Walking with the Animals

Lake Navaisha - Monday, March 14

We reached Lake Navaisha in the late morning, which gave us time for a little safari adventure before checking in to our lodge. So, we drove to the lake for a boat tour to see hippos! The lake was beautiful, the sky was clear, and the hippos were easy to spot (with the help of our boat tour guide). He drove us around the lake, pointing out various kinds of birds and the families of hippopotamus hanging out among the reeds in the middle of the lake. We saw some baby hippos (the first of many baby animals we would see on safari) and some very, very large daddy hippos. They were mostly submerged in the cool lake water, with just the tops of their heads (with knobby ears, eyes, and nose) and their wide backs sticking out above. It was my first taste of seeing one of God’s amazing wild animals so up close and it was thrilling. I was also quite thankful for the great zoom lens that allowed me to capture the beauty!



Hippo staying cool in Lake Navaisha.



An unexpected addition to the morning hippo tour was a walking safari through a park that bordered the lake. Our guide took us across the lake, showing us more exotic birds along the way. We were met by another guide when we got of our boat lakeside. It was just a few steps into the park and we were literally walking among the animals. I was mere yards away from zebras (and baby zebras!), wildebeests (and their very awkward babies), giraffes (so graceful), and waterbuck. It was amazing! And it was the just the beginning an adventurous day... 




Yes, I'm walking around with Zebras!

 



Just a stroll with the wildebeests.





The most beautiful giraffe!



Meet me at the Equator

Monday, March 14

We left Eldoret early Monday morning in the hands of Eustace, our very likable and capable driver and guide. (For anyone planning a safari adventure, the name of the company is Big Five Tours—I highly recommend them.) Our first destinations were Lake Navaisha and Hell’s Gate National Park. It was about a 3 hour drive east from Eldoret on surprisingly good (and recently redone) highway roads. I sat upfront (long van trips and foreign roads are not a good combo for me) and enjoyed a great view of the changing scenery as we drove along. The highlight of our drive was a stop at the EQUATOR! The equatorial line runs right through Kenya and we drove over it! Eustace knew we would want to stop there. It was a great photo op and a chance to stretch our legs. There were two little “curio shops” set up by the giant sign indicating the equator mark. Rose changed exchanged some Kenyan schillings for US dollars for one of the vendors and we both found little souvenirs to remember our equator crossing experience.





It may look strange, but these are really good roads in Kenya.

 


Morning mist over a few huts.

 


We are at the equator!

  


Painted stone mini globes.

 


The curio shop and its owner, with her baby on her back.



Just a teaser...

I have heard from several people (thanks for checking the blog!) that they were disappointed in the lack of blogs during the last week of my trip. I'm so sorry! One of the challenges of traveling is that you never quite know if you'll have Internet access and what the quality of the connection may be. Unfortunately, the first safari lodge had free wi-fi, but it wasn't working while we there. The next lodge was in the middle of nowhere and didn't have access. And the beach resort charged for their wi-fi. I took the opportunity to free myself from technology for a bit and I enjoyed it! I did try to keep up with writing and I'll get some posts up in the next couple of days. I will also be uploading photos to Picasa so that you can really see what we saw! Here's the first link...it's mostly us hanging out in the Amsterdam airport (which is nice but just an airport).

Kenya 2011 Part 1

Again, sorry to keep you in suspense! Thanks for your prayers while I was traveling. In summary, the trip was amazing. Kenya is beautiful. The people are wonderful. And my favorite part of the trip? Going on safari and seeing so many incredible animals in real life. It was the first time I've ever done anything like it, so I pick that as my favorite thing.

To the Field and Up the Mountain

I’m sitting at the dining room table across from Rose enjoying a restful evening at home. I went to bed a little late last night as I tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get photos to load to my blog post. I’m thankful for a little down time today to catch up on writing and get those pictures to upload! Hopefully this post will include more than one since I am taking a rather large number of photos each day. I believe that my total from yesterday came to 203 (after editing). I have always loved photography and this trip is a great opportunity to sharpen my skills. I owe many thanks to my friends Jamie and Will—they generously loaned me their Canon Rebel and three lenses! It’s a great camera and very fun to use. As soon I can (bandwidth permitting), I will upload many photos to my Picasa web albums. For now, my goal is get a few on the blog each time I post.

