Sunday, January 19, 2014

Sister Joan & Sister Elizabeth at the Pandipieri School for street children in Kisumu.


With Sisters Judi, Gerry and Joan at Judi's birthday dinner.


Marvelous Margaret!


Farmer Anthony.


Farewell dinner before I left for the airport to return home.
Thanks to all my wonderful hosts in Kenya!

After Christmas Drive & Visit with Beatrice's Family

Harvest

Mud & dung house - this one has a fancy metal roof
which is a step up from the basic mud house with thatched roof.

Everybody has chickens in Kenya!


Me, Sister Joan and Sister Beatrice with Beatrice's family.


Hanging out with the chickens.

Malava Compound


The Sisters are developing a school at their compound in Malava.
This is the future kitchen and dining room.

And a girl who walked over to borrow a book from the
lending library. 


One of the houses in Malava.
The Malava cow barn!



Kakamega Rainforest

Sister Carolyn next to an enchanted tree with cool roots.

Surprising a family of baboons… they did NOT like the flash that
went off when I took this picture. Mama baboon squared her
shoulders and started pawing her foot against the ground.
We decided to try to find our way back another way.


Rainforest canopy - somewhere hidden in there are a bunch of monkeys.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

The Farewells Begin...

I leave Kenya tomorrow and this morning the farewells here in Nairobi have already begun. The first was with Sister Carolyn who, you might recall, works in South Sudan but has been here in Kenya for the holidays.

Carolyn is a beautiful human being and a woman of courage and confidence. For weeks, we have hung on every bit of news we received about Carolyn's team in South Sudan. They experienced four days of fighting in their town and several times had to lie on the floor of their home while bullets controlled the streets outside. Carolyn was happy to learn that her team has been safely evacuated and that a core group has been relocated to another place within the country where they plan to continue their work as best they can.

Most people are trying to get out of South Sudan. But Carolyn's team is there and their work training teachers is not done. She was excited to get the go-ahead to rejoin them, but I'll admit that my eyes got a bit damp as I said my goodbye to her this morning and wished her a safe journey. Whatever you do or don't believe in, please keep her in your good thoughts over the next few days as she makes her way to what is hopefully a safe place in that troubled country.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Night Sounds from Nairobi

There are some really strange sounds out here at night... I am told that the creaking animal is a hyrax. Every sound on this short clip is made by an animal except for the occasional motorbike in the background!

http://yourlisten.com/pandrews/hyrax-other-night-creatures-in-nairobi

Self-Safari Pictures #3

Hartebeests and we think a pair of elands.

Crowned cranes.

Homo sapiens.

A gorgeous meadow shared by several kinds of grazing animals.

Self-Safari Pictures #2

Again, hard to see but look carefully and you'll spot a pride of lions...
one is sitting in the grass, another is in front of the bush. Two
others are hiding somewhere. I think they were trying to
decide which of the 100s of grazing creatures nearby they
wanted to have for breakfast.

One boy impala guarding his harem.

Lots of baboons throughout the park.

Work with me here... the things sticking up out of the water are
hippo nostrils & ears.

Giraffe family.

Ostrich family... male (black) in the back, mama (brown) up front,
and we counted 8 young ones.

Self-Safari Pictures #1

Happy 2014!  We spent the last days of 2013 in "Western." As in Western Kenya - Malava and Kisumu. No internet there so I got a bit behind on the blog, but more on that in another entry.

Meanwhile, we went to the Nairobi National Park today for a self-driving safari through the animal preserve - it's large considering the entrance is within a few miles of downtown Nairobi (and a 10 minute drive from where I'm staying). It was a long day but I want to post some pictures before I head off to sleep...
Big cats at sunrise! The picture's a bit dim but that thing
walking straight towards us is a lioness, followed by a second lioness.

She goes right around our car.

African buffalo... we came across a herd of more than 100 of these.

Lots of giraffes munching trees from the top.

Hard to see but the things in the middle are rhinos.