The next morning we had a nice breakfast in the lounge then I was picked up by Eva from my team in Nairobi to go go-karting (it was a Sunday). I got to meet Eva and chat a bunch over about an hour’s drive to the go kart center and some racing observation.

The drive is only about 20km from the hotel, but the roads are really rough due to this massive expressway project that is underway. Eva’s boyfriend’s beautiful Audi A6, which she was driving, was low slung, but the terrain was really much better suited for my jeep. In fact, I might have even aired down. So there was a lot of creeping along and trying not to bottom out on rough terrain, speed bumps, etc.

We finally got there, then we met up with the rest of the folks who wanted to come karting – Jivi, Julius, and Wangechi. The agreed meet time was noon, we got there at 1, and the rest of the crew at 2. Kenya time, as Jivi taught me (ok, but as long as features come in on time, ok?).

We got suited up, got our helmets, and while we waited our turn on the track, one of the track employees when fully crazy on getting group photos with Eva’s phone. We all agreed he had missed his calling as a photographer.

We had our race (in which only Julius’s cart didn’t break down in our 20 minute time alottment), then watched some motorcycles run the course at crazy speeds, then headed over to the restaurant area for conversation and beer.

And theoretically lunch, but service, too, was on Kenya time (they were just overwhelmed) so we chatted until 5 at which point I just said – why don’t you just join us for dinner?

Heather was very gracious and so the whole team agreed to join us at Mercado (I like mexican food, and was amused by the mexican restaurant in Nairobi thing) so we all headed back from the track. It is only 20km but it took everyone at least an hour to get there.

Once there, we enjoyed quite good guac and ceviche and various mains.
The team had bought me a birthday present (a really cool set of traditional lutes) and a birthday cake, and they and restaurant staff sang happy birthday. It was a wonderful end to the day and very touching. It was just incredible getting to spend the day with such a fun, wonderful group.