I set my sights a little high when I starting writing last night. There is no way I could have put my first two days in Eldoret into one blog post—it would have been unmanageably long and no one would have wanted to read it. I have always been a “wordy” writer (all of my English teachers thought so) and while I want to be concise, I love to include the details! It’s the little things—the food, the transportation, and the cultural lessons—that make each day unique and help me see how different each place is from my own home. This is why I love to travel. So, let me tell you about our second day in Eldoret…



A group shot (me, Rose, Amie, Charity) after lunch at Kerio View overlooking the Rift Valley.



Eldoret, Day 2…

Tumaini outreach, walking along Eldoret roads, lunch at Kerio View, swimming at Iten, dinner at an Indian restaurant

Saturday morning I woke up refreshed and excited to for my second day in Eldoret. Again, the day was well planned out and we were not going to be bored! After a breakfast of international, generic Smacks with boxed milk and toast with Nutella (both brought back memories of living overseas), we put on our walking shoes and sunscreen and hit the road. Rose led us down some more dusty roads, this time away from the city center. The pace was much slower and we could enjoy the walk and the surroundings rather than dodging cars and other pedestrians. She only had to ask for directions a couple of times to find the soccer field—our destination for the morning’s activity. We met up with the Tumaini’s Saturday morning soccer outreach. Tumaini means “hope” in Kiswahili. The full name of the organization is Tumaini Children’s Drop In Center and most of their work is done at the center in Eldoret. Their mission is this: “The Tumaini Children's Drop In Center seeks to improve the lives of street children in Eldoret, Kenya by empowering them with hope, knowledge, skills, opportunities and resources necessary for them to find a healthy alternative to street life.” On Saturday’s the outreach staff have organized a time for the kids to come together, play soccer, have fun, and also receive a lunch. We got to meet and talk with the girls and those not playing soccer. Rose had asked for jump ropes from home and they were a huge hit with everyone. Rose had written on her blog about the street children, which did help me prepare a little bit for the time with them. They are sweet kids; it made me sad to think about the fact they have no place to live and no regular meals. They scavenge, they beg, they pick-pocket. Tumaini offers them a way out and hope for a life off of the streets. I pray that the kids that come to Tumaini may not only find a better life in Eldoret, but that they would find true hope—that comes only in a relationship with Christ. I am glad that street children in Eldoret, Kenya have a chance to just play and be kids on Saturday mornings—hopefully they can forget a little bit of the pain of the their day-to-day life and just enjoy the simplicity of soccer and jump ropes.



Me with Elizabeth, one of the street kids.



Some of the street boys playing soccer at the Tumaini outreach. Notice the yellow Butler shirt on the left?



Amie and Charity with one of the kids.



The jump ropes were a hit and the kids were really good!



Rose with two of the girls: Cecilia and Elizabeth.



The hot Kenyan sun was high in sky when we left the soccer field to walk back to Rose’s house. I washed my feet (a frequent activity—but I think they already have a permanent tinge of orange) and threw my swimsuit, towel, and sunscreen (a necessity!) into my little backpack. The taxi driver was waiting outside to take us to Iten, about 30 minutes northeast of Eldoret, for the afternoon. Iten is home to the High Altitude Training Center frequented by many serious athletes. (While we were boarding our small plane to Eldoret we met four guys from England who were heading to the training center—they looked liked runners.) We had lunch at Kerio View, a restaurant up on the mountain that overlooks the Rift Valley. The view was AMAZING! We had some time to walk around while we waited for our food (it was very good, but kind of slow) and just enjoyed being outside surrounded by the lush, green landscape. 

The view from our table at Kerio View restaurant.

Rose, taking in the view of Rift Valley.

Looking down on Rift Valley. Beautiful.

