeri.  Jane had called Gabriel Ndiritu, co-director with his wife Monica of the New Life Home there, and he was prepared to come to our rescue.  And it wouldn’t take Joseph long to get the van going and come scoop us up. 

That gave us just enough time to provide some amusement for three school children who stopped to watch our little drama unfold from across the highway, and for a father and daughter perched on the hillside above.  Along the way we met a woman with a red-combed chicken the size of a small dog tucked under her arm.  I asked her if I could take her picture.  She clutched the bird’s thorny legs with one hand and waved me away with the other, telling me I’d have to pay if I wanted to take her picture.   Somehow that seemed backwards; I was the different-looking one out there, not her.  I politely declined anyway and changed the subject to the chicken.  I'm not sure why, but I asked her how much it cost her.  She said she'd bought it from a neighbor for a thousand shillings and asked if I'd like to buy it from her.  Fortunately, Joseph arrived just then with our repaired van, just in time to end this negotiation which was going nowhere anyway.  

Osteen's first night in a big bed.



We arrived in Nyeri in time to check in at the Greenhills Hotel and walk across the road to the home.  It was nearly bedtime there, so we only had time for a quick tour, some pictures of the babies, and a visit with Gabriel and Monica.  We were there long enough to see that the Nyeri home is a very special place.  It sits on a beautiful piece of property on winding road carved through bright red Kenyan clay.  The home itself is more compact than the others, housing only 18 babies and 20 staff.  But it’s clearly no less a force in its community in the key role it plays in rescuing and caring for abandoned babies.

Gabriel started at New Life Homes in Nairobi 11 years ago, first as a painter and then as a guard, before he and Monica moved to Nyeri as newlyweds in 2006 to help open the new home.  Gabriel  does most of the talking for the couple, which seems just fine with Monica.  He is curious and bright and articulate, clearly a leader and an asset to New Life Homes.

Gabriel and Monica's sons Caleb (left)
and Lawrence show off their new Colts
jerseys, straight from Indianapolis.