Cheshire ladies making flip flops. What an amazing day!
Two of the Cheshire ladies that I worked with...
Anne and Margaret (Anne is my great friend who I met my first year and have managed to see every year - she's on the right in this picture)
Acacia tree thorns...
Wow. I don’t know where to start… it’s been a full day. We left early this morning to take about 50 orphans on a field trip to Hell’s Gate. That should have been my first warning that the day was not to be what I thought. I’d heard that Hell’s Gate was a national game reserve and that we would be able to drive through on our buses and look at wild animals. I’d also heard that we would have the opportunity to do about an hour “walk” to maybe see the animals up close and personal. Well all went well until we got to the walking part. The drive from here to the park took over an hour and we went through the beautiful Rift Valley, driving past the IDP camp where we built houses last year. It was wonderful to see neat rows of mud houses with tin roofs instead of weather-beaten tents. When we finally arrived at Hell’s Gate, we spent about 45 minutes getting checked in through the main gate and hearing a talk by one of the park rangers about wildlife conservation. My favorite quote from his talk… “if you get eaten by a lion today, it’s a bad thing for you. But it’s a good thing for us because we won’t have to feed the lion.” Sensitive Africans! I also got a look at the thorns of the Acacia tree up close. The Acacia trees are the typical tree associated with Africa – especially in the safari lands of the Serengeti Plains. They have huge thorns and it is said that the crown of thorns that Jesus wore was from the Acacia tree. I believe that after seeing the thorns today. Each thorn was as long or longer than an adult finger – they were like mini-spears. I know I’m rambling and some of you want to find out what put the “hell” in Hell’s Gate. Okay, so after 30 minutes of wonderful sightseeing by bus, we arrived at a stop called “The Gorge” – now that should have been my second clue, but I was still completely unaware of what was to come. We started down a dirt and rock path that very quickly turned into a death defying straight shot to the bottom of a 100 foot gorge. Now, the beautiful little Kenyan children hopped and ran their way happily down the path (I’m still having a hard time calling it a path) while this old and out-of-shape American tried to tough it up enough to slide down on my backside with much assistance from our gentlemen on the trip. Whew, I survived. That initial descent ended up being a piece of cake compared to the rest of the “hike” – it’s now been upgraded from a walk to a hike. We eventually made it to the bottom of a beautiful gorge where there were hot springs, little waterfalls, and tons of beautiful rocks (including obsidian that was so perfect, I cast away my first several pieces thinking it was just broken glass). Although I was filthy and hurting in places I didn’t know I had, I was pretty proud of myself for making it to the bottom. Now, if we could just find our buses and have our picnic lunch… 20 minutes later… I receive the shocking news that our bus cannot meet us at the bottom of a 100 foot gorge (as I’m reading this, I am realizing how completely ignorant I am sounding but this is seriously the way it happened – I was oblivious… would have stayed on the bus had I known the full extent of the boot camp challenge) (it’s now been upgrading it from a hike to a full out military challenge). Imagine my complete surprise and distress to learn that we are basically going to have to climb our way out of the 100 foot gorge. Yea h. So now it’s rock climbing minus the training, safety equipment, and in places – it’s minus the rocks! We climbed up paths the consistency of talcum powder grabbing roots and rocks when available. I did survive the expedition although I doubt I’ll be able to move tomorrow. I used muscles that never existed before today. And many more that haven’t been used in the 10 years I’ve been working a desk job.
Some of you have asked about our daily life here in Kenya. We are staying at a Christian Retreat Center called Brackenhurst. It is in Tigoni Village, a few miles from Limuru Town and about 25 miles from Nairobi. It is in the Kenyan Highlands (about 8,000 feet above sea level), and it’s actually winter here right now with temperatures in the mid-upper 60’s and lows in the 40’s and 50’s. Whenever we leave the highlands (for Nairobi or the Rift Valley, for example) it is considerably warmer (about 10 degrees). The Kenyan Highlands are known for their coffee and tea production. The area we visited today (beyond the Rift Valley in Lake Navasha is known for it’s flower production. Those are Kenya’s three largest exports (tea, coffee, and flowers) and flowers are dirt cheap here. I bought a dozen beautiful pink/orange roses here for 100 shillings (about $1.20) and have been enjoying them for several days now.