After lunch (which I think was around 3pm) we drove to the training center to hang out at the pool. Several other girls from IU House were there, so we pulled up lounge chairs next to them. The facility was very nice and it only cost about $3 to use the pool. After spending two days in the sun (and getting my first bits of sunburn) I was so ready for some time in the water! I even got to borrow some goggles from one of the girls and do some laps. I went swimming in a pool, on a mountain, in Kenya. Wow. This has already been a fabulous vacation! We topped off the day with dinner at Sikh Union, an Indian restaurant in Eldoret that is one of Rose’s favorites. The food was delicious. Back at the house that evening, we ate ice cream and looked at the 200-some photos I took that day. So fun.

The entrance to the High Altitude Training Center at Iten.

First Days in Kenya

*Updated on Sunday with photos!!!*

As I finally sit down to write this post it is almost bedtime on Saturday. I can hardly believe that this is the end of my second full day in Kenya. (I tried to stay up and write yesterday, but I kept falling asleep!) Thankfully, jet-lag is not keeping me down. Rose has kept us busy and we have already gotten to do and see so many things in Eldoret. We arrived in Eldoret on Friday morning and will stay here until Monday morning—then we go on our first safari! Last night I had my first full night’s sleep in days—and I slept all through the night, which I hope I can do again. These two have been so fun and so full. I know that I can’t share all the details, so I may fill in with other posts later. And I’ll post pictures too—as soon as I can get the internet connection to speed up a bit…

Arriving in Nairobi...

Our travel went smoothly and we arrived in Nairobi Thursday evening. A very kind driver named Peter was waiting for us outside of baggage pickup, holding a sign with our names on it! He loaded our bags into his van and drove us about 20 min to our hotel. There was a slight mix-up at the hotel and they had only one room (with one bed) reserved for us (three people). It was no problem—they had a room with two beds at their sister hotel next door. Could the three of us stay in the room with two beds? No, the hotel has a strict policy that a room for two people has only two people. Sigh. We split up and made plans to meet in the morning. When Charity and I arrived at our room with two beds we saw that the beds were not your typical American double/queen beds, but rather something just larger than a twin. We showered off almost 24 hours on international travel and got a good five hours of sleep—we still had one more flight to Eldoret!

Eldoret, Day 1…

Hospital tour, lunch at Cool Stream, grocery store, travel agent, Imani Workshop, traditional Kenyan dinner

Rose (and a driver from the IU house) picked us up at the airport in Eldoret just after 9 a.m. on Friday morning. We had made it to our destination! I was so happy to see Rose! We loaded up our bags one more time and hit the ground running! We first went to Rose’s house, called Hilltop, which is located just down the street from the IU House (the home base of the Indiana University partnership in Kenya). We got a tour and settled into our rooms. (Thankfully there were no issues with our reservations here!) We put on our walking shoes and made our way down the dusty roads to Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital, where Rose works in Casualty (Emergency department). She gave us a fabulous tour of the hospital and we got to meet many of her co-workers and fellow IU medical staff along the way. It was difficult to see the cramped wards and people lining the halls, waiting to be seen. It is standard for patients to share a hospital bed with another patient—or even two. (If there are 3 to a bed, then someone sits in a chair near the bed and they take turns in the bed.) It was good to see what Rose’s work is like and see where she spends most of her time here in Kenya.

After the tour we walked behind the hospital to a restaurant called Cool Stream where we ate our first Kenyan meal! We all went with Rose’s suggestion: grilled chicken (on the bone), rice, green, and chapatti (flat bread, like a fat tortilla or Indian nan). It was wonderful! The restaurant is set up under a thatched roof, so there was a nice breeze and I even saw a humming bird flying around the ceiling. After yummy food and lots of water we were ready for an afternoon in the city.

The view from the median as we waited to cross a main road in Eldoret, Kenya.

We walked from the hospital to the city center of Eldoret. Is a busy, bustling place! There is lots of traffic—made up of cars, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. They drive on the left side of the road in Kenya, which means that when walking on the sidewalk (or path next to the road) one should “keep left”, which was challenging for us to get used to. After daringly crossing the streets a couple of times, we reached the travel agent’s office. It was closed—they were probably on lunch. So, we went down the street a little farther to the grocery store, which was amazing! It had everything—and it was air conditioned. This was a very modern grocery store. We picked up some snacks and headed back to the travel office. They were open now and we each paid for our trip. It was so nice to have someone local plan everything for our travel within Kenya, our hotels, and safaris.

