Day 8: Across the Indian Ocean to Nairobi, Kenya. Around the World in 80 Days.

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Day 8: Across the Indian Ocean to Kenya

Destination: Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya, located in East Africa, is famed for its scenic landscapes and vast wildlife preserves. Kenya lies on the equator and has a pleasant, tropical climate with two distinct seasons, a rainy and a dry season.

Kenya's capital is Nairobi. The name comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to "cool water", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city is popularly referred to as the Green City in the Sun.

Fun Facts: Kenya has been called "the cradle of humanity". In the Great Rift Valley that stretches the length of Kenya, paleontologists have discovered some of the earliest evidence of our ancestors.

Also: For Kenyans, coffee is considered an export product, not something for local consumption. The local favorites are tea and beer. They usually drink their beverages hot or at room temperature.

Art Form: Flip Flop Animals - Turning Trash into Art

It is estimated that 3 billion people in

the world wear flip flops. Since they don't last forever they end up in landfills, and worse, in

rivers and oceans.

According to a report by Ocean Conservancy, flip flops are the biggest pollutant on East African beaches. Discarded flip flops wash ashore from as far off as Indonesia. This trash impacts sea turtles nesting on the beaches, and the flip flops obstruct turtle hatchlings from reaching the sea.

Plastic items are nearly indestructible; they can drift for years, and for thousands of miles. Many marine species adopt floating plastic debris, such as flip flops, and "hitch-hike" all the way across the oceans on them. In this way, invasive species spread to new habitats that would have ordinarily been impossible for them to reach without these "rafts." An entire ecosystem's equilibrium can be disastrously upset as a result of plastic marine pollution.

A number of companies are employing people to collect discarded flip flops from Kenya's beaches and inner cities (where cheap plastic beach sandals are often the only affordable foot gear). The flip flops are cleaned, sorted, cut and glued into blocks. Artisans then carve these blocks transforming them into bold modern safari art sculptures.

Here's how it's done:

Turning flip flops into art with Ocean Sole - BBC What's New?

Leslie Mittelberg, a former resident of Nairobi, Kenya, founded her company in 1995 and named it "Swahili" after the people of East Africa whose artistry inspired her entrepreneurship.

A member of the Fair Trade Federation, Swahili works with producers across Africa who value their natural environment and employ sustainable methods of production including utilizing recycled, reclaimed and highly renewable materials. They partner with African artisans extending each artisan's craft from the local market to the global marketplace. Swahili has partnered with Ocean Sole (featured in video) and now works with a small artist cooperative to help bring life to old flip flops.

Images courtesy of Swahili Imports

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"Collect" at least 12 different "country" stamps during the first 20 days of our around-the-world trip to be entered into the drawing for a $25 gift card.

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Thanks for traveling with us today.

Where to next? Stay tuned!

The bright colors of all the flip

flops in this story are like a rainbow this morning. Speaking of rainbows, there are even more rainbows popping up in our Brookside neighborhood of shops and homes. There's a #rainbowtrail happening - a sign of hope at the end of the storm.

Thank you for coming along on this Around the World trip with us. Isn't our world a wonderful "rainbow" of peoples, cultures and stories? If you haven't already done so, invite some friends to come along! There's still room on this journey!

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