At Brackenhurst, we are renting a cottage (Simba cottage – means Lion). It is older concrete block construction and has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a living/dining area plus small kitchen. There is no heat here other than the fireplace but we are fortunate to have reliable electricity this year and running water. We have been enjoying the popping of fires in the evenings. It seems to help take the chill out of the air. The floors are all tile and are VERY cold. Still, I’m not complaining – I would much rather be here than in Mississippi’s 100 degree summer months.
Brackenhurst has a restaurant/grill called Mike’s that serves a variety of sandwiches, salads, and entrees that are primarily western. Things like burgers, chicken nuggets, fajitas, soup, etc… Most things we’ve had have been quite good, but we’ve started doing a good bit of our own cooking. Last week, I made red beans and rice (that is a long project – the beans have to be soaked overnight and still need to cook for 6 hours of so to get soft). Last night, Lauren and I had leftovers of that plus fried okra. Tomorrow, we’re having gatheri (African stew with vegetables and beans) and chepati (Kenyan bread – similar to a thick flour tortilla and very yummy!), We have it all prepared – just have to cook it for about an hour when we get home tomorrow night. I just couldn’t resist cooking local vegetables. There are small dukas (shops) on every corner selling fruits and vegetables, and I’m always amazed at how cheap everything is. I bought a big bag full of vegetables (onions, carrots, bell peppers, potatoes, tomoatoes, and cabbage) for 115 shillings this week (about $1.35 US). We generally have a hot breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast), sandwiches for lunch (African peanut butter and bread are a little weird – but we’ve become accustomed to them), and then either eat dinner at Mike’s or at our cottage if we have time (and energy!) to prepare it and clean up after ourselves, Tomorrow is Sunday and we don’t leave for church until 10:30 so we will have the luxury of homemade pancakes. I always feel like I am eating much more healthy here since they sell very few processed food items – everything is very fresh (although it takes MUCH longer to cook only with raw ingredients. I spent 20 minutes tonight just scrubbing vegetables getting ready to chop them. The sugar is course ground and light brown in color (a little like the Sugar in the Raw we can buy in the US). The bread is full of fiber made with coarse ground wheat flour. Even things like rice and flour haven’t been processed to the extent we’re used to in the US.
Tomorrow we’re attending Tigoni Baptist Church with the kids from the orphanage. After lunch, we’ll hang out at the orphanage. Some of the ladies are going to teach the older girls to mend clothing and repair the rips and tears in their school uniforms. In the late afternoon, Lauren and I will head to my friend Anastasia’s house for mandazis (African fried doughnuts) and fellowship. She’s one of my favorite people in Kenya, and I always look forward to spending time with her. Tomorrow night is the big World Cup Final Game. We have to watch because back when Spain was just in the top 16, we bought t-shirts in Spain for $4 each that depict Spain winning the World Cup. We will be so excited if that happens for real and our cheap t-shirts end up being a good deal J
Lauren and I have given up beds for the 2 couches in the living room… they’re more comfortable and we like to sleep with the cracking and popping of the fire (and its warmth – which doesn’t travel down the halls to the bedrooms or bathroom!). I know that guys that come to clean every day think we’re crazy for not using the bedrooms. So far, they make great closets – we are able to separate our filthy, from our dirty, from our not-so-dirty, from our “worn twice but still smells okay” and so on. I never knew there were so many levels of laundry. When you have to pay about $3 to have one outfit washed, you start blurring the lines between what really needs to be washed and what can be worn again. Our clothes from today, however, are already at the laundry – we were covered from head to toe in fine dirt and also mud from wading in the water at times.
Will close for now with prayer requests… please lift up Gladys – she is one of the orphans who has developed a terrible rash/fungus on her feet making it painful to walk. And strength and health for the rest of us…
P.S. I can only post 5 pictures at a time, so I'm getting ready to post 5 more from the last couple of days...
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