We took a taxi to our next stop, Imani Workshops, part of the IU-Kenya Partnership. Imani means “hope” in Kiswahili and hope is what Imani Workshops seeks to offer to those with HIV/AIDS in Kenya. We got to visit and tour the actual workshop where women and men were making fabric bags, paper, and jewelry. Please visit the Imani webpage to learn more about the project. While at Imani, we also got to shop (the money goes right back into Imani)—and you can too! Imani Workshops products are sold at Global Gifts in Indianapolis and other stores around the US.

Charity, Rose, and Amie learn about the products at Imani from our fantastic guide.

An Imani Workshops artisan making paper from papyrus.

Earrings made from bottlecaps - at Imani Workshops.

Back at the house we had some time to wash our feet (the roads are very dusty!) and rest just a little. Then, it was off to join a big group of IU staff for a traditional Kenyan meal: nyoma choma! Nyoma choma means “roasted meat”. At the restaurant a few people from the group went up and selected our meat for the evening: 5kg of goat (a Kenyan delicacy) and 2 chickens. We also had ugali (a dense, bland starchy substance that tastes really good mixed with everything else), a potato dish, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, and onions. We had plenty of food and had a very fun evening getting to know everyone.

Are you tired? I was! That was my first day in Kenya. And now it’s time for my second day to end. I’m off to bed. But, I’ll be back soon!

Let the Adventure Begin!

*I started writing this post on the Flight #1: from Indianapolis to Detroit on Wed, Mar 9*

The day has finally arrived. This past week has been filled with anticipation, excitement, and preparation. I can hardly believe that today is March 9, 2011 and I am on my way to Kenya!

A couple of weeks ago I made what I consider to be the “best packing list ever” and I made shopping lists and to-do lists. I pulled out my container full of “Africa” clothes that I had packed away at the end of last summer. My goals for packing were to 1) pack light and 2) be prepared. In my experience it is a challenge to meet both goals! In my desire to meet #2, I usually end up tossing items into my bag that are not on my list. And I love to be prepared (you should see my purse—it sometimes gets mistaken for a small suitcase). So, that’s why I made The List with great attention to detail, like numbers next to clothing items to indicate how many of each should be packed. I even put asterisks next to things that would go in my carry-on or that would be worn on the plane. Yes, I’m crazy like that. However, last night when I had everything spread out on the living room couches, I needed that list! I looked at the list, looked around the room, checked inside my little Clinique bags (that are holding everything from toiletries to medicine to computer cords and chargers!), and looked at the list again. After a few calls and texts to my mom this morning—Did she know where the ponchos were?—I was ready to go! And my bag only weighed 20 lbs!

I do have a confession to make…I was trying to be so good about taking clothes and things that I already had on hand—and had survived 8 months in Cambodia a couple of years ago. However, as I was putting my outfits together for the trip (and only taking 5 days worth), I realized that I didn’t have capris or shorts. Seriously? Now, there is a possibility that when I pull my summer clothes out of storage in a few months I will find a pair of capris or shorts that would have been perfect for this trip. But rather than venture into my parents’ attic, I went to the mall. Last night! And after that I really was ready.

*I picked up again in the airport in Amsterdam on Thur, Mar 10*

I met up with Amie and Charity on Wednesday morning around 11am. My mom drove us to the airport through the cold and dreary rain of March in Indiana. That definitely made me even more excited about the warm Kenyan air that would greet us in just a few long plane rides! More rain greeted us in Detroit. After an easy 2.5 hour layover, we boarded a completely full plane to Amsterdam! There were several other groups heading to Africa and I enjoyed talking to them about our upcoming adventure and swapping travel stories.

Now we’re halfway there. And in Amsterdam! Again, we have a relatively short layover (~3 hours) before we board for the flight to Nairobi! Currently we are thoroughly enjoying comfy chairs and free wi-fi at the airport. Obtaining some strong coffee is next on our itinerary. The flight to Kenya is about 8 hours, so I’m hoping to get some stretch time during this layover.

Here's a little group shot--and after 12 hours of travel! (Amie, Me, Charity)